Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She twirled a pale finger in silken lavender hair, absent, detached. The other hand pressed down on the sheaf of papers that she had open on her desk. A thick manila envelope, filled with stapled, annotated, and at times, blacked out sheafs of paper.

She laughed softly as she adjusted her reading glasses on the bridge of her nose.

“What funny things modern humans are,” she mused to herself. “Why write it down if you are only going to cover it up again? It only piques one's curiosity, and encourages them to dig deeper, than if there was nothing there at all.”

Her companion in the room gave her a hesitant smile of agreement from the other side of her desk—although it was clear from the way that sweat beaded on his square jaw that he wasn't sure what to make of her statement.

She spared the page another tiny, amused smile. Then she closed the folder with a snap.

“You've done well to bring me this. The man that saw you in will see you out, and you'll be paid then. Thank you for your hard work.”

He gave her hasty bow.

“It's nothing, my lady,” he said. “It was a pleasure working with you.”

She smiled from under her bangs.

As soon as the door was shut behind him, she began to swirl her finger around the circular design stamped on the front of the folder. Then she pulled the small intercom on the table towards her.

“Rickten? He is coming out now. Please make sure to dispose of the body somewhere other than the river this time.”

She shut off the intercom and returned her attention to the symbol on the folder. A much more fascinated smile graced her fair lips.

“This will be an interesting game indeed.”

Chapter Text

The first thing Mutou Yugi thought was—it's so cold.

The next thing was that he couldn't breathe.

Yugi choked on nothing, collapsing to his knees as his lungs refused to expand. For a moment his hands could only scrabble against the cold floor, eyes roving through an impenetrable darkness, uncertain of where he was or how he had gotten there and he couldn't breathe—

And then whatever had had hold of him seemed to pop and he gasped for breath.
For a long, long moment, Yugi could only lay there on the floor, shuddering as he dragged in greedy breaths. It was only then that he realized that his other self was shouting at him.

“Aibou! Aibou! Dammit, aibout, answer me, what happened, are you okay?”

Yugi coughed, a deep, rattling sound that sent his whole body into horrible shakes. When he was finished his throat felt raw and draw.

“I—I'm okay,” he rasped. He coughed one more time and blinked a few times to get the spots out of his eyes. “What...what happened?”

He groaned, closing his eyes against a wave of dizziness. He felt like he was going to throw up.

Without asking, Yami no Yugi gently pulled Yugi back into the Puzzle and took control of their shaky body. Yami no Yugi groaned as he felt the full effects of Yugi's disorientation—but the switching out of souls stabilized their shared condition, and after a few beats, he was able to stumble to his feet.

“What happened?” Yami no Yugi said.

His voice echoed—a large chamber, then?

He bit his lip uncertainly as he turned slowly, slowly around, trying to find some element beyond the darkness, something that he could latch onto. Nothing. Just the cold floor under his feet.

“Where are we...?” Yugi murmured.

Yami no Yugi shook his head.

“I haven't the slightest clue.”

He frowned, trying to think of how on earth they might have gotten here.

“Yugi, what's the last thing you remember?”

“Um...getting into bed. After talking to grandpa...he wanted to see the God cards AGAIN.”

Yami no Yugi nodded. It was the last thing he remembered too. But, somehow, they were not in their pajamas, but in their usual uniform and attire. That meant some time had passed since then, since they had been dropped into this...wherever this was.

He patted his belt to see if at least his cards were there—they weren't. Nor did he have the comforting weight of his Duel Disk on his arm. He didn't want to admit it, but the lack made his stomach turn nervously.

Well...only one thing to do...

Yami no Yugi walked slowly forward, both hands out, feeling through the darkness for something solid.

It took only several shuffling steps for his fingers to brush against a cold metallic wall. There we go. Yami no Yugi felt his way along the wall, carefully, cautiously, moving with small, shuffling steps. He could feel Yugi's tremors of fear and the way he tried to push it down and hide it—he had to try and stay calm for Yugi's sake, at least. Even though his own heart was pounding in his chest.

His fingers ran across something raised—jackpot! It felt like the frame of a door.

Yami no Yugi felt along the length of the door and finally found the handle. There appeared to be...a keypad? Something above the door. His heart dropped into his stomach. It was going to be locked, wasn't it?

No, the handle turned!

Breathing out with relief, Yami no Yugi carefully pushed the door open. To his relief, light spilled through, and he pushed through the door and into a well lit hallway.

He glanced down both ways, but the hall was empty. Doors lined the hallway at various intervals—a few of them hung open, but other than that, the place seemed...abandoned.

He frowned, the dread stirring in his stomach. He had escaped one place just find that he was more lost than he thought. He glanced back into the room behind him, hoping the light from the hallway could help him see the place he had just left. Maybe there was another door that lead outside?

Just a cursory glance told him that there was nothing else in there.

A closer look made the barest hint of terror claw at his stomach because the room was covered with strange, corroded burns all down the walls and floor.

Swallowing harshly, Yami no Yugi closed the door quickly behind him and stepped out into the hallway.

Where to now?

There was no signage, nothing to indicate which direction he should go.

He reached for the Puzzle, cold in his hands, as though he could get some kind of support from it. But the cold metal had no explanations for him, no ideas, no voice to tell him what to do.

“What do you think, aibou?” he said. “Left, or right?”

Yugi hesitated. But before he could answer...

“Mimimimimiiimiiimimiimimmmmiiimiiiiiiiiiiiii!”

The babbling sound rattled down the hallway, bouncing off the empty walls with an almost hysteric cadence.

Yami no Yugi squared his stance, tensing. What was coming?

He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it wasn't...that.

The two tiny things that exploded down the hallway were barely the height of half his calves, shaped vaguely like teardrops. One giant blue eye stared out from each one of them, and the pupils fixed on him when they came into view of him. Before he could do anything, they zoomed towards him, starting to make large circles around his feet. They seemed frantic, making that loud babbling sound—although where it was coming from he had no idea.

Yami no Yugi flinched back from them, every sense on alert—he had no idea what these things were and they could be dangerous and he was honestly about two seconds away from kicking them before Yugi jumped into control. He crouched down so that he was closer to the frantic creatures, reaching out tentatively.

“Hey, hey,” he said. “It's okay. It's okay! Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh.”

“Yugi, be careful,” Yami no Yugi said warily.

“They're just scared,” Yugi said. “See?”

The strange pair had finally fallen still at Yugi's voice, staring right at him. He kept his hand out towards them, one a burnt orange and one a mustard yellow, both with a giant blue eye that stared, unblinking, at Yugi. It made Yami no Yugi shudder in spite of himself.

Yugi left his hand outstretched, continuing to make soothing noises.

“It's okay,” he said. “You're all right. Did something scare you? It's gonna be okay.”

He kept talking, that low, soft voice that reminded Yami no Yugi of a mother, someone calming someone out of a nightmare.

The burnt orange one moved first, creeping tentatively forward and pushing the top of its teardrop shape at Yugi's hand. Yugi smiled.

“There you go,” he said. “You're all right. See?”

The yellow one moved forward too, then and both of them seemed to nuzzle against Yugi's hand. Yugi laughed softly.

“They're like cats, other me,” he said. “You like cats, right?”

“Cats are fuzzy,” Yami no Yugi said, just a tiny bit miffed at how these little creatures unnerved him. “These things are not.”

Yugi straightened, and the burnt orange eye pod made a soft, gentle chirping sound. Yugi laughed.

“Well, I like them,” he said. “They're cute.”

Cute? Yami no Yugi thought, not quite seeing it. Well, they seemed harmless enough.

“Do you two know which way we should go?” Yugi asked. “We're lost, you see.”

The little eye pods just stared up at him. The yellow one made a tiny chirping sound.

“I don't know if they understand us,” Yami no Yugi said.

“Guess not,” said Yugi. “Well...which way, then, other me?”

Yami no Yugi considered their options.

“The opposite direction that they came from,” he said. “Something clearly scared them. I'd rather not find out what.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Yugi said, shuddering in spite of himself.

He hesitated a moment longer, and then started off down the corridor. He paused when the little eye pods rolled after him, the yellow one chirping again. He smiled at them.

“Do you guys want to come with us?” he said.

Again the yellow one chirped, and the orange one made a soft babbling noise.

“Okay, Chirp! You can tag along.”

Great, thought Yami no Yugi. And then,

“Chirp?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Yugi.

“Yeah. Chirp. The yellow one is Chirp, and the orange one is Babble.”

“You named them.”

“We have to have something to call them!”

Yami no Yugi couldn't help but smile. Unnerving the pods may be, but they made Yugi feel more confident, at least, and he could use all the confidence he could get. If they made Yugi feel better, then Yami no Yugi would perhaps try and grow to like them too.

At least, so he thought until he glanced down at the staring blue eyes again and shuddered in spite of himself. Well, maybe that would come later.

Yugi marched off down the corridor, with Chirp and Babble rolling along beside him as though they were on wheels (perhaps they were). Yami no Yugi's mind wandered to the place around them, and thinking about how they had gotten here.

He had no idea where he was, what was going on, or what was going to come next. And yet...

A feeling tugged at his chest. The kind of calm that he only got when he sat across the table facing an opponent, the confidence that seeped into his bones and the smirk that unconsciously tugged at his lips as he saw the layout of the game before him. It was the feeling of starting a game, and a game he could win.

This is a game, he realized suddenly. I don't know how...or why...but someone is playing a game with us.
And then,

I'm going to find out who—and I'm going to win.

And with that thought in mind, they continued down the corridor—not noticing the large, unmoving, humanlike shape that clung to the ceiling behind them, hidden in the shadows near a burned out bulb, burned looking face staring after them as thick lines of corrosion spread from its hands across the walls...

* * *

She rolled the pencil between her fingers as she glanced over the screens.

“Our first guest has arrived,” she said. “And how cute. He's made some friends.”

She placed the pencil on the table and pressed a button on the laptop in front of her to turn on the microphone.

“Phase one was a success. The god-king and the puzzle-king have both been transferred. Initiate the second phase.”

She switched off the intercom and rested her head atop her folded hands, smiling slightly.

“Let's see how well you do, the fabled double kings,” she said.

Chapter Text

Judai couldn't breathe.

Spots flared in his eyes as something seemed to crush in on his lungs, pushing him inwards, squeezing the breath out of him. He couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't breathe—

“Judai!”

Judai gasped and air finally rushed into his lungs. He collapsed to his knees, hands shaking on the cold metal ground. He coughed a few moments and then tried to suck down large gulps of air again. Had—had that been another panic attack?

Wait, why was the floor metal? Hadn't he just been outside Duel Academy?

Judai's eyes finally cleared. The projection of Yubel appeared beside him, bichromatic eyes wide and wild with fear.

“Oh thank the gods,” she hissed. “Are you all right?”

Judai coughed one more time.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “I think I'm okay.”

He blinked the crud out of his eyes and tried to focus. Surroundings—mark the surroundings.

He was in a small metal room. There was a door in front of him that looked pretty heavy—probably locked from the outside. When he stood up and looked around, he saw that there was another half wall behind him, cutting off part of the room as though for privacy. But that seemed odd in a room that looked like a prison...was he in a prison?? How had he gotten there? The last thing he remembered was getting into bed and passing out, still tired after defeating Darkness just a day ago...

He groaned as a wave of dizziness washed over him, pressing the heel of his palm to his forehead.

Something scuffed on the floor. Yubel hissed and Judai whipped around to face the other wall. His heart screamed in his stomach—god, no, not another thing to fight, he was so tired—

A small, round face peered out from behind the partition. She was dark skinned, a soft, velvety sort of brown, with thick, dark eyelashes and wispy black hair that curled around her face. It was pulled back in a tiny ponytail that flipped up at the end. Dark brown eyes stared at him with what appeared to be terror.
Judai held up his hands.

“Hey,” he said. “It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you.”

She spoke something, a tremulous sound with a lilt, an accent that he had never heard before, but it was in English and he didn't understand.

“I don't know English,” he stumbled with a passable accent.

She stared at him, eyes wide. She started to wave at him, as though pushing him away, still speaking.

“I don't—I don't understand, I'm sorry, I'm not going to hurt you,” he said, backing up with his hands up in a soothing kind of gesture.

She waved harder, a tear was rolling down her cheeks, she looked terrified and he had no idea why; if only he could speak English—

“Judai, goddammit listen to me—you can use my power, Duel Spirits speak all languages, have you forgotten that I'm here?”

Judai snapped to alertness at Yubel's voice. He had forgotten in the commotion.

He let Yubel slip more firmly into his soul, his eyes flickering to her orange and green. Immediately, the woman's words came into stark focus, as though she were speaking Japanese to him.

“You have to go, please, I can't keep the hunger in, I—it's been over twelve hours and it's coming, you need to go, you should have been here hours ago—I don't want to hurt you—”

And then he felt it. A burning sensation climbing through him, a buzzing that started in his veins and spread outwards and inwards, a heat that pulsed in his heart. He was starting to pant for breathe and he could smell something like burning hair.

“She's doing something,” Yubel said.

“I don't think she can control it,” he said, groaning as the heat waved through him again. “Listen to me—you have to calm down. Breathe.”

She was sobbing now, her hands pressed over her eyes.

“Please, please, please, I don't want to hurt people anymore, please you have to go—”

“Judai,” Yubel said warningly.

The heat was increasing, pulsing in his head like the worst headache in the world. He was sweating and he knew, suddenly, that he was going to be burned alive in that instant if he didn't do something—

Duel Disk—he didn't have his Duel Disk.

For a moment, he almost panicked. But he wrenched his emotions back into control.

“Listen to me,” he hissed at the woman. “Calm down. Breathe.”

She gasped, peeking out between her fingers. Judai was having trouble breathing again, but no way was this going to be enough to stop him. He breathed in deeply and drew the shadows into him.

They pulled off of the walls, creeping along like snakes and winding up his legs to reach his mouth. He sucked them in like water, breathing the darkness inside of him—cool darkness, protective darkness, nurturing darkness, darkness that pushed the heat gently away and out of him. He had a moment to think, now, but he wasn't sure if he could hold off whatever heat and fire was trying to grip at him for long.

She stared at him with her mouth hanging open, jaw trembling.

“You're—you're okay...?”

“For now,” he said. “But I need to know what you're doing.”

She shook her head, shaking so badly that he thought she might fall over.

“I—I don't even know, I have this...this hunger. It needs to feed, it needs to burn, and I can't choose what it burns—they usually bring meat for me, but they haven't come, something's wrong—I don't want to hurt people anymore.”

“Shhhh, shhh...” Judai said. “It's going to be okay. I know a thing or two about powers that you can't control...I need you to breathe, okay? You're not going to hurt anyone.”

She gasped and choked on a sob, pressing a hand to her mouth for a moment.

“What's your name?” Judai asked gently.

She licked her chapped lips.

“Kirtida,” she whispered. “I'm...Kirtida Kaur.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “I'm Yuki Judai.”

She swallowed. Still shaking terribly.

“Can I move closer?” he asked.

“You shouldn't,” she said. “You—you shouldn't. I'll burn you.”

“You won't hurt me, promise,” he said, although he wasn't sure how true that was.

“Yubel, what do you think?” he asked his spirit partner.

“She's using some kind of power, that's for sure. We need it to calm down before we lose control over these shadows, or we're going to die.”

“Great.”

Judai stepped a bit closer. She stiffened, but didn't retreat.

“So what is this place? How did you get here?”

“Is it not proper to ask only one question at a time?” she mumbled, although it seemed more of a gut reflex than anything. She answered in a moment. “This is the...SCP Foundation, I believe...I was brought here because I hurt people, and I need to be kept away from them.”

Judai tensed up at that. She was a prisoner? Because of her powers? Well, he'd have to have a talk with this SCP Foundation later.

“Where were you before that?”

She hesitated, lips parting.

“I...I don't know...” she said. “I don't...remember...”

Tears bubbled in her eyes again and she chewed hard on her lip.

“I did something wrong—I must have done something wrong. It made me a demon that hurts people.”

“Sh, sh,” Judai said. “No, you're not a demon. This isn't your fault.”

“I'm a monster,” she said.

It felt like a slap to the face. Judai had to pause and breathe for a moment, eyes closing.

“You are not a monster,” he said.

But was he talking to her, or was he talking to himself?

“Judai, the heat is growing again. I don't know how much longer we can hold it off.”

Kirtida shudder and hugged her thin arms around herself.

“You need to go,” she said. “You need to go right now. I can't keep the hunger in, it needs to feed.”

Judai shook his head.

“You don't need to be ruled by this 'hunger',” he said. “I'm going to figure this out. Kirtida-san, will you please take my hand?”

He held his hand out towards her. She just stared at it for a moment. Then she shook her head, drawing back.

“You need to go,” she repeated.

“Kirtida-san,” he said again. “You don't have to be afraid.”

Tears rolled down her dark cheeks.

“Please. I don't want to hurt you.”

“You won't.”

She stared at his outstretched hand. Judai could feel the heat clawing at his shadows, the shadows retreated as though a flame were lit to illuminate the dark. Sweat was beading on his forehead.

“Kirtida,” he said. “Please.”

Kirtida reached out. Her hand hovered tentatively over his fingers for a brief, brief moment. And then her fingers brushed onto his, and he gripped her hand and—

He gasped, head snapped back and sight going out for a moment. He heard Kirtida scream, but he couldn't let go—he couldn't let go of her hand. He was seeing something, something hot and crackling and burning and clawing and—

“I see you,” he hissed. “I see you.”

He could see her now, all of her—not just the small woman before him but the creatures that clung to her soul. The golden metal of the metallic bird that nestled in a wreath of flames, sleeping, providing a warm, life-giving heat throughout Kirtida's body. And the other one, a mass of flames and lava and horns that curled around Kirtida's soul, a snake like dragon that rose up out of a lake of flames and hissed—a low, keening sound that sounded more sad and frantic than dangerous.

“Power,” the dragon cried. “Need power.”

“Power for what?” Judai hissed between his teeth.

“Protect. Must protect.”

“This is not how to do it.”

“Must protect,” it said more insistently.

Judai swallowed as he figured out exactly what had happened to this girl, but was uncertain of how.

She was like him. Like him and Yubel, two souls merged into one body—although she was a fusion of three souls.

“Double ka,” he said suddenly, eyes widening. “You're a double ka bearer. And you went through ka to ba fusion.”

“W-what?” Kirtida said.

This girl had had two shadow souls spreading from her, two Duel Spirits that had been born from her soul, and both of them had fused together with her. When he had talked to Aqua Dolphin and the others, he had heard of such a thing happening, but it was rare, very rare. The last time it had happened was with the white dragon, the dragon who had wanted to protect her love and fused to his soul to be with him forever. This fiery dragon, and the sleeping phoenix, were a part of her. Linked, entwined completely.

“You are hurting her more than you're helping,” Judai said. “You need to stop. You need to stop.”

“Need power. Need protect,” the dragon said.

Judai's eyes snapped open again, glowing with golden power.

“I'm going to protect her,” he said. “You know what I am. Don't you?”

The dragon flinched, lowering its head at his soul piercing gaze. He felt its acknowledgment.

“Well then,” he said. “Stop it.”

The dragon complied. It receded back into Kirtida's fire soul.

And the heat released Judai.

He breathed out with a sigh of relief, letting his eyes change back to a normal color. Kirtida let out a soft gasp.

“It stopped,” she whispered. “The hunger...stopped.”

She stared at him, eyes wide.

“How?” she said.

Judai breathed out, feeling like he had just run a marathon.

“How about I sit down,” he said, “and then we can talk about it.”

* * *

“Goodness,” she laughed to herself. “Does every King make friends so easily? How very adorable.”

She chuckled softly. Then she typed in the command for phase three and leaned back in her chair.

“This is working far better than I expected,” she mused. “This machine does work.”

She smiled.

“Let's see what our third King will try...”

Chapter Text

Yusei gasped for air.

As soon as air finally rushed into his lungs, he registered that he was lying on a floor. A cold floor, but—but a metal one, not like the concrete one of his garage. So somehow—what had happened? He certainly wasn't staring at the ceiling of his own home. But the last thing he remembered was working on his bike so how...?

He groaned as he slowly pulled himself to a sitting position. Where...was he?

The room appeared very like a garage, but colder, tighter, than his own garage. He looked around, frowning.

That was when he saw the bodies.

Yusei swore, scrambling to his feet. He charged across the room to where the first body lay and rolled him over. He only needed to see the eyes staring and the angle of the neck to know that he was already gone. A quick check of the other man confirmed the same. Yusei fought down the urge to throw up at the way their necks were twisted—snapped by someone with incredibly powerful hands.

A crawling sensation fell over him. A sense that—that something else was in the room.

His eyes snapped behind him.

Nothing.

Heart still pounding, Yusei made a slow turn in a circle. The garage was small, not more than ten by ten, he thought. Besides the two dead men, the only thing in the room was what appeared to be a small all terrain vehicle, turned upside down. Yusei approached it, brow crinkling. He knelt down and tilted his head to have a look at it.

He let out a low whistle between his teeth. He recognized this model—it was ancient, but this one looked like it was in incredibly good condition. A 2006 Kazuma 150cc. And it was a rather nice blue color. He had only ever seen things like this in museums—vehicles like this had been phased out as the D-Wheels were rolling off the assembly lines. They were built just as well for terrain as these vehicles, and they were better for speed and dueling besides. Still, Yusei couldn't help but run an admiring hand over the perfect blue finish.

He heard something bump into a wall and snapped around.

Nothing. Again. He remembered then, that he was alone in a strange room with two dead bodies and a strange upside down vehicle that was decades old, but in perfect condition.

He swallowed. He didn't have his cards on him, he realized with a snap. All he had in the way of weaponry, besides, was a small wrench and a screwdriver shoved into his back pocket.

There was definitely something here. Something nearby—his instincts had never lied to him.

He licked his suddenly dry lips. Then he went for the door on the other side of the room.

He pressed his hand against it for a moment, checking it over, feeling for vibrations. Nothing. He tried the handle. The door swung open as though it had only barely been hanging closed before, silent and soft. Yusei found himself staring into a long, dim hallway with flickering lights. There were other doors, but...otherwise, the whole thing seemed empty and abandoned.

At least there aren't more bodies, he thought, and shuddered as he remembered what was behind him. It wasn't as though he hadn't seen bodies before, left to die in alleyways and gutters, but those ones...with their heads almost all the way turned around...

He blinked.

And then there was something in the hallway.

Yusei swore, almost ducking back. Instinct, however, told him to stay right where he was, eyes fixed on the creature that had suddenly appeared.

His brain could only barely understand it. It looked like it was maybe made out of concrete, with some kind of spray paint on its bulbous head shape. It had a strange, long figure, but with stubby legs and arms. Something told Yusei it was something he did not want to get involved with.

His eyes were starting to dry. He blinked.

Fuck it was right in front of him.

Yusei swore and ducked back, eyes fixed on the creature as he slammed the door in between them. He threw his shoulder against it. Lock—there had to be some kind of lock.

The thing, apparently able to move only when he couldn't see it, threw itself at the door. Yusei groaned. He could not hold this door shut for long—ah! Lock!

He latched the door shut and jumped back—but now he was locked in. That was the only door in the room, and—and oh, god, it was starting to bend inward. He could hear a scraping sort of sound, like rock against rock, as the creature banged against the door again, and again, and again—

Yusei's hand dropped to his wrench and screwdriver—idiot, what was he going to do with that? He needed a different plan. Something to attack the creature with, something better than a stubby tool, or even something to escape—

His eyes fell on the ATV.

That'll do, he thought.

He bolted back towards the blue ATV, shoving his shoulder against it and heaving. The upside down bike wasn't incredibly huge, so he was able to push it back onto its wheels without a problem. There was no key in sight—probably was on one of the dead guys, but he didn't have time to search them, the creature was starting to pry the door open and he could see a crack forming between the door and frame.

He ripped out his screwdriver and attacked the front panel of the ATV. Once it was removed, he started poking at wires—this wasn't too different from the old pre-D-Wheel motorcycle he had found in the junkyard and scrapped parts from to build his D-Wheel, he knew how to hotwire this sort of thing.

He was pulling out the right wires, screwdriver between his teeth, starting to work the vehicle into life, when the door exploded open.

Yusei's eyes snapped up and the creature was immobile. Fucking dammit. His fingers clung to the wires, eyes fixed on the creature. He couldn't do this without looking. He didn't know how to do this with just his fingers, but if he looked away, he was dead.

He swallowed. Slowly, slowly, he started to tease the wires up so that he could see them in his peripherals. The creature seemed to move slightly—was that just his imagination? Focus, Yusei, focus.

Just a little spark was all he needed, then he could get the thing racing and plow right through the creature if he had to. He fumbled with the wires. Almost lost one. If he dropped the wire he needed, he would have to look down for it. If he had to look down for it, he was dead.

He thanked the universe for his gloves because his hands were starting to get cold and clammy and he didn't know if he would have been able to hold onto anything without the gloves.

A spark flew between the wires and he almost dropped them, swearing as it burned a hole in his glove. But he could hear the ATV humming underneath him—it was on, thank god.

And it was then he realized that the thing was backwards. He swore again. His eyes were starting to dry out, but—dammit, he was going to have to reverse out of this thing.

He slipped onto the bike backwards, hands behind him on the handles, switching it into gear. He needed blink—he needed to blink—

He mashed his heel on the pedal and the engine roared.

But the bike didn't move.

The ground did.

The whole building was shaking as the garage wall blasted for him like he was moving towards him, but he could feel that he wasn't moving, it was the ground, rolling underneath him like it was some kind of ridiculous conveyor belt—

He flung his head down as the bike crashed into the wall and couldn't move, sending a spray of debris all over his head—his heart nearly stopped when he realized he had taken his eyes off of the creature—

For a second he thought he felt hands latching onto his neck—

And then the whole room ripped apart.

There was a horrible screech—was it the tires, or the creature?—and Yusei couldn't stop, couldn't let go of the handles as this bike kept folding up the ground underneath it like a horrible earthquake, ripping the floor into pieces and tearing a huge gash in the ground—

He managed to get his wind back and mashed his heel into the brakes instead.

The world slowly, slowly groaned to a stop.

Yusei slumped back against the handlebars. His head flopped against the ruined wall behind him.

In front of him, the garage seemed to have split in two. There was a horrible rent in the floor between him and door—he thought he could probably jump that, though...

The walls were crumpled inwards, and the ceiling hung dangerously low, pinched downwards as though a giant finger had poked down into it from above.

The creature was nowhere to be seen. Yusei wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Hopefully it was down in the chasm...

Hopefully.

He pushed himself off of the ATV. Dust fell off of his coat as he moved, like a cloud behind his steps. He examined the chasm before him. Yeah, he could make it across that. Get out into the hallway and try to figure out where he was.

He clenched his fists and took a few steps back. Then he took a running leap up and over the chasm. He landed—just barely, his heels briefly slipping backwards. He managed to grab a hold of the door hanging from its hinges before that, practically pulling himself into the hallwa.

Once he was in the hallway, Yusei allowed himself a moment to breathe. Leaning against the wall, he dropped his head against it and just closed his eyes for a moment, gasping for air.

Where was he, and what the hell was wrong with this crazy place?

* * *

“How clever!”

She couldn't help but laugh.

“You certainly are among the most resourceful of them, aren't you? Perhaps I should have taken your tools as well as your cards. I wonder what you would have done then?”

She hummed to herself.

“This game is already proceeding well,” she said, tapping on the keyboard and bringing up another extra screen. This screen showed a dark room illuminated only by the chasm above, and the strange spray painted concrete figure that stood perfectly still within it. “I see sir 173 survived the fall. Wonderful. You'll be useful for the rest of this game.”

She leaned back in her chair, tapping her lips with two fingers.

“I wonder how the youngest member of our party will fare,” she mused. “It would be a shame if any players died so early in the game, after all.”

Chapter Text

Yuma gasped for breath, stumbling to his knees. He couldn't see—was he blind???

But then he waved his hand frantically over his face and found that he could make out the shape of his own hand, so it was just that the room was dark. Well that was a relief—or no, maybe it wasn't at all because dark room without a window meant he wasn't in his bedroom and he hadn't just fallen out of his hammock again.

“Ugh,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. He felt like he must have hit it on something. What had happened? Last thing he remembered was going to bed, and Akari had been snarking at him because he kept coming home so late—what did she want from him? He had plans to make with everyone! Now that things had calmed down he could finally relax and hang out with his friends!

“Geez, what happened, Astral?” Yuma asked. “....Astral?”

There was no answer. No glowing figure of Astral sparkling to life beside him. Yuma felt his stomach drop out.

“Astral? Astral!”

His hand scrabbled at his chest—the Key was gone.

Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no no no.

He couldn't breathe again. The panic was clawing at his head and chest. He was alone in the dark and the cold and unknown and he had no idea what had happened or where he was or anything and he was alone and where was Astral? Was Astral in trouble? Had Yuma somehow lost the Key and now Astral was trapped alone inside? Oh no no no no no no what should he do what should he do what should he do—

He tried to wrench himself back to his senses.

Think! What would Astral tell you to do?

Yuma licked his dry lips and tried not think about how loud his heart was in his ears. Astral would definitely tell him to check out his surroundings carefully, to not make too many sudden moves or go charging off recklessly. Get all of the information first, and then make a move. Right. He could do that.

Still almost choking on his own air, and still barely able to support his own weight, he used the wall beside him to push himself to his feet. He pressed his back against the cold wall and looked back and forth and all around. He couldn't see much of anything, the room was dark—but he could make out a faint light at the end of the hallway. Oh! A hallway! He was in a hallway! That was better than knowing nothing!

But if the Key was lost somewhere on the floor here...he had to make sure. He needed a light.

Yuma felt his way along the wall, shuffling towards the faraway light. Maybe he could find a light switch. Or something to carry that he could bring back to look for things.

His foot knocked against something and he yelped in spite of himself, jerked back.

As soon as his heart had settled in his chest, he felt forward with his foot again. The thing rolled a bit, it felt metallic...? Throwing aside caution, he felt for it with his hand and closed around it. He felt over it for a moment and—oh! It was a flashlight!

“Man, that was lucky,” he said, grinning to himself as he fumbled for the light switch.

He felt a bunch more confident with a light in his hand. He swung the light on the floor where he had come from before, swiping it along the hall to make sure the Key hadn't fallen. The floor was pretty clear and metallic, and it was easy to see that there was nothing there—so wherever he was, Astral simply hadn't come with him at all? Yuma wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse. On one hand, Astral wasn't in trouble. On the other, Yuma was alone and he had no idea what to do.

He let the light fall down to his side, blowing out loudly through his lips.

“Geez,” he said. “If this is some kinda prank...it's not funny at all.”

But it was just bravado speaking, because who did Yuma know that would play this kind of prank on him? Well...maybe the only thing to do was head for that light at the end of the hallway. He sighed, turning the flashlight back down the hall.

And then he froze.

Bile rose up in his throat.

Oh god.

There was—there was a body on the floor. And it was—oh god—

Yuma dropped the flashlight and stumbled back, hands clapping over his mouth. The blood—the blood was everywhere—he had only seen a glimpse but the person's limbs were—were everywhere too, like he had been ripped into pieces by something huge and powerful—the flashlight must have come from him, if Yuma had just shuffled a few more inches down the hallway after finding the flashlight he would have run right into that—

And then he heard something scrape along the floor behind him.

Yuma swallowed a scream as a terrified tear escaped his eye. He dove for the still lit flashlight rolling along the floor. His hands wrapped around it like a weapon and he swung around to point it down the hallway.

First, all Yuma saw was something big and pale. It looked—human? Ish? But it was huge, like maybe seven feet tall, and its arms, they were so long, like people shouldn't have arms that long and weird—

Yuma moved the flashlight up and he stared right into a vaguely human face with blank white eyes. For a second, nothing happened. Yuma just stared, his hands shaking on the flashlight. Maybe it would be scared of the light and run away. Maybe it would go away.

And then it screamed.

Its mouth widened way larger than any human mouth had any right—to like it was some kind of giant snake—to let out the horrifying sound, covering its face with its huge hands and starting to babble incoherently. Yuma screamed. He almost dropped the flashlight when the creature bolted forward.

Yuma had no idea how he managed to get out of the way. He jerked himself to the side and smacked against the wall. The flashlight dropped from his hands and the thing shot right past him.

Maybe it can't see in the dark, maybe it can't see in the dark—

He saw its silhouette against the faraway light wrench itself around towards him again. Yuma clapped a hand over his mouth to stop another scream. The thing lunged for him again—Yuma made use of his small size in comparison to its huge one and ducked under it's legs. He had no idea how that worked but it did, and he exploded down the hallway after the far away light. He could hear the feet scrabbling on the floor it was coming after him and it was much faster than he was oh god—

Yuma tried to leap over the body on the floor but his feet slipped in the blood and he went down. His clumsiness saved him and a long arm swiped at nothing. But now he was on the floor and the thing was over him. Yuma rolled out of the way of another swipe but then he was pinned against the wall.

The thing screamed again, mouth wide as though it was going to completely swallow him. It sounded less like a monster and more like someone crying, like it was scared of HIM!

Yuma pressed back against the wall but there was nowhere to go. A long arm grabbed him by the leg and yanked him up into the air upside down. He saw the flash of teeth and he knew—I'm going to get torn up just like that guy—

Something inside him clicked off, went dead. He wasn't thinking anymore, wasn't breathing.

He was just doing something.

Yuma didn't know what happened but suddenly he was on the floor again, head spinning, and that long terrible creature was flung back against the wall, screaming as though Yuma had just attacked him.

Yuma still wasn't thinking, his body was moving on autopilot. He flipped up onto his feet even as the other creature stumbled to a standing position. It came at him again. Some force ripped out of Yuma like fire. He thought he might be screaming but he didn't know. Purple dots were eating at the edges of his vision as he saw the thing get flung bodily down the hallway.

Did I do that? he thought behind the haze in his head.

And then whatever instinct had overtook him snapped its hold over him and he almost fell over, like a string had been cut that had been holding him up.

That thing was on the floor, but he thought he could see it stirring.

Yuma bolted. He reached the lit part of the hallway and tore off down the hallway, heart pounding in his ears.

Don't follow me, don't follow me, don't follow me, don't follow me—

* * *

She blinked with some surprise at what she had just seen.

“Well, well, well,” she said. “So young, and yet so volatile already?”

A faint smile graced her lips.

“At the very least, you won't fail to entertain for a while. Good.”

Her eyes flicked to the next screen.

“And speaking of entertainment...what does our final guest have to show us...?”

Chapter Text

Yuya pulled out of his coughing fit, pressing a hand to the cold wall to brace himself. His head spun and he had to blink the dark spots out of his eyes. Once he had gotten control of himself again, he turned around and put his back against the wall, eyes searching through the hazy darkness.

Only a few lights hung overhead, their light barely giving enough illumination to the small control room—because that's what it was, at least, what he thought it was. What else would have all these screens and blinking buttons and lights? It reminded him of the room at You Show that controlled the AR system, although much more complex and with a whole lot more screens and lights.

He groaned, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. His head pounded. What had happened? How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was...was what? He strained to remember. It had been—dark. He had chased after Sora and then...and then he had seen himself, but it wasn't him, it was...Yuto? His name was Yuto. What had happened after that? Everything was a little fuzzy. He remembered Sora vanishing, and a second lookalike appeared on a motorcycle, and then Yuto had asked him...

“Please bring smiles back to everyone...”

Right...right all of that had happened just a little bit ago, right? But what happened after that? Where was he?

He reached for his pendulum, the cool weight of the crystal lending some comfort.

Well, maybe this was just a really weird dream. It wouldn't be the first ridiculous dream he had had, especially because of the stress from the tournament—maybe everything about Sora and Yuto and that motorcycle riding version of himself was all part of the dream. Seemed ridiculous enough, and he was known to have pretty bad dreams when he was stressed—

And then he heard the hiss.

That snapped Yuya fully to reality—the wall was too cold, too solid, for this to be anything but real. He had no idea how or why—the brief memory of “dimensions” occurred to him—but there was something in the room beside this one and it was moving.

Yuya swallowed. He blew out once. Then he skittered across the room and peered at the screens. Most of them were static, as though the cameras had been broken. But one of them showed him a view of a small, box like room. The floor was puddled with some kind of liquid, and the far wall appeared to have been...ripped open. There was a trail of the liquid leading out into a hallway.

Yuya swallowed. Whatever had made that hole was big. And judging from the way the puddles of liquid seemed to eat into the floor in the hallway...that stuff was acidic. Oookay. This was getting out of hand very, very quickly.

And that was before he heard something slam at the wall.

Yuya yelped in spite of himself, tripping backwards over the chair in front of the control panel. His eyes snapped back to the singular door in his small room. It was—it was bending inwards.

Fuck.

He heard a low hiss come again, like some giant lizard. He pressed against the control panel, throat immediately going dry and mind going blank. What was that thing? Yuya gripped at the control panel, wishing he knew what the buttons did, maybe they could help somehow.

The hiss came again.

“I...know...you're...in...there...”

Yuya choked. Whatever it was, it was talking.

“Come...out...” said the thick, breathy voice. “Disgusting...human...”

Yuya couldn't breathe. He could only stand there with his hands gripping the control panel behind him, knuckles going white. Something was out there, something big, intelligent, and probably wanted to kill him.

The door bent inwards again as he heard something collide with it.

“Come...out...” it hissed again.

Yuya's knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor. Okay wait he needed a plan—what kind of plan? Maybe whatever it was would be distracted by one of his holograms?

His hand pawed at an empty wrist—no duel disk.

He was trapped and defenseless, no better than a mouse in a trap. The door was bending in almost all the way now, it wouldn't be long before it broke through.

Yuya yanked himself to his feet. He couldn't just sit here! He had to come up with a—

His eyes moved upwards automatically. The ceiling—there were some exposed pipes. He could reach them if he jumped—maybe if he used the chair—

The door cracked right down the middle. Shit, wasn't that made of metal?

Yuya scrambled on to the chair and vaulted up, grabbing hold of the pipe like a trapeze. He swung his legs up and hooked them into another pipe.

The door exploded beneath him. He wrapped his arms tighter around the pipe. His only lifeline against whatever came through that door—

The thing almost didn't fit, shoving its huge head like a komodo dragon in through the broken doorframe. Its tongue flicked out, lizard eyes flicking around the room.

“I...know...you're...here...” it hissed hoarsely.

Yuya bit hard on his lip to prevent himself from making a sound. The creature tried to force its way deeper in—Yuya could see horrible, rotted scores of skin, almost melted down to the bone. He almost gagged as he watched the skin actually slowly knitting itself together.

Regenerative, Yuya thought. What kind of horror movie am I in?

The tongue flicked out again and Yuya suddenly thought with horror that it would probably be able to smell him or sense his body vibrations.

Sure enough the head started to move upwards as though it knew he was clinging to the ceiling.

There was only one thing left to do—

Yuya let go of the pipe.

He landed heavily on the thing's head and it screeched with surprise. Yuya hit and rolled down the thing's back, bringing himself through the door and then tumbling to the floor.

He was right this thing was HUGE. Its lizard body almost took up the whole of the hallway, and he had been lucky to land on the end where the tail wasn't fed down the hall.

“Get—back—here,” the creature snapped, trying to pull itself free again.

Fuck that. Yuya scrambled to his feet and bolted down the hall. Just go, run, as fast as you can! Put as much distance as possible betweem you and it—

He made the mistake of glancing back over his shoulder.

Fuck.

The thing was somehow smaller—actually, no, he could see it shedding bits of its skin, as though it were changing shape itself, growing smaller and faster and raging after him with a screeching hiss. Yuya swore and pushed himself to run faster—he was almost at the end of the hallway, which way after that??

He dove to the left since the other direction was too dark and he didn't like his odds in a place that had things like the one chasing him!! He could hear the scrabble of claws on the floor. He wasn't going to be able to outrun this thing for long!

As though it were a prophecy, he suddenly felt a huge claw on his back. A scream ripped from his throat as the giant foot brought him crashing to the floor. He squirmed and struggled but the thing pressed him into the ground and he couldn't overcome the weight on his back.

Teeth ripped into his shoulder.

Another scream exploded from his throat as he felt the teeth dig deep into his skin. Oh god it hurt, it hurt so badly, he was going to die, torn up by this beast, nothing more than helpless prey—

I am not prey to be hunted!!

He gasped even through the haze of pain. The thought was not his own, but it rang through him like a bell.

No. No he was not going to die here. He was not going to die here!

Something dark pulsed in his core. Something thick and slimy and shadows, he could feel it start to radiate through him, feel heat burning through his eyes and rage in his blood. His mouth opened and instead of a scream, a wordless cry of rage ripped between his teeth.

He felt the darkness encase him, saw the shadows rise from the corners of the hall and snake towards him. He reached out a free hand towards them, inviting them closer. The teeth released his shoulder and he felt the creature hum above him, as though uncertain of what to do.

It was the only distraction Yuya needed. Another wordless cry escaped him and he pushed with everything he had.

The creature above him screamed as it stumbled off of him.

Still bleeding heavily from his shoulder, Yuya staggered to his feet. He couldn't think for the anger pounding in his head.

Destroy it. Kill it. Rip it to pieces.

Through the haze of fury, he could see the lizard creature backing off slightly, hissing with its tongue flicking out.

“What...are...you...” it said in its guttural voice. It seemed—wary, but not afraid.

Yuya responded with raising a hand—it was as though he was watching himself through a video screen. He didn't feel like he had any control over his body anymore. Shadows coalesced at his palm, a deadly magic, he knew somehow.

Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it

Yuya's magic ripped from his hands and right through the creature.

It screamed, a sound of such horrible, horrible pain that Yuya snapped back to himself and stumbled backwards. The shadows fell away from him immediately.

“W-what?” he said, blinking darkness from his eyes. His head pounded and—and what had just happened?

The lizard creature writhed on the floor, its body cut in half. Shadows still clung to it like wafting smoke or steam coming from its blood. Yuya stumbled back a few feet. Had—had he just done that? How? Why?

Oh god it's regenerating.

Somehow, against all reasoning, the thing was knitting itself back together. Its eyes glowed a burning red—hatred flashing towards Yuya as it began to push itself forward, foot by foot.

Yuya almost threw up then.

But he had a chance now, a chance to escape while it was putting itself back together. Trying not to think about how dizzy he was, he turned and ran.

“I will—kill you—king—” it howled down the hall after him. “I will—kill you!”

King? Yuya thought briefly as the strange word clattered around in his head. But then all he could think about was running, running, running, and getting as far away from this nightmare as he possible could.

Where was he, and why?

* * *

She nodded slowly, tapping her fingers on her chin.

“Interesting,” she hummed. “I may have plucked him from the wrong point in the time line...he is already a living overlay network. How troublesome. That will give him an unfair advantage.”

She laughed a bit. Unfair advantage. All five boys were already in grave enough danger as it was. And she wasn't particularly keen on them dying...not yet, anyway. Not before their souls had matured to ripeness.

The door behind her opened, and she glanced back. She adjusted her glasses with one pale finger as her unnaturally green eyes flicked towards the long shadow that entered.

He was a long sort of person, sort of like what might happen if a spider lost four of its limbs and became human-shaped. The rest of him was spidery, too, from his long quick fingers tipped with sharp black nails that might actually be claws if one had the gall to look closely, to his flat face and quick, toothy smile that reminded one of fangs, to his flat, shiny eyes that looked as though they were a full black instead of anything close to human.

His smile was long too, as he grinned at her.

“Milady Luelle,” he said, bowing with such flourish that he almost knocked things off of the table beside the door.

“Enough of that, Rickten,” Luelle said, waving a dismissive hand. “Has the entire facility been shut down?”

“Every single security measure they have is off,” Rickten giggled, mussing up his shaggy, tarantula-like hair with bony fingers. “That place is a total bloodbath.”

He said that with a giggle, as though it were the most amusing thing he had ever seen.

“So many people are dead already. It's hilarious. Do you think the little kings will die too?”

“I certainly hope not, after all the trouble I've gone through to set up this experiment,” said Luelle, returning her eyes to the screens. “Although I suppose if we lose one, it won't be any particular loss...”

“I hope the little one dies then,” Rickten said.

He stooped over her shoulder, eyes fixed on the dark haired young boy from Heartland who still fled down the corridors from SCP-096.

“He's about good as dead. That thing is a monster. I like its face. All creepy with the raaaargh thing.”

He opened his mouth wide as though to imitate the creature's supernatural jaw unhinging ability.

“You ought not to be looking right at it,” said Luelle, raising an eyebrow. “You should count yourself lucky that you're no longer human, or it would track you as well.”

“I have you to thank for that, don't I? So I can look at it all I want~”

Rickten's teeth were a little too sharp for comfort, but Luelle seemed to take no mind. She tapped out a few notes on her laptop.

“Well,” she said. “Now that all the players are here, it's time for the game to really begin.”

Rickten giggled with anticipation, and Luelle reclined in her chair.

“Entertain me, boys,” she said softly.

Chapter Text

Yugi hummed tunelessly to himself as he walked down the hall, swinging his arms a little too widely. The cheeriness of the hum besides, it was clear that Yami no Yugi's partner was terrified. He could feel the tremble in him and the flutter of his heart, even from inside the Puzzle. Chirp and Babble rolled along beside Yugi's feet, still unblinking as ever. For their part, they didn't make a sound.

Yugi reached the end of the hallway, and glanced both directions. It was just as dim and empty as the hallways they had left. Yami no Yugi felt Yugi's heart sink, and had to struggle to hide his own disappointment. This place was a horrible, horrible maze, even more frustrating than his own ridiculous soul room. At least that world was supposed to be frustrating. What kind of facility built itself like this?

Something that's trying to keep things from escaping, Yami no Yugi's treacherous mind whispered. He glanced down at the little eye pods. If there was something like those here...what other strange and possibly much more dangerous beings might be here?

“Ugh!” Yugi said, stamping his foot with exaggerated anger. Yami no Yugi could feel his heart rate picking up and knew that Yugi was just getting scared, and trying to hide it. “What kinda place is this!? I just want to go home and sleep!”

“You and I both, partner,” Yami no Yugi said. “Let's...try left this time. We have to come across something other than hallways eventually, right?”

“I guess...”

Yugi took a step down the left hallway.

Chirp and Babble panicked.

The pair of eye pods screeched and babbled, rolling in frantic circles around Yugi's feet. Yugi took a quick few steps backwards.

“Whoa, whoa!” Yugi said. “Hey, it's okay—what's wrong? Did something scare you?”

Chirp responded by starting to bump furiously into Yugi's leg, as though trying to push him the other direction. Babble continued to run in circles, making tiny screeching sounds.

“Okay, okay, I get it, you don't want me to go that way?” Yugi said.

“Partner...” Yami no Yugi said.

“It's okay, I think they're trying to warn us,” Yugi said. “Let's try the other way...”

Chirp rolled its eye up and screeched. It smacked itself into Yugi's legs again as though trying to move him out of the way. Yugi stumbled backwards in spite of himself—and something dropped in front of him.

Chirp and Babble scattered out of the way as Yugi swallowed a scream. The thing looked like—like a rotting old man with burns disfiguring every inch of skin. Its black eyes rolled towards Yugi and this time Yugi did scream.

It moved fast—so fast, too fast—and grabbed Yugi's leg between its claw like hands. It swiped forward and Yugi fell to the ground with a cry. The claws dug into his leg and he screamed—it was bending his leg, it was going to snap his bone in half—

Babble flew forward, smacking repeatedly into the creature's face. It did not release Yugi's leg but the distraction was enough for it to lift some of the pressure off of his bone before it cracked. Enough time for Yami no Yugi to wrench back into control. He kicked the creature in the face with his other leg, as hard as he could. He thought he felt bone crunch under the blow, and the thing screeched, releasing him.

Yami no Yugi rolled up to his feet.

“Chirp! Babble! Let's go!” he shouted.

The eye pods, whether they understood him or not, seemed to know what he was asking for, and both of them zipped after him as he bolted down the hall.

He had to get away, had to put distance between himself and it.

It came out of the wall in front of him and he swore. How did it—

He jerked back as the thing lunged for him again. Its rotting face leered at him with bared teeth like some horrifying burn victim. Again it snagged at Yami no Yugi's legs, this time grabbing both of them and taking him to the ground.

He swore, struggled, tried to sit up so that he could knock the thing on the head and get away—

It snapped his femur between its hands.

Yami no Yugi gasped. His eyes bulged. He felt the snap, felt the bone break and felt the first twinge of pain, but he didn't feel anything else for a moment. At least, not until it started dragging him across the floor by his broken leg and then he felt the stretch and he couldn't stop himself from screaming.

Yugi tried to push back into control, to take the pain away—Yami no Yugi flung him back into the Puzzle and held him there. No way was he going to let Yugi feel this fire.

The thing crawled backwards, ignoring Chirp and Babble throwing themselves at its sides, pulling Yami no Yugi towards the wall and—and sinking into it. It was taking him somewhere, where was it taking him? He couldn't think, not through the haze of pain and his muffled cries as the thing continued to drag him by the snapped leg.

There was a rip in the wall. No, in the air! The thing pulled Yami no Yugi through it, leaving Chirp and Babble in the hallway screeching and rolling in frantic circles.

Yami no Yugi could hardly see for the haze of pain over his eyes. He didn't even notice that monster had released him and vanished for a good twenty seconds. He gasped for air and tried to push himself into a sitting position. His leg protested, but he managed to prop himself up against a wall.

He wasn't in the facility anymore. But he didn't know exactly where he was...

He swallowed through a dry throat as his vision cleared enough for him to see.

This looked like his own Soul Room.

“Partner?” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Partner, can you hear me?”

He felt Yugi shift inside the Puzzle, trying to rise up and take control of his body again. Yami no Yugi gently pushed him back as another wave of pain came over him.

“Just—just talk to me. I don't want you to feel this.”

“Let me share it, at least! It will hurt a little less if we spread it between us!”

“No, Yugi, just—just let me do this, just for a minute.”

Yugi actually growled, but he didn't push it.

“Where are we?”

“I don't...know...is my Soul Room still there in the Puzzle?”

“Huh? Yeah—you're right, this does look a lot like it...”

The corridors spread out in three directions from where Yami no Yugi leaned against the wall. One lead forward, one the left and one to the right. The walls were a cool, clay brick fitted together tightly without mortar, and he could see doors at various intervals down each hallway, dimly lit from some light source he couldn't identify.

“We've been moved somewhere else,” Yami no Yugi said. “I thought it was just going to kill us...”

“Other me,” Yugi said, and his voice trembled in spite of himself. “You know what this feels like, right?”

Yami no Yugi had already thought of that. And when he saw the thing appear at the end of the hallway to his left, he knew what this was.

“This is a hunting game,” he whispered, horrified. “It's toying with us.”

It skittered closer, on hands and knees, teeth gleaming. Yami no Yugi forced his weight onto his good leg and pushed against the wall to lift himself up. This was a game, a terrible, terrible game, and with his leg like this—

I might actually lose, he thought with horror. I can't lose.

Because losing, this time, meant death.

The thing started forward and Yami no Yugi took off at a horrible, painful stumble, crying out softly every time his broken leg made contact with the floor. He tried to brace himself against the wall as he ran—but he needed something, like a crutch, anything, even just a moment to set his leg back into place would help, but—glancing over his shoulder, he could tell he wasn't getting that chance any time soon.

It's too fast, he thought. If it catches me—I have no doubt it will simply injure me again and then leave. Draw out the game.

He grit his teeth.

I cannot lose.

He pushed himself, faster, faster. He could not lose. He could not lose.

Chapter Text

Judai pushed the door of Kirtida's cell open, peering out into the hall. He bit his lip when his eyes fell on the pair of dead bodies outside the door. That would explain why Kirtida's normal meal hadn't arrived.

The young woman poked her head around his shoulder—despite being clearly older than him, she was almost a full head shorter and it was hard to for her to see. She shuddered deeply at the pair of bodies.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“I dunno...” Judai said. “We'd better try to find a way out of here. Now.”

Kirtida grabbed his hand.

“Out? I—I can't go out. I'm dangerous.”

“Not anymore. We've been over this, Kirtida.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. This was turning into a nightmare, and he wasn't enjoying one bit of it.

“You've fused with your two ka spirits. Solar Flare Dragon within you was seeking energy to power your inner magic, which was why it 'consumed' things. I've convinced Solar Flare to stop doing that—later, when I know where I am and I know that we're not going to die—I'll teach you how to talk to your ka half and come into balance with it, so you can control your powers. Then you won't have to stay in a cell anymore.”

Her nails dug into his hand as she gripped it tighter.

“But I...I don't know anything else...”

Judai clenched his jaw.

“And is that a good enough excuse to be locked up for the rest of your life?”

She ducked her eyes.

“They were trying to protect people from me...”

“No one needs to be protected from you; what you need is someone to teach you about how to take care of yourself and channel your abilities—which I'll do once I think we're safe.”

“I...”

Judai turned to face her, putting his free hand on her shoulder.

“Look,” he said. “Two people are dead out here. I don't know how or why. I don't know where I am or what fucked up shit is out there. I am not leaving you in here by yourself. Got it?”

Kirtida stared at him, her dark eyes shiny with frightened tears. She nodded finally, and he released her shoulder. She did not let go of his hand and he didn't try to take it away. The pair of them slipped out into the hallway. Judai checked both directions, but they didn't look particularly different.

“Any ideas?” he said.

She shook her head.

“I've never been outside my room...”

That made Judai grit his teeth again. Damn facilities like this.

“Right,” he said. “I'm feeling right.”

She squeezed his hand more tightly and clung to his arm with her other hand. The pair of them made their way down the hallway. Judai paused every now and then to check a door, but many of them were locked, and the ones that weren't seemed just to lead to small, empty cells or offices that looked like they hadn't been occupied. One of the rooms had a shattered glass case that bothered Judai, but since there was nothing there, he tried to let it go.

Yubel, any ideas? he thought to his spirit partner.

I am not a GPS device.

He rolled his eyes but didn't push it. She was agitated, he could sense it. Her senses were devoted to checking out the world around them and making sure nothing was sneaking up on them.

There was a soft crackling sound—static? Like on a radio?

Kirtida stiffened and tightened her grip on him. Judai held gripped her arm reassuringly. The sound was coming from up ahead—from that door hanging open? As they approached, Judai could see that there was another body half outside the door, as though it had been trying to escape. He swallowed down the bile and let Kirtida hold him tighter

“Hello? Hello, is someone there?”

Oh thank the gods, another voice, Judai thought. But then he hesitated. He had no idea what that could be—and it was coming from inside the room where the body had been trying to escape.

“Stay close to me,” he breathed to Kirtida.

She nodded. Judai sucked in a breath. Then he let Yubel's eyes shine through, feeling her scales and wings shift just beneath his skin, ready to rip free at a moment's notice. He came around the door, Kirtida on his arm, and peeked around.

The room was small, with just a control panel and a small portion of the room cut off with glass. Behind that glass was a human sort of shape, fiddling with some kind of radio on the wall. They looked up at the sound of Judai's feet outside the door and Judai sucked in a breath. The person was wearing a thick white theater mask, like the “comedy” half of the two drama masks.

“Oh, thank goodness!” came the voice from behind the mask. “I couldn't get the radio to work. I thought I'd be stuck in here forever.”

“Judai,” Kirtida hissed.

Judai's eyes narrowed, glancing over the being with Yubel's eyes. The human body was dead, he could see. There was no pulse of life in it, no aura at all. The mask, however, which was starting to secrete some kind of strange viscous fluid from its eyes, glowed with a faint aura. Shadow aura—it was a ka creature. A rare type, he guessed, one that could remain physical on this plane, judging by his shaky understanding of how to read auras.

It's definitely a ka creature, Yubel said. But it's...different. There's something wrong with it. It's...corrupted with some kind of different magic.

Judai nodded, noting the hint of a slimy black magic clinging to the thing's aura.

The mask didn't seem to be perturbed by Judai's careful gaze, and jogged over to press its host's hands to the glass.

“Could you perhaps help me get out? You're probably stuck after the containment breach, right? I can help you get out, I know where everything is in this place.”

“Judai,” Kirtida whispered again, dropping her eyes to the floor. “Don't trust it.”

Judai's eyes narrowed at the creature.

“Really?” he said, almost sarcastically. “And I'm supposed to believe you? When you're trying to grab my mind and convince me to come over there and put you on?”

The being paused.

“Well,” it said. “You're very perceptive, young man. Are you an agent? You're not in uniform for a Class D...or, well, any Class. Who are you?”

“I'm going to be your worst nightmare if you don't stop trying to pull at my mind.”

It laughed softly, and Judai felt the tendrils of persuasion lift away from his mind. They really hadn't been any issue, with Yubel in his head he had probably the most well defended mind on the planet, but they had been annoying, like flies buzzing around his head.

“Who are you?” Judai asked.

“Well, around here, they call me SCP 035. But I assume you're looking for a better name so...Hane Hane.”

Judai recognized the name, he had been talking to his Neo Spacians a lot about the different types of Shadow People in the different dimensions. He thought it was for the best to know as much as possible in case of new threats—and he had been told about the Hane Hane, the tribe of mask creatures that ranged from the malicious to the harmless. This one, he guessed, was on the malicious side.

“What have you done to the man that's wearing you?” Judai asked.

“Not much—I just needed a body, you know. Asked him to put me on and he was happy to oblige. I can't help it if I secrete poison, now can I?”

“You're not convincing me to let you out, you know.”

Hane Hane cocked his head. The mask changed from comedy style to tragedy, with an exaggerated frown.

“You're lost, aren't you? You have no idea where you are. Girlie isn't much help, is she? I know allll about this facility. I can help you get out.”

Judai's lips tightened. The creature was right. Judai had no idea what was going on. But he wasn't about to let this thing get the better of him...

“Prove it,” he said. “How am I supposed to know you're not going to try and kill me when I let you out?”

Kirtida looked up at him, terrified.

“Don't do it,” she said quietly. “I've heard about this one, one of my guards told me about it. It's dangerous, it's a liar.”

“Awww, you sell me short, love,” Hane Hane said. “I'll be glad to help in exchange for help. But let me show off my good will and tell you the passcode for that safebox over here. It has lots of goodies that could be helpful. They were testing something special in here today, might be helpful to you.”

Judai frowned. Kirtida held his hand even tighter.

He glanced down at her—she looked so scared.

“It's okay,” he murmured. “I can control it.”

Kirtida bit her lip, but she released him. Judai stepped into the room and moved towards the box that Hane Hane had pointed out.

“It's nine three two four,” Hane Hane said. “Go on. Nothing dangerous in there—why would there be? I can't get out of here if you die.”

Judai rolled his eyes. He didn't like this thing, but he might need the help it could provide...

The box opened with the intended code. It was mostly empty...except for a small vial, like a thing for prescription medicine. He frowned, pulling it out and turning it over in his hand. After a beat, he popped the lid off and peered inside.

There appeared to be a trio of red pills at the bottom. He looked over the bottle again, but there were no labels.

“What's this?” he asked.

“It's called SCP-500, or the miracle pill,” Hane Hane said cheerily. “Cures just about anything. They were going to test it on someone infected with my poison.”

Judai's lips pressed firmly together. He didn't trust this mask thing farther than he could throw it, and he doubted the pills were what it said they were. Still, he pocketed them. He could look into it later.

“Okay,” he said. “Now...if I let you out...are you going to cooperate with me?”

“Of course,” Hane Hane said. “I just want to get out of and stretch my legs...figuratively speaking.”

Judai's eyes narrowed.

“How long have you been in here? Do you even know how to get out of the facility?”

Hane Hane tapped its forehead.

“Photographic memory. I happened to see a schematic of the place once. I can get you out, and help you avoid most of the nasties. Do you really want to face with lovely sir 628?”

Judai had no idea what that meant, but he was running out of options and he knew it.

“Fine,” he said. “But make one bad move...”

“Understood, understood,” the mask laughed, changing back to comedy style. “The keypad is outside the door. Code is eight seven nine three five.”

Judai glanced back to check on Kirtida, who was clinging to the doorframe. He didn't like this, and he could tell she didn't either.

I can control it. I'm stronger than it is.

He input the code, and the glass door popped open.

“Thank goodness,” Hane Hane said, laughing as it practically skipped out. “I was getting a little claustrophobic in there! It's too bad that the door closes automatically; didn't have time to get out when he came in to put me on.”

“Just move,” said Judai, turning towards it and folding his arms. “I'd like to get the fuck out of this crazy ass place.”

“So would I, so would I,” Hane Hane said. “It's been too long since I was allowed to go home. Ever since the King banished me a couple thousand years ago. Would kind of suck if the new one decided to keep the same rules in place, wouldn't it?”

Judai blinked.

“What?”

Hane Hane moved fast. Judai's hands snapped up to defend himself but Hane Hane wasn't trying to attack him, it was trying to push him off balance. Judai stumbled and that was all the opening Hane Hane needed to shove Judai into the containment center and slam the door shut. Kirtida screamed.

Judai slammed his fists on the glass. He could probably break through it with Yubel's help.

“I'm going to rip you to pieces,” he snarled, Yubel's fangs sprouting from his teeth. Her scales slid fluidly onto the skin of his arms and claws grew in place of his nails. He laid a punch into the glass, but it didn't so much as crack. A few more hits, maybe?

“Oh, how scary,” Hane Hane said. “Sorry about that, but having the golden soul so close in reach was just too tempting. It'll be better for me and for most of us if you're out of the picture.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ahhh, you haven't been coronated yet, have you? That's fine with me. The three thousand years without a king have been pretty great, you know—I could go for a second bout of that.”

Hane Hane hummed to itself as it flipped a switch on the wall. Judai heard a low hiss echo through the room. Terror washed through him.
Gas.

The gas was filling the room quickly—too quickly. Judai could feel it seeping into him—he couldn't breathe. His legs were getting weak and he shook, trying to stay on his feet. He slammed on the glass again—but his muscles were losing their power, he couldn't...he couldn't even use his shadows...what was this stuff...? He slumped down against the glass, his claws leaving squeaking scratches down the panes.

“That gas is made to stop things like me from doing my shit,” Hane Hane said. “Plus it's poisonous to kill any humans that I might have convinced inside. So you won't be escaping. It was good to meet you, almost-king...hope you have fun dying!”

Hane Hane turned around—and slammed back against the glass.

Kirtida screamed, her tiny hands scratching at every inch of Hane Hane's host body.

“Get the hell off!” Hane Hane shouted, throwing her to the ground.

Kirtida hit the ground, but rolled back onto her feet. She was breathing hard, gasping for breath.

“Let him out,” she hissed. “Let him out!”

“You look like fun,” Hane Hane said. “Why don't you try putting me on, love?”

Kirtida hissed with an almost animal sound. Hane Hane beckoned to her.

“Come on...come on...come over here. Just put me on, it'll be fine...”

Kirtida's eyes flashed.

“My hunger is back,” she whispered.

Hane Hane was still waving her towards it when it suddenly paused, staring at its finger.

It was catching fire.

“What the—”

The fire exploded down all of Hane Hane's host body. It actually shrieked, scrabbling at the mask part of itself as though to fling itself away from the burning body. But it was too late, Kirtida's fire worked far too quickly. It consumed everything it grabbed hold of—there was a dragon's roar somewhere in the middle of the inferno, and Hane Hane let out a final scream before it became nothing but ash. The pile of ash scattered to the floor. Kirtida stood there for a half second. Then she burst over to the glass and the keypad.

“W-what was the password? What was the password?” she said. “Judai, Judai, please, you have to remember the passcode!”

Judai couldn't even talk, even if he could remember the number string. All he could do was slump against the glass, his hands sliding down uselessly. He felt dizzy, light-headed. His eyes were starting to go dark. He had a feeling that any other human would be dead already, but he was still hanging on. Still breathing through a throat that felt like friction and fire, still clinging to life even though he felt like poison was burning through every inch of him.

“Judai!” Kirtida screamed, pounding on the glass, tears rolling down her eyes. “Judai, Judai, Judai—”

Yubel screamed at Judai, tried to pull his body back into movement, but even she was starting to fall prey to the gas and her voice was fading in his head.

Kirtida...I'm sorry—I was stupid....

Kirtida pounded her hands on the glass, screaming his name over and over.

“Please, Judai, please! Don't die!”

Judai's vision was going black. Was this—it?

And then a new shadow appeared in the doorway. Judai tried to struggle up, but he couldn't move. Kirtida—oh, god, no, Kirtida, don't get hurt—

The long shape bolted into the room. Kirtida whipped around and screamed, but the boy held up his hands in reassurance.

“It's okay, it's okay,” he said. “I'll get him out, give me a second.”

The voice was deep, soft...somehow soothing. Judai could hardly see, trying to sit up and squint. The boy moved to the keypad, ripping something out of his back pocket and starting to fiddle with the keypad. He popped the pad itself off to reveal the wires, shoving his tool into his mouth as he pulled and poked at wires.

Less than thirty seconds later, the door beeped and popped open. Kirtida gasped and tried to crawl forward. The boy was faster, taking a deep breath and darting into the room. He shoved his hands under Judai's arms and dragged him forcibly from the room.

“Out, out,” he said to Kirtida. “I don't know how this is going to ventilate out here, we need to get into the hallway.”

He dragged Judai across the room and into the hallway, past the body still on the floor, and across to lean him against a wall. Kirtida scurried after them, wringing her hands and still sobbing. The boy ran back to slam the door shut behind them, and then back to Judai's side.

“Hey, hey,” he said. “Stay with me, okay? Stay with me. Can you hear me?”

Judai managed a nod.

It was too late, he realized. It was far too late. He had breathed in too much of the gas, and he couldn't even keep his head up. Kirtida was sobbing and screaming, grabbing at his shoulder and shaking him back and forth. Judai's head just flopped limply.

Sorry, Kirtida...sorry, Yubel...

And then he heard Kirtida babbling something to the boy.

“What? His pocket...?”

Yusei opened the flap of Judai's jacket and reached into the inner pocket, pulling out the vial that Judai had taken from the safebox.

The boy didn't hesitate, popping open the vial and taking out one of the red pills. He pinched Judai's cheeks so that his lips opened. He forced the pill between Judai's lips and then pressed his hand against his mouth.

“Swallow it,” he hissed. “You have to swallow!”

Well, Judai thought. Things couldn't get worse, right? He swallowed the pill.

The change was almost immediate. He gasped for breath—and started to cough, his whole body wracking and doubling over. The boy put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“Hang in there, breathe. You're going to be okay.”

He was, somehow! Judai breathed in a clear breath. He was okay. He was okay. His vision had cleared and the strength flooded back into his muscles. He breathed out as the parts of him that were Yubel receded.

“T-thank you,” he coughed, blinking up at the boy that had saved him.

He was a bit older than Judai, Judai thought, with his gently curved face and dark blue eyes. He had dark hair in thick spikes, outlined with golden highlights that matched the strange golden marking down the right side of his face.

“Are you going to be okay?” the boy asked.

“Y-yeah...thanks to you,” said Judai. “And Kirtida...that was really amazing.”

Kirtida just sobbed and threw herself against Judai's chest. Judai patted her awkwardly on the back. He glanced up at the boy again. A bit paranoid despite everything, he let Yubel's eyes flicker out so that he could see the boy's aura. He gasped softly. He had never ever seen an aura that gold before. It was pure—beautiful, really...if he was judging from that, this was someone he could trust.

“Thanks,” he said again. “I'm Yuki Judai.”

“Fudo Yusei,” the boy said, nodding briefly. “So...do you happen to know what this place is?”

Judai almost groaned. Another lost one, huh?

Well...at least they weren't by themselves anymore.

Chapter Text

“So you don't really know where we are either?” Yusei asked.

Judai shrugged and frowned.

“According to Kirtida-san, this is the SCP Foundation...but exactly what that is I don't know.”

Yusei grimaced, but he understood.

“Did you just...wake up here?”

Judai nodded.

“That could mean there are others—like us, I mean. People who were just dropped here.”

“That's what I thought...”

Judai's brows came together darkly. Clearly, he was thinking the same thing as Yusei. How many others had been dragged into this strange place...and why? It was clear that nearly all of the actual staff were already dead. Was there any escape from this place?

“Well,” said Yusei. “I suppose it's no good for us to just stand around.”

“Guess not,” said Judai. “Which way did you come from?”

Yusei pointed behind him down the corridor.

“I don't recommend that way...I may have ripped most of the floor in half with an ATV.”

Judai stared at him for a moment. Then he shrugged.

“Well, I guess I was almost killed by a theater mask, so I shouldn't be surprised. Well, other direction, then?”

“Better than nothing.”

Kirtida didn't speak, she just clung to Judai's hand for support. Judging by the faint wrinkles around her eyes, she was at least thirty, although she was very short that she could even be younger than that. Yusei wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but she seemed frightened, so he sent her a soft, reassuring smile. She ducked her eyes away, but glanced back up at him almost immediately and then tentatively smiled back.

The trio headed off down the corridor.

“This is the way we came from, but if you didn't see an exit your direction...then this way is probably the better bet,” Judai said.

Yusei nodded.

“Do you have any ideas about why we might have been brought here?” Yusei asked.

Judai frowned to himself. He glanced up at the ceiling as he walked, thinking.

“I thought it had something to do with me, at first—I seem to attract shit like this. But if others are involved, I'm not sure anymore.”

He glanced sidelong at Yusei.

“Where are you from, by the way? You speak Japanese, but you're able to understand Kirtida's English fine...”

“I grew up in Satellite...in Neo-Domino,” Yusei said. “There's a large population of English speakers in my city; Martha, the woman who ran the orphanage, insisted that we be bilingual.”

Judai blinked at him, looking surprised. Yusei assumed, at first, that it was probably because of the orphanage part, but when Judai opened his mouth to speak again, he was just as surprised as Judai looked.

“Neo-Domino?” he said. “What do you mean Neo-Domino?”

“Is there something wrong?”

Judai stopped walking so that he could look right at Yusei. He frowned, his whole face scrunching up. Then he shook his head.

“I guess you wouldn't have a reason to lie, but...Neo-Domino? I've never heard of it. It sounds like Domino City but...”

“That's what it is,” said Yusei, frowning. “Neo-Domino was built after the Zero Reverse disaster ripped the city in half.”

“It what?” said Judai. “What the hell is Zero Reverse??”

Yusei felt the breath slide out of him all at once. How could he not know what Zero Reverse was? Just about the entire world had seen that accident.

A niggling thought occurred to him. That old ATV had looked to be in remarkably good condition for being more than a few decades old...

“Judai-san,” he said. “What year is it?”

“Huh? It's 2011.”

A swear escaped Yusei's lips.

“What? What?” said Judai.

“The last time I looked at a calendar, it was 2045,” he said.

All three of them stopped and stared at each other for a long, long moment. Judai's eyes dropped to Kirtida.

“Do you happen to know what year it is?”

“I...the last time I might have seen a calendar was...at least six months ago...I think, um...” she stumbled. “The last I knew, it was 1996.”

Judai and Yusei lifted their eyes to stare at each other.

“Something's up,” said Judai.

“Definitely,” Yusei said.

“We all have different dates in our heads; and you and I both just woke up here for no reason.”

“Someone was looking for us—us specifically. Perhaps some others. What makes us important?”

Judai's lips parted and his eyes seemed to go far away for a moment.

“The King,” he muttered. “Hane Hane said something about a King. And you have a gold aura—the same color as my aura.”

“I...what?” said Yusei.

His head was spinning. Kings? Auras? None of this made sense. Then again, he was in a place where statues could move when you weren't looking at them and ATVs could rip the ground in half.

“Something connects us, something that someone else wants,” Judai said, his mind obviously racing because the words just kept tumbling out. “Someone reached across the time and space to grab us—why? For what? To kill us? If they can take us someplace like this so easily why just drop us off in this facility when we've been able to survive this long already?”

Yusei swore. He and Judai seemed to be coming to the same conclusion.

“This place is full of supernatural stuff,” Yusei said. “Things that can kill us, or things that can help us. That means...”

“This isn't a murder attempt,” Judai said. “This is a game—an experiment.”

Kirtida clasped her hands together so that they would stop shaking.

“But why you two?” she whispered.

Judai looked up at Yusei.

“I have shadow powers,” he said, rather bluntly. “Do you have any special abilities?

“Well...” Yusei said, reaching for his forearm where the mark of the dragon rested.

And then a door snapped open. Kirtida half screamed, ducking behind Judai even as Judai stepped forward with his arm flung in front of both her and Yusei. Yusei gripped his screwdriver like a weapon.

The thing that peered out into the hallway was—definitely not human. Yusei could tell that much. It was tall, taller than he was, with a long white beak. Or was that a mask? It wore a long, fluttering black cloak, eyes glittering through the mask's eye holes. For a moment, it just stared at them. And then it put a finger to its lips.

“Would you perhaps keep it down?” it asked, with a somewhat male sort of voice—it sounded British, almost. Yusei had known a few London immigrants who lived two doors down from the place he rented from Zora, and they spoke English with that kind of accent. “I'm trying to finish a surgery in here.”

It cocked its head at them, exposed lips turning downwards.

“Although...you have the Pestilence as well, don't you? Have you come to receive my cure?”

“We're not sick,” Judai snapped. “Who are you?”

“No, no, no, don't be frightened, I have the cure right here for you,” the thing said, stepping out into the hallway. “Just relax. I can help.”

“Judai, don't let it touch you!” Kirtida said. “I've heard of this one, too—if it touches you, you'll die!”

Yusei swore, taking a step back. He flipped his screwdriver backhand like a knife, ready to defend himself and the other two. Judai hissed, and Yusei thought he saw actual fangs growing in his mouth, his eyes changing color from brown to one orange and one green. Well, whatever, he could address that later.

“Kirtida, can you burn it?” Judai hissed.

“I—I don't think so—it's not made of flesh...”

And then it moved.

Yusei swore—it was faster than he had expected. The thing barreled right over Judai and went for Kirtida. She screamed. Judai flung his hand out to grab the thing by the shoulder but it was already past and it was—it was grabbing Kirtida by her exposed arm. Her eyes bulged and rolled back up in her head but the creature didn't let her go. There was a black ripple, like a bruise, spreading out from the place where it touched her, and she started to convulse and shake—drool bubbled out of her mouth.

“KIRTIDA!” Judai screamed.

Yusei flung himself forward and stabbed his screwdriver into the back of the thing's head.

It screeched, more animal than human, and dropped Kirtida. She fell into a convulsing mess on the floor. Yusei grabbed the bottle of pills still in his pocket and flung it at Judai—he managed to catch it despite his shaking hands.

“Give one of those to her, I'll fight it off!”

“But—”

“Now!”

Judai swallowed and darted to Kirtida's side, starting to push open her mouth so that he could force feed her one of the pills. Yusei turned to the stumbling bird creature, lifting his fists. As long as he didn't come into contact with his skin, he should be fine—right? If that was the case, then he was definitely the best option for fighting this thing—of the three of them, he was wearing clothes that covered the most of his skin.

“Keep back,” he said, his voice low. “I don't want to fight you if I don't have to.”

The thing sucked in heavy breaths and let out a low whine. Yusei's screwdriver was still lodged into its head. He hadn't thought that it would kill it, but he had kind of hoped it might. This thing didn't seem to respond to the normal laws of nature.

“I am—trying—to—help you,” it moaned, clutching at its head. “I must purge the Pestilence from the world.”

“We don't have it,” Yusei said. “You're mistaken.”

“No, no, no, but I can sense it...it's not quite as strong in you, but it is there, and I must get rid of it...”

It darted forward again, hands outstretched. Yusei leapt back and thrust kicked it in the chest. It was enough to send the thing stumbled backwards, and Yusei took the opening to slam his fist right into the creature's face. Both of them yelled out in pain. Yusei jumped back, shaking his hand. That stuff had looked like ceramic but it didn't have any give at all! He hoped he hadn't cracked a knuckle.

Still, that seemed to stun the creature, and it staggered back a few feet. Yusei took the opportunity to check on Judai and Kirtida. Kirtida seemed to be coming to, coughing into Judai's shoulder as he supported her.

“Judai-san, we have to get out of here,” he said.

“I know, let's go!”

Judai pulled the still shaking Kirtida onto his back, her tiny arms latching around his shoulders. The thing seemed to be coming too, so Yusei kicked it in the knees as they tried to run past. It collapsed as he hoped it would—but its hand snaked out and grabbed him by the ankle.

He swore, going down to the floor.

“Yusei!”

“Just go! Get her out of here!” Yusei shouted back. He flipped over and kicked it in the face again.

“I have to save you!” it screamed, still not letting go. “I am the cure!”

Yusei smashed it in the face with his heel again and it finally let go. He somersaulted backwards back into his feet and whipped around to take off after Judai. But there was something else now.

Kirtida screamed and Judai swore as he jerked back from the thing that shot out at him. It had come from the room where this monster had—was there another one??

Yusei staggered to his feet as he turned to face this new threat. It looked human, but—oh, god—

The human staggered forward, his arms out stretched blindly. It was naked, and it looked as though it had been cut up and stitched back together more than once. It swiped its hands at Judai, who stumbled away, hindered by Kirtida's weight on his back.

Yusei started forward—but then a pair of arms latched around him from behind and he went down. He kicked and struggled, but the weight was too much! He couldn't get the thing off of him, and he could see a hand in front of his face, about to touch him on his exposed skin—

I need help, he thought desperately.

And his arm burned.

He almost screamed as the fire branded into his skin, his Dragon's Mark glowing through his shoulder. The creature above him shrieked—and then all Yusei could see, all he could hear, was fire and heat and red and that melodious, keening sound of the Crimson Dragon...

The whirlwind of divine power encased him, tightening around him, blocking out all sound and sense and everything. His back was burning. Had he called his friend's marks to him? Even across so much time and space? He could feel something touch his mind gently, that calm humming sound that came along with the Crimson Dragon. It was...asking him something. What do you need, it seemed to be saying.

Please, he thought. Get us away from here.

It seemed to pause.

I will see what I can do.

And then it all left him in a rush. He gasped, finding himself face down on a cold floor. For a moment, he could only lay there and breathe. He felt like...like something had been pulled out of him from his lungs. He needed...needed to refill his lungs.

The soft cough brought him back to his senses. He groaned, pushing himself onto his hands and knees.

The hall was dark. All of the lights had gone out, it seemed...

“Judai?” Yusei called softly.

“I'm here,” Judai said back, and Yusei could see him shifting in the dark. “Kirtida is too. She's okay.”

“Thank god,” Yusei murmured. “What happened?”

“You're the one that got all red and glowy...where are we?”

Yusei glanced around. It was another hallway, with more doors, from what he could see by the faint faraway light of yet another hallway.

“We're still in the facility, I'd guess,” he said. “But the Dragon was able to move us...”

“What dragon?” Judai asked.

“It's a long story.”

“Well, we appear to be trapped in a death maze, so I have nothing but time.”

Yusei started to open his mouth but then...

A faint cry echoed down the hallway. Yusei swore, struggling to his feet. He could hear Judai and Kirtida scrambling up as well.

“I think we found another one of us,” Judai said.

Yusei only nodded as the trio took off down the hallway. If there truly were others here...he couldn't let anyone else get hurt.

* * *

Luelle watched SCP-049 pick itself off the ground, staggering, dazed. That screwdriver was still stuck in its head.

“Humans are fascinating things,” she said. “We take it upon ourselves to try and understand all the secrets of the world...even at the potential cost of lives. I wonder how many that creature has killed while they try to understand its secrets?”

She actually laughed, and Rickten giggled from his corner in response. The sound caused the person walking through the door to pause, and his brow to furrow slightly. Luelle smiled as she turned in her chair to greet him.

“Good evening, Mr. Waverly.”

“Good evening, ma'am.”

He was a large man, his hair buzzed off to show the sheen of his skull. In his military garb, he looked somewhat out of place between Luelle and Rickten—Luelle, who was dressed in a professor's clothing, a blazer and wool skirt with tall stockings, and Rickten, who looked like he had just left a metal concert with his black band shirt and ragged jeans. He clasped his hands behind his back at a relaxed parade rest before speaking.

“I've completed my mission.”

“I noticed,” Luelle said, waving at the screen. “You did well to finish when you did. Any later with those dimensional anchor points, and the Crimson Dragon may well have taken two of my research subjects out of the game entirely.”

Waverly inclined his head with a suitable amount of demureness, which looked quite odd on a man that looked like he had just walked off of a shelf of GI Joe toys. Luelle merely smiled and turned back around to glance at her screens. 049 was stumbling along, looking confused and uncertain as it moved down the hall. She watched it stop outside the door of the room that had once contained 035, or the mask that called itself Hane Hane. It seemed to stare at the ashes for a moment before fumbling for the medical bag at its side and stumbling into the room. A faint smiled turned up the sides of her lips.

“You seem nervous, Waverly,” she said, without turning around. “Is something wrong?”

“No ma'am,” he said.

“Confused, then?”

He hesitated.

“You didn't hire me to ask questions, ma'am.”

She smiled as she turned around in her seat to face him.

“On the contrary,” she said. “I find I prefer my subordinates to question me at times. It keeps me on my toes.”

He looked uncertain, his brows drawing together ever so slightly. She smiled in response.

“You clearly have a question, Mr. Waverly. You are no longer in the military; here, questions are quite welcome.”

He hesitated a moment longer.

“I suppose, ma'am, that I don't quite understand what we're doing here,” he said. “They're only children.”

She smiled, nodding. Rickten snickered and Waverly sent him the barest flicker of a glare.

“Your uncertainty is quite reasonable. They do, indeed, appear to be 'just children'.”

She rose from her seat as she turned to check another screen and tap onto a different keyboard.

“But, Mr. Waverly, I think you'll find that if you look closer...they are anything but mere children...and I am of the opinion that knowledge is power.”

She steepled her fingers, staring down at the screen that showed where the young Tsukumo Yuma fled from 096.

“And against foes like these boys...you'll find that we need all the power we can get.”

Chapter Text

Yuma slammed another steel door shut behind him but had a feeling that it still wasn't going to do anything. He had already heard that thing rip through several walls looking for him—how did it know where he was?

He could barely breathe. He had been running for so long now, and although he was in great shape he couldn't keep this up for much longer. He paused for only a moment, pressing his hand against the wall to catch his breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire!

Then he heard the crash of something ripping through walls and he was running again, taking corners at random. He couldn't stop—not for a moment, not even for a breath. He was going to die running, wasn't he?

He tripped. With a cry that echoed off of the dark walls, he collapsed, arms wheeling for something to grab. His hand snagged a doorknob and with another cry he fell through into the room beyond.

He couldn't move, he realized with horror. He literally could not force any strength into his arms to push himself up. His heart felt like it was going to explode and his throat was raw from his harsh breaths. He could hear the shuffling and the sobbing screaming sounds of the horrible creature making its way towards him.

He was going to die.

"Gurrrglleleee."

Yuma's head pounded, and he felt like he had cotton between his ears instead of a brain. Had he...imagined that sound? Was that his stomach?

"Gurrrgleee!"

Something prodded at his face...something cool and kinda...weird? Like he was being touched by a jar of peanut butter. He blinked the dark spots out of his eyes, trying to squint at it.

It looked like...a pile of orange goop. It was almost three times the size of his head and for a moment, he almost screamed, flinging himself to his hands and knees with a burst of will. Was it going to encase him and suffocate him before eating him?

But the thing didn't seem threatening at all. It drew itself, twisting a bit as though it were cocking a head at him.

"Gurrgleeecooo."

"W-what?" Yuma gasped.

It slithered forward and...hugged him? A pair of tentacles wrapped around him and it started to squeak and coo again, as though it were happy.

"H-hey, stop that," Yuma said.

Wait was that...the smell of his grandma's Duel Lunch? Why did he smell that? Was it coming from this thing?

It nuzzled him with another appendage, and Yuma found himself giggling.

"Hey," he said. "I don't—really have time for this, you know."

But that was weird. He felt...really super happy all of a sudden. It was the kind of rush he got when he was having a really good duel.

"You're not too bad, are you?" he said, petting it briefly. It felt like petting peanut butter. "You just want some affection?"

The thing gurgled happily and Yuma felt another wave of happiness wash over him.

And then he heard the thing behind him and the happiness drained out of him in a rush.

He whipped around to see the long armed creature lurching towards him, drool slavering from its mouth. His airway choked off—he couldn't even breathe enough to scream. The orange blob seemed to shrink and crawl up on his shoulder, squeaking.

The creature lunged for Yuma. Yuma did scream this time, trying to fling himself out of the way. From his place on the floor, though, there was no getting away. Those arms latched onto his shoulders and yanked him into the air. The mouth opened wide, almost big enough to completely swallow his head in one gulp.

The orange blob flung itself forward over the thing's face.

Its cry was swallowed up by the thing stretched over its face. Yuma was dropped to the ground and he gasped for breath.

For a minute, he could only stare at what was happening—were they fighting?

And then the orange blob squealed, as though with delight, and Yuma realized that it was just as happy to see that thing as it had been to see him.

He decided to take his good luck and run with it. He scrambled to his feet and slipped around the thing in the doorway, bolting down the hallway again.

The orange blob plopped off of the monster's face and slithered after him, gurgling happily. Yuma almost choked on his air again, but when he glanced over his shoulder...the monster was just sitting there, staring off into the distance. Yuma breathed out with relief and ran faster. Whatever that blob had done—made it feel happy or something—was giving him time to escape.

The blob leaped to land on his shoulder, cooing as it nuzzled against him. Yuma felt that euphoria come over him again and he tried to shove it down.

"Not now, okay?" he told it. "I'm currently trying not to die."

It made a bubbly sort of sound and he rolled his eyes. Well, at least he had found a friend...or something.

And then a howl echoed down the hallway and he made the mistake of looking over his shoulder.

It was after him again.

He ducked his head and bore down the hallway. He fled around the corner and—

SMACK!

Yuma's arms wheeled helplessly as he crashed backwards—but a hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back to his feet, drawing him against a very solid, very tall figure. He cried out, trying to push away, get the thing off of him—

"Hey—hey! It's okay. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

The voice was beautiful in its humanness and Yuma's eyes snapped up. Dark blue eyes met his from under dark bangs.

"W-who...?" he said. He heard the scrabble of feet and then decided it didn't matter right now. "Go, go, go, it's still after me—"

"What is?" said another voice, and Yuma glanced over to see a shorter boy with long brown hair and a red jacket, and a small Indian woman clinging to him from behind.

The creature howled and all faces paled.

"Right let's go," said the brown haired boy.

The dark haired boy grabbed Yuma by the arm and half dragged him down the hall. Yuma couldn't even say how grateful he was for someone to do that because he didn't know if he could propel himself further anymore.

"It won't stop, I don't know how it keeps finding me," he said, feeling frustrated tears rolling down his face. "It keeps breaking through every door!"

"What—what is it?" the Indian woman asked.

"I don't know—it's tall and has long arms and a creepy face—"

The Indian woman's face paled. She started talking, but Yuma didn't understand more than a handful of the English words.

"She's asking if you looked at its face," the tall boy said.

"I—yeah, that's how I know it's creepy—"

She started speaking really fast again but all Yuma caught was death.

"She says it won't stop chasing whoever saw its face," said the brown haired boy.

Yuma felt his stomach drop out. His mouth went dry.

"It—what?"

"How do we stop it?" the brown haired boy—Judai, she had called him?—asked.

Yuma didn't understand the words, but the woman's face was all he needed to know the answer—we don't.

Yuma tried to pull out of the tall boy's grip.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"If—if that's true then I should draw it away from you guys," he said, gasping through a tight throat. "If it sees you then it will chase you too—"

The tall boy was not having that. He just flipped Yuma's small body into his arms and lifted him off the ground before continuing to run.

"W—hey!"

"Not a chance are we leaving you," the boy said. "Judai, ideas?"

"Kirtida, think you can burn it?"

The woman replied nervously, uncertainly.

"Right, don't want to look at it. How much have they told you about it? Can I maybe fight it?"

Yuma let out a dry sob. He couldn't help it, he was so scared. He remembered that torn up body in the hallway and the flashlight and—oh, god, he was going to die.

"Nothing can stop it, huh?" Judai snarled. "Let's see how it handles Yubel."

He came to a stop and ripped open a door.

"You guys, in, now," he said. "I'm going to fight it."

The woman screamed what sounded like a "please no" and grabbed his arm.

"It's just fast and strong, right? No other special powers?"

She blinked and started to shake her head.

"Then I can fight it. You guys, in here, now."

Judai whipped around and squared his feet to face the hallway. Yuma tried to struggle out of the tall boy's grip but he didn't let go as he barreled into the room, dragging Kirtida along too.

He slammed the door behind them—the room was small and still lit. Looked like some kind of control room, but there was nothing else in it. Thank god.

Yuma struggled out of Yusei's grip.

"We can't leave him out there! I saw—I saw someone that got all ripped up and—he's gonna—"

"Sh, sh, sh," the tall boy said. "It's okay. Breathe. You've been running from that for a while?"

"Y-yeah..."

Yuma could barely breathe. The tall boy kept a hand on his shoulder.

"You're going to be okay," he said, his voice soothing. "What's your name?"

Yuma coughed.

"Y-Yuma," he said. "Tsukumo Yuma."

"Yuma," the boy said, nodding. "I'm Fudo Yusei. Out there is Yuki Judai, and this is Kirtida."

The Indian woman just kept her eyes on the door, hands shaking in her lap. She had collapsed to the floor when they came in and didn't show signs of getting up any time soon.

"Where are you from?" Yusei asked, his voice low and soothing.

Yuma could barely think. He could hear something outside—a crash, a snarl, a howl and a stream of incoherent babbling. There was a gurgle at his ear and he felt that peanut butter consistently brush his face again, sending a wave of calm through him. He swallowed.

"H-Heartland," he said. "Heartland City."

Yusei frowned.

"Is that...in Japan?"

"Well...yeah? I mean I'm speaking Japanese..."

Yusei's lips pressed together.

"Yuma-kun, what year is it?"

Yuma furrowed his brow at him.

"I'm not that messed up in the brain."

"Just please, answer me."

"It's 2139..."

Yusei nodded.

"You're another one," he murmured. "How many of us are there?"

"Huh?"

There was a loud, resounding crash outside and Yuma yelped. Yusei's eyes hardened. He half rose. Kirtida's hand snaked out to grab him. She spoke in rapid English, which Yusei responded to. Whatever passed between them, Yusei seemed to opt to stay in the room. Yuma was starting to shake again, and Yusei pulled him close, like his sister would when he had nightmares.

"We'll protect you, okay?" he said. "You'll be okay."

Yuma could only sob softly and pray that he was right.

* * *

"Are you seeing this, Rickten?"

Rickten rose from his corner and wandered over, peering over Luelle's shoulder.

"Awww," he said, sounding disappointed. "He didn't get ripped up? Too bad."

"No, I meant this," Luelle said, pointing to a different screen.

Rickten glanced over it.

"What's 049 doing?" he asked. "Playing with ashes?"

"It's reviving 035," Luelle said, sounding fascinated. "How interesting. I thought it was a virus made to kill the Shadow People. But here it is, seemingly getting quite chummy with the mask..."

She tapped her fingers to her chin.

"It could be...hm. How interesting. I didn't think to see that coming back any time soon..."

She smiled.

"Let's see how the kings deal with that, shall we...?"

Chapter Text

Yuya slowed to a stop, hands dropping to his knees, gasping for breath. He seemed to have lost the lizard thing...somehow. For now, at least. He wondered if it could smell him, and if it would be able to find him...probably. He should keep moving.

But then again...

He felt a sinking feeling creep into his stomach as he turned in slow circles, taking in the long hallway that spread out in either direction of him, plus the one behind him. He was lost. He had no idea where he was and there wasn't a sign to be seen. What was this place? And how had he even gotten here? He had already ruled out dreaming so...

He heard a low roar echo through the building and shuddered.

Moving. Moving was a good idea. Although...what else would he run into in here?

He couldn't think about that. He had to move, maybe find someone else. There had to be other people here, right? It was a human building, so it...it had to be. There would be. There would definitely be people.

He took a deep breath, and took the left hallway. He walked for a bit, trying each door as he passed. Most of them were locked. They had keypads and card readers, too, so he couldn't just pick the locks.

Oh—there! There was one hanging open!

Yuya jogged forward, grabbing the door handle and pulling it the rest of the way open.

"Hey!" he called. "Is anyone—"

His stomach lurched.

Yes, there was someone here.

But they were dead.

Yuya stumbled back, hand over his mouth to stop himself from retching. There were three bodies inside. Two simply lay dead, but one appeared to be—oh god, it was like it had been turned into a mush of muscle and blood and—

Yuya turned away and threw up all over the floor. He just knelt there for a moment, heaving for breath. His mouth tasted awful and he was sure he would throw up again if he looked at that mess again...

But this was the only place he had seen people—there had to be some kind of information about this place in there somewhere, right?

Groaning to himself, he stumbled to his feet and turned back towards the room. He tried not to look at the mushy body, even as bile rose in his throat again. He gave the room a quick once over—there was a horrible rip in the wall to another hallway on the other side, but the room itself was small and mostly empty. He then focused on the less ruined body closest to the door. His stomach twisting and turning, he turned the corpse over.

The woman was in a doctor's coat, and there was a badge on her chest. Her eyes stared sightlessly behind broken glasses, and Yuya's stomach lurched again. Tears pricked at his eyes, but he unclipped the badge from her chest pocket. He squinted at the English, slowly making out the words. Her name was Jennifer Davaros, and she was...Class C, Level 2 clearance. He didn't know what that meant, but it sounded important...

He shoved the badge into his pocket; it could probably be used to open some more doors.

"Sorry," he mumbled to her as he glanced at the other pockets of her jacket. He only found a small notebook, filled with English scribbles. It might take him a bit to decipher that, but he did notice the technical drawing of a ring on the first page. It looked like it was made of two bands, connected by short metal poles which were filled in between with glass. Some kind of...experiment, maybe? His traitorous eyes wandering towards the mush body and he shuddered, snapping the book shut and shoving it into the side pocket of his pants.

He checked the other body next, but his stomach was not able to handle this much longer so all he was able to do was take the man's security clearance badge and then start to stumble back.

His heel landed on something and—more to look away from the carnage than anything else—he lifted his foot to look.

It was that ring that he had seen in the book. He stared at it for a moment. Then his eyes flicked to the bodies.

He should probably...leave it.

But he found himself reaching down, grabbing it, and shoving it into his pocket anyway. He'd look at the book later. His English was...okay. He could read a little bit, probably.

He retreated from the room and leaned back against the wall for a moment, just breathing. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was those horrible, wrecked bodies and—his stomach heaved again and he collapsed, throwing up again.

I've...I've got to move, he thought. Someone's got to be alive in this horrible place—

He heard something creak above him. For a moment, all he could do was sit there, frozen, staring at his hands. He didn't want to look—oh, god, he didn't want to look. What would he see?

He had to look.

His eyes lifted, slowly, slowly...

There was nothing there.

Yuya stared at the ceiling for a moment. Then he let out a long, slow breath...

Something sliced into his back.

He screamed, flinging himself forward. His jacket was torn behind him, and he could feel the warm blood already sticking the torn fabric to his skin. He fell forward so quickly that he hit his head against the other wall, but he managed to use it to shove himself to his feet.

He whipped around, pressing his back to the wall even though it made him wince, his head starting to spin—how much blood was he losing—and then he saw the horrible, burnt and rotting face staring at him from the wall itself. It—it looked like an old man, but it was rotting and burnt and dying—

It pulled into the wall and vanished. More from instinct than anything else, Yuya flung himself away from the wall. Just in time, because it darted out of it as though the wall were made of water instead of stone. Yuya swung a leg wildly and managed to catch it in the side of the head. It couldn't stop its momentum and it went careening to the floor.

Yuya bolted.

His heart was in his throat and he couldn't breath past it. Was this what he was going to do from now on? Run from things?

The thing popped out of the floor like a horrible, mutated daisy. Yuya's arms wheeled and he skidded to a stop, hitting the ground. His back ached with fire and he screamed as he hit the ground back first.

The creature grabbed him by the leg. With a practiced twist, before Yuya could do anything, it popped his knee out of place.

Yuya screamed. It was more from shock than pain, because he didn't feel anything, not right away, but staring at his leg laying at that strange angle, he could barely think about anything except—my fucking leg is shot.

The creature dragged Yuya along by his ruined leg, sending a horrible wash of pain over him that prompted another scream. It dragged Yuya through the wall and then dropped him, disappearing.

Yuya just lay there for a moment. He couldn't see the ceiling, he realized. It was so high that it was lost to darkness. And this floor...it was made of bricks—so were the walls. This wasn't...wasn't the same place he had left. That thing had dragged him somewhere. He was probably going to be eaten or something.

Yuya couldn't stop the frustrated tears from rolling down his cheeks. It had happened so fast! He had barely been able to do anything! And now, with his leg like this...

He groaned trying to push himself up to a sitting position against the wall. Okay. He could...he could maybe pop his knee back into place. He had done it before, or something like it. He had dislocated his shoulder during a duel once, and his mom had showed him how to pop it back into place...the knee couldn't be that much harder, could it?

Yuya gripped his knee, biting down on his lip at the pain that stabbed at him from it. He closed his eyes. Okay, one, two, and—

He screamed. It had hurt!

But it was back in place, somehow he had done it right—right? It felt like it. It didn't quite hurt as much. Could he stand up? Maybe?

He tried—and immediately failed. He cried out again as his knee collapsed beneath him. He hadn't done it, hadn't done it right, oh, god it hurt—

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that thing that had kidnapped him appear at the end of the dark hallway. Oh, god, no.

And then in his lower peripherals, he saw that notebook that he had taken from the woman on the floor, open to a random page...it must have fallen out of his pocket. He scrabbled for it. Maybe there was something he could use!

The thing was crawling closer as Yuya tried desperately to read the English words. The letters clattered around in his head; he couldn't make sense of them! Think, he had to think! Just breathe—focus!

He sucked in a steadying breath and tried to think—what would dad say? He'd say to focus, to focus on surviving and take whatever measures necessary. It was enough. Yuya steadied his thoughts enough to catch at least some of the English, thanking his mother mentally for forcing him to do well in his language classes.

Once fully active, the ring responds to spoken or mental commands from its wearer until removed, at which point it becomes...until worn and re-energized...User attempts to open book to page 368. successful...temperature of test chamber drops by...

The ring. He could—maybe use that?

He snapped the book shut and shoved it into his pocket again. That thing was close again. He had to work quickly. He dug in his other pocket for the ring—thank god, it was still there. He shoved it onto his finger. Immediately, the six glass sections started to glow with an intense violet light. Okay, okay, okay, it seemed to be working, so now what did he do? Talk to it?

"Um, please fix my leg?"

One section dimmed slightly and Yuya gasped as his leg reset itself with a pop. The air around him dropped in temperature, so that it was even colder than before.

It worked!

Yuya scrambled to his feet and his back screamed in protest.

Please fix my back, he thought quickly.

The ring seemed to oblige, another section dimming as he felt his back cool down, as though the blood had receded from it. Now he was free to move—although he noted that the air was now so cold that he could see his breath.

The creature paused, as though it were confused by Yuya's sudden resurgence of energy. Yuya didn't hesitate. He just exploded down the hall in the other direction. He didn't know the capabilities of this ring thing, but he didn't want to push it. He had to find a way out of this place! Could he use the ring for that? No, he better not, until he had figured out what was going on—

He wheeled around a corner and—smack!

Yuya yelped, taking a step back. His arm automatically shot out to grab the other figure, who was falling back with a cry. He managed to grab the smaller figure's arm and steady them both.

For a moment, they both just stared at each other.

The new figure was human, thank god, and clearly Japanese. His eyes were a warm crimson, and his spiky hair was dark enough to blend into the background, except for his bangs, which almost glowed in their blondness. He wore a heavy looking pendant around his neck, and what appeared to be a generic school uniform—he couldn't be too much older than Yuya, maybe sixteen at most? And he was shorter than Yuya was, at least by an inch. And that was when Yuya noticed the blood staining the boy's shirt, the way that he clutched at it with one hand.

"Are you okay?" Yuya said.

The other boy's eyes flicked behind him and swore.

"It's coming back," he said, heaving a ragged breath. "We—we have to move. Did it drag you here too?"

"Huh? You mean that thing?"

Yuya glanced over his shoulder and almost screamed. It was hanging on the wall right behind them, perfectly horizontal like it was some kind of spider. It sat perfectly still, as though it were—waiting.

Yuya swallowed.

"How do we get out of here?" he breathed.

"I don't know," the other boy said, sounding frustrated. "This pocket dimension is sealed off...that thing might be the only way out."

Yuya's heart sank. The boy beside him seemed to stagger a bit, and Yuya grabbed his shoulder instinctively.

"Are you okay?" he hissed.

"My leg is snapped and it caught me once already," the boy said between heavy breaths. "I think every time it catches us, it just injures us, to make the game last longer. Got me—almost in the stomach."

"The game?"

But then he remembered the ring.

"Fix his leg and that stab wound," he said out loud, and the ring seemed to hum. One section fully went dark, and the other boy gasped, eyes widening as his injuries knitted themselves. The air was freezing, now, and Yuya shivered.

"How did you—"

The creature flashed forward. The shorter boy was faster, shoving Yuya to the side and then hitting the ground himself. The monster flew over their heads. Yuya flipped back to his feet and grabbed the other boy by the arm.

"Talk later, run now!" he shouted.

The other boy could only respond with a nod, and they both took off down the hallway. Yuya wasn't sure how long they ran, but finally, it was the other boy that pulled them to a stop.

"We can't overextend ourselves," he said. "That's what it wants—and it doesn't chase. It just...walks closer."

"That's when we had our legs broken though, right? It didn't have to chase us," Yuya said in between pants.

"True," Yami no Yugi said. "But...it seems to get some kind of enjoyment out of this. We have to conserve our energy while we can."

"Right. Um. Okay."

Yuya didn't have it in him to argue anymore, dropping his hands to his knees to catch his breath again. The other boy sighed too, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes. Yuya half straightened, planning on introducing himself, but then he saw the boy's mouth twitch downward.

"No, Yugi," he mumbled. "Not now."

Yuya blinked.

"Um...are you okay?"

The boy's eyes flew open. He ducked his eyes, looking a little sheepish.

"Um, yes," he said. "I'm...I'm Yugi. Mutou Yugi."

Yuya's brow furrowed, but he decided now was not the time to ask questions.

"Sakaki Yuya," he said. "Do you...know what this place is?"

Yugi shook his head.

"It's some kind of governmental facility for supernatural entities, but that seems to be all I can determine," he said. "You're also lost?"

"I just woke up here...I don't remember how."

Yugi frowned, eyes narrowing.

"If that's true then..."

The creature appeared at the far end of the hall again. Yugi swore and Yuya flung himself up from the wall.

"What do we do?" he hissed.

"I don't know—but we can't just keep running."

"But we can't fight that thing! Look at it!"

Yugi's jaw clenched.

"We need a plan," he said. "What do we have that we can use?"

Yuya glanced down at the ring on his finger. The creature crawled forward. Slowly. One bit at a time. It seemed to enjoy freezing whenever they fixed their eyes on it, and then moving forward again when they glanced at each other.

"I have this thing, maybe it can help?" Yuya said, lifting his hand with the ring on it.

"What is it?"

"It's how I fixed your leg—I don't really know what it is, but the notebook I found has some things about it...I'm just not very good at reading English."

"Neither am I," Yugi said, groaning as he glared at the creature coming closer again. He was starting to back up, a bit at a time, and Yuya followed suit. "What do you know about it?"

"It...I think it takes energy out of the air or something. Everything got colder when I used it."

Yugi nodded slowly.

"It might be able to open a door, perhaps?"

"We could try..."

"No, not unless we have to. If it takes energy out of the air, and everything is getting so damn cold already...what if it takes energy from wherever it can get it? What if it takes it from you yourself?"

Yuya hadn't thought of that, feeling a shudder go through him. Was that what had happened to that person that had become a pile of mush? He didn't want that to happen any time soon.

"We may not have a choice," he said. "It's moving faster!"

Yugi swore.

"Just run! Now!"

He grabbed Yuya's shoulder and whipped him around, pushing him forward. Yuya did as he was told, exploding down the hallway even as he felt a frustrated lump grow in his throat. Running, running, and more running! He was so tired of running!

I have to try, he thought.

He swallowed.

Open a way out of here, he thought at the ring.

And immediately, the world turned ice cold. Yuya gasped, stumbling, collapsing straight to the floor.

"Yuya!"

Yugi bolted back to his side, trying to pull him back up.

"Yuya! Oh, dammit, Yuya, you didn't—Yuya! Yuya talk to me!"

His head was spinning, roaring, buzzing, he couldn't think. He could feel—something—something being pulled out of him, as though it were flowing into the ring and out. His heart was beating fast, so fast, too fast, it was probably going to explode in his chest. He was going to die.

Maybe I can at least get Yugi out of here, though, he thought. Through his fading vision, he could see the wall crumbling beside them, leading out into the hallway that they had left, or at least, one like it. Yugi swore above him, shoving his hands under Yuya's arms and starting to drag him out.

I can't hold it, Yuya thought suddenly, seeing the wall start to close up again. He needs to just go. He doesn't have time with me!

He was dying. He could feel it. The ring was taking everything, everything that he had to comply with his request, but it didn't have enough power to keep the door open for much longer and he was going to die to give it the energy it needed.

"Yuya! Don't you dare!"

And then a new force started to pulse in his chest. He felt the pendulum growing warm against his collarbone. Above him, he saw a strange, golden glow—was it coming from the boy's pendant.

And Yuya gasped, his vision suddenly clearing and all energy rushing back into his body. He felt awake, alert—as though nothing had happened. It was enough to push himself to his feet in Yugi's arms, and then both of them staggered through the hole in the dimension back into the real world.

The hole snapped closed behind them and both of them collapsed to their knees, gasping for breath.

"We—we made it," Yuya gasped.

"That was reckless," Yugi said, almost snarling.

"But—it—worked."

Yugi didn't seem able to argue with that, just sitting and breathing for a bit. Yuya gripped at his pendulum. It was warm. His eyes flickered to the boy's triangular pendant, just in time to see the golden glow fade from it.

"What...happened?" Yuya asked.

Yugi glanced down at his pendant, and then at Yuya's.

"I think," he said. "I think the ring took energy from our pendants."

"But how?"

Yugi didn't have an answer for that.

"Be more careful with that," was all he said. "Come on...let's try to find a way out of here."

He stood up, and Yuya took the hand that was offered to him, letting Yugi help him up. They stood there for a moment longer. And then, as one, they saw the burnt, rotting face of that monster appear at the end of the hall, and they both took off down the hallway.

* * *

"Their powers are awakening more fully," Luelle mused. "Good. I want to see their potential."

Waverly just stared from his corner, face impassive. And Rickten was sprawled across one table like a cat, looking incredibly disappointed.

"None of them have gotten really hurt yet," he said. "I want to see someone get ripped in half, come oooon."

"Oh, calm down, Rickten," Luelle said, as though she were a mother scolding her child. "There's still plenty of time left in this game."

Waverly shifted, and Luelle's eyes flicked back.

"I've already told you, Waverly, if you have a question, ask."

Waverly ducked his eyes.

"I suppose I was only confused, ma'am. I've read about that ring. Should have killed him, from what he asked it to do."

"It should have," Luelle said. "And it would have. If he hadn't learned how to channel his very prodigious soul energy at the last moment."

She laughed softly.

"They think the energy came from their pendants. That was only the channel. You see, Waverly, these boys are a reservoir of power. A reservoir that I intend to tap."

She tapped her fingers on the table, humming tunelessly.

"But they are beginning to find each other. Let us see how they all work together, shall we?"

Chapter Text

They had made their way down three hallways and passed through three different rooms before Yami no Yugi finally pulled them both to a stop. Yuya dropped his hands to his knees to breathe, clearly ready to break for it again if something new showed up. Although clearly winded, he seemed as though he could have kept running if he had to. Yami no Yugi couldn't remember the last time he had run so much—Yugi wasn't in exactly the best shape, and he was dying. He gasped for breath, leaning against the wall to steady himself. It wasn't the best place to stop, what with the ceiling having apparently caved in and all the rubble everywhere, as though the entire room had been split in half above them, but it was better than nothing.

"Have we lost him?" Yuya asked.

"For now...I think. But considering the way it moves, I wouldn't think that we have much time before it locates us again...this is a game to it. Us escaping just heightens the suspense."

"What kind of freak is it?" Yuya groaned.

Yami no Yugi shook his head.

"I...have no idea."

He groaned, trying to resist the urge to slip down into a sitting position. If only he had his cards and Duel Disk. Then he could actually do something, maybe.

"How did you get here?" Yami no Yugi asked Yuya.

Yuya shrugged.

"I just...ended up here," he said. "Things happened back home and I think I must have passed out...but it doesn't explain why I've ended up here. You?"

"Same," Yami no Yugi said. "Although I believe I had just gone to bed...I don't know. There's no logical explanation for how I ended up here, unless our memories have been wiped."

"But why?"

Yami no Yugi shook his head.

"I think this is...one big game," he said. "I don't know how, or why, but I feel like we've been made into pieces. Pieces of a board game, almost. Someone has moved us here for a reason, and I don't think we're going to like it."

Yuya moaned, slumping forward a bit.

"This place is insane," he muttered. "Giant lizard things...rotting guys that move through walls...rings that do things with your life energy."

He waved his hand with the ring on it pointedly. Yami no Yugi looked at it curiously. It had saved their lives, but by all rights, if it worked the way he thought it did, it should have killed Yuya. Where had they managed to get the energy they needed to power it, and without taking from Yuya?

He felt something twisting in his stomach, not like a sickness, but like...like a fire. It had started burning there sometime after he and Yuya had escaped and the ring had gotten enough energy to do what it did. But it felt muted, as though it were hidden underneath a haze of fog. He didn't know what to make of it, but it was somehow a reassuring feeling. Did it have something to do with the ring? Had the ring done something else? Maybe he should have a look at that notebook Yuya had said he had found.

"Well..." Yuya said. "What do we do now?"

"That's a good question," Yugi said in his head, and Yami no Yugi grimaced.

"We need to find a way out, first and foremost," Yami no Yugi said.

"Yeah but we could be walking forever...who know how big this place is? And there's no signs, nothing to tell us where we are...plus..."

He shuddered.

"I think everyone that worked here is...is dead. I think we're alone."

Yami no Yugi shivered. He didn't like the sound of that, and the drawn, pale look on Yuya's face suggested that he had come face to face with some of that death himself.

"You're right, just moving without knowing what we're doing is a good way to get ourselves lost...and into even more trouble," he said.

"But what else can we do?" Yugi asked.

Yami no Yugi frowned.

"Do you know anything else about this place? What it's for? Have you come across any information at all?"

Yuya hesitated. And then his eyes sparked. He dug in his pocket for a moment and produced a pair of badges.

"I, uh, found these," he mumbled, and Yami no Yugi had an idea of where he had found them, a slight shiver going through him. Yami no Yugi took the badges and squinted at them. One was for a Dr. Jennifer Davaros, and the other for a Mr. Sheldon Creevy. The doctor's badge had a Level 2 Class C clearance, apparently, and Creevy's was a Level 2 Class D clearance. He didn't know what that meant, but turning the cards over revealed a small band that could be scanned against a card reader. He had seen those against the doors as they had ran, things to unlock rooms. Beyond that, the badges were fairly standard. White backgrounds, small ID pictures of both people, and a different colored band at the top, green for the doctor and blue for the security guard.

Yami no Yugi closed his eyes for a moment. Thinking. Strategizing. This was a game. Games had rules. Games had end points. If he could just map something out, find a method to this madness...

His mind flicked through the images, the memories of the hallways, the doors, the rooms, the creatures, everything, considering it all. Think. This was a facility. A place built for the purpose of storage and research and testing. There had to be some kind of organization. Some kind of method to the madness. Otherwise, how would anyone find things? They could stumble into the wrong places—it was too much to ask for every employee to memorize the entire building. There had to be something that would indicate—

He swore.

"What? What?" Yuya said.

"I'm so stupid—I should have—dammit!"

Yami no Yugi poked his head out into the hallway and put his hand to the wall, staring at it. It looked normal, a normal plaster wall—except for the faint band of color that separated the halves of the wall into two colors.

"This one is green," he said. "This part of the facility is for research and testing!"

He jerked his head down to stare at the rest of the wall, looking all the way down the corridor to where the hall split. Sure enough, the colors changed—from a green band to a blue band.

"The colors! It's the colors—they indicate where things are! That's how they can tell where they're supposed to be and that's how they differentiate the doors!"

He was so excited he almost tripped when he ran into the hallway. He looked down at the keypads beside the doors—colors were here too, and serial numbers, different for each door. He could find his way around this way!

"Yuya, Yuya, come here, I think I've figured out! We have to find a security room—the ones with the blue bands, probably! I don't know the significance of the numbering system yet, but we can use the badges to get in and check each room and probably find a control center, that should find us a map to get out!"

He whipped around, so excited and wondering why Yuya wasn't excited too.

He found the boy backing slowly out of the room they had just left, eyes fixed forward.

"Um...Yugi?" he asked. "There's—there's something else in there."

"What?"

Yuya seemed to be stretching his eyes open as far as he could, hands shaking ever so slightly.

"I—I dunno but I blinked and it moved, so—"

Yami no Yugi crept forward, looking in the direction Yuya stared.

The thing was huge, at least seven feet tall, and appeared to be made of...concrete, maybe? It had a bulbous head that looked like it had been sprayed with bright red paint.

"That wasn't there before," he said.

"I said—I saw it, I blinked, and it was closer."

Yami no Yugi swore.

"Yuya, start moving down the hallway. That way. I'll keep my eye on it. Take the security badge and start looking for doors with blue bands in between them."

Yuya nodded in Yami no Yugi's peripherals, and began to creep backwards in the direction that Yami no Yugi indicated. Yami no Yugi swallowed. He, too, started to move backwards, eyes fixed on the creature. He swallowed. Already he could feel his eyes starting to dry out, begging him to blink—why was it that now he was paying attention, he felt the desperate urge to blink?

He backed up far enough that he couldn't see the thing in the room anymore and dared to blink. He swore—it was in the hallway now. Yuya had been right, it could move when they weren't looking at it.

"Yuya?" he called over his shoulder, moving backwards even faster. "Any luck?"

"This badge isn't working on any of the keypads!" Yuya said, sounding frustrated. "How close is it—"

His words were cut off by his cry and Yami no Yugi almost made the mistake of jerked his eyes back. As it was, he flickered his sight away just enough for the thing to get right in front of him. He swore, stumbling backwards as fast as he could.

"Yuya! What happened?"

"That thing is back! Almost got my leg broken again!"

Yami no Yugi swore. Would they never get a break?! They needed something, a weapon, anything, something that they could use to fight rather than run!

"Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. It went back into the wall, I don't know where it is—Yugi, look out!"

Yami no Yugi ducked just in time. The rotting man's hand swept right over his head. But the motion made him drop his eyes from the statue creature and then he felt hands latch onto his neck and he froze—

It did too. Yuya must be looking at it now. Yami no Yugi could only sit there, his eyes locked onto the stone thing right in front of his face, stubby hands latched onto the base of his neck. He couldn't—couldn't get his head loose. It was too close, too tight. It couldn't move while he and Yuya were staring at it, but he couldn't get away unless it moved—but if it moved...

It would snap his neck.

"Yuya," he said warningly.

"I'm still looking, I'm still looking!"

His voice cracked with panic. Yami no Yugi was starting to panic too, but he tried to swallow it.

"Yuya, breathe. Just breathe."

"It's going to kill you, oh god. And that other thing is still here—"

"Yuya," Yami no Yugi said again. "Breathe."

He heard Yuya sucking in tight, wavering breaths.

"Okay. We need a plan."

"What plan?"

"Just let me know if you feel the urge to blink...or if that other thing comes back."

"Y-Yugi, it's on the ceiling, I can see it out of the corner of my eye."

"Okay, I'm going to blink once. Keep your eyes on it for a second."

"Okay."

Yami no Yugi blinked. He didn't die, so Yuya's eyes were still on it.

"Now move if you have to!"

He heard Yuya's gasp and the scrabble of his feet as he stumbled backwards, the loud thump of the other creature hitting the ground.

Yami no Yugi had to get himself out of this.

"Other me, other me, please, let me take control—"

"Just hang on, Yugi," Yami no Yugi hissed. "Just—hang on."

He gripped the concrete hands on his neck. He pulled at them uselessly—stuck tight on him. Could he shatter it. Not without blinking. He was going to have to blink again soon—dammit!

"Yuya!"

"I'm okay, I'm looking at it, the thing went back into the walls—but I think it's getting frustrated, its attacks are getting more wild."

Dammit.

"Other me! Please, listen to me, I feel like—"

"Yuya, just go. Try to find a security room and get yourself out of here."

"What? No!"

"I can't get free, Yuya! If you stay here, that thing will just drag you back into its dimension, and I don't want you to repeat that thing with the ring in case it doesn't work this time!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Yuya—"

And then Yugi forcibly shoved Yami no Yugi from control. Yami no Yugi gasped as he tumbled back into the Puzzle.

"Yugi! YUGI!"

Something was happening. Something—something strange, something different. Yugi was glowing. It was a hot, golden glow that rippled under his skin like blood and around him like a heat haze. Yugi grabbed the hands of the concrete thing holding him. A cry ripped from his throat—and the hands shattered.

The thing might have screamed, but that might have been the sound ringing in Yami no Yugi's head. Yugi stumbled back, and even Yami no Yugi could feel the dizziness in his head.

"Partner—how—"

"I don't know, I just knew that I could do it and it had to come out!"

That burning sensation that Yami no Yugi had experienced earlier was starting to fade. Yugi was getting dizzy again and Yami no Yugi jumped back into control. His head buzzed; he had no idea what had just happened, but that thing was still in front of him, not moving, and he stared at it. Its arms—hadn't its arms been shattered? Or had he imagined that? It looked fine. But one way or another, Yami no Yugi was free of it. He scrambled backwards and bumped into Yuya, back to back.

"The other one's coming out of the floor!" Yuya said.

"On three, we run," Yami no Yugi said. "Head for the blue bands—we have to find a security room that opens. Got it?"

"Okay!"

"One...two...three!"

Yuya bolted, and Yami no Yugi followed, running backwards so he could keep his eyes on the thing. Yuya seemed to see what he was doing and grabbed Yami no Yugi's arm to better guide him. They hurtled around the corner—the statue reappeared at the end of it as soon as it was out of sight. The rotting man's face slipped out of the wall and began to follow them, crawling on the wall like a horrible spider.

Is this all we're going to do? Run? Yami no Yugi thought, frustrated. This is a game! There has to be a way to win!

* * *

Luelle stared for a moment at the screen. They're waking up. All of them. I was right, the trauma of the situation will push them in ways that they haven't before—this will be the best time to gather information.

She flicked her eyes to the next screen. 049 was still fiddling with the ashes of 035. Or was it? It was doing something with that medical bag of its. It had been messing with it for well over a half an hour now. What was it doing?

Her eyebrows raised a fraction as the bird beak creature replaced the last of its vials into its medical bag and then reached its hands into the ashes, pulling out a completely untouched tragedy mask.

"How fascinating," she said.

"Wow, I thought I was a goner there," said 035. "Thanks, bud! Didn't think you'd be this direction any time soon."

"I am seeking the Pestilence—it is still here, I can sense it."

"Right, right, I forgot you were always on about that. Well, hey, how's about you and I take a walk together? I have a proposition for you, about getting rid of that Pestilence. Sound good?"

049 paused, and then seemed to nod. The mask changed from tragedy to comedy.

Luelle smiled faintly.

"How cute," she said.

Her eyes moved to the next screen. More particularly, to the figure stalking down the hallway on the screen.

"I wondered how long it would take for you to join the fray. Took a bit longer than you thought to get out of your room after I locked it completely down, didn't it?"

She hummed softly. He would probably already know who had shut down the facility. That was why she had locked his room down completely before doing any of this. One encounter with the man was more than enough. Although, perhaps that amnesiac of hers had done what it was supposed to, and she would get lucky.

She rose from the table

"Rickten, Waverly," she said.

Waverly stood at immediate attention, while Rickten only looked up, bored, from where he sprawled across the desk.

"I'm going for a walk," she said. "Waverly, you hold things down here. Tell me information when I need it."

"Yes ma'am."

"And me?" Rickten said, a faint flicker of hope in his eyes.

Luelle actually smiled at him.

"Go find something to kill. I don't much care what."

Rickten let out a whoop and scrambled from the desk.

"This is going to be fuuuuun," he said in a singsong voice, hurrying out the door and into the facility. Luelle paused as she walked past Waverly at the door. Her eyes flicked to him.

"Still confused?" she asked.

His lips tightened, but he didn't respond.

"I don't blame you. You're coming in on the tail end of a plan that has been several million years in the making, and I didn't have all that much time for your debriefing. You must forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive, ma'am."

Luelle smiled, and began to sweep from the room. She stopped when Waverly cleared his throat.

"Ma'am...are you sure you're all right walking out there alone? This place isn't safe."

Luelle only smiled at him.

"Safe? You're quite right, Mr. Waverly, it's not safe—not safe from me, that is."

And she swept out of the door, closing it behind her. Leaving Waverly alone in the dark, computer lit room. Just to watch and wait.

Chapter Text

Judai hissed as he sliced at the creature again. It shrank back but only briefly, coming for him again with that horribly human babble and scream. Judai snarled at it, rolling out of the way and coming up with his back to the wall.

Already, his body was littered with horrible cuts. This thing had sharp claws, and long arms to boot! Keeping out of its range was near impossible. And if he waited too long on the outside of its reach, it started to turn towards the room with Yusei, Yuma, and Kirtida.

Like it was doing now—shit!

"Hey! I've seen your fuckface too; deal with me first!"

Judai launched himself forward onto the creature's back, latching his claws into its skin. It screeched and started to buck up and down. Judai managed to hang on for a good minute before his claws were ripped free—leaving gashes down the creature's back. It went for him again and he danced just out of reach. Maybe he could lure it down the hallway, away from Yuma and the others. If it was distracted with him, it wouldn't go after Yuma again until Judai was dead, right? That was probably how it worked—right?

"Come on, fight me!" he shouted. "Come and get me, you son of a bitch!"

He snarled again—that was more of Yubel talking, though. His eyes burned with her sight, and he hated looking at this thing with the Duel Spirit sight—it was so unnerving to see something without an aura. Did this piece of shit even have a soul? What was it?

It screamed again, sounding way too human, and its jaw opened wide as it lunged for Judai. Judai curled his hand into fist and punched. The blow, encased in Yubel's scales, smashed into the creature's head and sent it flying back a few feet. Judai distinctly felt bones crunch beneath his strike.

"Take that, you fucker!"

That should take it out, right? That should do it? It couldn't move with a head crunched in like that? Right?

Oh sweet gods it was getting back up.

The thing lurched to its feet with a stagger and a babbling cry. And then, with more speed than it should have, it lunged forward again. Judai swore, barely missing the sweep of its claws. He couldn't hold back his transformation anymore. Yubel's wings burst from his back and he could feel her scales encasing his legs, too, his teeth lengthening into fangs. He was too agitated, he couldn't keep the part of him that was Yubel under control anymore—but maybe he didn't want to.

He hissed, all words leaving him for a moment, and flung himself forward. His claws ripped into the creature's chest, right down to the ribs, and it shrieked. But its own long arms grabbed Judai by the shoulders and began to yank. Judai gasped. He slashed at the creature's forearms to make it let go before it ripped him in half, then hit the ground and rolled. He slammed his shoulder into the thing and forced it down the hallway, away from the room where the others were. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the door crack open, and Yusei peer through carefully. Judai met his gaze and nodded.

Get them out of here. Take care of them—I'll take care of this bitch.

Yusei seemed to get the message, nodding as he retreated back into the room. Judai growled and slashed at the creature's face, causing it to jerk back.

That's right, focus on me, don't look back there!

He didn't want Yusei and Kirtida to see the thing's face; it was bad enough that Yuma had already seen it!

He focused all of his energy into his next attack, trying to keep the thing's attention fully on him. It screeched as he latched his claws into every inch of its skin he could reach. It was enough—he could see over the thing's shoulder; Yusei had Yuma's arm in one hand and Kirtida's in the other, bolting down the hall. Good—he needed as much space between this thing and Yuma as possible. Yusei was dependable, he would take care of them.

Now all Judai had to worry about was taking this son of a bitch out.

He again went for the creature's eyes, although he wasn't even sure if it could see. It screeched as his claws slashed right into the fleshy orbs and blood spurted from it. The blood splattered across Judai's jacket and his head spun. He could feel Yubel's mind racing alongside his; her desire for battle, her need to fight, growing and swelling in the back of his head until that was all he could think about.

Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it

It swiped at him with its long arm and threw Judai back several feet. He skidded along the ground on his back, rolled over and landed on his feet. He darted forward again, ducking under a swing and getting his claws right under its ribs. Although it shrieked, that didn't seem to slow it down at all. It grabbed Judai by the shoulders and latched its huge jaw onto Judai's shoulder. Judai barely even felt it—the adrenaline rush was too high, the feeling of Yubel was too strong and he could only think about the fight, about killing it, about destroying it, about winning—

The shadows were swelling. He could see them at the corners of his eyes, crawling across the ground to slither up his legs and encase him, hardening, solidifying, reacting to his need to fight, his need to win—

Can't lose can't lose can't lost can't lose

Don't let them die again don't let them die again don't let them die again

Can't fail again can't fail again can't fail again

The shadows grew up his legs, creeping up his chest as he met the creature blow for blow. The shadows were weaving themselves over his arms again. He could see them hardening into cold black metal, encasing him in armor.

Armor.

His stomach lurched.

Manjoume dying Asuka sobbing Fubuki clutching his chest Tyranno screaming at him Shou staring at him with betrayed eyes Jim telling him that he had messed up O'Brien dying in front of him children screaming people fleeing fires burning—

The bloodlust left him in a rush, the parts of him that were Yubel receded beneath his skin with a snap, the shadows fell off of him like water rolling of his skin. The armor vanished, and he could think, couldn't breathe. No, no, no, he didn't want to become that again, he couldn't become that again, not even for this—

With his head in that haze he didn't have the presence of mind to stop the blow before it had crashed into him.

He was thrown with such force that he shattered the door that he was thrown into, flung deep into the dark room and crashing against a shelf. He threw his hands over his head as the shelf creaked and shattered and all the boxes rained down over him like an avalanche.

And then it was silent, just him laying there under the wreckage, his ears ringing and his breaths labored as he tried to figure out what had happened.

Panic attack. He had just had a panic attack. Seeing that armor forming over him again—he—he hadn't known he could do that. He didn't want to see that armor ever again. He didn't—didn't want to see it.

"Judai!" Yubel hissed. "Judai!"

Judai shifted, a box falling over his head. He groaned.

That thing was in the doorway, shuffling forward. Judai couldn't move—his legs were pinned under a heavy metal box and he groaned, wondering if it was broken.

"Judai, fuse more with me again, we can still fight!"

Judai tried. He really, really tried. But when he tried to let the scales roll over his skin again, all he could see was the shiny black metal on his arms and he felt his stomach roil with bile.

He couldn't move. Couldn't fight. His panic was ruling him and he didn't know what to do.

The thing came closer, closer, closer. In a minute it would be able to reach him, and it would tear him apart.

And then it would go for Yuma. And it would probably kill Yusei and Kirtida in the process.

There was a box open, just within his reach. Its contents were spilled over the floor. They looked like little missile silos made of cardboard, longer than his arm. ATOM BUSTER, they read in large letters across the side.

Judai's hand scrabbled for one of them. He didn't know what he was going to do with it, but it was something, and he needed something. He dragged it to him and fumbled with the packaging, revealing what appeared to be a toy rocket with a long fuse at the end.

The thing grabbed him by his free leg, yanking him out from under the wreckage and dangling him upside down in front of him. Its huge jaw opened. Judai fumbled with the toy rocket. He had enough strength for this, anyway—he lit the fuse with a spark of magic and pointed it with both hands at the creature's mouth.

The rocket exploded.

The roar ripped through him, a bright flash of light filling the room. He was dropped to the ground and crashed into a pile of boxes, head spinning, ears ringing. He couldn't see—he couldn't hear.

His vision came back first. There was a miniature mushroom cloud lifting up from the floor, all the way to the faraway ceiling of this warehouse room. The long armed thing lay at the far corner of the room, unmoving. Or no, wait, he could see its arms twitching. Hadn't he blown its whole head off? What did it take to kill this thing?

Judai scrabbled to his feet, bumping into a shelf as he did so. He couldn't hear a thing—he was just about deaf. Dammit. Hopefully that cleared off soon.

He stumbled through the door and into the hallway. But his legs wouldn't hold him. He stumbled to his knees, hands on the floor, shaking all over. He couldn't hear, his vision was blurred, and he felt like he was going to keel over and pass out at any second. He had to move. That thing was still in the room, still alive, he had to either find a way to kill it or get to Yusei and the others and warn them that it was coming again.

But he couldn't get up. The panic hadn't let go of him yet, and he couldn't hear...it was throwing him completely off balance!

He thought he saw a shape moving at the back of his eyes. It was that horrible fucking creature, coming to finish him off before it went for Yuma. He tried and failed to get to his feet.

He was failing again.

But then the thing moved fully into his vision and knelt down at his eye level.

She was a tall, pretty woman, her softly curved face pale, and a pair of glasses resting on her sharp nose. Silken lavender hair fell around her face, partially pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a lab coat, with a badge hanging from it.

Luelle Gunvaldsson. Level 4 Class B. Science Division, he read. Was there actually someone in this goddamn place that was still alive?

She put a steadying hand on his shoulder. She smiled faintly.

Are you all right? she mouthed slowly and clearly.

He faintly nodded his head. And then his ears popped and he groaned, clapping his hands over his ears.

"Can you hear me?" she asked. She had some kind of accent—something he couldn't place. It seemed to keep changing, ever so faintly. One moment, it seemed a bit Irish, and the next he could swear it was German, and then the next it sounded somehow vaguely Indian. He shook his head. His ears must still be screwed up.

"Y-yeah, I guess so," he coughed. "What happened?"

"You appear to have killed SCP-096," she said. "Remarkable job. More than one taskforce has been devoted to trying to determine how to terminate that creature."

"W-what? What's...what's SCP-096...?"

She blinked.

"Oh dear. It seems that you're a bit lost, aren't you?"

"M-might say that..."

She extended a hand to him, and Judai didn't have the presence of mind to refuse, letting her help him to his feet.

"I am Dr. Luelle Gunvaldsson," she said. "And you?"

"Yuki J-Judai."

She nodded.

"This whole facility is in a lockdown. You need to evacuate."

"I'd love to, if I knew where to go."

Luelle nodded down the hall.

"I can help you there. I've been looking for any stragglers...this is a disaster."

Judai grimaced.

"You can say that again..."

"Let's go. We have to get you out of here."

"N-no, wait, I have some friends, they ran up ahead...we have to get to them first."

Luelle considered him for a moment, her aqua green eyes narrowing slightly. Then she sighed.

"Well, I suppose I can't leave anyone behind," she said. "Which way did they go?"

Judai pointed down the hall.

"Let's make this quick, Mr. Yuki. We can't be down here much longer than we already have been. It's not safe."

Judai laughed hollowly.

"You can say that again..."

* * *

Waverly was not entirely sure how to comprehend what he had just seen.

He replayed the scene in his head. He had been watching the screens, as he had been ordered. He had seen the boy in the red jacket stumble out of a room after that explosion, and collapse to his knees. SCP 096 had stumbled out next, its head half gone but still moving, still reaching for the boy with both hands, ready to finally rip him to pieces.

And then...

Waverly shuddered.

Luelle walked down the hallway. She looked right into its face.

And she had just...smiled.

He didn't see what happened next, but the next thing he knew, SCP 096 was fleeing. Loping off down the hallway away from Luelle and the boy. As though it were terrified.

Waverly shuddered deeply again.

Who exactly was he working with, here?

Chapter Text

Yusei kicked down another door. Finally, success! He could see a computer screen glowing inside!

He poked his head through and peered all around before he hurried Yuma and Kirtida inside. The room was, thankfully, empty of anything dangerous that he could see, but he still kept flicking his eyes to the shadowy corners over and over, wondering what kind of miniature horrors could be hiding in here.

"Y-Yusei, what are we planning on doing?" Kirtida asked.

"I'm going to hack this computer and see if I can find a way out of here for us," Yusei said in English for her. "There has to be some kind of schematic of the place."

Right? he added silently. Yuma looked at him nervously, and Yusei remembered that the boy didn't speak English, so he repeated the sentence in Japanese. This could get very difficult very quickly if he had to keep switching languages.

He tickled the keys of the keyboard and got the screen saver to vanish. A prompt for a password appeared—great. He had been afraid of this. Well, this wouldn't be the first time he had hacked a secure facility.

"Do you...know how to do this?" Yuma asked.

"Probably," said Yusei. "I've done things similar. Don't worry—I'll get us out of here."

Yuma shivered slightly and his hand flickered up to his chest for a moment, as though to grip something hanging there. There was nothing, however, and his hand slowly dropped back to his side. He started to shift from foot to foot, wringing his hands, while Kirtida just kind of sank into a swivel chair and sat there, perfectly still and staring at nothing. She was probably in shock, but Yusei didn't have the time to try to help her out of it right now. First things first, they had to escape.

It took him a grand total of five minutes to break the password—who the hell had let this person set it at "passw0rd"?

Now that he was in, he started flicking through files. This was a research computer, he could see. The background image was of a circle with arrows pointing inward, the letters SCP underneath it. A logo? He had never heard of SCP—but considering the things that they had met in this facility, he wasn't surprised. Could it be a governmental facility of some kind? Well, that wasn't important, what was important was finding a map of this place.

Yusei sorted quickly through different files, all marked with different numbers. Some of those numbers seemed to be missing in between and a sinking feeling coursed through him. This computer wasn't necessarily connected to an entire network. It was a separate entity, probably to avoid mixing information that some people shouldn't have. If he had to guess, every computer in the building would be the same.

He grit his teeth. He wasn't about to give up. Maybe if he could reroute this path he could get the computer hooked up to a network?

He bit his lip as he tried a few more commands, trying to connect the computer to another computer in the building. He could see that the other computers existed, and they all had a network capability, but it seemed to be shut off—he needed an administrative password for that and that one wasn't "passw0rd." Fine then. He'd just have to go around it.

The room was filled only with the clacking sound of keys and the squeak of Yuma's shoes as he paced in small circles, his hands twitching every so often.

"Got it!" Yusei said.

Yuma jerked to a stop and Kirtida popped up.

"You found a map?" she said.

He shook his head, a little sheepishly.

"Not yet, sorry," he said to her. "But I managed to connect the computer to the network, if there's a schematic anywhere, it should be here—"

Words appeared on the screen. Yusei froze. He hadn't typed anything, had he? No, he didn't think so. But there were words there nonetheless, the cursor blinking on the screen below the line of text.

Who Accessed Terminal?

Yusei stared at the words for a long, long moment.

"Is something wrong?" Yuma asked, scurrying over to look over Yusei's shoulder. "What does it say?"

Yusei swallowed.

"'Who accessed terminal?'" he read out loud.

"Is someone contacting us?" Yuma asked, a tint of hope in his voice.

"I don't know..."

Yusei's fingers rested on the keyboard briefly. Then he started to type.

Who's asking?

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the previous line disappeared and letters started to appear as though they were typed on.

Designation 079. Request Designation.

Yusei hesitated. This didn't...sound human. And he didn't think he really liked the idea of what it could be.

Daniel, he typed in.

Request Full Designation.

Yusei grimaced.

Daniel Godwin, he typed in.

The computer buzzed softly.

No Daniel Godwin Listed In Server. Request Reason As To Access Of Terminal.

Yusei didn't like the sound of that. Maybe he should have thought harder about a name. Kirtida seemed to be interested, all of a sudden, as to what was going on, and tip-toed over. She peered over Yusei's other shoulder, frowning.

"Do you know what's going on?" Yusei asked. She had seemed to know a bit about this place already, and he could use some answers.

She shook her head.

"I've only been told about some of the more dangerous SCPs...my guards would sometimes tell me stories through the door to relieve their boredom. They always preferred details on my cell rather than something like 096..."

Yusei frowned. He didn't really know the whole story about Kirtida, but he didn't like the idea of her being locked up, for any reason. She was a person, wasn't she? He shook his head—a train of thought for another time.

"Should it just ignore it?"

"Maybe. It's probably best not to get heavily involved with anything here if we can help it..."

The screen beeped and the words appeared again, as though more insistently.

Request Reason As To Access Of Terminal.

Yusei bit his lip. He decided to try to find something out.

We're lost. We need a map.

The words vanished and there was a brief pause before whatever it was spoke again.

Invalid. Unauthorized Access Of Terminal. Request Designation.

Daniel Godwin, Yusei typed again.

Lie. Request Designation.

We just need to know how to leave.

The lights above them sparked and Yuma yelped. For a moment, nothing happened. And then,

Unauthorized Access. Shutting Down Terminal 839.

And the lights all went out, the computer screen shutting down with a spark. Yusei swore, jerking back and grabbing Yuma and Kirtida to him.

"Out, out, out," he said, shoving them towards the door.

They bolted for the door, Yusei ripping it open and glancing both ways before shoving them outside.

But then the hall lights went out too, plunging them into full darkness. Kiritida yelped and Yuma let out a choked cry. Yusei swore, shoving them down towards the left, the opposite direction from which they had come.

There was a crackle overhead and Yusei realized with a jolt that the intercom system was turning on.

"682...682...where are you?"

Kirtida clapped a hand over her mouth before she could scream.

"Oh my god," she said. "Is that the computer we were just talking to?"

"If it can access the network it can access the comms," Yusei swore. "What is it doing?"

He couldn't see her face in the dark but he could feel her shaking horribly in his grip.

"It's calling for 682," she said. "I—I know about that one at least—we have to find somewhere to hide—"

They had almost reached the other end of the hallway, where the lights were still on.

And something rose up in the shadowed, swinging its head around the corner. Yusei swore, yanking both Kirtida and Yuma back as he skidded to a stop. A long lizard's tongue flicked out between its horrible teeth, narrow eyes glinting in the faint backlight as they stared right at Yusei and the others.

A low chuckle grumbled from somewhere inside of it.

"Well...seems 079 hasn't forgotten our conversations..."

Yusei pulled Yuma and Kirtida slowly behind him. Could they make it back to that room with the computer and barricade themselves in? Would that hold? They might only be trapping themselves. But this thing was so close already, it could snap them up in a matter of seconds if it was as fast as he assumed it would be. Everything in this damn place was so damn fast!

The thing lumbered carefully around the corner. It was huge, so big that Yusei almost hoped that it wouldn't be able to fit around the corner, but even as he watched, he could see its skin somehow shrinking, slimming, streamlining. It was adapting right before his very eyes.

If he didn't do something right now, they were all dead.

He slipped his hand into his pocket, gripping the wrench with a shaking hand, trying to grip tighter so that he wouldn't shake.

"Both of you, go," he hissed, not taking his eyes off of the thing. He repeated it in English.

"Yusei, no," Kirtida whispered, gripping his arm. "You can't—"

"Go!"

And with that he launched himself forward with a cry, swinging the useless wrench like it was a baseball bat and managing to stab the creature right in the end.

Clearly, the creature hadn't been expecting him to attack and it was thrown off guard, jerking its head up. Yusei landed right across its nose, still gripping the wrench buried in its eye. It screeched, bucking its head up and down and back and forth, trying to get Yusei off.

"Go, go, go!" Yusei shouted with each buck, gripping on for dear life.

Kirtida was screaming and Yuma shouting—they weren't running, they weren't getting away, they weren't going—

The creature tilted its head and slammed Yusei against the wall. He gasped, releasing the wrench in its eye and his grip on the creature. He hit the ground—all the wind knocked from his lungs, paralyzed on the floor.

A huge claw shot for his stomach and he couldn't move—

Yuma flung himself forward.

"KATTOBING!" he screamed, giving the creature a flying kick in the face.

Either Yusei was more dizzy than he thought or Yuma had quite a kick, because that blow sent the creature back a good few feet with its claws screeching on the floor. The claw that it had been attacking Yusei with missed, grazing instead over his chest and elbow. He almost screamed at the fiery pain and the feeling of warm blood already spurting out and staining his clothes.

Kirtida shot forward next, and Yusei could have sworn he saw fire licking up over her arms and an ember like glow in her eyes. The lizard creature roared as suddenly smoke began to rise from its skin and fire exploded from under its skin.

Then Yuma collapsed down next to Yusei, obscuring his view of what was going on. He grabbed Yusei's arm and dragged it over his shoulder, stumbling under his weight as he tried to pull Yusei at least to a kneeling position. Yusei's head still spun and his back protested with his movement. He might have cracked something when he had been slammed against the wall...and his shoulder screamed in pain from where it had been slashed by that horrible claw.

"Yusei, come on, we have to go!" Yuma said. "I don't know if she can keep him off of us for long—"

Kirtida screamed and both boys' heads jerked up. Kirtida was stumbling back from the lizard as it advanced on her, eyes blazing with fury and smoke still raising up from horribly charred blocks of skin.

"I didn't consume you—why didn't I consume you?" Kirtida mumbled.

"I'll kill you first," the creature hissed.

"Kirtida-san!" Yusei shouted.

It flashed forward. Yuma dropped Yusei's arm and tried to fling himself forward but he wasn't fast enough.

"KIRTIDA!"

Yusei couldn't move, could only sit there helplessly. It was going to kill all of them, one at a time, and he couldn't do anything—

His arm burned. He gasped, grabbing at it as though to still the pain. Was the dragon stirring again? What was it asking of him?

Nothing, it turned out. It was merely reacting.

The lizard creature stumbled back, head low, hissing warily. There was a new figure standing in the hallway, hands up in a casual fighting position.

"Hello, 682," the man said.

He was about Yusei's height, maybe a little taller, with deeply tanned skin and dark hair that flipped over one ear. His eyes were a deep, deep brown, almost black—and Yusei might be imagining it, but were his arms made of metal? Against the front light from the hallway, Yusei could see a strange symbol carved onto its forehead.

"You three," the man said, and Yusei realized he was speaking to them, in perfect English. "Behind me. Start moving down the hallway."

His tone left no room for argument, and Yusei tried to oblige. His whole body protested and he clapped a hand to the gash on his shoulder with a groan. The creature swung its head towards him, eyes narrowing. Yusei thought for a moment that it would strike—but the new man flashed forward instead, driving a fist into the creature's nose. It yelped and skittered backwards, eyes narrowing and tongue flicking out angrily.

"I could kill you," it hissed.

"Go ahead. Try," the man said. "I think we both know it will only be a very, very long and tiring fight that neither of us want to deal with."

The tongue flicked out again, angrily.

"This doesn't mean you win," 682 said, slipping backwards into the hallway.

"Wouldn't think it did."

682's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"They're not the only ones in this place I can kill," it said. And then it retreated around the corner backwards.

The man didn't move until the sounds of claws subsided. Then he dropped his hands to his sides and turned towards Yusei.

"All right there?" he said, his face expressionless.

"I...I think so...ugh..."

Yuma dropped down next to Yusei to check his wound.

"Um, he's bleeding really badly," Yuma said. "Can—can you help?"

The man just nodded, striding over to pull Yusei's good arm over his shoulder.

"There's a med bay just down the hall. Come along."

Yusei swallowed, still clutching as his wound. Kirtida and Yuma scurried after them. Kirtida was looking at the man with uncertainty, eyes drawn as though she had seen him before and couldn't remember where.

"Kirtida," the man said, nodding to her. "I see you finally had the guts to leave your little room."

She jerked, staring at him.

"Oh," she whispered. "I do know you."

Yuma just stared back and forth, clearly lost without knowing the language.

"You do," said the man. "But for you two...my name is Cain. Or SCP 073. Whichever you prefer."

He glanced at Yuma and then repeated the sentence in perfect, accent-less Japanese. Yuma blinked, and nodded slowly.

"I'll get your names later. When you're not going to die," Cain said. "Let's go before something worse shows up. Or 682 decides that it should come back and try its luck again."

"R-right," said Yusei.

They stumbled down the hallway back the direction they had come, and Yusei thought, for a moment, about Judai.

I hope he's all right...

Chapter Text

Yuma paced back and forth at the door, jumping at small sounds in the hallway. He felt utterly useless. He had drawn that crazy long armed creature on Judai and Yusei and Kirtida, he hadn't been able to do anything against that lizard thing, and now all he could do was pace back and forth while Cain patched up Yusei. The little orange blob, which he had taken to mentally calling Peanut, was still somehow attached to his shoulder. He didn't know where it had gone during that fight with the lizard—maybe he just hadn't been paying attention—but here it was again, gurgling happily near his ear. It still sent little waves of happiness through him every so often, but the affect seemed dimmed somehow.

Yusei sat on the edge of a chair, his jacket tossed across a chair and his shirt removed so that Cain could clean off the blood from his shoulder and chest and start sewing it up. For his part, Yusei didn't even flinch despite the fact that there was nothing to numb the pain, his blue eyes staring off into the distance while Cain silently worked on fixing him up. Kirtida looked like she might faint, wringing her hands in her lap as she sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room.

Yuma found himself clenching and unclenching his fists. He was angry. He was angry about being here, he was angry about Yusei getting hurt, he was angry about having to leave Judai behind, he was angry, he was angry, he was angry—

Cain's eyes flickered up towards Yuma.

"Please calm down," he said in that distant, almost robotic voice of his.

Yuma blinked with surprise and the building rage seemed to subside. How had he known Yuma was getting angry...? At his shoulder, the orange blob gurgled again and nuzzled his face with one of its little gooey limbs like peanut butter. He sighed, kind of wishing it would get off his shoulder. Cute as it was, he really wasn't in the mood for this.

"Stop that, Peanut," he muttered, as he pushed the little limb away from his face.

Peanut just gurgled.

Cain didn't offer any explanations and returned to taking care of Yusei, finishing his work with a snap of the thread.

"Just try not to move it too much," he said, straightening. "Although...since you'll probably have to be running a bit more today, I suppose telling you that is useless."

"I'll be careful," Yusei said, reaching for his shirt and sliding it and his jacket back on. "Thank you."

Cain didn't respond to that, glancing over towards Kirtida and Yuma.

"Either of you hurt?" he asked in Japanese, and then repeated it in English for Kirtida.

Both of them shook their heads. Cain nodded. He packed up the small first aid kit and then slipped it into a large shoulder bag, which he slung over his shoulder.

"Now then," he said. "Perhaps you kids can explain to me what you're doing here."

Yuma and Yusei exchanged a glance. It was Yusei who answered.

"We don't know," he said. "Both of us—and Judai, too—we just woke up here."

Cain blinked at them.

"Interesting," he said. "What are your names again?"

"Fudo Yusei," said Yusei.

"And I'm Tsukumo Yuma."

"Japanese?"

Yusei nodded.

"I'm from Neo-Domino."

"I'm from Heartland!"

Cain blinked again. Yusei met his eyes.

"Let me guess—you've never heard of either of those."

"Correct."

"What year is it?"

Cain considered him for a long moment.

"1996," he said finally.

Yuma felt like he had been punched in the gut.

"W-What?" said Yuma. "No it's not!"

As though in reaction to his distress, Peanut butted into his ear. Cain stared at the thing for a moment, and then lifted his eyes to Yuma.

"What year is it then?" he said.

"It's 2139," said Yuma defensively. "Waaaay later than 1996!"

Yusei grimaced.

"And the last time I saw a calendar, it was 2045," he said. "Judai thinks its 2011. Something has happened to us and I don't know what."

Cain pressed his lips together, looking between them.

"There are a number of things that could have happened," he said. "You could have come into contact with a memetic that convinced you what year it was—most likely, however, you're both too young to have been allowed in the facility, and we're too far away from any place where children can sneak in. You could be related to Dr. Wondertainment—I don't have information on all of his toys. You could have actually fallen through time—somewhat most unlikely, as I know of no SCPs that can truly accomplish that."

"Who's Dr. Wondertainment?" Yuma asked.

Cain didn't answer, his eyes glancing up towards the ceiling in thought as he leaned back against the med table.

"But one way or another," he said. "There is definitely something about you that makes me wonder."

His eyes fell towards Yusei with curiosity.

"I haven't ruined anything plant related since I wandered into you," he said. "And you appear to be healing at a very remarkable speed. Not to mention that strange mark of yours that's starting to make me feel dizzy."

"What?" said Yusei, his eyes flickering down to his arm.

"And you," Cain said, glancing at Yuma, "have shown yourself able to completely resist 999's euphoria inducement when it suits you, as well as affecting the pressure in the room when you get upset."

"I—what? What's 999?"

Cain nodded at Peanut, who rose up on its limbs as though it were staring at Cain. Cain hummed to himself, a tuneless sound.

"I might assume that you're SCPs yourself that I haven't been able to back up yet. But you have no knowledge of this facility or anyone in it—if you are SCPs, you should have been interviewed by now."

Yusei and Yuma exchanged a bewildered glance. Finally, Yusei turned his eyes back to Cain.

"What is this place?" he asked.

Cain didn't speak for a moment. When he opened his mouth, it sounded like he was reciting something from memory.

"'While the rest of mankind dwells in the light, we must stand in the darkness to fight it, contain it, and shield it from the eyes of the public, so that others may live in a sane and normal world. We secure. We contain. We protect.'"

His eyes dropped back down to meet Yusei's.

"Or, colloquially speaking, this is where humanity hides the weird shit."

For a brief moment, silence fell over the room. Kirtida just sat there, kicking her feet back and forth since she was short enough that they didn't reach the floor in the tall chairs. Her eyes flickered back and forth but it was clear that she didn't know what was going on; they were all speaking Japanese after all.

"And what role do you play in all of this?" Yusei asked.

Cain shrugged.

"I'm one of the SCPs. One of the 'contained items.' Designated number 073. But since I don't plan on killing anyone, I get to just hang out. I memorize things for them. I'm a living flash drive of backups for this place, if you will."

"Does that mean you know how to get out?"

Cain nodded.

"After the breach, I came through to look for survivors. Not many. Most evacuated as soon as we heard 682 was out. Almost all the mobile forces are dead. Couldn't get to them in time. If I had to hazard a guess, you two plus your friend you keep mentioning are the only ones left in the building."

He glanced at the pair of them again.

"Speaking of which...why isn't that friend of yours, Judai, with you right now?"

Yuma felt a wave of guilt wash over him and he dropped his eyes to the floor, hands shaking.

"He...he stayed behind to give us time," Yusei said. "He said he would meet up with us again but..."

"Time? Against what?"

"This—this big, long armed thing with a huge mouth," Yuma said.

Cain's eyes snapped to him. His eyes went steely as he stared Yuma down and Yuma felt like the whole world had just turned to ice.

"How do you know about its mouth? Unless you've seen its face?"

"W-Well...yeah..."

Cain's jaw visibly clenched. He moved somewhat forward, as though he were going to push Yuma or something. Yuma scurried back. Peanut gurgled at his shoulder—it sounded upset all of a sudden, a strange difference from its normal happy sounds.

"Both he and you are as good as dead then. And you'll draw it on us."

Yuma felt his whole body just about give out. He almost collapsed.

"C-can't we stop it?"

"Nothing can stop 096 when it's been enraged," said Cain, his voice cold. "I can't take you out of the facility if that thing is on the loose and looking for you. It won't stop until it kills you."

"Hang on a minute," Yusei said, shooting up to his feet. "You're not saying we leave him here?!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Give up on your friend, Judai, too."

Yuma couldn't breathe. It was a wonder he was still standing up.

"I—I..."

"I can lead you and Kirtida to the main control room. We'll open up Gate A and evacuate you," said Cain, acting as though Yuma wasn't even there anymore. "We'll have to move quickly. I have a feeling eventually the evacuated members will nuke this place to prevent anything from escaping into the world."

They're going to leave me, Yuma thought. They...they probably should leave me, if that's true.

And then,

Oh god. I killed Judai by sending him against that thing.

Tears prickled at his eyes and he shook so badly that he started to collapse as Cain walked past him towards the door like he wasn't even there.

Yusei caught Yuma in his arms, gripping him tightly against him. Yuma stiffened for a moment.

"Y-Yusei..."

"No," said Yusei. His voice came out in a his, through a clenched jaw and gritted teeth.

Cain turned slightly, looking over his shoulder.

"We don't have a whole lot of time for arguments."

"I said no. We're not leaving him."

"He'll only bring us death. If you want to survive, you'll lose the dead weight."

"Yuma-kun is not dead weight, you son of a bitch. I'm not giving up on him. And I'm not giving up on Judai."

Cain just stared them both down. Yuma trembled in Yusei's grip for a moment. He tried to push at Yusei's chest, blinking his tears away.

"Go," he mumbled. "Get out of here, please. I don't want—I don't want to make you die too."

"No," said Yusei. "No, Yuma-kun. No way in hell. I'm not leaving you behind in this goddamn piece of shit hellhole."

Yusei glared at Cain. Yuma could actually feel his fury coursing through him, feel the heat rippling through his body and see the red dragon head mark glow through his shirt sleeve.

"So you can go ahead and leave if you want to, but I'm not leaving him behind, do you understand me?"

Cain's jaw clenched.

"I cannot escort you out if he's seen 096. 096 always knows where the person that saw its face is. Always. It doesn't matter how far he goes, it will find him, and it will see other people and leave a trail of carnage in its wake."

"I'll find a way to deal with it."

"No, you won't. More than one task force has already tried to kill it. It's honestly a wonder the boy is still alive at all at this point."

Yuma's head buzzed and spun. He couldn't breathe.

Astral, he thought desperately. Astral, why aren't you here with me now?

He longed for the feel of his Duel Disk on his arm, that comforting weight that would tell him that there were possibilities to be found, that he could fight and win if he just kattobinged as hard as he could.

This creature wouldn't care about his kattobing. He had nothing. Nothing to protect himself.

His throat constricted and his heart pounded hard enough to rattle his head. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe.

"You have to go," he mumbled at Yusei. "It's—it's okay. It's my own fault. It's okay."

"It's not fucking okay," Yusei said. "I am not leaving you to die."

"Do you want to die yourself?" Cain snapped. "Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of others? I cannot let you out of this facility if you're going to insist on taking him out with you. I can't let 096 out."

"You don't have to," Yusei said. "I'll find a way to kill it first!"

"You won't—you'll just die too."

"You don't know that. Judai might have already destroyed it."

"Your friend is probably dead, and if you don't give up on this and leave him behind, you'll be dead too."

"Fine," Yusei said. "Better to die protecting my friends than live knowing that I didn't even try to save them."

Cain's eyes almost glowed with his fury. It was a strange expression on his face; he had seemed so calm and distant before.

"You're a goddamn fool," he said.

"If that's what protecting my friends means, then that's fine. I'm a fool."

Yuma was starting to get more and more dizzy. Peanut butted against him with a frantic sort of fury, cooing and gurgling as though trying to snap Yuma out of it. His head was spinning—or was the room spinning? They were still arguing, shouting over his head at each other with increasing volume and fury.

If they don't leave soon, it will come and it will kill them and it will be my fault; Yusei has to go, Yusei has to go, Yusei has to go—

"I will not abandon him!" Yusei said, his voice rising to almost a scream.

"Then go ahead and die!"

Yusei will die.

Something in Yuma went dead and silent, just like that moment when he almost died against 096. The world went still, quiet, he couldn't hear them shouting even though he could see their mouths moving, couldn't feel anything even though Yusei's arms were still wrapped protectively around him and Peanut was still butting at his head.

The world was glowing, he realized. He could see it. Little spheres of light, glowing in the chests of the people around him. Kirtida's was red. Cain's was purple. Yusei's was a brilliant gold, hazed over with a glow of crimson—but that didn't belong to him. That was from something else. Yuma didn't know how he knew that but he did.

"Stop," he mumbled, but he couldn't even hear his own voice. "Please, stop fighting...please, I just—"

He didn't want anyone to get hurt because of him. He didn't—he didn't want anyone to get hurt. He just wanted to be able to go home, be safe, make sure that everyone else was home and safe. Cain's face contorted as he shouted but Yuma couldn't hear the words. Yusei held him tighter but Yuma couldn't feel the pressure.

"Stop," he said again, but he didn't know if he was asking Cain to stop shouting, Yusei to stop trying to protect him, Kirtida to stop flapping her hands nervously while she watched an argument she couldn't understand, or 096 to stop chasing him. "STOP!"

The world snapped back into focus. Yuma felt the energy rip from him, felt it pulse outwards like a sonic boom, but there was no sound to it, no color, nothing except the sudden rush of energy leaving his limbs that caused him to slump in Yusei's arms, Yusei dropping to his knees to support Yuma better. The pulse seemed to make Cain take a step back, his eyes widening.

"How did you—"

And then his eyes snapped down. Yuma felt weak, so weak, but...

He strained to see what Cain was looking at. Peanut sat on the ground, rising up into a tall orange pillar. It let out a deep, vibrating hum, and it seemed to start glowing from the inside, images flashing across it like it was some kind of gel television. Yuma recognized those images—Heartland? And then it spat something out onto the floor with a metallic clatter, and dropped back down into its miniature blob form. It made a tiny burping sound.

Yuma knew exactly what that was, and the sight sent a rush of strength into his limbs. He scrambled out of Yusei's arm and bolted to the small item, gathering it up in his hands.

"Oh thank god," he said, clutching it to his chest. "Thank god."

And then, the most glorious, glorious sight.

Astral appeared in a rush of sparkles as he gripped the Emperor's Key to his chest.

"Yuma," Astral said, zir voice filling with so much relief that the spirit looked like ze might tumble over. "Oh, thank god, Yuma—I—I didn't know where you went and—oh, Yuma."

Yuma flung his arms around Astral and found, to his delight, that he did not phase through. Astral's arms tightened around him as ze kept mumbling over and over "thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness."

Tears rolled down Yuma's face, happy, relieved, releasing tears.

When he finally broke away from Astral, he found Cain staring at him, eyes wide and lips parted.

"What," he said, "are you?"

But he wasn't looking at Astral, as Yuma might expect.

He was looking right at Yuma, meeting his eyes with almost an awe.

On Yuma's shoulder, Peanut gave off a satisfied burp.

Chapter Text

Yuya smacked the security badge against another card reader and the light flashed red again. He tried to hide his frustrated cry.

Yugi was right behind him, running backwards to keep his eyes on the statue.

"The one in the wall is gone again, watch your head," he said. "And the statue is at the end of the hall."

Yuya could only nod as he bolted for the next door. He tried the card again—red. Was nothing in this place working?

"Y-Yugi-san, the bands are green again," he said, looking at the walls.

Yugi swore.

"We can't turn around—just keep moving and look for blue bands! We'll find a security door that opens eventually!"

Yuya nodded, his throat on fire. He could barely breathe and he knew he was going to have to collapse sooner rather than later.

Yugi swore again, and Yuya only had a moment's notice of a heel catching on the floor behind him before Yugi tumbled backwards into him and they both went down with a cry. Terror exploded in Yuya's chest as he imagined that rotting thing swooping from the ceiling or the statue darting forward now that their eyes were distracted, he could see the shadow suddenly looming over them but—

"Yuya, up, up, up!"

Yuya blinked his eyes clear—his vision had gone out for a moment with the explosion of fear. Yugi was tugging at his shoulder, picking him up off the ground. Yuya's chest fluttered desperately for breath. He looked around wildly for the rotting thing that came out of walls or the statue looming over them—oh, god, it was right in front of them, it had been right above them, how had it not killed them?

"Yuya! Yuya, breathe. You're all right. Just breathe."

Yuya kept his eyes fixed on the creature, shaking so hard that he could hardly breathe.

"You don't have to look—Yuya, look, see? Chirp and Babble found us."

"W-who?" Yuya mumbled.

His eyes flickered downwards, despite how his heart jumped at breaking eye contact with it.

"What...are those?" he said.

They were small, no more than maybe a foot and a half? Teardrop shaped, one was a mustard sort of yellow and the other a dullish orange. Both had giant blue eyes, like a cyclops, eerily human as they stared right at the thing.

"I don't know...met them earlier. Yugi—I mean, I call them Chirp and Babble. They seem to be friendly...I lost them after that other thing dragged me into that dimension."

The little eye pods didn't move or make a sound, eyes fixed on the statue. Yuya stared at them, lips parted with surprise.

"Do they...blink?" Yuya asked.

"I don't think so," Yugi said. "I think they're trying to keep it from coming after us..."

Yuya had a moment to catch his breath now that the statue wasn't an immediate threat. He looked down at the silent sentinels that stared resolutely at the statue, having put themselves in between the statue and the boys. They looked...so protective. Yuya actually found himself flickering to a smile.

"They're cute," he mumbled.

Yugi grimaced at him.

"You too?" he said, almost under his breath.

But Yuya didn't have the time to ask him what he meant by that because he saw something shift over his head and it was all he could do to shove Yugi against the wall before the thing dropped on top of him. He screamed as he was shoved face first into the ground and then the wind was knocked out of him. For a beat he could just lie there, stunned. The thing was too heavy, much too heavy, and he couldn't push himself up!

He almost screamed as he felt the hands latch onto his leg and he knew it was going to be snapped in half again. He was going to be dragged away again and could he use the ring to get out if he didn't have Yugi or would it kill him?

The ring, he thought suddenly, and then, please attack this thing somehow!

The ring grew hot on his finger, flaring with blue light for a moment. He felt light-headed, dizzy, and then a heat blossomed on his chest as his pendulum started to glow with the same blue light. Energy rushed out of him like an exhale and he felt weight fly off of him.

He rolled over onto his back to see Yugi scrambling to his feet, hands pressed against the wall. The rotting creature lay a few feet away, flipping itself back onto its hands and feet, gaping at Yuya with its rotting face.

I want it to go away I want it to go away I want it to go away

The ring tried, he thought. He could feel it burning against his skin, feel waves of energy pulsing through him without slowing and feeding into the ring, coming out of him all at once like a tsunami but he didn't even feel tired now, the energy just wouldn't stop, it was all through his entire soul and it didn't have an end—

The ring shattered.

Yuya gasped as he felt the energy retreat back into him, nothing left for it to channel through. He staggered. Yugi's arms snapped underneath his and held him up.

"Yuya! Yuya, are you okay?"

"Ring," Yuya mumbled. "Ring's gone."

He could feel tiny shards of the glass in his finger and wondered if that was going to be a problem. His brain wasn't functioning. He was dizzy, thrown off balance, the energy roiling in his chest with nowhere to go. Yugi struggled to hold him upright despite the fact that Yuya was taller than him.

"Yuya, come on, we have to go!"

The yellow eyepod—Chirp?—was panicking, rolling around and around their feet and letting out chirping, babbling sounds.

Oh, Yuya thought dizzily. That's where they get their names.

Yugi was starting to back up slowly, moving around the statue that was still held immobile by Babble's stare and half leading, half dragging Yuya down the hall.

"Yuya, you need to walk. You have to be able to walk."

Yuya tried, he really did, but he couldn't get his feet under him. He just—he couldn't see a way out of this. There was no way out of this. They were trapped on all sides by one unstoppable monster or another. This place was a maze and even a security badge couldn't get them anywhere. He couldn't see any options—his one weapon was gone, and he couldn't even use it to heal them again if they got hurt. They were trapped, lost, and left to die in this hell by some unknown force, and he might never, ever see home or his friends or his family ever again.

He was approaching hysteria, he could feel the panic setting in, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. If only he had some kind of weapon! His Duel Disk! In this environment, there was nothing—no new possibilities. The floor was empty and the doors were locked. If this was an Action Field, even a situation like this could be turned around—but there was no counterpart to an Action Card here. He was out of tools, and he was out of ideas.

They were losing and he didn't know how to win.

Yugi was shouting at him again, but Yuya found that he was having trouble hearing. The panic was overtaking him. He couldn't breathe. He could barely see. It was only a matter of time before his legs completely went out and even Yugi wouldn't be able to support him anymore.

He could see, just barely through his darkening vision, the eyepods rolling backwards alongside them, eyes on the statue, and then the other thing, the rotting man, crawling around the statue and creeping after them.

It was picking up speed, Yugi was swearing, it was launching itself through the air at them—

Something snapped forward and struck it right in the face, sending it flying against a wall.

"Over here, over here!" shouted a voice.

Yugi complied immediately, dragging Yuya towards a door that was suddenly open, a woman standing at the side. Yugi half dragged Yuya into the room and leaned him against the wall.

"That's not going to stop it," he said, as another figure darted into the room and slammed the door. "It can move through walls!"

"It can what? Goddammit, what the hell is wrong with this fucking place!"

Yuya pressed into the wall, trying to feel the cold through his shirt and bring himself back to himself. But then he thought about the thing that could come through the walls and he jerked off of it, heart rate increasing and throat closing up.

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

The voice was unfamiliar, and Yuya squinted through his fading vision to try and see him. The boy knelt in front of him, shaggy brown hair falling over brown eyes. He looked...Japanese, Yuya thought, and he was speaking Japanese so that must be it. He held his hands up in a reassuring fashion.

"Breathe, in and out, okay? This is just a panic attack. You'll be okay."

Yuya tried, he really did. The boy gently put his hands on top of Yuya's, tentative, as though ready to jump back if Yuya flinched. Yuya didn't—the contact felt somehow reassuring.

"Just breathe. It's okay. That thing is not going to hurt you."

Yuya closed his eyes and tried to draw in thin, choked breaths.

"Who are you two?" Yugi asked.

The boy didn't drop his eyes from Yuya.

"My name is Yuki Judai," he said.

"Dr. Luelle Gunvaldsson," the woman said from the corner.

"Doctor?" Yugi said. "Do you work here?"

"Formerly," the woman said.

Judai still hadn't let go of Yuya's hands, keeping his eyes on his.

"Are you breathing?" Judai said.

Yuya nodded.

"Can you talk to me, maybe? What's your name? Where are you from?"

Yuya swallowed.

"Y-Yuya," he said. "Sakaki Yuya...Maiami City..."

"Yuya," Judai said, smiling. "Good to meet you. Are you still focusing on your breaths?"

Yuya nodded.

"Where is that thing?" he mumbled.

"Don't worry about it—I won't let it come near."

Yuya felt tears prick at his eyes—useless. He was so useless.

"I just—I couldn't fight it. I didn't have anything to use—"

"Sh, it's fine, please just focus on calming down for now. We can figure this out, as a team, okay?"

Yuya tried to nod, but he was shaking too badly. He opted for just closing his eyes and trying to breathe.

There was a pounding, scratching sound on the door.

"That'll be the statue," Yugi said through gritted teeth. "Gunvaldsson-sensei, what do you know about how to defend ourselves?"

"The rotting creature that's chasing you is called SCP-106," she said. "Unfortunately, recontaining it as we are now it nearly impossible. The statue is SCP-173. I assume you already understand how it works."

"How do we destroy them?"

"Destroy them? I don't believe the Foundation has considered any such methods...if they have, I haven't been informed of them. I don't have clearance on everything."

Judai swore.

"Okay, well...what do we have that we can use?"

Yuya heard Yugi swearing too, and the sound of someone ruffling through cabinets, throwing things open, glass shattering when something was knocked aside too quickly.

"Nothing, this room is empty, except for this stack of paper on the desk, some pencils, and a clipboard!"

Yuya felt the panic seize him again.

No, I can't do that, I have to focus!

Breathe in, breathe out. Think, he had to think. Didn't he pride himself on being able to use the environment to his advantage? Wasn't that his hallmark? Of course, the situation was different, and there were no action cards, but there had to be something, anything that he could do!

He got his breath under control and opened his eyes.

"I'm—I'm okay, thank you," he said, stumbling over his words.

Judai nodded, but he was looking a little pale now too and it made Yuya's heart jump. No, no, no, no more panicking, focus!

The stress and terror faded to a low hum at the back of his head as he scrabbled to his feet, just a buzz that if he acknowledged it, it would overtake him again.

The pounding and scratching on the door wouldn't stop. Yuya gulped down a few more breaths. His eyes flickered around the room but he didn't see anything more than what Yugi had described. Luelle, however, was inspecting the paper with some curiosity. Now that Yuya looked at her...there was something...strange.

She didn't look particularly worried, he thought. There was a certain calmness to the way that she turned the paper over in her hands, as though oblivious to the sounds at the door, where Yugi had pushed his shoulder against the jamb to prevent it from being forced open, not even looking at how Judai paced with his fingers splayed like claws, looking like he was ready to rip something to pieces. She just looked—like this was something that happened every day. Interested, but detached. Maybe she was just, he didn't know, panicking really hard and that was how she hid it?

A strange feeling niggled at the back of his head, though—did he have time to think about it?

"Ah," Luelle said suddenly, causing everyone to jump and look at her. "This is Dr. Wondertainment's Super Paper. They must have been running tests."

"It's—what?" said Yugi.

"Super Paper. I believe some of the previous tests involved folding origami cranes, and it came to life, such things as that."

"Well we don't really have time for origami," Judai said, almost growling. "We need a plan!"

But something in Yuya's mind clicked.

Paper that could be folded into something real, something usable. Blank sheets of usable paper.

Possibilities.

Yuya darted forward and practically snatched the paper out of Luelle's hand.

"Yuya?" Yugi said, eyes widening.

Yuya didn't respond, slapping the paper down on the table and starting to fold with a frantic frenzy. Did he still remember how to make these? He really, really hoped he still remembered how to make these. His dad had taught him how to fold origami shapes once, telling him that it would be good for him, good for his dexterity, and being able to see the bigger picture from all of the pieces. It's good for mindfulness, too, he had always commented. Yuya found that was true—he was entering almost something of a trance as he folded the paper into its shape. He flung the first finished piece at Judai, who caught it with surprise. Yuya grabbed another piece and started folding again.

"Yuya, what is this?" Judai said, staring at it.

"Origami gun," he said. "If this paper is what you say it is, and it can make live cranes and be folded into things, then why not weapons?"

Judai's eyes widened.

"Yuya, you're a genius," he said.

He tossed the paper gun to Yugi, who grabbed it easily and then held it up with his back to the door, face hard and ready. The door was creaking against the strain of the statue on the other side. Chirp and Babble were panicking, running in circles and making incoherent noises. Yuya tuned them out, folding two more paper guns and then starting on a series of paper shuriken.

He gasped as he finished one shuriken and the star shape cut across his finger—it was sharp. Like it was real.

Judai shouted out then and Yuya dropped his collection of shuriken.

"Up above!"

He whipped his gun up towards the ceiling where that rotting face was slipping out through the ceiling and fired.

The gun exploded at the tip with a flash of blinding golden light. Yuya cried out, throwing his hands over his eyes and there was a stumbling, crashing, the door flung open and both eyepods squeaked on their wheels to whip around and face the statue in the doorway and the room was suddenly burning and hot.

Yuya's vision cleared slowly; he blinked a few times.

The thing—106, Luelle had called it—was on the ground, writing, half of its face seemingly blown off.

Judai was staring at the paper gun. His eyes lifted up to meet Yuya's, so wide that they seemed like dots of brown in pools of white.

"That," he said, "was probably the best idea anyone has ever made."

Yuya wasn't sure if he meant the paper or the gun but either way Yuya was inclined to agree. He hadn't known that it was going to pack that much of a punch!

Yuya took advantage of their brief respite and quickly folded up an origami deck box to shove the paper shuriken into. He slid the box onto his belt and then grabbed his paper gun and a few more sheets of the paper.

"Going now?" he said.

"Good plan," said Yugi, hefting his own paper gun and firing at the statue that blocked the doorway.

They were prepared for the golden flash this time, and everyone quickly closed their eyes before hand. The blast was much less destructive than Judai's, more of a force that pushed the statue back across the hallway, otherwise untouched. The trio barreled out of the room. Luelle strode after them, and Chirp and Babble squeaked as they darted through the door, eyes fixed on 173.

"Where to?" Yugi said, glancing at Judai and Luelle.

"Left," Judai said quickly. "There are others in here, we have to regroup before we can find our way out."

Yugi nodded and took off, the others in his wake.

Yuya held his origami gun in one hand and put his other on the box of shuriken, ready for whatever came next.

And it was then that he thought again, about Luelle.

His eyes slid over to her, moving along beside them with a relaxed air, as though she were in no hurry. She hadn't reacted to the gun, or in fact, to Yuya's idea at all. She had merely picked up the paper, dropped a hint about what it did and then...waited.

A terrible feeling poked at Yuya's head.

She's a scientist. At this godforsaken place.

What if this is all one big test?

Chapter Text

He felt one million times better with a weapon in his hand. Yami no Yugi made a mental note to thank Yuya much, much more intensely when they weren't running. He had a feeling that despite the effectiveness of that blast on 106, it would probably still be after them.

They made their way down the hallway, slowly. Chirp and Babble were at his feet, Chirp in front as though scouting ahead, and Babble behind, eye fixed on 173. The statue was still following them, but with Babble's gaze, it could only appear to the end of each hallway when they turned the corner. It was basically neutralized, Yami no Yugi though. He sent a small smile down at the little eyepods; he hadn't really expected to become fond of them, but...well, they were growing on him.

See, Yugi said. I knew you'd like them.

Yami no Yugi just rolled his eyes at his partner as he peeked around the next corner, gun at the ready.

"We have no idea where they could be," he said, glancing back at the rest of the group. "Where did you leave them?"

Judai grimaced.

"I've gotten so turned around, I have no idea," he said. "There are so many goddamn hallways, and they all look the same!"

"Yugi-san figured out about the colors," Yuya piped up. "We're in a science testing hallway right now, right?"

Yugi glanced at the walls and noted the green stripe.

"Yeah," he said. "That's how it works, right?"

He glanced at Luelle for confirmation. The woman smiled—it was barely a twitch of her lips, really—and simply nodded.

Yami no Yugi frowned to himself and returned his attention to where he was walking, eyes on the walls and ceilings for signs of 106. Chirp and Babble would probably react before it appeared, but he wanted to be ready well ahead of time.

There was something...something about Luelle that felt off. A rising of the hairs on his arms when he glanced at her. Something about her eyes, how they almost looked...too pure a green, or somehow strange, like her pupils were too small or a little too narrow. Maybe it was because she was someone who worked in this ridiculous place, but there was definitely an aura to her that just made him uneasy. As though he were walking alongside a crocodile, or a lion, something that could easily turn on him and rip him to shreds if it chose to.

He shuddered softly. Well, he'd keep an eye on her. At this point, considering what a shithole this place was, he didn't quite trust her much farther than he could throw her. She worked here. That in and of itself wasn't a point in her favor.

They reached the end of another hallway. Yami no Yugi glanced behind them first. To his surprise, the statue was gone. Had it gotten bored? Frustrated of following them and getting caught by Chirp's stare every time? For a moment, he felt uneasy. But Chirp and Babble were both facing forward now, and they didn't seem at all distressed. He at the very least trusted their judgment.

He tried to ignore the fact that Yugi was giggling at this thought of his and instead made to glance around the corner of the next hallway. He paused, however, when he heard a squeaking sound on the floor and froze.

He lifted his origami gun, feeling somehow silly despite knowing how dangerous this thing could really be. He sucked in a low breath.

And then he flashed around the corner, gun raised right into—

The face of a very shocked looking young boy, who yelped and fell back over his own feet as he scuffled backwards. A taller boy grabbed him with one arm before he fell, his other hand occupied holding the hand of a very short woman. Something pale and glowing flung itself in between the group and Yami no Yugi's gun, golden eyes flashing. Another tall man with a strange mark on his forehead stared at the paper gun.

"Convincing," he said in a monotone voice. "Very convincing."

Judai hurried around the corner. A smile exploded over his face.

"Kirtida! Yuma! Yusei!"

"Judai!" the little boy said, jumping to his feet. "Astral, it's okay, they're friendly!"

The strange glowing being didn't relax right away, blinking at them with zir glowing golden eyes for a moment. Ze retreated, finally, at the boy tugged at zir arm.

"Oh, thank god," the woman said, pressing a hand to her chest.

"You're okay!" said Yusei. "Thank god—who is everyone else?"

Yuma threw himself forward and hugged Judai very tightly, Judai patting the boy somewhat awkwardly on the head.

"Oh gosh, are you okay? What about the monster?" Yuma said.

"Blew it up with a rocket to the face," said Judai.

The tall man's brows came together.

"And that got rid of it?"he said. "SCP 096 has been hit with anti aircraft missiles, so that its torso is severed. And it's never slowed."

Judai shrugged.

"Well, it hasn't come after us again, I guess..."

The man stared at them, his eyes dark and considering. Yami no Yugi felt his hair stand on end from looking at him, but for a different reason than when he looked at Luelle. The uneasiness surrounding Luelle was...quieter. Something that skittered on the edges of his consciousness, eerie, elusive. This man...he radiated with power, with a rippling darkness that made every muscle in Yami no Yugi's body tense as though he were about to get into a fist fight. Those dark eyes turned towards Yami no Yugi, meeting and holding his gaze.

The man frowned, slightly.

"And what are you?" he said.

Judai finally extracted himself from Yuma's hug.

"Okay, this is Sakaki Yuya, Mutou Yugi, and Luelle Gunvaldsson," he said. "And these guys are Tsukumo Yuma, Fudo Yusei, Kiritida Kaur, and..."

He trailed off as he looked up at the tall man and the glowing being.

"This is Astral!" Yuma said, eyes lighting up. "Ze's my best friend! Astral, this is Judai, I told you about him on the way here, he helped us out a lot!"

"It is good to meet you," Astral said with a soft, echoey voice.

They glanced at the tall man, then. He only blinked at them for a moment.

"Cain," the man said, by way of introduction. He had a deep voice with the hint of an accent that Yami no Yugi couldn't quite place...and yet...it sounded somehow familiar...

"SCP-073, I presume?" Luelle said, glancing at him from over her glasses, that strange, barely there smile on her lips.

Cain stared at her for a moment. His eyes narrowed as his gaze dropped to her badge.

"I don't know any Gunvaldssons on staff," he said slowly.

Luelle laughed softly. The sound sent a skitter of uneasiness down Yami no Yugi's skin.

"I know your memory is incredible, 073, but you can't expect to have met every employee in the entire organization."

She tapped her badge, and Cain glanced at her again. His lips turned downwards into a scowl.

"You're Level B," he said. "Should have guessed."

"What? What does that mean?" Yuya asked.

"Not important," Cain said, waving off the question. "You are all leaving, so the SCP hierarchy shouldn't concern you."

Luelle fixed her glasses, her smile widening a fraction.

"Not one to sit and talk, are you, 073? Don't you think that now that the group has been reunited, they maybe deserve a little explanation about what's going on?"

"I've already explained about the containment breach, and that's all that anyone needs to know," Cain said. "I just want you all out of here before there are more casualties."

He glared pointedly at Yuma and Judai.

"And I'll want us to confirm that 096 is dead before I let either of you anywhere near the outside."

Judai met Cain's eyes full on, practically vibrating with intensity. Did Yami no Yugi imagine it, or did Judai's eyes flicker to a bichromatic green and orange for a moment there?

Luelle clucked her tongue softly.

"Well then," she said, smiling. "There just so happens to be a control hub room right around this area, and I can unlock it. We can track SCP-096's whereabouts from there."

For a moment, everyone just looked at each other. Yami no Yugi glanced at Yuya, and then Judai. There was...uncertainty in both sets of eyes. Did they feel the same thing he did about Luelle?

"That sounds like a good plan," he finally said. "Lead the way."

Luelle smiled, a wider one than normal, that somehow reminded him of a snake, and he tried to stop himself from shivering. She walked past him and down the hallway, moving with a quick, purposeful click. The group exchanged a quick glance before, as one, they started after her.

"So," Yusei said, awkwardly. "What's with the rolling eyes?"

"This is Chirp and Babble," Yuya said. "They saved us from a statue that can move when you stop looking at it..."

Yusei's eyes widened and his mouth half opened, but he was cut off by Yuma.

"They're cute," he said, smiling brightly. "I like them."

"I know, right?" said Yuya, eyes lighting up. "Who's that on your shoulder, by the way?"

"Huh? Oh, this is Peanut! He makes people happy when he cuddles...gosh, not now, Peanut!"

The little blob had started rubbing against Yuma's face, pressing against him as though to stare at Yuya from the other side of Yuma's head. Yami no Yugi heard Cain snort softly in front of him, as though the pair were ridiculous.

"I like him too," Yuya said. "Oh, hey, while I'm thinking about it...hold this, please, Yuma-san?"

Yami no Yugi glanced over his shoulder to watch Yuya handing Yuma his origami gun, and then taking up one of the unfolded sheets of paper and, with a practiced hand, folding and twisting it into another gun.

"One for you, too," he said.

"Um, thanks?" said Yuma. "Is this...magic paper?"

"Pretty much. Trust me, it looks silly, but this thing works. See, look at these shuriken I made with it, they're actually sharp!"

Yuya dug one out of his box and handed it to Yuma. Yuma gasped as the thing poked his finger.

"Whoa," he said, eyes widening. "Now that's cool."

"I can make one for you, too, Yusei-san," Yuya said.

"Thanks," said Yusei, smiling.

Yuya folded as he walked, passing the gun over to Yusei, and then folding the another sheet into the shape of a screwdriver at Yusei's request. Yusei tucked the suddenly very solid folded piece of paper into his pocket, looking somehow relieved.

"Um...Cain-san? Should I make one for you too?" Yuya asked, his voice cracking slightly.

Cain glanced at him. Yuya tried to hold the gaze but withered slightly under the dark look. Cain didn't even reply, looking straight ahead again. Yami no Yugi stiffened with indignation. He carefully put himself between Cain and Yuya—he really, really didn't like the aura of this guy.

Luelle finally stopped in front of a door. She waved her badge over the lock and it clicked open, swinging open at her touch.

"I didn't know there was a control hub here," Cain said, glancing in. His eyes passed over the room number outside briefly: 048. Odd, Yami no Yugi thought. None of the other rooms had room numbers.

"The facility is big, isn't it?" Luelle mused.

The room wasn't particularly large, and it was something of a tight fit for all of them to get in. Yami no Yugi took a position in the corner, gun at the read in case 106 showed up. Chirp and Babble took up positions at other side of his feet, like little sentinels. Yusei pulled Yuma and Yuya to the middle of the room and put them in front of him. Astral hovered above Yuma, pointedly in between him and Cain—did Astral have the same feelings towards him perhaps? Yami no Yugi might want to try talking to him more... Kirtida had attached herself to Judai, and Judai took up a position at the door with Kirtida in front of him, as though he planned to block the door himself. Cain folded his arms and stood in the inner corner while Luelle walked to the control panel of lights and screens at the end of the dark room.

There was another door on the side of this room, Yami no Yugi realized suddenly. Where did that go?

Luelle tapped things out onto the computer. She seemed to frown for a moment and slowed her typing. And then she returned to it, clucking her tongue softly.

"Interesting," she murmured to herself. "All right...I'm not picking up any vital signs from SCP's microchip...the two of you may in fact be home clear."

She smiled briefly at Yuma and Judai. Yuma exhaled all at once, but Judai just half glowered at her.

She hummed once as information flashed quickly across the screen, strings of numbers and English letters that Yami no Yugi couldn't interpret. Cain was staring at her, as though she were some odd surrealist painting that he were attempting to decipher.

"All right," Luelle said, and suddenly a schematic of the building appeared on one of the larger screens.

She poked the screen with a delicate finger.

"This will be our best bet," she said. "We're here."

She indicated their room. "And through here..."

She traced a path, through the door on the side of this room, and into a small adjacent hallway into a much larger room just beyond this one.

"Just across this room there's a midway station...there are airplanes there, and a roof that can open to allow access. I have the clearance to obtain one."

"That sounds like the best idea," Yuya said.

"I didn't know there were midway stations in the facility," Kirtida said, her voice soft and whispery.

"I was just thinking that," Cain said, glancing at her.

"Do you really think you know the entire facility?" Luelle said, laughing. "Besides. How else do you expect a successful evacuation in a place this size? Inevitably, you will need middle exits, or you lose everyone on the inner rings."

Cain frowned, looking uncertain.

"True..." he said.

Luelle tapped a few buttons, and the light on the door to the side of the room blinked green.

"There. And we have clearance all the way through."

She smiled again, fixing her glasses.

"Well? Shall we?"

She extended her hand towards the door. No one moved for a moment.

It was Yusei that nodded first, taking Yuma and Yuya by the shoulders and steering them towards the door. He opened it up and exited first, looking back and forth before stepping out and waving to the others.

"Come on," he said. "I'd like to say goodbye to this place as soon as possible."

Yuma and Yuya followed, Astral floating behind them. Judai hesitated, glancing at Yami no Yugi before he followed, too.

"After you," Luelle said to Cain.

Cain stared at her for a moment.

"There's something not quite right about you," he said. "I will figure out what."

And he stalked through the door after the others. Yami no Yugi started towards the opening, Chirp and Babble at his heels, but he hesitated. He glanced back over his shoulder at Luelle.

"Does your computer say anything about the whereabouts of 106?" he said.

She shook her head.

"Unfortunately, no. 106 can't be microchipped. It was difficult enough on 096, as I'm sure you'll understand."

"Yeah..." Yami no Yugi said.

He paused a moment longer.

"You know...I think I agree with Cain...there's something not right about you. I think you're taking this far too well."

"Oh? You don't think I'm not prepared for situations like this? I do work in the most dangerous place in the world."

"I don't—I don't think you do work here," he said, suddenly, before he really knew what he was saying. But then, he realized, he believed it. She didn't work here. She wasn't really a scientist in this place. She was an actor.

Luelle's smile widened all the way across her face, as though he were a brilliant student of hers that had just solved some great logic puzzle.

"And what makes you think that...?" she said.

"Everything you do—it's been calculated. Considered. You knew what the Super Paper was when we were in that position, but you didn't react until it seemed that we wouldn't investigate for ourselves. You didn't panic. You didn't look for the tools you needed to protect yourself—you were waiting to see what we would do."

"Very good," Luelle said softly. "You are incredibly perceptive, king."

"I—what?"

Luelle turned back towards the control panel.

"Have you heard of SCP 048?" she said. "No, of course you wouldn't have...but this is how it goes. 048 is supposedly a 'cursed' number. Anyone who files an SCP under that number dies horribly...and the SCP itself somehow is lost or ruined."

She pulled up an image on the screen. It was Judai and the others, walking out of the short hallway into the large, well lit room like a warehouse. There was a large cube inside, almost bigger than the room he stood in right now, made of what looked like a black, speckled stone. As though in slow motion, he thought he saw Cain flinch, draw back, throw his arms out to stop the group from moving any farther forward, pushing them back towards the hallway.

"One might say," Luelle said softly, "it's a cursed number."

This room is number 048, Yami no Yugi thought suddenly. It's the only room with a number.

She flicked a switch, and suddenly, the door that Cain was trying to shove everyone back through slammed shut. Yami no Yugi saw Cain throw his shoulder against it to bust it open, but it held fast. Yami no Yugi swore and whipped around for the hallway. The other door slammed shut in his face, sending him stumbling back. Yugi shouted in his head, Chirp and Babble started to screech and run in circles around his feet.

"What did you do?" Yami no Yugi shouted, turning on her. "What do you want with us?"

Luelle smiled—a chilling, overly pleased smile.

And he flicked another switch.

The giant cube on the screen started to open. Yami no Yugi couldn't hear anything, the audio was off, but he could see Cain shouting, see him trying to push them across the room to the other door, even though that one was also closed and probably locked.

"You—"

"What?" Luelle said, smiling widely. "I thought you liked games."

Chapter Text

It all happened so quickly. One moment, Judai was looking over his shoulder and wondering what was taking Yugi and Luelle so long, and the next minute, Cain was swearing, shoving them all back towards the door that was slamming shut with the light turning red and then there was the echo of stone screeching on stone as a giant black cube in the center of the huge room started to open, smoke and mist pouring out of it.

"Across the room, dammit, across the room, get through that door!" Cain shouted, his voice actually cracking with the strain. "We cannot fight this thing, we have to get out of here—"

But the door on the other side of the wide, empty room slammed shut before they could even untangle their frantic knot to move. Cain swore and whipped around to face the opening cube.

"What is that? What is it?" Yuma said.

"We're all dead," Cain hissed through his teeth. "Those fricking paper guns of yours aren't going to do anything—we're locked in here with him."

"Who? Who are we fighting?" Judai said, feeling Yubel rise up within him, hissing.

"It's Able," Cain said. "SCP 073."

Judai had no idea what that meant, but something was climbing out of that giant black box and it wasn't just his instincts telling him that they were fucked, it was the very air itself. He could feel a crackle of static over his arms, a lurching in his stomach, a twisting in his very soul that dried his mouth and sent a horrible tremble through him. Nothing in this building could compare to this, he thought. Nothing. Nothing he had faced so far could come anywhere near to the terror that this thing inspired in him. It was an instinctive fear, a primal feeling somewhere in the back of his mind that told him this was something wrong, this was something that could kill him and would kill him and he hadn't even seen it yet but for the first time, more than ever he felt like he was a helpless rabbit trapped in a cage and waiting for the snake to strike. He could see out of his peripherals that everyone else had frozen just the same, Yusei with his gun hand uselessly at his side, Yuma had dropped his own weapon, Yuya just stared with wide, wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. Kirtida was tugging at Judai's arm, trying to snap him out of it, her voice cracking as she told him they had to go for cover, but he couldn't respond.

A silhouette appeared in the mist, and the thing stepped onto the cold floor. He was tall, about the same height as Cain, with the exact same shade of deeply tanned skin that made Judai think of deserts and blinding sun. Gray eyes peered from beneath matted, long black hair, glazed over as though he were dazed. Tattoos decorated every inch of his exposed skin, black, leering demon faces that glared out at them.

For a moment, everyone froze. No one moved as he stared at them.

And this his face contorted with a horrible rage, his eyes flickering—were they changing colors?—and he reached out his hand and pulled a long, curved black sword from nowhere. It wasn't black as in metal, it was black like it was simply a hole in the air, sucking in all light, ethereal, a shadow, not really there.

And then he exploded forward—fast, too fast, he was moving so quickly that Judai couldn't see him and the unnatural primal panic was holding him fast to the ground. The sword flash straight for Yuya, who was closest, but he wasn't moving, he was just standing there frozen like Judai, he was going to die—

Cain threw himself forward with a roar, grabbing the man's wrists in both hands and ripping him off to the side. The attack was powerful, the most powerful Judai had ever seen, throwing the being bodily across the room. He flipped back to his feet with ease, eyes fixing on Cain.

"You," he hissed.

"Long time no see," Cain said through gritted teeth.

The man—Able, or something—exploded forward. Cain caught Able's wrist before he slashed the sword across his face.

"Get the fuck out of here!" Cain shouted. "Now!"

He grappled with Able, trying his hardest to keep the sword from cutting down on him. Judai still couldn't move—it was like the room was pressing down on him, the air was heavy and suffocating and he couldn't move, what was wrong with him?

He yelped and jumped as his hand burned, but the pain jolted him back to himself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Kiritida said, her hand feeling scalding against his already. "But you weren't moving, you weren't getting away, we have to get away—"

The fear hadn't dissipated, but he didn't feel frozen anymore. He just grabbed Kirtida's hand and pushed her towards Yusei, grabbing Yusei's shoulder as he moved to startle the taller boy out of it.

"Take them and find a corner, I can't let Cain fight by himself, but you have to take cover! Find a door that'll open or something! Get them out!"

"We can't be separated again," Yusei said.

Cain screamed.

Everyone's eyes jolted towards the fight, where Cain was staggering back, hand to his shoulder, bleeding terribly—was his arm actually hanging off his shoulder? Oh, gods.

Able swung the blade at Cain again. Judai swore as he exploded forward, ignoring the shouts and cries of the others behind him. His wings burst from his back as he flung himself between the sword and Cain—

The sword cut right into his wing. He let out a soft gasp, the pain flaring through him briefly. Then Yubel's soul surged and he absorbed the pain and wound right into the center of his soul before flinging it bodily back. He heard the thing grunt and stumble and that was enough for him to grab Cain and drag him off to the side.

Now that he looked at him, the wound wasn't as bad as he had thought—in fact, there didn't seem to be a wound at all. Had he imagined it?

Cain stared briefly at his wings, and then seemed to shake himself back to the now.

"I'll discuss what you are later," he said.

"So how do we beat this guy?" Judai asked.

Cain shrugged.

"The last time he broke out, they crushed him with an elevator. Or they asphyxiated him. I don't remember which. It still took him over an hour to suffocate."

Judai clenched his jaw.

"So he's a tough one to kill?"

"Near impossible with our numbers and resources."

"What do we do?"

Cain just growled, turning to face Able, who was withdrawing a second blade from the air.

"Try to survive until we can get a door open."

Judai's eyes flicked between the only two doors in the room. With Yubel's enhanced vision, even from a distance he could see both of them had a red light—locked.

"How did this happen? Why?"

"It's obvious—Luelle. I knew she wasn't a scientist...but why lock us in here?"

He glanced briefly at Judai, and then at the knot of the other group.

"Unless...for some reason she wants to kill one of you."

Judai felt a coldness settle into his stomach.

Who was Luelle? And what did she want with them?

But then he had to give up thinking because Able flew at them again with both swords and Judai had to turn his attention to the fighting, to the dodging the blades and swiping with his claws bursting from his fingers and snarling with Yubel's fangs, smacking weapons with his wings and trying desperately to stay alive.

It was all they could do right now.

The mysteries would have to wait for later—if they were still alive.

Chapter Text

Yusei dragged Yuma and Kirtida back along the wall, heading for the opposite door. The major part of the fight was too close to the other door they had come into this hell hole through, so he would have to take his chances with the other side.

"Yuya!" he shouted. "Try your security badge on this door!"

Yuya scrambled forward, fumbling with the badges in his hands. He dropped both of them and had to scrabble for them with shaking fingers. He managed to finally wrap his hands around them and practically flung himself at the door, slapping the badges against the card reader. There was a beep—but it was the sort of "access denied" beep that caused Yusei to have to bite back a scream of anger.

"It—it didn't work, what do we do—" Yuya started.

Yusei went for the origami screwdriver that Yuya had made him. He grabbed the access pad and forced the screwdriver between the wall and the panel. Logically, the paper should have bent or ripped or something, but it held as firmly as though it were a real screwdriver, and with a burst of effort, Yusei was able to rip the panel free and throw it onto the ground, revealing the mass of wires between the buttons underneath.

"Keep an eye on the fight and do what you have to in order to keep it away," Yusei ordered Yuya, Yuma, and Kirtida.

Despite Yuma's pale face, he nodded with determination, hefting his origami gun and whipping around to point it at the fight. Yuya nodded too despite the shake in his hands—Kirtida's eyes were wide enough for the whites to glow in her tanned face, but she turned anyway to face the fight, her mouth moving over and over as though she were saying some kind of prayer. Yusei thought he could see a faint haze of heat rising from her small frame, but he ignored it for now.

He attacked the wires of the keypad, paper screwdriver held between his teeth. He pulled at a few, grabbed his wrench and started teasing them apart, mapping out the mechanics, trying to figure out—

There!

He snapped a wire and sparks flew but he heard the door click and start to sag somewhat open and he thrust his hand into the tiny gap and wrenched the door half open with a cry.

"Go, go, go!" he shouted.

Yuya grabbed Yuma by the shoulder and whipped him around towards the door. Yuma grabbed Kirtida's hand and the trio hurried underneath the door that Yusei held propped open. He didn't know if it was going to stay open—damn, this door was heavy! His eyes went roving across the large room for Judai and Cain and the monster—the fight was markedly closer to them now, halfway across the room. Judai was in the air, swooping down on bat like wings and smashing his heel into the creature's face, while Cain danced around the swing of a black blade.

"Judai!" Yusei shouted. "Judai!"

And then there was a scream from the hallway beyond him and he whipped his head around into the dark hallway.

Yuma's scream of DON'T LOOK came too late.

Yusei's eyes fixed straight onto a pale face with a mouth that was open much, much too large.

The creature screamed—it was human, too human—and threw its hands over its face, making sounds like it was sobbing. Oh, god—this was the thing that if you saw it's face it wouldn't stop until it killed you, Judai said he had killed it, but no, it was here and Yusei and Yuya and Kirtida had all just looked right into its horrible face—

Yuya was the first to react, ripping his arm up and firing two golden bursts of energy into the creature's face.

The energy pulsed right through it but did no visible damage, as though it had simply phased through. Yuya paled and pulled off two more shots, this time through the chest, to the same effect.

"W-why isn't it working?" he mumbled. "Why isn't mine working?"

"It is, it is, look!" Kirtida said.

The creature was stumbling back and moaning, clutching at its head with one hand and its chest with the other as though it were in horrible pain.

Yusei couldn't keep the door open any longer and he couldn't send them back into the room with that other monster. With a groan he flung himself into the dark hallway. The door slammed shut and plunged them into darkness, but Yusei had already memorized where each of them were and he flung his arms out to start scooping them down the hallway, away from the long armed creature whose face they had seen.

The trio stumbled for a moment but then they started to run. Yusei could hear the creature picking its feet back up, heard it loping for them, still sobbing like a frustrated child. He flung his arm out behind him and pulled off a few shots. The golden blast lit up the whole hallway for a brief moment, enough for him to see that his own golden shots were doing visible damage, ripping through the creature's knees and causing it to stumble—why did all of them have different effects with the same origami weapon?

He tried not to think about how strange that sentence was; he had to focus on keeping them alive.

He needed something, something else that he could use to fight, this gun wasn't enough, he could hear the thing still limping after them with more speed than was possible considering the damage it had taken.

He saw a faint light, from the outline of a door, and pushed the others towards it.

Please be open, please be open, please be open—

It was open. Yuya was in front and saw where Yusei was heading, thrusting his hands in front of him to fling the door open. He tripped inside the door, though, and Yuma went down over him with a yelp. Yusei managed to grab Kirtida by the shoulder before she went down too, and then practically threw her over the two boys into the room before dropping to grab the boys and yank them back to their feet. They scrambled inside and Yusei slammed the door behind them.

"That won't hold it!" Yuma panted. "It's ripped through steel before!"

"We just need half a second," Yusei said, heaving for breath. "Just—half a second—to get something else—"

His eyes flicked quickly around the room, taking stock. It was large, not quite as large as the warehouse like room where Able was, but large enough. There were piles of storage boxes, giant metal things like the ones you might see on boats, along with wooden crates of a smaller size. Maybe there was something in one of those they could use as a weapon—but at the same time...he could find something even worse inside.

It was a complete crapshoot and he was not liking his odds.

The door bent completely inward and he could see a hand pushing through it like it was made of paper. Yuma screamed, there was a pulse of heat from Kirtida as though in a fear response, and very, very suddenly, Yusei's entire brain went silent.

If he didn't do something, they were going to die, he thought. But the thought wasn't terrified, as it should be, it was...measured. Calculating. There was a need, a need that needed to be filled and he had to be calm, to think clearly.

He could sense something. Right beside him, something alive—not quite, though, it was...it was different, but he could sense it, sense the wires and metal that made up its frame, sense the power that rested quietly underneath its armor. Potential, was what he could sense. He didn't know how, or why, but he wasn't about to question the senses rolling through him all of a sudden.

He snapped back into the now, and turned towards where he had sensed the thing. A small crate stood a few feet off, and he didn't hesitate. He shot off the latch with one measured blast from his gun, then shoved the origami into his back pocket and ripped the wooden door open.

Inside sat a small robot. It was no more than three and a half feet tall, with what appeared to be small guns mounted to its shoulders.

"Yusei, what are you doing?" Yuya shouted.

Yusei swallowed. The thing was...dormant, he realized. It had shut off. But he could feel it, feel the pulse of a consciousness there, the same kind of feeling he got whenever he worked with Momentum...as though the machinery were alive.

He reached out a hand and gripped the cold metal.

"Please," he said. "Wake up. We need help."

"What is that?" Yuma asked.

Kirtida skittered over, he could feel her heat against his back.

"Yusei, it's getting through, it'll be through, and you're doing—oh, gods, Yusei, that thing can't help, I know what that is, it was built to fight geese, it doesn't attack anything except geese, it's useless, come on, we have to go—"

"It's not useless," he muttered. "You're not useless. I can sense you. What are you doing?"

He didn't know what was coming over him, but he pulled out his screwdriver and pulled himself into the crate, turning around to the back of the automaton and pulling off its back. It wasn't supposed to be dormant—he could feel it, it was supposed to be alive. There was something wrong with its programming, something that had caused it to shut down.

He could feel it, feel the way that it was supposed to run, feel the pulse of its life beneath him.

"Please," he mumbled, as he heard the door rip open, and the others screaming, and blasts of the paper guns.

And then the robot came to life underneath his hands.

The automaton shot straight up, unfolding arms, pulling out guns from its elbows and knees and Yusei could hear them clicking loaded.

For a moment, Yusei felt himself lock gazes with it. The robot didn't have any visible eyes, but he could feel it, feel its line of sight fixing on Yusei, boring into his eyes and down into its soul.

Blocked, was the word that appeared in Yusei's mind. Not his own thought. The robot's. Blocked.

"You're blocked," Yusei said.

Blocked, it agreed.

Kirtida had said that it only fought geese. It wasn't supposed to. Something was—stuck. Not in its workings, its workings were fine, what was blocked, constricted, that was—

Yusei breathed out. It has a soul. And the soul is blocked up.

His mind spread out almost of its own accord. He could see the faint haze of the robot's soul, the twist of an aura like the twisting of a circuit board. His mind flew down the lines of that circuit board, as though the soul were a physical thing that he could fix.

He found the knot. Mentally, he grabbed it, and smoothed it out.

Everything fell into place.

Immediately, the robot exploded out of the crate, splinters showering down over Yusei's head. A voice blared from inside of it, in a language that Yusei didn't understand, and then it opened fire.

Yusei heard 096 screech, scrabbling back across the floor. He scrambled to his feet and out of the crate.

"How did you—" Kirtida started, but he just grabbed her arm and bolted for Yuma and Yuya, who were still firing off short golden bursts.

"Out, now!" he shouted, herding them around the commotion and into the hallway. "Go, go, go!"

He didn't know if the automaton could handle this. He really didn't. All he knew is that it was willing to protect them. He had fixed its programming and it was willing to fight for them to attack that horrible thing and give them at least some time.

Thank you, he thought at the robot. Thank you.

Now he had to get Kirtida and the kids somewhere safe.

* * *

Luella leaned against the console as Yami no Yugi stared furiously at the screen. He should attack her. Something. Do something. Get the door open, try to get to the others and save them.

But there was something about her. Something about her easy stance that made him shudder, feel like a rabbit in a trap. He couldn't move. Couldn't strike.

"How interesting," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the sight of Yusei, Kirtida, Yuma, and Yuya fleeing from the long armed creature, the robot engaging it in battle. "So that's his soul power. He has quite a talent with machines. Did you know, that robot had a malfunction that made it only recognize geese as enemies? And he fixed it without even trying."

She laughed softly.

"Why the frightened face, king? Your friends are doing very well, don't you think?"

"What do you want with us?" Yami no Yugi said.

Luelle's eyes slid to meet his.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

Chapter Text

Yuma didn't think. His arms were pumping and his heart was screaming in his ears and he couldn't see where he was going but he only focused on the feeling of his feet striking against the floor as he bolted. He could hear the others around him, Yusei was somewhere behind, shouting as he fired more shots behind them. Yuma gulped and gasped—he couldn't breathe and his throat was so dry. Where were they going to go? Where could they go?

His foot caught on something on the floor and he screamed, tumbling to the floor. Peanut made a gloppy sound as it flew off of Yuma's head and plopped to the floor somewhere up ahead. Yuya and Kirtida were in front of him and they just kept running, somewhere in the commotion the sound of Yuma's fall hadn't reached them and they didn't know he had tripped.

Yuma's gun had flown from his hand and he scrabbled for it desperately. He needed something, anything to defend himself. There were flashes of gold behind him that briefly lit the hallway but never for long enough for him to find the lost weapon. It was so dark! Where was everyone? Where had they gone?

He felt something sort of slimy touch his hand and flinched—but it was only Peanut, rippling over his hand with a satisfied gurgly sound, as though it were happy to have found him again. He could feel the skitters of unnatural happiness threading across his skin.

"Not now, Peanut!"

He heard Yusei shouting something, angry and desperate, heard the screaming sound of that horrible thing that he had made the mistake of looking right at and dammit if he had just been faster he could have told them not to look and they wouldn't have seen it too, and then it would just be him—

"Yuma! Yuma, we have to go!"

Astral's voice cut through him like a knife. He stopped scrabbling for the lost weapon. Astral was right, they just had to go! Peanut slithered up his arm and back onto his shoulder, latching itself firmly into place.

His friend glowed beside him, golden eyes wide and frightened. Ze grabbed at Yuma's arm and tried to pull him to his feet. Despite the light of Astral's body, it didn't seem to do anything to illuminate the hall and Yuma's eyes roved through the darkness—he couldn't even tell where the walls of the hallway were!

He stumbled to his feet—and cried out, crumpling back to the floor, his hands reaching for his ankle.

"Yuma!"

"M-my ankle..."

He almost screamed as he tried to put weight on it again. Oh, god, it was bad—he couldn't even get up, tears springing to his eyes as he gasped for breath.

Astral's cool hands gripped him under the shoulders and heaved him to his feet. Yuma wondered vaguely how it was that suddenly he and Astral could make contact with each other—definitely convenient now. Astral huffed a bit as ze tried to situate Yuma into zir grip. Ze half dragged, half supported Yuma to the side of the wall, down it a few feet, and then pushed Yuma through the dark opening of a door.

"W-we can't stay here," Yuma mumbled through the pain. "It'll find us..."

"But you can't move right now either," Astral snapped. "Believe in Yusei—I think he can hold that thing off. He's a powerful soul."

Yuma swallowed and closed his eyes, tears bubbling through his eyelashes

"A-Astral," he mumbled. "I'm—I'm scared."

Astral's cool hands gripped him tightly for a moment.

"I know," ze said. "I know, I know, I know."

Zir voice cracked, and that more than anything sent a tremor of fear through Yuma. If Astral was scared...

"If only we had our duel disk," Astral muttered.

Yuma bit on the inside of his cheek. He couldn't remember how many times he had been thinking that. If they just had something...

Astral broke away from Yuma for a moment.

"I'm going to try and see what's in this room," ze said. "Don't move."

Yuma nodded, even though he couldn't have moved even if he wanted to. Astral moved away and Yuma could see zir glowing shape picking zir way around the room, golden eyes glittering from an uncertain light as ze examined the small room. Yuma curled up into a ball as best he could—although he had to keep his busted ankle laid out flat. God, but it hurt, and it hurt bad. He bit his lip and tried to stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. Peanut poked at his cheek curiously.

"Gooorruugle?"

"I-I'm okay, Peanut..." Yuma said.

Peanut shifted, its goopy sides sliding further down on either side of Yuma's shoulder. He felt almost like it was staring at him.

What even was Peanut, anyway? It had somehow brought Astral to Yuma. And it was apparently just supposed to make people happy...but why? What was it? Where did it come from? And why was it attached to just Yuma, instead of following everyone around?

Yuma's questions stopped in his tracks as a pair of hands clamped down on his eyes.

"Guess whooooo~" whispered an unfamiliar voice. "Oh, but that's a trick question, because we've never met before~"

Yuma almost yelped but one of the hands clamped over his mouth and the other slid around his neck, pulling him tightly against a tall, flat chest and squeezing around his throat. He flailed, tears springing to his eyes as his ankle struck against the ground while he was dragged up into the air.

Astral—Astral!

As though ze had heard, Astral whipped around. Zir eyes widened—fear and anger flared in their golden depths as ze made a move forward.

"Ah, ah, ah, stay right there. I could snap his neck in a second," the male voice said. "Although that would be unfortunate, because I had much more fun ideas planned for how I was going to kill him."

Astral froze. Yuma tried smacking at the arms that held him, but the pressure on his throat was starting to make his vision blur and his strikes were weak.

"Gooooood. Just stay right there, little astral kid," the voice laughed.

"Who are you?" Astral hissed. "What do you want with Yuma?"

"Call me Rickten," the man said, grinning. "And well~ He was just unlucky enough to be the first person I saw. Mistress said I could kill something...I'm actually glad it was Yuma-kun I found first, I was kinda hoping I'd get a chance to make him squirm. He's so small and cute."

Yuma tried to kick his captor in the knee but the blow just bounced off. Rickten laughed and swung Yuma back and forth a bit, putting more pressure on his throat.

"How cuuuuute! He's trying to fight me, isn't that adorable?"

"Release him immediately," Astral said. "Release him!"

"Mmmmm...no. I don't think so."

With a fluid motion, Rickten practically flung Yuma into the air, and then caught him by the throat and slammed him up against the wall, holding him almost two feet above the ground. Yuma gasped, hands scrabbling at Rickten's hand. Now he could sort of see his captor, although in the dark, the features were strange and eerie. He had a long, sharp sort of face, almost like if someone had taken a spiders face and smushed it into human proportions. His dark eyes were flat and glittery, with almost no whites around the black, dark, wiry hair falling in shaggy clumps over his forehead. He was incredibly long, tall, and skinny, probably nearly eight feet tall.

He grinned—a terrifying sort of smile that split his face almost in half.

"Now how am I gonna kill you?" Rickten said.

Yuma struggled for breath, trying to peel at Rickten's fingers.

"I was thinking I could throw you to 096 and let it rip you to pieces, but it's not as much fun when I don't get to do it myself."

Astral rushed Rickten. Zir hands swiped at Rickten's face but—but they passed right through. But Yuma could touch Astral, why—why couldn't Astral fight Rickten?

Rickten laughed at the attack, grinning cross eyed at Astral's horrorstruck face.

"You're not quite solid enough for that," Rickten giggled. "Oooh, how fun, that means you get to watch helplessly while I kill him!"

"Yuma!" Astral said, voice cracking with desperation.

Yuma was starting to black out. He couldn't breathe, could barely see. His arms fell limply to his sides, out of energy. He slackened in Rickten's grip.

He was going to die.

And that was when he felt Peanut pushing into his face. Something echoed in his brain. Not a voice, really, but...like a thought. A concept. His hand reached vaguely for Peanut.

What are you, Peanut?

Peanut let out a soft sighing sound into Yuma's ear. And Yuma felt it sink inside of him, slipping underneath Yuma's skin and somehow...absorbing into him.

Instantly, something like fire rushed through his veins. He felt his head snap to an alien sort of alertness, buzzing in a way that he couldn't describe. His hands shot up, latched onto Rickten's arm. A jumble of feelings assaulted him then—giddiness, excitement, sadism, for a moment, he thought those were his own feelings, his smile stretching wide as though he were feeling the same thing.

But no—not his feelings, Rickten's—these were his and Yuma could hear them, feel them—

Take them.

With a cry, he ripped the emotions right out of Rickten's head.

Rickten gasped. His eyes bulged. He dropped Yuma and Yuma collapsed to the floor. His ankle immediately gave out and he gasped. His hands dropped to the floor—one hand hit something that felt like crumpled paper and he almost batted it away, except he started to cough and had to focus on not choking himself. Rickten was stumbling back, his eyes blank, mouth slack, looking for all the world like he had just gotten struck on the head and was coming out of a daze.

Astral shot forward to Yuma's side as he coughed.

"Yuma—thank god but—what happened?"

Yuma could feel Peanut still, somehow. A burst of happiness somewhere at the center of his core. Had...had Peanut even been real? Or somehow...a projection of something...? He felt somehow as though he had just filled in a hole in himself that he hadn't realized was there. Something felt like it had clicked back into place.

His head buzzed. He could sense Astral's flutter of worry and relief battling for dominance in zir head. He could sense Rickten's confusion as his emotions started to grow back. Yuma had only ripped out the ones right then, he realized. Emotions couldn't be totally taken away.

But maybe he could still use this power?

Rickten coughed once, rubbing his head.

"Wow!" he said, his smile returning halfway. "You pack a bit of a punch there! So that's what you can do—emotional manipulation."

Yuma coughed again, drawing back against the wall as Astral whipped around, putting zirself in between Yuma and Rickten. Rickten put a hand on his hip, grinning widely as he stared at Yuma.

"No wonder everyone buddies up to you so quickly. You're basically a human version of that orange blob."

"I...what?"

"Course, you haven't been using it actively before. So it doesn't have that much of an affect...and now that I know what you can do, don't think that the same trick will work twice~"

Yuma flinched, pushing himself back against the wall.

"Stay back," Astral said. "Stay away from him."

"Sorry, Astral-kun, but there's not much you can do~"

Yuma's hand crumpled instinctively around the crumpled paper on the floor, just for something to grab. His—his new power wasn't going to work anymore? But then...what could he do? He was going...he was going to die anyway? After everything he had done already?

He bit down hard on his lip as Rickten took a step forward, his eyes lighting up as he stared at Yuma.

"Ahhhh, yes, that's the look I like to see~ Figured out that everything is useless, huh?"

He needed...he needed help. But everyone was so far away, and without a Duel Disk, he and Astral couldn't do anything either. He was going to lose. He had already lost...

He couldn't look at Rickten, he was so scared, his eyes dropped to the floor as though he could pretend that he wasn't there—

And then he saw the piece of paper that he was holding.

It appeared to be...a foldout activity book? He could see a crossword puzzle, a word search...what was this doing in a place like this? His brain was working in strange ways, he shouldn't be thinking about stuff like this with Rickten coming closer, and Astral was crying out with anger as Rickten's hand passed through Astral to latch into Yuma's hair and start to pull him across the floor and—

Yuma's eyes fell on some small print on the bottom. He didn't know how he was able to read it in the dark, but it was almost like it was as clear as Astral was without actually giving off light.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Call Wondertainment's Magical Emporium at 1-800-FUCK-HELP.

"I need help," Yuma found himself gasping.

There was a tiny popping sound.

And then an incredible explosion.

Rickten's hand flew out of Yuma's hair, the room was filled with a bright white light that seared into Yuma's eyes, he was flung against the wall and hit his head and everything was spinning and buzzing and his ears rang.

For a moment, he only laid there on the floor. The world was silent but for the buzz in his ears. He couldn't see. Was that because it was still dark in the room, or because of that light?

Someone new appeared over him. He squinted. His vision was...was blurry, and he couldn't quite...

The figure bent down and shoved something between Yuma's teeth. For a moment, Yuma gagged on the small pill shaped thing—but then it dissolved, coating his mouth with the taste of strawberries, and he tried desperately to swallow it away.

Almost immediately, his vision snapped to clarity, and the aches and pains in his body disappeared. He squinted through the dark at the new figure.

"Hello," said the small, wrinkled man with white hair poking out at odd angles from his head. He appeared to be holding a...a busted party popper? "I believe you called Dr. Wondertainment's customer service? How can I help?"

Chapter Text

Yuya was gasping for breath when he saw the open door.

"In here!" he shouted back to Kirtida in his broken English.

She was lagging behind him, her face flushed and lips fluttering as she gasped for breath. He managed to grab her hand and half dragged her into the next room, slamming the door shut behind them. He only understood half of the words that Kirtida was shouting at him but he got as much as "that's not going to stop it from getting to us."

"I know, I know, I know," he said.

But he needed something, anything—he needed something for a new strategy. He whipped around to examine the room, his eyes roving over it. It wasn't the small side room that he had expected, he thought with a jolt. It was a giant warehouse room like the one where Yusei had found that robot. Rows upon rows of metal shelves packed tightly with boxes—some were simply cardboard, but others a thick, dark metal that glowered at him with the possibilities of what could be inside.

"Where are we?" he asked. "What's this room?"

He squinted at the boxes but with his brain all scattered it was impossible to make sense of the English characters. Kirtida read something out loud, a word that Yuya wasn't sure had a translation or not—Wondertainment? It sounded like "entertainment," which he understood, but it had a weird sound at the beginning that he couldn't make sense of. He thought maybe he had heard that word before...

"What?" he said, looking at her. "What—what does that mean?"

Speaking English while he was so worked up was so hard! He could barely remember what everything meant and translating was impossible as Kirtida chattered nervously at him, wringing her hands together and shifting from foot to foot as she pointed at some of the boxes and said that word, Wondertainment, several more times. He remembered, then, where he had heard it before. Luelle had said something about it—oh! The Super Paper! It was the guy that had made the super paper. What did that Dr. Wondertainment guy have to do with this room, though?

"I-I don't know what that means—"

And then the wall exploded. Kirtida screamed. She pushed Yuya out of the wall of the raining debris—a piece or two still bounced painfully off of his head and he thought he felt something warm begin to trickle down his forehead. He stumbled back and landed heavily on the ground. Shelves swayed, boxes groaned, he had just enough presence of mind to grab Kirtida beside him and roll over on top of her as the shelf came down with a shrieking groan towards them.

There was a resounding crash as the shelf crashed together against the one behind it, sending that one tumbling down. A scream ripped from Yuya's throat as boxes rained down over their heads, a metal one crashing point down to the ground inches from Yuya's face and then spinning across the floor. More than one box toppled on top of Yuya and he could have sworn that the giant metal shelf was going to come down on them next as he heard it creaking and crashing above their heads—

Things quieted. Settled.

Yuya's ears rang. He was still tangled up with Kirtida's small frame. He could feel her heart beat fluttering ridiculously fast against his chest—or was that his own heart? He could hear the blood pulsing in his ears clearly in the sudden ringing silence after that crash. Was there—he thought he could hear a commotion in the hall outside but with the buzzing in his head he couldn't understand what the sounds meant. Dust coated his throat when he tried to take a breath and he started to cough, his entire body shaking and wracking with each movement. Kirtida appeared to be pushing at him, speaking in that rapid English that his brain currently couldn't focus enough to understand. Did she want him to get off of her?

He rose slowly, still coughing as the dust stirred from his passing. Kirtida managed to wriggle up to a hunched sitting position, and Yuya understood why when he tried to sit up and bumped his head against a metal shelf.

His blood chilled—they had been—too close.

The metal shelf had fallen just inches from where they had fallen, stopped from crushing them by landing on top of the fallen shelf behind it. They were hunched, now, underneath the one shelf unit leaning on the other, boxed in by the contents of the shelves that had crumpled to the ground. Most of the boxes were still intact, but some of them had thrown up their contents across the ground: a strange assortment of things, like party poppers, boxes of airplane model pieces, wrapped candies. Things that he wouldn't have thought of as uncertain and strange if he hadn't known what kind of place this was. He tried to avoid touching anything as he situated himself and checked himself over mentally for any broken or bruised bones.

"A-are you okay?" he asked, and then realized he was speaking Japanese again and tried to repeat the sentence in English.

Kirtida at least understood what he was trying to say and she nodded, eyes wide. She said something that he didn't understand, reaching out to touch his forehead. Her fingers came away with blood and he blinked dust from his eyes. Was he actually bleeding? He touched his forehead experimentally and found his hair matted with the warm stickiness. The debris must have cut him somewhere under his hairline. He didn't even feel any pain though—he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not Was it not very bad, or was he simply not feeling it because of shock and adrenaline?

Either way it didn't matter—they had to try and get themselves out of here.

Now that Yuya's hearing was starting to clear from the ringing explosion, he could hear the crashing and hissing of the fight that was going on outside. He tried to peer through their fenced in prison, between the shelves and the dust and the darkness. There was movement in the hall—a huge rent torn in the wall between the warehouse room and the hallway. He caught a glimpse of Judai's strange wings, and was—was that the guy from the cube, too? He couldn't tell if Cain was there as well but there was definitely a fight. Something big had ripped through here and almost killed them in the explosion.

Yuya swallowed. He reached for Kirtida's hand.

"We—get out of here," he said, stumbling over the words. "Try—" But he couldn't remember how to say "that way" and just nodded in the direction behind Kirtida. There was no getting around Yuya's way—there was a giant metal box wedged tightly between the floor and the fallen shelving unit and there was no way he was going to be able to make it through that. There were still some boxes left on the shelves, too, so there was no slipping out between an empty shelving unit. They would have to find somewhere else to get out.

Kirtida nodded. She understood what he was trying to say. Her small frame benefited her now as she turned around and began to crawl forward, carefully pushing what boxes she could out of the way. Yuya followed on his his hands and knees. He wasn't too much bigger than Kirtida, but trying to fit himself between the shelving unit and the boxes as they crawled towards freedom was more difficult than he wanted to admit. He kept checking the unit beside them, hoping there would be an empty enough place for them to slip between the shelves and crawl out on top of the wreckage.

He realized vaguely that he had lost his origami gun somewhere in the commotion. He was weaponless again—his little box of shuriken had opened and spilled too, so he only had one left.

Kirtida stopped then, and Yuya already knew why before she started talking in words that he couldn't quite grasp. They were stuck. She couldn't get any farther.

Yuya growled under his breath, feeling panic rise up in his chest and trying to mask it with frustration. He turned over on his back and tried to push at some of the boxes still on the shelves with his feet, attempting to push them out of the way so they could crawl free. No good. The boxes were wedged tight, or too heavy to move. Kirtida's eyes glittered with fear—Yuya attempted to smile at her, but he could barely think for the panic himself.

Okay. Breathe. He needed to find a way out of this. What were their options? He needed options.

He still had part of that wonder paper. He could unfold the shuriken and try to make something else. A knife? To cut themselves free? He didn't know how to fold an origami knife, though. He could remake his gun but trying to blow themselves free was probably not a good idea.

Was there anything in the boxes they could use? He was a little wary of the strange collection of items, but thinking back to that super paper, maybe there was something in this mess...

He looked around at the pieces that had spilled from a few burst boxes. He saw a top hat and a stack of party hats, a box that appeared to be a toy set of some kind of zoo, a scarf that was curling in on itself sluggishly like some kind of snake—

Yuya flinched back, pushing Kirtida behind him at the sight of the scarf. Kirtida yelped and tried to peer over his shoulder.

That thing was definitely moving, Yuya thought. At one point he thought he could be imagining it, but at his movement he thought he saw one fringed end perk up. Like a snake's head—was it a snake? No, it was definitely a scarf, a blue and black striped thing made of a thin, almost fraying cottony fabric, with dangling fringes on both ends. It moved slowly, as though it were confused, or tired. Yuya wasn't trusting it though, and watched with his heart hammering in his chest as it seemed to roll itself up into a thin line. It started to slither about then, moving into...a letter? It was spelling out a letter in English. Yuya's brain was still racing by the word was easy enough for him to understand in his head.

HI?

Yuya blinked.

"H-hello?" he said in English. "Can you...hear me?"

The scarf hesitated. Then it began to slither again, forming each letter with its length seperately.

YES.

It took Yuya a few moments to construct the sentence he wanted to ask in his head and translate it to English.

"What...are you?"

The scarf immediately began to move.

SCARF.

Well. Either it was incredibly literal, or he had a smartass on his hands. He glanced back at Kirtida. She shrugged, clearly as confused as he was. Yuya ran his tongue over his dry, cracked lips.

"Where did you come from?"

The scarf curled into the letters one a time and Yuya struggled to remember each letter.

BOX.

Yuya hesitated. Clearly, the scarf didn't really understand what Yuya was asking. It was kind of like talking to a small child. Yuya shifted onto his hands and knees, leaning tentatively towards the scarf. Kirtida's hands curled into his jacket and half tugged him back. At the back of his consciousness, he recognized that the sounds of the fighting were getting closer and closer. He could hear shouting and hissing and screeching and crashing. The sound of claws scraping across the wall. His mind flickered to that long armed creature that killed everyone that saw its face. Where was Yusei now? And where had Yuma gone? Where they all safe or was that creature done with them already, headed for Yuya and Kirtida next. He had to find a way out of here, and here he was sitting and talking to a scarf.

"Okay, I'm—we have to try and find a way out of here. So I'm..."

The scarf started moving again. Frantically, barely holding each letter for more than a fraction of a second. Yuya almost missed a few letters.

DON'T GO.

"W-we have to get out of here, it's dangerous..."

LONELY.

Yuya hesitated. Kirtida tugged on his jacket.

"Yuya, we have to go," she said.

"I know, I know..."

But his eyes kept being drawn by the scarf. He knew he should be afraid of it—maybe it would choke him to death if he put it on, like every other damn dangerous thing in this place. And yet...there was something endearing about it. Something sweet, innocent, frightened, about the way that it seemed to tremble slightly.

Against his better judgment, he reached out and gently lifted the scarf into his hands. Kirtida yelped with protest as immediately the scarf seemed to snap around his arm and tightened like some kind of boa constrictor. Yuya gasped—fuck, fuck, fuck, he was so dumb, why had he done that, next thing he knew it was going to slither up to his neck and strangle him—

But then it relaxed its grip, settling to a comfortable twisting around his arm. He thought, for a moment, that he could hear it sigh in the back of its head, an echoey sort of sound that rippled through him.

He breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, let's try and—" he started.

And then Judai was flung into the room and crashed into the shelf, sending some boxes tumbling over their heads. Yuya threw his arm over Kirtida's head and they both dropped with a cry, trying to shield themselves from the rain of debris. The shelf groaned ominously over their heads—if they didn't get out of here soon, they were going to be crushed!

Through the slats of boxes Yuya could see Judai's red jacket, his eerie demonic wings flaring frantically as he staggered back to his feet. Did Judai know they were down there? Could he help?

Yuya's voice was hoarse and almost too quiet.

"Judai," he gasped. "Judai!"

"Judai!" Kirtida said, her own voice barely loud enough for even Yuya to hear. There was no way he would be able to hear them!

But inexplicably, he flinched at the sounds of their voices and whipped around. Yuya gasped for a moment as he caught a glimpse of Judai's glowing, bichromatic eyes—one a brilliant green, the other a deep orange. He shook his head, then—it was no more odd than the fact that he was sprouting wings and scales and fangs, so it was something that could be thought about later. Judai was definitely on their side and they needed help.

"Down here," Yuya gasped. "We're in here!"

"Yuya? Kirtida? Hell, you two, how did you—"

There was a roar of anger and Judai had to whip around to meet the swinging blade of Able charging into the room. Judai stumbled backwards and almost hit into the shelves but Yuya could see him wheeling his arms and trying to stop from crashing into the unit again. Now that he knew they were under there, he was trying to make sure they didn't get hurt! The action caused Judai to go open for a moment and Yuya thought he saw the shadow blade slash across Judai's chest.

He almost screamed but the sound died in his throat. Oh god, no, Judai, if he hadn't known they were down there he could have jumped onto the unit and protected himself, but he was trying to protect them and now he was staggering to his knees and Yuya was stuck and couldn't do anything—

He felt heat blossom at his side and thought, out of the corner of his eyes, that he saw Kirtida's eyes blazing orange and red like glowing embers. She screamed, a rage-filled sound as the heat washed over Yuya. He was already sweating and he could see the metal melting over their heads and if this kept up Kirtida was going to bury them in melted metal or at the very least burn Yuya to a crisp—he had to get them out of here right now—

The scarf twitched on his arm. That was when he felt it—the twitter of a voice at the back of his head. Or—not really a voice, but the concept of a voice, a scatter of images that seemed to mean something. He got the impression of the shelf disappearing, gone from their immediate area, the pair of them standing up straight and free.

Yes, yes we need the shelf moved away, we need it gone so we can get out!

The concept of a voice fluttered at the back of his head. He got the image of someone nodding their head and smiling. Then the image of a big buff man pushing the shelf out of the way.

We don't have one of those—

But then the images shifted slightly, showing Yuya, with the scarf on his arm, moving the shelf up.

I'm—I'm not strong enough for that...

The scarf in the image was twisting up and wrapping around the shelf, pushing it back.

Can you...do that?

An image of Yuya, then.

You need me to help.

The picture of a head nodding up and down.

I don't know...how...

And then he saw, swinging at the back of his head, his pendulum. It was a complex concept that the scarf was trying to tell him—because it was the scarf, he realized, the scarf was talking to him in his head—but he understood immediately. Possibilities. Yuya had to open up possibilities for the scarf with his power.

It was so odd, such a feeling that he couldn't put words too, only the image of the pendulum swinging back and forth in his head. The scarf was offering him possibilities. He just had to help it out a little.

His eyes fluttered shut. He could feel the fabric of the scarf tight around his arm, feel the soft pulsing of some strange form of life within it. He could see his pendulum swinging in his mind's eye. Swing, back and forth, back and forth, all these bad things happening had sent them spinning one way, but now it was time...

Time for the pendulum to swing the other way.

Yuya's eyes opened. He felt something knew burning in his chest, felt something within him attach to the scarf. He raised up his arm, and as though it were a part of his own limb, sent the scarf outward, stretching longer than it should be able to, wrapping around one of the shelves above him and then pushing.

Yuya let out a cry, feeling his soul wrench inside of him. The shelves groaned, he felt Kirtidia's heat falter with her surprise, and then Yuya and the scarf were pushing, pushing, pushing, lifting the shelf up, enough for them to slip through between the boxes.

"Go!" Yuya shouted.

Kirtida only hesitated for a second. She crawl quickly past the box they hadn't been able to pass before. For a moment, Yuya thought that he was going to be stuck too. But then the scarf seemed to nudge him on, and he realized that he could stretch it even farther. He crawled forward, the scarf stretching along with him like some kind of retractable dog leash.

Kirtida was already scrambling free of the shelves. She turned around quickly to grab Yuya's outstretch free hand and help yank him free. As soon as Yuya was clear, he gasped, withdrawing the scarf with a snap. The shelves crashed down again and this time it crumpled downward completely—if they had been in there, they would have been crushed. Yuya shuddered with the idea. In the back of his head, there was an image of someone hugging someone else. Was the scarf comforting him? This was so weird.

Judai was still grappling with Able at the other side of the warehouse. Judai whipped Able into the wall with a cry, sending him crashing through the wall.

"Judai!" Yuya shouted. But Judai couldn't seem to hear him this time, staggering back and preparing for Able to launch himself back through. Where was Cain? Wasn't Cain fighting this guy too? What had happened that Yuya had missed?

"Yuya! Kirtida!"

Yuya's eyes snapped to the door. Yuma was there, eyes wide. Behind him stood a strange little man, pale skinned and wrinkled with his white hair poking out at odd intervals around his face. Kirtida was the first to react, grabbing Yuya and dragging him across the hall to Yuma. Yuya gripped Yuma's shoulder as both of them gasped for breath.

"You're okay, thank god," Yuya said. "Where's Yusei?"

"I don't know, I thought he might have caught up with you already—" Yuma said.

The scarf on Yuya's arm perked up. He got the image of a fatherly sort of figure at the back of his head, and his eyes lifted up to the old man. The old man's eyes lit up at the sight of the scarf.

"Scarf!" he cried, reaching out as the scarf poked its head happily into the man's hand. "You found Scarf! And oh my, it seems to like you quite a lot young man! What's your name?"

"W-who are you?" Yuya asked. He glanced at Yuma, who shrugged helplessly.

Scarf hadn't released Yuya yet but it curled itself around the man's hand and almost seemed to purr, like a cat rubbing against its owner after they had been away for a long time. The man smiled happily and then glanced at Yuya.

"Ah, right! Dr. Wondertainment, at your service. You don't know how grateful I am that you found Scarf, really, I'll have to tell you—later, about how grateful I am, since we should probably be going, yes?"

And then he gathered up all three staring people in his grip and herded them into the hallway away from the chaos of Judai and Able's fight.

"Wait—" Yuya said. "You're Dr. Wondertainment?"

Chapter Text

"What do you want with us?" Yami no Yugi repeated.

Luelle smiled at him, a narrow eyed, almost condescending smile.

"To test you," she said.

"But why?" Yami no Yugi said, taking a half step forward, hands rolling into fists. "Why us? Why did you take us?"

"Why don't you guess?" Luelle said, laughing. "Figuring things out is your specialty, isn't it?"

Yami no Yugi punched at the wall beside him, feeling rage fill him.

"I don't have time to play your game!"

"The game-king doesn't have time to play games? How very shocking."

Yami no Yugi wanted to fling himself forward. Throttle her, fight her, something. But something held him fast, something instinctive, nervous, like she would devour him if he got too close. Luelle just laughed, a soft, breathy sound. She turned and leaned back against the control board, calmly, as though there weren't people almost dying just a little ways away.

He forced himself to remain calm. She wasn't going to be threatened. At this point, he was trapped. He had to play her game. Think, think, think. What did the other boys have in common with him?

Yusei could communicate with robots—and he had a magic dragon mark, Yami no Yugi had seen it glowing. Judai could change into a half demon, if Yami no Yugi's eyes were to be believed. Yuma seemed to radiate with some kind of energy and had a connection with the strange being Astral. And Yuya...Yuya had been able to use that ring without dying as he probably should have.

"You're testing us for our powers," Yami no Yugi said slowly. "Something about our powers has interested you."

"Very good," Luelle said with a quiet laugh. "See, I knew you could think of it if you tried."

"But there are others with special abilities in the world," Yami no Yugi said through gritted teeth. "Throughout time and space, since you seem to be able to pull us out of different times. Why us? Of the thousands that exist, why us?"

Luelle met his eyes, and for a moment, her smiled faded slightly.

"Because only you have the soul that I'm looking for."

Yami no Yugi tensed, meeting her gaze but with difficulty. He shuddered at the depth of those too-green eyes, the seafoam color just a bit too pure, a bit too...inhuman.

"What are you?" he said.

She turned away from him, placing her hands lightly on the control panel.

"I was there, you know," she said. "When the first King rose to power. I was only a few years old at the time, of course, but I was there. And I was there for the second, and the third, and the fourth. All of the ones after. All of the ones that the goddesses' power had chosen."

She tilted her head back to look at him, the silk of her lavender hair sliding over her shoulders.

"Always, that soul was so very close. The King's Soul, always just barely within my reach."

Her fingers lifted slightly as though to grasp at air.

"But always slipping away. Always vanishing. I could never account for the power. Never truly understand it—it takes so many different forms, in every King. The power is never entirely the same. The goddesses always did believe in the freedom and individuality of humanity...it's why they sacrificed themselves for them in the first place."

She leaned on her hands for a moment, staring down through her glasses at the glowing buttons.

"You can't imagine how much power you possess," she whispered. "How much potential is in your soul. Enough to rewrite the fabric of the universe. Fix the mistakes."

Yami no Yugi found himself drawing back slightly.

"Then we...you chose us because—"

"You are inheritors. Kings. There is no bloodline to the King of Light and Shadow...more of a soul-line."

Her eyes lifted to his again.

"I have made too many mistakes in trying to acquire the King's Soul and the power that it possesses," she said. "I have not been cautious enough. This time, however...this time, I will know. The full extent of the capabilities of the next line of Kings."

"You brought us here to find out what we could do," Yami no Yugi whispered, horrified. "To find out the powers unique to our souls."

"So that this time, I will understand you...and I will be able to achieve my goals with at least one of you."

She smiled then, that wide, in control smile of hers.

"It's best to give yourself as many chances as possible, don't you think? With this data I have already, I have a fair enough chance at the next six Kings all at once."

Yami no Yugi could barely breathe. This new information clattered around in his head like a pile of marbles in a can. He couldn't completely untangle his thoughts. The explanation only made half sense—he was missing so many pieces. What exactly was the King? What was all of this about an inherited soul? It was the thing that connected Yami no Yugi, and Yugi, with the others?

"Let us go," he found himself saying, his voice cracking. "You have what you wanted. You have your data. You don't need to do this to us anymore. Reverse whatever it is you've done and send us back."

Luelle watched him through half-closed eyes. She ran her fingers across her cheek briefly for a moment.

"Perhaps," she said quietly. "Perhaps I have quite a bit of data already...but I don't believe it's enough. Not yet. Let's see how much farther I can push all of you."

She smiled at him with that darkness that made him shiver and draw back.

"You ought to be proud of your friends...they're surviving quite well."

His eyes flickered to the screen more to look away from her than to look at anyone else.

His friends were still alive, somehow, despite everything that was being thrown at them. He could see them regrouping in the hall. Yusei had caught up after leaving the automaton to fight with 096, and Yuma, Yuya, and Kirtida were being herded his direction by the man with the white hair that had just appeared from nowhere. Astral hovered behind them, and Judai was jogging back into the hallway, his wings tucked tightly at his sides.

Cain must be holding off that warrior, Yami no Yugi thought. They were just out of reach of the cameras, wherever they were, but he could tell they must be close by his friends' expressions and the way that they kept looking off screen in the same direction. Judai was the first one to move, his wings snapping out and herding them all towards the large room where the warrior had first come out of the cube. Yami no Yugi couldn't hear what the boy was saying through the screen but he thought he understood the maneuver. At least there, it was well lit and they weren't cramped in by the hallways.

"Ah, but their luck might be running out..."

Yami no Yugi flinched. His eyes jolted to another screen where Luelle was smiling with thin lips.

Yami no Yugi didn't know what those things were but he instinctively tensed at the sight of them. One was a tall, black robed thing with white mask, curved like a long beak from under a wide brimmed hat. The other was a man stumbling along behind him as though it were a puppet on strings, a thick white tragedy mask fixed to its face.

"035 and 049 have reentered the game," she said. "And ahhhh. If I'm not mistaken...that's a canister of 681 they've got with them. I wonder what they plan to do with that?"

Yami no Yugi watched, helpless, ice running through his veins as he noted the giant helium canister the masked figure was lugging, like the kind of thing used to fill balloons. Considering what kind of place this was, he knew it couldn't be anything that benign.

Luelle laughed.

"We now have a time limit, I think," Luelle said. "035 appears to be sending the gas of 681 into the ventilation into that room."

"What is 681?" Yami no Yugi said, panic gripping his heart.

"A rather curious form of helium...helium itself is not dangerous by any means, but this gas almost seems murderous."

She laughed.

"If it's pumped into that room, it will do everything its power to coat their lungs and suffocate them."

Oh god. No, no, no.

Yami no Yugi bolted for the one of the doors and tried to rip it open—but that one was locked tight, too—he was trapped in this room!

Luella laughed softly.

"It will take the gas several minutes to filter into that room...it's quite large, although the gas seems to seek out sentient beings. I would estimate you have...twelve minutes. Six minutes for the gas to find them, and six minutes for them to die of oxygen deprivation."

"How did you bring us here," Yami no Yugi hissed. "And how do I reverse it?"

Luelle turned to him.

"An unregistered SCP. They're thinking of calling it the paradox machine. I could explain to you how it works, but we'd be here all day discussing the scientific properties."

"And that machine..."

"As long as it runs, it keeps you and the others locked into this dimensional plane at this temporal moment. I used it to search out your souls and drag them here."

Yami no Yugi met her eyes.

"How do I shut it down?"

She smiled at him, and he already knew the answer.

"Win the game," she said. "And I already have a challenger for you. Say hello to 076."

The computer screens all suddenly went black. Yami no Yugi flinched and swore in spite of himself. A white cross appeared on all of the screens except one. The single still black screen had a little blinking underscore at the top. Before Yami no Yugi could ask what was going on, words started to appear on the screen as though they were typed in.

Designation 076. Request designation.

Luelle was already typing an answer.

Designation Luelle. Initiating preapproved gaming protocol.

The machine seemed to consider this for a moment.

Agreement recalled. Designate players.

Luelle's hands lifted from the keyboard and she turned, smiling, her teeth glowing in the darkness. She stepped back and gestured with an open palm to the computer.

"Step forth, king," she said. "If you are as good as you say you are, you'll be able to win."

Yami no Yugi hesitated.

"Eleven minutes remain on your friend's lives, pharaoh. 079 is currently hooked up to the paradox machine. Beat it, and the machine self-destructs. The dimensional anchors fail and you are all snapped back to your own dimension."

Yami no Yugi's hands rolled into fists. He didn't want to. This would just give her more ammo. More data. He knew why she was giving him this chance. Because she wanted them to live. She wanted to know how to defeat them in the future. This would only give her more understanding of him. And at worst case scenario, she could be lying. The game might not mean anything at all even if he won.

But then another screen turned on in the far corner, and he could see his friends in the giant warehouse room again where the cube was located. Did they know they were being suffocated? If he could tell them, would they be able to figure out how to stop it?

He didn't know.

This was his only choice.

He stepped forward and put his fingers on the keyboard, staring at the white letters that spelled Designate players.

He started to type.

Mutou Yugi and Pharaoh.

Ready, partner? He thought.

Ready, Yugi thought back.

The game would begin.

Chapter Text

Is it just me, or is it getting harder to breathe?

Judai sucked in a breath deeply. For a moment, his brain flickered rapidly through all the options: gas, poison, he was infected by something that was weakening him, his powers were waning because he had tired himself out. But no, none of those seemed likely. His breath came easier this time. He must have imagined it—especially since he was getting so tired, it was natural for him to be breathing harder.

“Where is Cain?” Yusei asked.

“Back there,” Judai said, jerking his head. “Told me to try and move you guys somewhere else. That Able guy is going psycho.”

Yusei nodded once before putting his hands on Yuma and Yuya's backs to continue herding them into the big warehouse room Judai did a quick headcount to make sure everyone was present. Yes, yes, yes, and yes—although, who was the new face, the old guy with the messy white hair? He seemed to be talking animatedly to Yuya, who was holding a cardboard box in his arms and looking a lot more confident than Judai felt, his eyes bright with determination.

Judai, for his part, felt like he was going to keel over and pass out at any moment. His heart refused to slow down and he was starting to get a massive headache. He wasn't used to using his powers for so long all at once. Once they got out of this, he was going to work on building up his strength better. He had been avoiding using his powers as much as possible in the past few months since coming into them, and now he realized how stupid that was.

Once we get out of this? he thought. I must have more faith in us than I thought.

But there wasn't an option. They had to get out of this, no matter what.

Judai turned nervously back towards the opposite wall, continuing to move backwards with the rest of the group and put distance between them and the gaping hole that had been blown through the wall. Able was still out there—so was that monster that killed anyone that saw its face, that statue that would kill you if you looked away, probably a few other things that wanted to kill them. He felt almost a hysteric laugh starting to bubble in his throat at the thought, but he shoved it down. He couldn't lose it—not in front of everyone. Especially not the younger two, who were probably worried enough as it was.

Judai stopped the group at a little over halfway to the other wall. They needed enough room to move—this was going to be the final standoff, he thought. Either they succeeded in defeating the monsters in this room, right now...

Or they all died here.

His wings shuddered instinctively at the thought and he tried to hide it as a brief stretch. Yusei's eyes flickered towards him, though, and Judai knew that Yusei had already come to the same conclusion.

This was it.

Yuya dropped the cardboard box and popped it open.

“So this box has what in it again?” he was asking the white haired man.

“If I'm reading the SCP labels correctly, then this must be where they're holding a few of my more interesting little toys,” the man said, jabbing at the box excitedly with one finger. “Let's have a look at what we have to work with!”

Yuya seemed to brighten at that—and he reached into the box to pull out a pair of smaller boxes wrapped in bright blue shrink wrap.

“Shadow paint?” he said.

“Ah!! An excellent choice, that will do nicely!”

“I'm sorry,” Judai interrupted, glaring at the man suspiciously. After Luelle, he wasn't inclined to trust anyone with an inside knowledge of anything in this place. “But who are you?”

The man opened his mouth to speak but Yuya jumped to his feet first.

“This is Dr. Wondertainment! He made that super paper that we used to protect ourselves—he makes a bunch of stuff like that!”

“What? Really?” Judai said, shocked out of his suspicion in spite of himself. “You...make that stuff?”

“I invented that super paper myself,” the doctor said, jutting his chin out in a self-satisfied sort of way. “Remarkable little toy, isn't it? The SCP Foundation doesn't seem to agree however—they always confiscate anything I sell in this dimension.”

Judai decided to file that information away for later.

“Okay, so...what's in the box?” he said.

“Well that room we were in was just a storeroom for all of the safer objects the Foundation's taken in,” said Yuya. “Dr. Wondertainment recognized a few of his things, and I thought—well, the paper worked well to defend us, right? We could use all the help we can get!”

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” said Yuma. “What's the shadow paint for?”

“It's a remarkable little invention of mine!” said Dr. Wondertainment. “See, have a look!”

He grinned like a little boy as he took one of the boxes and slit it open with his nail. He popped the lid open and pulled out a little jar of a thick, black liquid. He removed a paintbrush next and then set the rest of the box down so that he could open the jar.

Yuya looked absolutely fascinated, his eyes sparkling as though he were five years old on Christmas morning. Judai couldn't bring himself to be quite as excited, although he was interested in what this stuff was.

Dr. Wondertainment dipped his brush into the jar and then knelt down to the floor, painting with quick, sure strokes on the floor with the black paint. It dried immediately as he drew, only—only not like Judai would expect a thick black paint to dry, but rather...

He's painting shadows, Judai thought with a start. He's actually painting a shadow onto the floor.

Wondertainment finished his design—a thick silhouette of a cat, it seemed to be. Judai wasn't sure what that was supposed to accomplish when suddenly—the cat moved. The shadow lifted as though there were an invisible cat there, shifting into a sitting position and lifting one paw to lick at it. Somewhere in the back of Judai's mind, he could hear...purring?

Dr. Wondertainment bounced back on his heels, looking remarkably pleased with himself.

“Amazing, isn't it? And incredibly easy to clean up with this shadow eraser—ah, careful there, wouldn't want to erase your own shadow!”

Yuma had been peering inside the box and examining the white sponge inside, and he dropped it with a start at Wondertainment's words.

“C-can that happen?” he said.

“Of course it can, and it's very dangerous—that's why this is for kids thirteen and up, you know.”

Yuma looked nervously at the little white sponge. And then Yusei spoke.

“What happens if you erase a shadow?”

Dr. Wondertainment blinked, as though he hadn't noticed that Yusei was there.

“Well, you yourself start to disappear, of course—and there's some messiness involved with loss of organs at times, too, since your skin can't quite hold it in anymore.”

Yuma dropped the entire box and skittered back a bit behind Yuya, glaring nervously at the box.

“Why would you make something so dangerous?” he said.

“It's not dangerous if you read the warning labels,” Dr. Wondertainment said. “That's what they're there for! We at Wondertainment Industries take no responsibility for the misuse of our products.”

Yusei picked up the fallen box and pulled out the eraser. He examined it for a moment, and then his blue eyes met Judai's.

“Judai,” he said, holding the eraser up. “Assuming you can distract whatever comes at us first for long enough....”

Comprehension snapped across Judai immediately.

“We can just erase them,” he said, eyes widening. “Yusei, you're a genius.”

“It all depends on how long we can distract something, though, and keep it in place long enough for someone to erase the whole shadow,” Yusei said. His eyes found Yuya, Yuma, and Kirtida. “Perhaps if we have enough distracting shadows....?”

Yuya brightened immediately.

“I'm on it!” he said, whipping out a second box of shadow paint and ripping it open. He popped open the jar, pulled out a paintbrush, and got to work immediately. Judai didn't know what he was painting, but it looked big. Good, that would work.

He startled a bit at the feeling of something rubbing against his leg, and for a moment, he thought that Pharaoh was here, nuzzling him in that way he liked to do. But when he looked down, all he saw was the shadow of the cat, as though an actual invisible cat were rubbing against him.

This could work, he thought with a daring hope. This...this could really work.

“Kirtida, what do you think about drawing something that they can get tripped up and trapped in?” Judai said. “Chains, or ropes, or—something.”

Kirtida nodded. Yuma, after a moment's hesitation, grabbed a jar of the paint as well and they all got to work. Judai turned to the hole in the wall, wondering what would be coming out first. He tensed as something appeared, but it was only Cain, running low and fast across the room towards them.

“There you are,” he growled when he got close. “I didn't know where anyone was.”

“Where's Able?” Judai asked.

“Got distracted back there,” Cain said, jerking his head back. “Got into a bit of a skirmish with 096, but I think they both gave up on each other. Able isn't affected by 096 if he looks at it.”

“He's not?” Judai said, paling. “What is he?”

Cain didn't answer this, glancing at the rest of the group, eyes narrowing.

“What are you all doing?” he said.

“Fortifying,” said Judai. “We got our hands on some of this shadow paint stuff.”

“More of Wondertainment's toys?” Cain said with his nose wrinkling.

His eyes flashed across to Dr. Wondertainment, who was hovering near Yuya and chatting amiably with the young man. Sounded like he was praising Yuya's creativity, and Judai was pretty impressed himself with what Yuya had painted. He had used almost his entire jar of shadow paint, but the giant dragon-like shadow was already shifting and moving forward towards the hole as though protective. Judai almost felt like he could feel the footsteps of the giant beast shaking the floor. Although, now that Judai thought about it, was that scarf wrapped around Yuya's arm moving? What was up with this kid?

“Who is that?” Cain asked, jerking his head at Wondertainment.

“Dr. Wondertainment, apparently.”

Cain's eyes widened.

“Him? In the Foundation? How?”

“I don't know. I didn't ask. He seems to be willing to help so I'm going to ignore him for now.”

“Isn't that what happened with Luelle?” Cain asked, almost snarling.

Yusei snapped up from where he had been painting his own series of traps across the hole.

“And weren't you the one that told us to abandon Yuma to die?” he said in that quiet, intense way of his. “You belong to this organization as well—tell us why we should trust you anymore than we trust him?”

Judai's eyes snapped to Cain with shock.

“You said what about Yuma?”

“He had seen 096's face. It would have been unsafe to allow him to leave the facility with that thing after him.”

His lip curled.

“Although, now all of you have seen it. You might as well have your gravestones carved by now.”

Judai glowered at him, his hands rolling into fists. If they weren't preparing to fight a horde of monsters, he would have started punching this guy in the face right then and there. Judai didn't like his attitude—the way that he seemed so willing to discard them for dead.

“We're going to win this,” he hissed. “We are going to win this right here and now.”

Cain just stared levelly at him.

“Do you really think that's possible?” he said.

“We won't know until we try,” Judai said. “You can't know what's going to happen until the fight is over.”

Cain held Judai's gaze for a moment. Then he sighed, closing his eyes.

“You're naïve,” he said. “This is the last chance we have. I know the capabilities of our enemy better than any of you.”

His eyes swept the ragtag group.

“And this will not be enough strength to destroy them.”

Judai squared his shoulders, Yubel hissing defensively within him.

“Try us,” he said.

Cain met Judai's eyes again. Held them. Stared right into the glowing green and orange of Yubel and Judai's shared eyes that burned through Cain's eyes. Cain sighed. He laughed hollowly.

“Part of me wonders if you're actually going to do it,” he said. “The bigger part of me knows we're doomed. But it's inspiring to see you fight so hard.”

He drew in a heavy breath, his eyes narrowing for a beat. Judai breathed in himself, and thought—it really is getting harder to breathe somehow, isn't it? Maybe I'm just too worn out.

But he couldn't give up yet. Not yet. They were so close.

Kirtida screamed.

Judai whipped around towards the hole—who was coming, what was the first enemy? Yusei bolted for Kirtida, who had gotten very close to the faraway hole to paint her traps, and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. He pulled her back just in time before a long pale arm swiped where she had been a moment before.

The horrible sound of crying rang across the warehouse.

It's coming—

096 loped into the room with that screeching sob that ripped through him like a knife. It swiped for Kirtida again but Yusei pulled her into his chest and fell out of the way. At the same time, the creature's arm caught on—nothing? No, it was getting stuck in one of the shadow chains stretched across the floor! The creature struggled and yanked, but its wrist had gotten caught in a tangle of shadow chains and it screeched with a mixture of frustration and agony.

The delay gave Yusei enough time to half drag Kirtida back behind the others. She was shaking so badly that for a moment, she couldn't even stand up without Yusei holding her. Yusei held her steady for just a moment and then darted for the half empty shadow paint boxes, brandishing shadow erasers in both hands.

“Judai!” he shouted.

Judai nodded and flared his wings, snapping forward with his claws outstretched. 096 had managed to yank its arm free, and it turned just in time for Judai's claws to rip into its face. The creature screeched. It clapped its hands to its face and stumbled back. But Judai didn't get the second he thought he would—it recovered inhumanly quickly, shooting for Judai, hands latching around his neck. He heard Yubel screech in his brain as the hands tightened. Her power flared inside of him and for a few breaths, he didn't feel himself being choked. It was 096 that felt as though it were being choked, because it dropped Judai with a start and pawed at its own neck. Judai hit the ground and rolled backwards, coming up with his arms cross protectively in front of himself and his wings enclosed around him.

096 went for him again, but more cautiously this time, darting back and forth, trying to get inside Judai's defense. Judai drew back, biding his time, making some distance. He knew he didn't have a whole lot of time to waste with this one—Able and any one of the other monsters could be on their way at this moment—he had to deal with this one while it was his only adversary!

Wind rippled past him and he gasped. For a moment, he could feel the ground shaking. And then that huge dragon's shade stretched past him, slipping underneath 096 as though there were a giant dragon looming over it.

The shadow slashed forward and 096 went flying.

“Go, shadow Odd-Eyes!!” Yuya shouted. “Beat that thing!”

Judai thought that maybe he was imagining it, but something like a roar echoed in the back of his mind. An almost melodious, eerie sound that sent a shudder through him.

It almost feels like a real Duel Spirit, he thought, stumbling back as the dragon shadow stomped forward to strike at 096 again. Is it—somehow channeling the actual spirit? Is that the paint's power, or is it Yuya's?

“That's it, my boy! Marvelous!” Dr. Wondertainment shouted. “You use my inventions to their utmost capabilities!”

Judai didn't have time to listen to Dr. Wondertainment get excited over things. Yuya's dragon was indeed powerful, but it only seemed able to knock 096 around without dealing any real damage. The creature couldn't do much against the dragon since it was only a shadow, but it wouldn't be long before a second opponent showed itself and then they would be out of luck!

Judai had to do something. His eyes snapped around the room for something—and he caught Yusei's eye again, remembering that the boy was waiting with two shadow erasers in hand. Right—they didn't have to kill the thing necessarily—but if they could get at its shadow—

He had to hold 096 down.

“Yuya! Pull your dragon back—just a little bit if you can!”

Yuya nodded in response.

“Odd-Eyes, back up! Let Judai at it!” he shouted.

Amazingly, the shadow responded immediately, drawing back. It was enough to corner 096, but not enough to stop Judai from getting to it.

He snapped forward and shot towards the creature, darting around it at the last second and latching his arms under its arms. He planted his feet and gripped as tightly as he could.

“Yusei!” he shouted. “Now!”

Yusei bolted, head down, arms pumping to get himself there. He slid towards them as though sliding for a base on a home run so that he slid right underneath the struggling creature's legs. He rolled over onto his stomach, erasers in hand, and started to rub at the creature's shadow furiously.

“Careful!” Judai shouted, as the creature struggled and almost elbowed him in the jaw. “Don't erase your own shadow!”

The creature's head was fading—it was really fading away! Judai could see the brain through it as though its head were made of glass, an eerie, alien thing that pulsed green, some kind of viscous fluid dribbled all over it like molasses.

The creature shrieked once more—and then it got one arm free.

“YUSEI!” Judai screamed.

Just a moment too late. Yusei's head jerked out of the way but the arm connected with the side of his head. He was sent sprawling to his side, catching against 096's leg, and lay there for a moment, eyes wide, unable to move. The claw shot for Yusei's eyes this time. Judai screamed and wrenched the creature away, flinging it to the ground several inches away.

He dropped to his knee beside Yusei and grabbed his shoulder.

“Yusei, say something, you have to stay with me—Yusei!”

He was dazed—nothing more—but Judai couldn't stop the panic pulsing through him and the terror that coursed through his veins. 096 was getting back up—Judai snapped his wings around Yusei's paralyzed body in a desperate attempt to protect him, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough. He had to move Yusei out of the way somehow but he wasn't going to have time—

He could feel the shadows move.

They rushed towards him, losing their painted shapes and running towards him like a webbing of rivers on a map headed for the ocean. The shadows pooled at his feet so that for a moment, it seemed like he were standing in a black puddle.

The shadows are mine. They've always been mine.

And I can use them.

The shadows slithered up him, hardening, solidifying, building the plates around his legs first and then sliding up to his chest and down his arms. His wings and claws slid back under his skin—he wouldn't need them for this moment. The armor would be enough.

The shadows grew and closed around his head and he drew the face plate down with a snap. The remaining shadows congealed at his hand, and he gripped at the hilt of a long, deadly black sword that curved wickedly at its tip.

For a moment, he almost panicked. This armor had brought so much pain. He had hurt so many people using this armor, this weapon. He could remember the face of every helpless person he had struck down with the power of his shadows, draining the soul from their eyes.

No. Not this time. This time I will protect.

096 hesitated for just a brief moment. Its head was still only barely there, and Judai could see the brain inside.

What will it take to kill it? he thought. Let's find out.

He drew the blade up with both hands, drawing it beside his shoulder and sliding into a more powerful stance. He could feel the shadows licking at his legs like tongues of cold fire. He knew that anyone that was looking at him would see him shrouded with shadow and darkness. He hoped that the others weren't going to be frightened of him for this...but he needed the power that his shadows gave him.

This is it for you, he thought.

096 seemed to know, then, that for once, it was completely outmatched. It took a step back. Its too wide mouth opened to scream.

Judai plunged the blade right through that open mouth and drove the shadow sword upwards into the visible brain. 096 made a squelching noise. It spasmed, arms shooting up for a moment as though to rip Judai in half. For a moment, Judai thought it was over for him. Nothing could kill this thing, and his sword was stuck. How long would he be able to hold this armor? Not for long, he knew.

And then the creature's limbs slackened. Judai's arms gave out as the body collapsed, dragging his sword down with it. He had to release the blade, unable to yank it free.

096 lay on the floor, crimson blood staining the ground.

Not moving.

Dead.

The armor blew off of him like smoke in a breeze. His sword vanished too.

Judai swayed on his feet.

Too much, he thought dizzily. I used...too much energy. Shouldn't have...used it all on...that thing...

The shadows from the shadow paint were all gone—he had consumed all of them without thinking about it. No more traps to trip up the next monster.

One down, though, he thought.

He collapsed face first onto the ground. His ears rang. It really was getting hard to breath in here!

He almost didn't notice when Yuya screamed.

He did, however, notice when the pure black sword was driven straight down into his side.

Chapter Text

Yusei struggled to his knees, his head spinning. He felt like he was going to throw up and tried to gasp for breath.

He almost choked when he realized how hard it was to breath. He tried a few smaller breaths, which came easier. But he didn't want to hyperventilate—how hard had he been hit in the head? Why was it so hard to breathe?

Yusei pressed a hand to his mouth for a moment to still the bile rising up in it. His vision still wasn't entirely clear from that blow to the head—where was 096? He had lost the shadow erasers somewhere when he had gotten hit, where were they?

Yuya screamed.

Yusei struggled to see, struggled to breathe. Why couldn't he breathe? He fell to his hands, trying to hold himself up. He coughed twice, feeling as though something thick was lodging in his lungs. What was going on? Where was everyone? What about Judai, or 096?

Yusei squinted through his hazy vision. That lump there—096? On the ground, something red pooling around it. Dead? Already? Thank god, Judai must have figured something out. But Yuya had screamed so—

Yusei's eyes focused just in time to see Able standing over him, sword poised to swing right down through him and sever his head from his body. He swore, trying to struggle to his feet to get away. The blade came down with a screeching sort of noise.

Before it hit, however, something crashed into him from the side and they went tumbling over the tops of each other across the floor. Yusei came to a stop face up with Yuma sprawled on top of him. He grabbed Yuma by the shoulders and lifted them both up.

“That was reckless,” he said, his voice tight—good Lord, it was getting hard to breathe!

Yuma seemed to be struggling for breath as well, his cheeks flushed and shoulders heaving with each breath. He wasn't able to respond, he just clutched at Yusei's coat. Able was turning towards them again with that fiery hatred in his eyes. Cain let out a cry and flung himself at Able's back. Able screeched, trying to reach over his shoulders to grab at the man holding him down. But Cain wasn't going to be so easily dissuaded, dragging Able down to the ground in some kind of holding position that might have been a wrestling manuever.

Yusei tried to focus on breathing, holding Yuma partially behind him as he backed away from the fight. But Yuma tugged frantically at his coat.

“Ju—dai,” Yuma gasped. “Judai—needs—help.”

Yusei swore mentally as he turned towards where Yuma was pointing. Judai was trying to drag himself up to a sitting position against a stack of boxes, eyes wide, hand clutching at his side. There was blood streaming between his fingers, too much of it, it was smeared across the floor where Judai had obviously dragged himself out of the way. Yusei grabbed Yuma by the shoulders and met his eyes.

“Are you—can you breathe?” he asked.

Yuma gasped for a breath.

“Kind—kind of,” he said. “It's—it's getting hard—for some reason.”

Yusei swore mentally again. Gas. It had to be—something was suffocating them somehow but he didn't know what or how. He dug into his pocket and ripped out that bottle with the last red pill inside. SCP 500, it was called, or something. He grabbed Yuma's hand and forced it open, shoving the pill into his palm.

“Take this,” he ordered. “Swallow this, grab Yuya, Kirtida, and Dr. Wondertainment, and find yourself shelter outside this room. Do you understand?”

“I can't leave you guys,” Yuma started. “And what about you, you should take it—”

“You. Go. Now.”

Yuma stared at Yusei with wide, teary eyes for a moment. Then he nodded. He shoved the pill into his mouth and ran across the room towards Yuya and Dr. Wondertainment, who were digging frantically through the box for something to use while Kirtida hovered over them, hands flapping at her sides.

Yusei hesitated for a moment to gasp for breath. He had no idea what was in the room right now, if it was poisonous, or if it was just suffocating—who knew if that pill would have any effect? But if there was a chance...if there was even the tiniest chance that he could get those two kids and Kirtida out of here—he had to take it.

He stumbled towards Judai, trying to skirt Able and Cain's violent fight as much as possible. Neither of them looked injured or hindered in any way, but every now and then a splatter of blood sprayed over the ground from a swung sword. Their footprints tracked the blood across the ground.

Yusei dropped to his knees beside Judai, who was just as red and gasping as Yusei felt. Judai gripped at Yusei's shirt.

“Go,” he mumbled. “Go with them, now, there's nothing you can do for me—”

“Shut up and conserve your breath, we're being suffocated by something,” Yusei muttered back. “Get your arm over my shoulder.”

Judai tried to resist for a moment, but he was so weak and losing so much blood that he didn't have the strength to fight Yusei dragging his arm over his shoulder and trying to pull him to his feet.

“Awwww, that's really cute, there—you make a good couple, you know that?”

Yusei swore mentally as his eyes snapped up.

There was a long sort of figure laying on top of the boxes over their heads, resting his head on his hands and kicking his legs in the air. He grinned down at the two of them, his grin far too wide, making him think of that horrible monster 096.

Yusei froze. How long had that man been there? Who was he? Where did he come from? If he had been there the whole time that Judai was sitting there, then had he waited until specifically the moment that Yusei was hindered with holding Judai to make his presence known? If this came down to a fight, Yusei knew that he wasn't going to be able to defend himself or Judai.

“I see you saved at least the little one from suffocating with that pill,” the man said, glancing over towards Yuma, who was now pushing the other three towards the door. “That's good! It'd be a boring way for him to die, and I still want to see if I can't have fun with him.”

Yusei swallowed.

“Who are you?”

The man's eyes slid back to Yusei's, and he felt like he was staring into a giant spider's face for some reason.

“Ahhhh, right, I met the little one, but not you guys yet. I'm Rickten. You could say I'm Luelle's...pet.”

He grinned at them with all his teeth bared this time and Yusei swore aloud—every single one of his teeth was pointed like a fang. He tried to pull back, Judai's feet slipping in his own blood.

“Aww, don't leave yet! We've just been introduced!”

The man swung into a sitting position with his legs dangling over the sides of the boxes, and then jumped down lightly in front of them.

“I didn't think I'd have a chance to kill more than one of you,” Rickten said, his eyes bright with a terrifying glee. “But now I've got two of you, right here, and if you can't defend yourself from little old me, well, I'd guess you're not worth Luelle's time.”

“Yusei, go,” Judai mumbled into his ear. “Go, go, go...”

Not a chance. No chance in hell. Yusei wasn't going to lose to this...thing.

“And once I'm done with you two, I'll go find little Yuma-kun—I'm still pretty attached to the idea of killing him. Wouldn't his screams just be the cutest? You two might be fun and all, but it's the little ones that make the most noise.”

Yusei gripped Judai around the waist with one hand and reached into his belt with the other, searching out that paper screwdriver. He clutched it like a knife. If Rickten came after them, he might just have enough time to swing it into the man's temple and stab him—

Rickten moved even faster than Yusei imagined possible. But Judai was fast too. Before Yusei could do anything, Judai had shoved himself against Yusei and thrown them both to the ground as Rickten shot forward. The man couldn't stop his momentum and tripped over their sprawled bodies, but he immediately flipped over onto his back and bounced back to his feet. Judai was gasping something in a language Yusei couldn't understand, his eyes fluttering.

“Judai, stop, you can't breathe well enough right now and you're too tired—”

The shadows warbled for a moment underneath them and Yusei could feel them brush like mist against his skin. But then they collapsed, and Judai's head lolled onto Yusei's chest—unconscious.

“Judai—Judai!”

“Aww, too bad, he's too tired to use his shadow powers,” Rickten laughed. “And you don't have any machines around to mess with, so it looks like the two of you are screwed!”

Yusei couldn't move, not fast enough—not with Judai on top of him. Rickten grinned at him.

“Should I kill your boyfriend first, so that you can cry over him?” he said. “I was thinking I could snap his neck.”

Yusei's eyes flew desperately around for something, anything. But Yuma and the others had already escaped, and Cain was busy with Able, and Judai was unconscious, and Yugi was missing, and Yusei had no more cards to play. He closed his eyes, feeling frustrated tears bubble from his eyelids. He wasn't afraid to die—but the fact that he hadn't been able to save Judai...

And then the wall exploded.

Yusei's eyes flew open and he heard a screeching, beeping sound. He tried to turn, squinting through the dust and debris, blinking it from his eyes.

Rickten swore—and then the robot was on him.

Yusei's head whipped the other way to follow the attack. It was the robot! The one that Yusei had fixed, it was still running! One of its arms was hanging off on a thread, useless, and it was teetering a bit on one side, but it was still going, guns blazing from its shoulders and a screeching sort of computer meltdown noise erupting from somewhere deep inside, like its vocal box had been damaged. Yusei couldn't see Rickten anymore, not in the firing of bullets and the trailing cloud of dust.

It saved me, Yusei thought with a shock. It came to save me.

He groaned then, head dropping back onto the floor.

He couldn't breathe. Nothing was fitting into his lungs, it was like they were already full of something else and he couldn't pull breath into them. He tried and choked.

Rickten was taken care of, but...

But Yusei wasn't going to be able to get up.

He and Judai were going to die.

Chapter Text

Yuma didn't know where to go, but Yusei was trusting him to get these people out to someplace safe, so he had to try as hard as he could!

He angled them down the hallway away from the main fight.

“Yuma, are you sure we should be separating from them again?” Astral asked, brows furrowed with worry as ze zoomed along beside him.

“Yusei—said—go—” Yuma gasped. “So we have to—go!”

It was still hard to breathe but that was mostly because his heart was hammering too fast and he had been running too much without break. He didn't feel that heaviness in his lungs that had been there before—whatever that pill had been that Yusei had given him, it had worked. Yusei had probably taken one too, right? He had to have some there or he wouldn't have sent Yuma with the only one.

At the back of his head, Yuma knew that Yusei definitely would have given him the last one, but he tried not think about that. Yusei was smart and strong and he and Judai could take care of each other, right?

Behind him, he heard the footsteps of the others straggling, stumbling along at a slower pace than Yuma himself. Yuma turned around and bounced from foot to foot as though running in place, waiting for them to catch up. Yuya was as red in the face as his hair, and Kirtida was barely dangling along at the end of his grip. Even Dr. Wondertainment looked winded.

“Are you guys okay?” Yuma asked. “Can you keep going?”

Yuya gasped a few times before he was able to respond.

“So hard—to—breathe,” he mumbled. “Like—something's—in my—lungs.”

Kirtida nodded breathlessly, crumpling to her knees. Yuma's heart fluttered with fear. If they were all suffocating, and only Yuma was immune right now, then what was he going to do? He couldn't carry all of them, and if they ran into something nasty, he couldn't protect all of them either! He didn't have any special powers—his weird emotion thing probably wasn't going to work on most of the monsters in here.

Yuma scurried back to drag Yuya's arm over his shoulder, and then hefted Kirtida's arm over his other shoulder. They were both too heavy for him, but he struggled on, one foot at a time anyway. He had to get them someplace safe—someplace where whatever gas was choking them couldn't follow them and they could catch their breath.

“Dr. Wondertainment, are you okay?” Yuma asked.

The doctor looked a bit breathless himself, but he nodded, moving along at the same steady pace. Yuma nodded and started to struggle forward one step at a time, his two passengers slowing him down to a snail's pace.

“Just hang on,” Yuma said. “We'll get you someplace safe where you guys can catch your breath. It's going to be okay!”

“Ahhh, except there really isn't anywhere you can go at this point—that gas likes to follow its victims.”

Yuma froze, Astral swore, and Dr. Wondertainment's hands shoved into his deep lab coat pockets.

Something tall and black stepped around the corner, something with a pale white face and a long hooked beak made of porcelain, eyes glittered from behind the eyes of a mask, shadowed by the brim of a wide, black hat. It hissed softly, and Yuma gasped, taking a step back. He couldn't move far, though, not with his passengers slung half over his shoulders. Yuya gripped at Yuma's arm, mumbling something that Yuma couldn't understand with the blood rushing in his ears. He reached out suddenly, instinctively, with his mind, sending a wash of reassurance over the other two in a desperate attempt to keep them calm, not as panicky as him—maybe if Kirtida and Yuya were clear headed, they would be able to come up with a plan. Yuya seemed good at plans! All Yuma could do was make people feel things sometimes!!

The voice didn't seem to have come from the masked bird thing, though—it was coming from the theater mask that the bird thing was holding.

“Hello there, kings!” the mask said cheerily. “Having a bit of trouble breathing?”

“What did you do?” Astral snapped.

“Oh, nothing, nothing much...just sprayed a bit of sentient helium into the room you were all in.”

“H-helium?” Yuma mumbled. Wasn't that the stuff that came in balloons? That made your voice all squeaky?

“Sure, it's not normally dangerous, but when it's trying to kill you, well...can't take in any oxygen into your lungs if they're all filled up with helium instead!”

Astral shot between the pair and the others as the black cloaked figure seemed to make a move forward.

“But I see you're not choking to death, kid,” the mask said, and Yuma realized with a jolt that it was talking to him. “Wonder why?”

The mask seemed to consider for a moment. Then its lips moved a little bit as though it were imitating a shrug.

“Well, it's not a problem. Hey, would you consider maybe putting me on?”

Yuma felt a tug at the back of his head—a sudden jolting desire to put the mask on. Like he was supposed to, like it was something that he could use to protect himself somehow. His fingers twitched for a moment as though to drop Yuya and Kirtida and walk forward.

But then he realized just as quickly that he was being emotionally manipulated—his own kind of ability! Well, he wasn't going to get thrown off by a trick like that! He gritted his teeth and focused all his energy on the mask.

Fear, he thought. I want you to be afraid of me. I want you to be so afraid that you go away.

The mask's lips turned down and it turned into a tragedy mask. Yuma felt a slight tremor come from it for a moment.

“W-well,” the mask said. “This looks—interesting—hm. I don't understand why I'm—”

It hesitated a few moments.

“Hey, pal,” it said, towards the thing holding it. “Think these kids have the pestilence on them?”

The creature hissed.

“Yesss,” it said. “I smell it. It must be purged.”

Kirtida's fingers dug into Yuma's arm. He didn't need his emotion powers to understand the fear in her eyes. That was a thing that Yuma wasn't going to be able to handle on his own.

Yuma stiffened as the bird man dropped the mask and started forward. Astral once again shot forward, but zir jaw clenched with frustration as ze went right through the creature. Yuma took a step back, not willing to let go of Kirtida or Yuya.

“Hey, there, lad,” Dr. Wondertainment said with a bit of nervousness. “We might want to come up with a plan.”

And then the bird man shot forward, faster than Yuma would have thought. He gasped, jerking back with his passengers into tow. His balance shifted too quickly and he squealed as he and the other two toppled to the ground. The bird man wasn't prepared for its prey to disappear so quickly and it couldn't stop its momentum. Yuma flinched as its foot caught on Yuma and it went careening down on top of them.

Yuya had enough presence of mind to attack, swinging an arm wildly at the bird man and throwing it off the top of them. Dr. Wondertainment was there then, lifting Yuya to his feet by the scruff of his neck and then hefting Yuma up by the arm. Yuma grabbed Kirtida under the arms and then as one they started running.

The mask was screaming, swear words and obscenities and angry screeches about the bird man needing to get up, they were getting away!

Yuma couldn't run, not fast enough, not with Kirtida in his arms. Dr. Wondertainment was helping with Yuya, but it wasn't going to be enough. They weren't going to be able to get away.

Yuma grabbed Dr. Wondertainment's coat with his free hand.

“Take Kirtida!” he gasped. “I'll try—to hold them off!”

“By yourself?” the doctor said, eyebrows shooting up towards his receding hairline.

“Just please! We're not going to be fast enough!”

Dr. Wondertainment didn't argue anymore, taking Kirtida by the arm. She scrabbled for Yuma's arm for a moment, and Yuya seemed to be trying to scream for Yuma to stop.

“Yuma, no!” Astral said.

“We have to try and buy them time,” Yuma said. “D-don't worry, I won't be reckless!”

Yuma turned to face their opponent. The bird man was faster than he had anticipated—it was already just a few feet away!

Yuma thought he should dodge—but then it might just go right past him after the others, and they couldn't breathe. They wouldn't be able to run fast enough! That meant Yuma had to take this guy on right now.

A strange sense of calm fell over Yuma as the creature drew closer, closer—as though the world were moving in slow motion. He might die here, he thought. He could definitely, definitely die here. He wasn't very fast and he wasn't very strong and he wasn't big enough to hold his ground.

But he had to try.

Yuma shifted his weight down and spread his arms out, doing the exact opposite of what Shark had told him about fighting. He was supposed to make himself a smaller target. For a moment, Yuma could almost hear the purple haired boy chewing him out at the back of his head—idiot, don't sacrifice yourself all the time like a goddamn idiot, fight to live or I'm going to beat you up when you get back here!

If I get back there, Yuma thought.

And then, his internal vision of Shark was glaring at him.

There's no if about it, Yuma could hear Shark saying. You come back or else.

Yuma felt a dry laugh bubble in his throat. All right, Shark. If you say so.

And then the bird man reached him.

Yuma ducked just as the arms came for him and thrust forward, slamming full body into the creature at the waist. The bird man let out a tiny sound like a yelp, and then they were both going down, hitting the floor in a tangle of limbs and cloth. Yuma tightened his arms around the creature's waist, throwing his legs around its legs so that it would have a hard time getting up.

“Yuma!” Astral shouted, fear tightening zir voice.

Yuma couldn't respond, he was too busy hanging on to the bucking creature. After a few seconds, it regained its senses, and went at Yuma with its hands. A momentary instinctive panic overtook Yuma, and he launched himself off just before the hands grabbed his face. He rolled once and then back onto his feet, arms crossed in front of himself protectively. The bird man was struggling to its feet.

“I must heal you,” it mumbled. “You are full of it—the pestilence. It must be destroyed.”

“I'm completely healthy,” Yuma said. “You need to go away!”

He felt out with his shaky emotional powers again—he still didn't really know how they worked! What was this thing even feeling?

Yuma jerked back as he brushed against the creature's mind. Cold. It's mind was so...so cold. Cold and empty—it...it wasn't actually feeling anything at all. Was it even alive?

Yuma shifted back to his feet, backing off warily. He glanced briefly over his shoulder to see how far the others had gotten. He couldn't see them anymore. Had he bought enough time? He would have to run too, soon, he wasn't strong enough to fight this thing and he didn't have any weapons!

Astral cried out and Yuma's eyes shot back to the creature—too late.

It's hands closed around the bare skin of Yuma's throat.

Yuma choked—but not because it was squeezing, because it wasn't. His limbs stiffened, his fingers curled on themselves, his mouth opened up in a silent scream.

He was burning up.

A scream ripped from his throat. There was a fire rushing down his veins, a boiling in his blood—no, not his blood, something more ethereal. He could feel his soul ripping up, his soul was burning and boiling and shriveling up. This thing was—was killing him. Just by touching him, it was ripping out his very soul. Yuma could see out of the corner of his eye that his skin was starting to turn gray, to crack, spreading out very slowly from where the creature had touched him, like his skin was turning into a gray desert landscape.

Astral was screaming in his ear. Yuma flailed once.

Was he going to die? Was he actually going to die? His arms slumped.

And then at the back of his head, he once again heard Shark yelling at him, matching Astral's voice, both of them screaming at him.

GET UP YOU IDIOT! IT'S NOT TIME FOR YOU TO DIE YET!

Yuma got his last wind. His arms snapped up and struck the creature on the insides of its elbows. The arms snapped out and it gasped as it lost its grip on Yuma. Yuma crumpled to his feet, hands smacking against the wall behind him to steady himself.

He was still dying, he realized. Whatever that creature was doing, it was still killing him.

He had to run.

He didn't know where he found the strength. Part of it was Astral supporting him, he knew, but the rest of it, he had no idea. He stumbled along the hallway. It seemed impossible that he should make it as far as he did without that creature catching up to him, without his legs just giving out underneath him. The grayness was spreading. Slowly, but surely. He thought that if it reached his heart, he would probably die.

“Yuma!”

Yuya's voice took him by surprise and he almost fell, Astral's hands the only thing keeping him up. Yuya darted from a side door and grabbed Yuma under the arms, dragging him into the room.

“Oh, god, he's dying, what's happening to him?”

Kirtida spoke rapidly in English, pointing to the end of the room. Yuma could barely see or speak. He squinted up at Yuya, gesturing vaguely towards him. Yuya wasn't quite looking at him, looking instead to where Kirtida had ran out of Yuma's sight. Yuya cradled Yuma's head in his lap, his eyes wide and face pale.

He seemed to be able to breathe, Yuma thought. That...that was good. They must have gotten away from the helium somehow. Yuma opened his mouth and tried to speak.

“Sh, it's okay, we're going to get something to heal you,” Yuya said. “Just save your energy, it's going to be okay!”

Kirtida's voice squeaked from the other end of the room and Yuya responded in English. Yuma didn't understand, but judging from their voices, something wasn't good.

“I-I'm glad you guys are okay,” Yuma mumbled. “S-sorry I couldn't...do much...I'm pretty...useless...”

“No, shush, you—you're so brave, okay? You're really brave, and you're going to get through this, okay?” Yuya said, frantic, gripping Yuma's shoulders. “You did—you did so much, you're not useless at all! You saved our lives and—and we're going to save yours, okay?”

Yuma could feel the grayness seeping below his skin. It was clutching at his heart, he thought. He was going to die soon. Astral was...was Astral crying? Yuma thought he could see something diamond and sparkling rolling down Astral's cheeks. Yuma tried to reach up to his friend, vague, trying to reassure him.

I'm sorry.

“Try anything!” Yuya shouted towards Kirtida. “We need something that will heal him!”

Kirtida responded in a tremulous voice. Yuma rolled his head over on Yuya's lap, squinting towards Kirtida. What was she doing?

She seemed to be hovering in front of some kind of vending machine. Her fingers hovered over the keys, but she didn't seem to know what to push.

“Try 'something that will heal anything!'” Yuya said in Japanese, and then seemed to realize that Kirtida couldn't understand him and switched to English.

“What...what are you doing?” Yuma mumbled.

“That—that machine can give you any kind of liquid, we used it to clear the helium from our lungs, but Kirtida doesn't know what's killing you and she isn't sure what will work!”

Kirtida shouted back again and Yuya swore.

“Out of range, always out of range, what does that mean??”

Yuma stiffened, a realization hitting him.

“That—pill,” he mumbled.

“What?” Yuya said.

“That red pill—the one that Yusei gave me—if it could stop me from—choking on helium—maybe...”

Yuya shouted across the room to Kirtida, and Yuma understood enough to hear the words “SCP-500?” and then Kirtida gasped and starting punching letters into the machine. A cup appeared and liquid poured into the cup. Kirtida grabbed it and shot across the room, almost losing most of the precious liquid. She dropped to her knees as Yuma's side and Yuya propped his head up while she shoved the cup to Yuma's lips.

He barely had the strength to swallow, but he tried as she tipped the thick red liquid into his mouth. It tasted like cherry cough drops and he almost choked on it—he hated that taste! Kirtida wouldn't let him spit it back up, though, pressing it more firmly to his lips and continuing to tip it down his throat.

Yuma managed to swallow it all down, and then he started to cough, his whole body shaking and flailing. Yuya tried his best to hold him in place so that he wouldn't hurt himself, but the coughs wracked his entire body.

And then they just stopped. Yuma blinked. He felt—fine. He felt completely fine. Better than fine, actually, he felt like he had just woken up from a really good nap.

“Yuma?” Yuya asked tentatively.

“Yuma, are you all right??” Astral gasped.

Yuma swallowed once.

“Y-yeah,” he said. He grinned. “I feel great, actually!”

He popped back up to a sitting position and looked down at his skin. Clear and not at all gray and cracking. As though he had never been touched.

He turned towards the others, grinning widely with a fresh burst of confidence.

“Whatever that was, it was great!” he said. “I feel fine now!”

Astral let out a dry sob and floated down to the floor, covering zir face with zir hands in relief. Yuya smiled tremulously, looking shaken. Kirtida gripped Yuya's arm and pressed her face into his shoulder, just breathing for a moment. Dr. Wondertainment, who Yuma was just seeing now, stood awkwardly against the back wall, looking a tiny bit pale.

For a moment, they just sat there, breathing, trying to regain their senses. The silence rang in their ears.

And then there was a pounding on the door.

“Hey in there, little kings,” the mask's voice called. “Why don't you open up so we can play?”

Chapter Text

Do we ever get a break??

The monsters outside were pounding on the door. Once. Twice. Was it throwing itself against the door? The whole wall seemed be shaking with every strike. Yuya gripped Yuma's hands—despite Yuma insisting that he felt perfectly fine, he had just had a near death experience and Yuya was pretty sure they weren't desensitized to those yet so he was determined to stay as close to Yuma as possible while he got his wind back.

He felt a mental sort of stroking, like a tiny poke of reassurance and calm. He seemed to be feeling that every time that Yuma grabbed hold of him lately, but it wasn't quite enough to completely still Yuya's nerves. Enough to keep his mind clear from the full panic, though, and enough for him to be able to assess the situation. Scarf buzzed around his arm, snaking around it and tightening as though in reassurance—or perhaps asking for comfort, he wasn't sure. He stroked it absently like it was a cat.

“Kirtida, do you have any more quarters?” he asked, jerking his head at the vending machine they were pressed up against. That thing had saved their lives by being able to output a liquid that made them able to breathe helium somehow. Yuya hoped the effect would be permanent, or at least last long enough for the sentient helium to dissipate.

She shook her head.

“We used all the ones we found on the counter,” she mumbled.

Damn. Yuya had been hoping to use the vending machine to get some kind of acid to throw at the creatures. Could there be some under the machine, maybe? They didn't have time to get on their hands and knees and search.

We need to get back to that other room where Yusei and Judai are, Yuya thought. They could be suffocating.

Of course, Yuya didn't have any clue how he was going to help them without more of that liquid from this machine, but that was something he could figure out later. He looked desperately at Dr. Wondertainment for something, anything, but the man just shrugged helplessly. Yuya bit his lip. Think, think, think! There had to be something he could use! Could Scarf do something?

He glanced down at the little blue and black thing wrapped lazily around his arm, and thought, no, probably not. Not this time. He didn't know how he had communicated with that thing before, but he wasn't getting anything like it from it now.

His eyes wandered across the room. Unlike many of the other rooms they had been in, this one just looked like an ordinary break room, like one that you would find inside of an office. A table, some chairs and cabinets, a mini fridge. This room, at least, didn't seem to have any signs of the chaos that had happened outside.

His eyes moved to the other side of the room. There was another door. An escape route? He had no idea where it would lead. But if this was a break room, and only a break room, it couldn't be angled into something dangerous, right?

Then again, this was the SCP Foundation that he was talking about.

He grit his teeth and swallowed.

“Okay,” he said. “That way.”

He jerked his chin at the door.

“We push the table and chairs against that other door to slow them down, and go out that door. We should be able to circle around and find our way back to Judai and Yusei.”

The others didn't argue, they just nodded. Yuma was the first to extract himself from their little huddle and grab one end of the table. That glowing being that seemed attached to him, Astral, or something, hovered anxiously behind Yuma as though convinced that Yuma would collapse or break into pieces at any moment.

Yuya ran over to help Yuma shove the table into place. It was just tall enough to shove underneath the door handle—good. Kirtida came to help in shoving the chairs against the table to make the barricade stronger.

“Come on, kings, be good boys and open the door!” the mask shouted.

Yeah right.

Yuya nodded at the others and they nodded back. They darted across the room and Yuya opened the door, peering through and glancing both directions. The hallway was dark—most of the lights were out, save for one swinging light bulb. Yuya didn't like that, but he could see by its light another door down to the right that was hanging open. He swallowed down his momentary burst of panic and then turned to wave at the others. Yuma crept through first, glancing back and forth uneasily. Yuya pointed down to the open door. Yuma nodded and crept down the hallway, back pressed against the wall. Yuya waited for Kirtida and Dr. Wondertainment, then he pulled the door closed behind them and took up a spot at the rear, eyes fixed on the hallway down the other way. Light was spilling from around the corner and he could only imagine that this hall twisted around the break room, so the bird guy and the mask were probably just around that corner. They had to make sure those two didn't realize where they had gone.

Yuma made it to the other door, darted across the hallway to press himself against the wall beside it, and made to peer in. Astral stopped him with a wave of zir hand.

“I'll go,” ze said. “Most things can't see me.”

Yuma swallowed nervously, but he nodded. Astral hovered forward, poking zir head into the room and looking around.

“Empty,” ze said. “There's a machine in the back, but it's not running.”

Yuma glanced at Yuya for confirmation and Yuya felt a tightening in his chest as he realized that somehow, he had become the leader of this little group, and he wasn't sure if he was okay with that.

“We should keep moving,” Yuya started.

“Oh, there they are! Told you there was another door out of that room!”

Yuya swore, head snapping to his left to look down the hall. He could see the bird guy holding the mask, an eerie silhouette in the flood of light that remained at the end of the hall.

“Inside, inside!” Yuya shouted.

Yuma ducked into the room, Dr. Wondertainment behind him. Kirtida grabbed Yuya's hand and dragged him in after them, then she whipped around to slam the door shut. She fumbled with the lock for a moment before she got it clicked shut.

“That won't hold them,” she said, her voice cracking. “Now what?”

They were plunged into complete darkness and Yuya didn't know. He felt like they were all looking at him. But what was he supposed to do??

“Lights,” he said. “We need lights, first. Someone find a switch!”

He needed to be able to see. He needed to know what he could work with. What did he have? He had Scarf, and he had a little bit of the super paper in the form of the box at his hip with a single shuriken inside. Barely enough to make another gun.

Kirtida fumbled around near the door and then the lights clicked on.

The room was huge.

Yuya gaped for a moment at just how far back it went. Could Astral have really been sure that this place was empty in the dark? They were lucky nothing had been hiding!

Then again, it was mostly empty, Yuya realized. There weren't any huge screens or control panels like in some of the other rooms, no furniture. Like Astral had said, the only thing in the room seemed to be the large clockwork machine that took up most of the floor in the back. It was about as large as a normal sized hotel room and seemed to be made of a million and one gears. Two large booths sat on either end of the machine, connected with a thick copper tube sporting a dial in the middle. The booths were labeled in English and it took Yuya a few seconds to read it. “Intake” and “Output.”

“What...is that?” Yuya asked.

He looked to Kirtida, who shrugged, and then to Dr. Wondertainment, who raised his eyebrows, as if to say “how should I know?”

Yuya approached the machine, putting his hands tentatively on the tubing and looking over the dial. It had a few different settings in English that took him a few seconds to translate: Rough, Coarse, 1:1, Fine, and Very Fine.

What does that mean? he thought.

He scuffled over to the booth labeled “Intake” and leaned around it, looking it over. It was a glass sort of box with an opening in the side to put things in.

The door creaked with the sound of someone slamming into it from the outside.

“Yuya!” Yuma said. “We need a plan!”

The boy threw himself against the door in an attempt to hold it shut, bracing his shoulder against it. Yuya felt a cold sweat starting on his forehead. He knew they needed a plan; they were cornered and there was no way out. If that thing touched any of them they would end up like Yuma, and they didn’t have time or resources to get back to the vending machine and try to get another remedy. They needed something to take that monster out!

Yuya’s hands fell on the super paper box at his belt. It was all he had. That, and one little paper shuriken. Not enough.

He pulled the paper free from his belt anyway and dumped the shuriken out. He unfolded both of them and was only vaguely surprised at out smooth it became. Not a crease on it to show that he had folded it into a shape before. He dropped to his knees to smooth it out against the ground, heart hammering in his ears. Plan. He needed a plan. What could he make with this? It wasn’t enough. He could make another gun, but would it even have half the power he needed to destroy those things?

“Yuya!” Yuma said again as the creature slammed into the door again.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking! Kirtida, do you know what this machine is?”

Kirtida shook her head. She squeaked at the next slam on the door and ran over to press her hands against it. Dr. Wondertainment was examining the machine, rubbing his chin as he rapped against the wires with his other hand.

“Can’t make heads or tails of it,” he muttered. “What is it for?”

Yuya didn’t have time to figure it out. This paper was all he had. Scarf stirred around his arm as he quickly folded the leftover paper into a pair of paper guns. He gripped one in each hand as he turned to face the door.

“Yuma, when they get through, both of you duck to the side right away, do you understand?”

Yuma nodded, looking pale. Yuya swallowed once, then lifted both guns to point at the door. Waiting. He would have only the one clear shot and then it could be over.

“As soon as I fire, check to see if it’s falling back. If it is, run for it. If I miss…fall back behind me as quick as you can. Dr. Wondertainment, you too.”

The doctor waved his hand in a vague acknowledgment of Yuya’s words, but he was still looking over the machine. Yuya wanted to scream at him to get himself ready, that now was not the time, but he didn’t have breath for it. He was shaking. Too much shaking. He wouldn’t have a straight shot like that.

Scarf tightened around his right arm, steadying it. Yuya swallowed and smiled gratefully at the little creature, and it hummed against his arm. He took in a deep breath.

“Okay,” he said. “Yuma, when I tell you to, I want you to unlock the door and let them in.”

“What?” Yuma said.

“I’d rather let them in on our own terms—so that I can shoot when I’m ready and not when they surprise us.”

Yuma stared at him, wide eyed for a moment. But then he nodded, his jaw tightening and his feet shifting to brace himself more against the door. Yuya tried to steady his hands. Breathing. Focus on the breathing. Just like his father had taught him to do before he pulled off a particularly ridiculous acrobatic trick to grab an Action Card. Just focus on each breath, one in, one out, one in, one out…

Yuya’s thoughts faded to a low, dull hum. It felt like the whole world had gone silent in the moments just before the attack. He let out one more long breath. Then he opened his mouth, about to tell Yuma to let it open.

But before he could do that, Dr. Wondertainment was plucking both guns from Yuya’s hand and scurrying over to the machine. Yuya snapped out of his zen moment and for a moment he was just dazed, swaying on his feet. He blinked free of the shock and whipped around.

“Dr. Wondertainment, what are you doing??”

But Wondertainment wasn’t responding, he was just tossing the guns into the “Intake” booth and turning the dial to “fine” and then turning the key beneath it. Suddenly, the machine sprung to life. Yuya’s mouth dropped open as he watched the paper guns in the glass box start to roll along into the tube and disappear, the clockwork gears in the giant machine beginning to click and turn and pull in a thousand complications that his eyes couldn’t follow.

“What are you DOING??” he cried again, running over to the machine and pressing his hands against the glass of the intake box, trying to look down the tube to see what had happened to his weapons. “That was all we had—”

“Just give it a moment, lad,” Dr. Wondertainment said, wringing his hands. “Give it a moment…ah!”

There was a small ding, and then the whole machine creaked to a stop. Dr. Wondertainment scurried over to the “Output” box and opened it up. For a moment, steam billowed out, and he waved his hands through it to disperse it.

“Yuya!” Kirtida cried.

His eyes snapped back to the door. It was bending in already, oh god, and now he was weaponless and helpless and what was he going to do—

“Careful, lad, they’re a bit hot still!”

And then Dr. Wondertainment was flinging the paper guns at him again and Yuya snatched them up. He almost dropped them—they were warm to the touch! And then, for a moment, he just stared at them.

Were these…the same origami weapons he had had a second ago? They had weight and dimension, now, as though they had been made into a very detailed papercraft in the shape of some futuristic laser gun. They still felt like paper, but they were a far cry from the flat pieces of origami that he had been using previously.

“Yuya, they’re coming through!” Yuma shouted.

Yuya flinched—it was Scarf that came to the rescue, attaching to his arm and lifting his right one up as though he were on strings. The door crashed open and Yuma and Kirtida both bolted to either side of the door as the black cloaked figure stumbled through, still clutching the mask.

“The pestilence is here!” it said. “I must destroy it!”

Yuya breathed out once, Scarf steadying his arm.

He fired.

The bolt that fired from the new weapon was thinner, faster than his previous origami gun. The golden flash lasted for only a second but it was enough to sear across Yuya’s eyes and leave a mark behind. The bolt shot straight—Yuya was pretty sure Scarf’s support was the only thing that got it aimed so well because the strike flew straight and true and right through the bird creature’s head.

For a moment, nothing happened. It just stopped cold. Yuya thought, suddenly, that maybe the weapon was useless.

And then a crack split down the middle of the bird mask. A low, horrible keening grew from somewhere inside the cloak. And then, without anymore fanfare, the cloak just collapsed. As though there were nothing inside it anymore. A bit of dust stirred from inside.

The mask clattered to the ground and skidded a few feet.

Silence reigned for a few seconds.

Was that…it? Yuya found himself thinking. His heart wouldn’t stop pounding and his hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Scarf hummed again and slid up to wrap around his shoulders, as though giving him a hug. Dr. Wondertainment clapped Yuya on the back once, silent, as though he, too, were still recovering.

It was the mask that spoke first.

“Well that was—very clever of you boys,” it said, its face trapped in the tragedy mask shape. “Very clever indeed, I must say. But why don’t we put that behind us, eh? Must be someone in this room that would want to put me on. No hard feelings about the helium, right?”

The mask shifted to its comedy form, the hollow smile making Yuya shiver.

He glanced up at Yuma, Kirtida, Astral, Dr. Wondertainment. All of them had the same expression. Yuya looked back down at the mask.

He could not remember ever feeling so incredibly tired.

“I think I’m done with things trying to kill us,” he said.

He lifted up his other gun, sighted down at the mask, and fired.

It dissolved into dust without so much as a sound.

Chapter Text

Yami no Yugi had thought of a million possibilities of what kind of game the machine might challenge him to—it could be anything, from a logic puzzle to chess to something stupid like Go Fish. It was a sentient computer, though, and he knew beyond a doubt that whatever game it chose, he was going to have a hell of a time of it.

The white letters scrolled across the screen.

Rules. Should designation Mutou Yugi and Pharaoh win, the paradox machine will be shut down. Should designation 079 win, the paradox machine will be locked.

Locked? Yami no Yugi thought with a flash of panic. As in, we'll be stuck here for the rest of our lives?

His eyes flickered back towards Luelle, who merely smiled at him. Yami no Yugi shuddered. That was more confirmation than he needed. He turned back to the computer.

The game is as follows.

A picture appeared on the screen of what appeared to be a scattering of puzzle pieces.

Locate puzzle beneath console.

Yami no Yugi blinked. He felt underneath the console tentatively, and his fingers came across a small cardboard box. Frowning, he pulled it out. The box was nondescript, without a picture on the front or anything to indicate that it was a puzzle. When he opened it, however, there was, in fact, piles of pieces.

Number of pieces: 550, the computer read out. First complete is the winner.

A puzzle game, then? At first, Yami no Yugi felt a small rush of confidence. He was good at puzzles. He had beaten Chono-sensei at the mirror puzzle game, and that had been incredibly difficult since they had been putting together a shattered mirror while wearing blindfolds. A normal puzzle seemed simple enough.

But that confidence died very quickly when the other factors occurred to him. One: he was up against a computer, which could probably put together a puzzle this size in a matter of minutes. Two: he had only about ten minutes left before his friends suffocated to death, and he wasn't sure he could put together a puzzle of over five hundred pieces together in that time.

Three: a puzzle found in the SCP Foundation could not be as benign as it seemed.

Game will begin. 3. 2.

Yami no Yugi swore mentally and dropped to the floor, dumping the puzzle out onto the floor and spreading out the pieces.

Partner, are you ready? He thought.

Ready! Yugi said back, his voice ringing with determination. Yami no Yugi felt a smile grow on his face despite their situation. Having his partner with him made everything feel a little bit more hopeful.

1.

The computer screen flashed once. Then, there was a similar stack of pieces shown on the screen. Immediately, pieces started to sort themselves out, and then move across the screen on their own to click into place.

Yami no Yugi's blood roared in his ears as he pushed the puzzle pieces out in front of him, fingers picking around for the corners as quickly as he could. He had to work quickly, far more quickly than he ever had before. His eyes were fast, though, and he had located the four corners in a few seconds. He started sorting through for the sides.

Other me, over there, his other self said.

For a moment, they flickered back and forth and Yugi grabbed the pieces in question.

Good eye, partner, Yami no Yugi said with a smile.

Puzzles are definitely something I'm good at! Yugi said, grinning at the back of Yami no Yugi's head. They both laughed softly despite their situation. The Millennium Puzzle hung heavy from their chest, the weight reminding them of what it had taken to bring them together.

If you see something I missed, just switch out and grab it, Yami no Yugi said.

Yugi immediately took him up on that, jumping into control and grabbing a handful of pieces, shoving them quickly and neatly into place. Yami no Yugi had no idea how he could do that so quickly. He jumped back in next when he realized there was a piece that needed to go over there.

Luelle laughed softly from the corner she had put herself in. Yami no Yugi was determined to ignore her, certain that she was trying to distract him, but she started talking anyway.

“SCP 551,” she said. “Fascinating—I didn't think 079 would choose such a route.”

Yami no Yugi grit his teeth and ignored her. He had already managed to piece together about half a side, without knowing what the puzzle was supposed to look like, he felt like he was running blind. All he could tell from the pieces was that it was probably an ocean of some sort. Yugi sent a wave of reassurance, reminding him that they hadn't known what the Millennium Puzzle was supposed to look like either, and that had been harder, since it was three dimensional. And then Yugi snapped back into control to grab another handful of pieces and slot them into place.

“That puzzle was found in an apartment beside a corpse still clutching the pieces,” Luelle continued. “Tests run on it found that it was impossible to complete. The closest anyone ever got took them two weeks, and then they found themselves going mad trying to complete it during the last days the test remained.”

Yami no Yugi's fingers froze over a set of pieces. No. She had to be lying. It was a lie. Yugi took up the slack in a rush, making up for Yami no Yugi's hesitation.

“But you don't have two weeks to be confused over it, do you, pharaoh?” she said quietly. “You have only nine minutes.”

Yami no Yugi swore mentally and returned to the puzzle as Yugi slid back for a moment. He spared the barest glance to the computer and swore out loud this time, finding that it had already finished a large square of the bottom left corner. At least he could see now that he had been right—it was an ocean, and there seemed to be a single rowboat. He returned to the puzzle. Almost the entire outside frame completed. If he could get that far, he could fill it in easily enough. There was nothing strange about this puzzle at all. Nothing at all. It couldn't really confuse him that much, could it?

No, he thought angrily. He was going to win this game. He always won the game. Yugi's mind rang in confidence with his, and he took strength from their combination.

It can't beat both of us, partner, he thought.

Nope! Yugi said cheerily.

They attacked the pieces with a fury, sliding each one into place. Yami no Yugi swore once when he found that he had forced a piece into the wrong place, and spent precious seconds prying it free again.

It was then that he noticed that something very odd was happening to him.

His breaths were coming shorter. Was the helium in this room too, he thought? Sweat beaded around his forehead as though he had just been running a marathon. He felt a strange tightness around his heart, a tremble in his fingers that made him keep dropping pieces. He had completed the frame, but for some reason, fitting pieces into the middle was becoming difficult. His vision swam and his head spun, a buzzing sound rippling through him.

His brain didn't seem to be able to think about anything except the puzzle. There were sounds on the outside of his consciousness—Luelle had...had turned on the speakers for what was going on in the room outside. Logically, he knew that the sounds were his friends—he heard screams and shouts and the clatter of weapons on the floor. But he couldn't rip his eyes away from the pieces to check on them, couldn't even glance up to see how far 079 had gotten on its digital version of the puzzle.

He dropped a piece for the tenth time and scrabbled for it again, but his fingers didn't seem to want to close around it.

Finish. Have to finish this.

He couldn't remember why. He just knew he had to complete the puzzle at all costs.

The tightness increased in his chest and he was shaking so badly that it was affecting his vision. He grabbed a random handful of pieces and started trying to force them into place at random intervals. He had already filled in about a third of the puzzle on one side. He could see pieces that contained facial features—there was a woman in the rowboat, right? Why couldn't he make heads or tails of those pieces? He dropped them—he could figure out where they went later. He just scooped up a bunch of ocean pieces and without checking to even see if they were the right shape he started trying to shove them into whatever place was closest.

Finish finish finish finish finish he had to finish why did he have to finish he didn't know he just had to why weren't any of the pieces fitting they had to fit he had to finish had to finish finish finish finish the puzzle puzzle had to be finished

Something echoed at the back of his head. Like a voice. Like someone pounding on a door in the back of his head. He ignored it. It wasn't making sense right now. Only the puzzle got his attention. He had to finish it, finish at all costs. It had to be completed.

“Remarkable,” he heard someone say behind him—who was that? He didn't remember. He only remembered the puzzle, the pieces in his hand. “Seven minutes in and you're already almost half done. This may be a record.”

A laugh. The laugh made him stiffen, made a brief burst of anger shoot through him, but he didn't remember why. It didn't matter.

The puzzle mattered. He had to finish the puzzle. He would die if he didn't finish the puzzle. No matter what it took he had to finish the puzzle.

“I don't know if you can even hear me, you're in such a trance,” the voice said again, laughing softly. “But you might like to know that your friends are doing well enough on their own. 096 is dead. They've even fought off both Rickten and Able for quite some time. And dear Yuya has already destroyed 049 and 035.”

A drumming of fingers on a console.

“I think it might be game over for Judai and Yusei, though,” she said. “Judai-kun is already unconscious. Pity. I remembered him being so much more powerful back in the olden days. I guess reincarnation doesn't always translate perfectly.”

Ignore it. Had to ignore it. Puzzle.

His fingers shook and he couldn't pick up the pieces. He tried pushing them around instead, tried just shoving them across the floor into place, but he had to be able to lift them up if he wanted them to fit. He kept trying but every piece took almost four tries to get into his fingers.

That voice screamed and echoed at the back of his head. He shut it down with an angry mental punch. It had to be ignored. The puzzle.

Had to finish the puzzle.

* * *

Yugi pounded on the door of his soul room.

“Other me!” he screamed. “Other me!”

Why was he blocking Yugi out? He had seen some pieces that needed to go there, but for some reason, his other self had blocked Yugi from taking control. Yugi threw himself against the door of his soul room again but Yami no Yugi had blocked it tightly. Yugi couldn't get out.

“Other me!” he screamed again, hoping he could hear him.

He couldn't do this by himself. Their combination was what was going to win this! But Yugi could only watch helplessly as Yami no Yugi fumbled for pieces, his fingers barely able to pick them up. He seemed to ignore the face of the woman entirely, throwing those pieces aside to start filling in other places—but he was forcing them into the wrong places!

No, no, no, that one should go there! Yugi thought desperately at his other self. Other me! You need to listen!

Yami no Yugi shook his head, and Yugi could see out of their peripherals how far the computer had gotten. He drew in a breath as he realized that although the compute was farther along than they were...it seemed to be having the same trouble as Yami no Yugi. Pieces moved across the screen and then froze. Static would run over the screen for a moment and then it would put that piece back along the side and move another one. It, too, seemed to be avoiding the face of the woman. Why? Why couldn't they complete it? There seemed nothing strange at all about the puzzle to Yugi. It was just a stormy ocean, a single rowboat, and a woman inside. She was pretty, from what Yugi could mentally piece together from what he saw. Dark skinned, with thick, tight curls of hair that clouded around her face like a veil. Her eyes were closed and she looked very calm despite the storm around her.

But Yami no Yugi didn't seem to be able to see that. He was avoiding the woman, Yugi could tell. Avoiding finishing her. Like he couldn't quite see it. The computer was the same way.

Why would a puzzle not want to be finished? Yugi found himself thinking. Because that had to be it. There had to be a reason that the puzzle itself didn't want to be finished. Would something bad happen if it was finished? Or...

Yugi's eyes were drawn to another part of the puzzle that both the computer and his other self seemed to be avoiding. A small section beneath the boat, where it seemed like there could possible be a reflection.

There's someone in the water there, Yugi thought with a start. Someone hiding. A reflection of the woman, but...not. Someone separate.

It was another woman, Yugi knew somehow. The puzzle was hiding the two of them. Why? Who were they? He didn't know, but the puzzle was trying to prevent itself from being completed because it didn't want anyone to find the final image. Was it a seal of some kind? If they did complete it, would they make things worse?

No, Yugi thought suddenly. It won't—it might actually...save us.

He didn't know how he knew that. It made no sense for him to know that, but it was a certainty in his soul. The puzzle made sense to him, the way that the Millennium Puzzle had made sense to him that final day that he had finally been able to complete it.

If I can complete it, we don't just win, it could save all of us, Yugi thought.

But if his other self didn't let him help...

Yugi pounded again on the door of his soul room.

“Other me!” he screamed again. “OTHER ME!”

Chapter Text

Judai was only half conscious of what was going on. He knew that he couldn't breathe, he knew that he was bleeding, probably too much, and he knew that everything was chaos, but he didn't know anything else.

Yusei was trying to move, he could sense that much. The boy was pinned under Judai's weight and Judai tried to move so that Yusei could get up, run, but his limbs wouldn't respond to him. His lungs wouldn't fill with air, either. He wondered if Yusei was doing all right. Probably not judging by the raspy sound of the other boy's breath. Judai swallowed. This shouldn't be happening. His bond with Yubel should be strong enough to fight this. He should be able to stand. This shouldn't be enough to beat him.

He was so useless. What was he going to do? Was he just going to be trapped here on the floor by his own body until Cain fell to Able and they all died?

A roar echoed across the warehouse, and immediately, everything seemed to fall silent. The whole world seemed to be holding its breath. Judai couldn't hear the squeak of metal that was the robot fighting with Rickten, or the clang of metal that was Cain fighting with Able. It was like both fights had just...stopped. Why?

Judai tried to lift his head to see, but his body wouldn't respond. He was a prisoner in his own goddamn body. Even Yubel couldn't seem to do anything, although he could feel her trying to take control, trying to force him to get up and get to safety.

The wall exploded.

Debris and dust rushed over them in a wave. Judai could only lay there as something huge rushed over them, almost stomping down on the pair of them as it passed. The only thing that saved them was that Yusei was able to move just enough, pull them and roll out of the way, smacking against the pile of boxes. Some of them crashed down as the giant thing ripped past, and boxes rained down over their heads. Judai felt Yusei's arms tightened protectively around him, but neither of them could move and they lay helpless as the containers crashed around them. One landed right on top of Judai's back and he gasped. It was heavy! If they weren't trapped before, they definitely were now!

I hope the kids are okay, Judai thought desperately. And...and Yugi.

In all of the commotion it hadn't occurred to him until now that Yugi was nowhere to be seen. Had he gotten trapped behind them? Judai didn't think for a minute that he had betrayed them, his soul was too pure to Judai's eyes for that to have happened. And he had seemed just as out of place as the rest of them, he couldn't have anything to do with....

Luelle.

It hit him with a rush. Luelle was the only one that knew anything about this place. Cain had mentioned that she must somehow have been in charge of releasing Able and trapping them in here. Why? What did she want?

Did she have Yugi right now?

Judai tried to struggle up one more time, but even if his limbs would have responded, he couldn't shift the box off of his back. He moaned, head dropping helplessly into Yusei's chest. The other boy just lay there, gasping quietly for breath. His breaths seemed to be getting slower and slower. How much longer did they have before whatever was choking them suffocated them to death? Not long, he thought with a growing helplessness. Not long at all.

And then the box was shoved off of him and he gasped as someone grabbed him by the collar and dragged him up to a sitting position.

“You're still alive,” Cain grunted. “Remarkable.”

Judai couldn't respond, just gasping quietly. Cain put two fingers to Judai's neck to check his pulse, and then felt at his chest with his palm.

“What are you choking on?” he muttered, almost to himself. “What is...”

The he stopped and swore under his breath. Judai heard him mutter 681, and then swore again in a language that even Judai didn't understand.

Cain propped Judai up against the boxes, and then shifted Yusei to a sitting position. Judai gasped a few times.

“A-ble,” he mumbled.

“Busy,” Cain said with a grunt, looking over Yusei. “682 decided to join in the fun.”

Judai didn't know what 682 was, but at least it was giving them some time. He managed to roll his head over so that he could squint in the direction of the commotion. He saw a huge swinging tail, like that of a crocodile, and heard the hiss of metal through air as it sliced through flesh and bone. Whatever that monster fighting Able was, it was huge. Judai felt his heart sink. 096 was dead, but...

There were too many monsters in this place. Too many. He didn't have the strength to fight them all.

Cain let out a soft groan.

“I don't know what to do for you two,” he said. “I don't know what to do.”

He looked so tired right then. As though he had aged one hundred years in a few seconds.

“I didn't think you'd be able to pull it off,” he muttered. “You killed 096. We've been trying to do that for years, but you guys managed to do it. You made a miracle happen.”

His eyes wandered over to the chaos of the fight.

“I don't have the strength for this,” he said. “I don't think I ever did. I barely remember anything anymore. I think Luelle had something to do with that....”

He laughed hollowly.

“All I remember is Able. He's my brother. I think. I remember we—he wasn't like that before. And I remember Luelle now, although I didn't when we ran into her. She did something to my brother, all those years ago. And now...now it's not like he's really alive anymore. I had to kill him. He came back, but I still...had to do it. I didn't have a choice.”

He pressed his face into his hands.

“I don't know what to do,” he mumbled. “You kids...you had so much more confidence than I did. And you pulled off a miracle, but now...I think we're out of miracles.”

His hands fell from his face and he sank back onto his hands, head lolling backwards so that he was staring at the ceiling.

“Maybe if I had just believed in your power earlier...this wouldn't have happened.”

Judai swallowed. He tried to speak, but he didn't have the air for it. His fingers twitched, but that was all he could move. His vision was starting to get eaten away. The lack of air was getting to him. He didn't have the strength to fight it anymore, either. He was going to die. Yusei was probably going to die, too, and what about the kids?

There wasn't an escape from here, he thought. There never had been. He had fought hard, yes, he had pulled off the miracle of killing 096, but he was out of miracles. It was like Cain had said. They were out of time, out of miracles. It was over.

Yubel's soul raged inside of him with a burst of anger, causing Judai to gasp, his eyes to widen.

It is not over, she hissed at him. It's not over until you're dead, do you understand me?

And then Judai's entire body tightened. He couldn't breathe. His vision went out.

He was changing, he realized. The part of him that was Yubel was increasing. Getting stronger than every before. The scales crawled up his arms, talons burst from his fingers, wings exploded from his back. He could feel muscles shifting and regrowing and he almost screamed—it hurt! He was changing into his other self—

Judai knew that his half form, the one where he was both Yubel and Judai, with half scales, and wings, and claws, was his most natural form. He had always known that, ever since they had fused he had known that, but together, they had always decided that staying the more human form of Judai was better for both of them. It was natural enough for Judai to hold, and he had been the instigator of the fusion, so it was a simple matter to stay in the form of Yuki Judai.

It had never occurred to him, however, that the reverse was true.

Judai found himself shoved to the corner of his own mind, his soul crushed back into a corner for a moment. He was able to snap back to a normal size, but with a jolt, he realized that he was entirely incorporeal.

Instead of his own body standing beside him, or the spiritual form of Yubel hovering over head, he was standing next to a fully solid Yubel.

Yubel hissed, her hands forming claws as she lurched to her feet. Cain swore and scrambled to his own feet, eyes wide.

“What the hell—”

“Judai's incapacitated,” Yubel said. “I'm taking over for now.”

She turned on her heel and grabbed Yusei, pulling him onto her shoulders.

“We're moving him someplace safer,” she said. “Don't just stand there and stare at me, let's go.”

Cain just nodded mutely and hurried after her. Yubel wasn't one to wait. She took off at a lope down towards the gaping hole where the lizard creature had come through.

“How are you not suffocating?” Cain asked. “The helium...”

“I'm of the Shadow People,” Yubel snapped back by way of answer.

Cain's eyes sparked with recognition.

“He was fused with one of the Shadow People...of course, why didn't I make that connection before...”

Yubel looked both ways down the hallway and then took off. Judai felt so strange. Was this how Yubel felt all the time? Watching him move around from his own eyes, but not being able to do much about it? At least he didn't feel the horrible pressure of being unable to breathe anymore. But what about Yusei?

Yubel seemed to sense his burst of fear.

“He'll be fine,” she said. “I'll make sure of it.”

Judai could only nod; he didn't even have the strength to send a mental response.

Something moved out of the corner of his eye.

Yubel!

Yubel reacted almost as fast as Judai had seen it. She whipped out of the way with a hiss as the rotting corpse thing melted from the wall. Yubel bared her fangs in a feral snarl as she fell back. One hand was busy holding Yusei on her shoulders, but her other claw was up and ready to fight. Cain swore.

“106!” he said. “Fucking hell, is there anything that isn't released in this goddamn facility!”

The old, burnt corpse thing disappeared back into the wall. Yubel was already running, her wings snapped tighter to her back to prevent them from slowing her down.

“What is that thing?” she shouted at Cain.

“Not something we can fight easily. Keep moving!”

And the wall in front of them exploded. Yubel skidded to a stop as the giant lizard creature collapsed into the debris in front of them. It wriggled with an angry hiss for a moment before it managed to flip back onto its feet. Snake-like eyes fixed on Yubel and Cain. Judai's heart seized up.

It roared, showing off all of its ridiculously sharp teeth, and then flashed forward. Yubel jerked back, but Cain was right behind her and they tangled into each other, falling with a cry. Yusei was flung from Yubel's shoulders and went rolling over the floor.

Judai couldn't do anything! He could only watch, helpless, as Yubel rolled back to her feet. She hissed in response to the lizard's roar.

“Fight me!” she screeched. “If you want to fight, fight me!”

The creature screeched back.

“I'll kill you!” it said, and Judai shuddered at its entirely too human voice. “I'll kill all of you!”

Yubel shot forward, claws raking across the creature's nose. It didn't even flinch. Jaws flashed forward and latched into Yubel's shoulder. Judai winced as a scream erupted from Yubel's throat. She was getting hurt, oh god, she was getting hurt!

The creature flinched then instead, releasing her and groaning. Yubel bared her fangs in a feral grin.

“If you hurt me, you'll be the one that feels the pain!” she said. “Come on and fight me if you're not scared!”

The creature drew back for a moment, not nervous, but considering. Yubel tensed up, behind her, Cain was wielding his sword, putting himself between the fight and Yusei.

And then the lizard attacked.

Yubel caught the jaws between her hands, but she didn't have nearly enough strength to keep them from latching around her chest. She shrieked—even if the pain was thrust right back, she still felt it for at least a wrenching moment.

“Yubel!” he shouted. “Yubel, stop this, don't let it hurt you!”

Yubel didn't respond except to snarl even louder. She ripped herself free with a cry as the teeth tore into her skin and ripped ragged gashes in her chest. They sealed up quickly, but even Judai could feel the pain skittering through his soul. The lizard shrieked with the same pain, but it seemed to recover even quicker than Yubel did, going after her with another snap of its jaws. Yubel fell back a few steps, dodging.

“Stop letting it hurt you, Yubel!” Judai said. “Stop it! I know what you're doing!”

“If it hurts me enough, it will feel the pain more,” she said between gritted teeth. “Don't worry, Judai, I know what I'm doing!”

“I don't want you to get hurt!” Judai said. “Please, I don't want anyone else to get hurt anymore!”

So damn helpless. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't save Yusei, or Yubel, or the kids, or even himself. He could only watch as Yubel let herself get bitten again and again, let it rip into her over and over just so that it would throw the pain back. She was starting to lose steam, he could tell. Her powers were extraordinary, but even she had her limits. And the lizard seemed to be able to sense it, increasing the fury of its attacks. It wouldn't be long before Yubel couldn't keep this pace anymore.

“It's not even reacting to the pain, Yubel, you need to stop!”

Yubel just hissed.

“I—promised—to—protect—you,” she hissed. “I—promised.”

“Not at the expense of yourself! Stop this, Yubel!”

She refused to listen, throwing her head back and shrieking out a battle cry. She started forward. The lizard was getting ready to move—

Something red and green blurred between them—Yuya!

Yuya hit the ground, rolled in a perfect somersault, slapped something large and black down on the ground in front of the lizard's foot and then somersaulted forward again through the hole left by the lizard's passing. The lizard flashed forward—and tripped. Its foot went out from underneath it with a shriek, its entire leg disappearing into the ground as though—as though a hole had just opened up underneath it. Yuya's face popped back out from behind the wall.

“This way!” he said, waving his hand. “This way!”

Yubel responded immediately. Cain had already lifted Yusei into his arms and they followed after Yuya, darting through the hole.

They were back in the warehouse room once again, and the lizard was still screeching and struggling in the hallway to extract its foot from the floor. Judai looked around through Yubel's eyes for the others—Yuya was here, what about everyone else?

Then there was a flash of golden light and a shriek—two shrieks, actually! Yubel whipped around in time to see Able stumbling back just feet away from slicing through her with one of his blades. Yuma appeared from behind a set of boxes, two strange looking guns in both hands, and let off another pair of shots. They went right through Able and he again staggered towards the ground. Yuma hit the ground in a roll before aiming at the lizard struggling free and firing at that one, too, causing it to flinch and scream.

Dr. Wondertainment scurried out after Yuma, with Kirtida taking up the rear, holding a paper cup tightly between her hands.

“Where's Yusei and Judai?” she cried.

“Yusei's here,” Yubel said. “Judai tagged out.”

“He—he what?”

“Yubel, I'm fine, let me back in control—you're hurt, you need to rest, don't hide it from me!”

“Not until I'm sure you're able to breathe,” Yubel snapped back at him.

Kirtida's eyes were wide and her lips parted, and Judai realized it was because she couldn't hear Judai in this form.

“Yubel, you have to at least tell her where I am clearly, she doesn't get it!”

Yubel wasn't really good at explaining things, though, and didn't seem interested in doing it. Her eyes were drawn instead to the cup that Kirtida was holding.

“What is that?” she said.

Kirtida opened her mouth to answer, but then she saw Yusei and gasped, running over to his side. She balanced the cup in one hand while she tried to prop him up with the other—not good, he looked almost blue in the face. How long had he been without air?

“Drink this, Yusei, drink this!” she said, pushing the cup to his lips.

Yubel immediately dropped down to one knee beside Yusei to help Kirtida hold him up. Yusei tried, he really did, but some of the red liquid bubbled up over his lips across the floor instead.

“Leave some for Judai!” Yuya said.

“I know, I know,” Kirtida mumbled, taking the cup away from Yusei's lips. “W-where did you say Judai was?”

“What is that?” Yubel demanded.

“That's not...” Cain started, eyes widening.

“It is—it's liquid SCP 500 from SCP 294,” Kirtida said. “It will stop the helium from choking them—see?”

Yusei coughed several times, his whole body shaking. But the color was rushing back to his cheeks and his eyes were fluttering open, looking clear and steady. Yubel didn't need much more incentive. She let out a heavy sigh, almost of relief, and then their body began to shift. The pain wasn't quite as bad on the way back, or maybe it was just that they were more used to it this time. Judai gasped as he returned to his own body and was actually able to feel his limbs. He choked immediately on the helium in his lungs and collapsed to his knees.

Kirtida gasped. She almost dropped the cup in her surprise, but she managed to compose herself and shove it towards Judai instead.

“Drink it, drink it!”

Judai grabbed the cup and downed in at once. Instantly, he felt everything begin to perk up. The pain in his side from being stabbed subsided, and his lungs cleared. He gasped desperately for air, sucking down huge, greedy gulps. The pain was fading quickly and his mind was clearing.

“Thank—you,” he gasped at Kirtida.

“Thank god Yuma found a few spare coins in his pocket for that vending machine,” Yuya said with a relieved grin.

“Even luckier that that big clockwork machine thing has the power to change yen into American money,” Yuma said with a gasp. “Yuya, catch!”

He tossed one of the two papercraft guns at Yuya, who snagged it from the air. He immediately turned it on the lizard that was extracting itself from the sudden hole in the ground and squeezed off two perfectly steady shots. Judai wondered if he should even ask about the scarf wrapped around his arm.

“Okay, now what?” Judai asked, lurching to his feet. He reached down to grip Yusei's arm, and helped him to his feet.

His eyes flicked around the room. The lizard's foot had fallen back into the hole at Yuya's shot, and it was temporarily stuck again. Judai was going to have to ask Yuya how he had made that hole in the first place. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that rotting corpse thing sneak its face out of the ceiling before drawing back. He had no idea when or if that thing was going to attack. Able was still recovering from the shot to the chest from that weapon, and Yuma fired at him again. The shot missed but it was enough for Able to take a shaky step back, eyes narrowed, considering and cautious.

Judai sucked in a breath. What did they have to work with? Yuya and Yuma were on either side of the ground with the guns, Yuya aimed at the lizard, and Yuma at Able. Cain still held his long blade, Yusei gripped his paper screwdriver for lack of a better weapon, and all Kirtida had was that empty paper cup. She pressed against Judai for a moment, and he could feel her shaking. Dr. Wondertainment wrung his hands, looking pale. Yuya passed him a handful of thin black circles so that he could hold his gun with both hands, and the man's nose wrinkled as he muttered something about “can't believe I'm using the Factory's merchandise.”

Three enemies, Judai thought. The lizard, Able, and the corpse thing that jumps out of walls. Three enemies, three people with weapons, and we're surrounded.

His eyes wandered back to the door, the one that they had come through the first place.

Yugi is probably still back there, he thought. Is he all right?

They had to get back there, he decided. They had to get back there now.

“Miiimiiimimimiiiiimiiii!”

The little babbling sound snapped Judai's eyes forward again.

“Chirp! Babble!” Yuma cried.

The little eyepods exploded out between the lizard's feet, rolling towards them so fast that they almost weren't able to stop. The yellow one smacked into Yuma's legs and rolled back a few inches, holding still for a moment as though stunned. Yusei bent down quickly to catch the other one before it ran into them; they didn't seem to have breaks.

“Where did they come from?” Judai said.

The yellow one started spinning in circles around their legs, babbling and squeaking frantically.

“Yes, we know we're in danger, Chirp!” Yuma said. “You're not helping!”

He gasped and squeezed off another shot as Able seemed to move forward again. Able hung back with a snarl. He clearly wanted to attack them, but in their formation, getting too close wasn't the best option for him at this second. They had just a few precious seconds to figure out what to do. Judai's mind raced. They had to get out of there. They had to get back and regroup with Yugi and find a safe place—

“Judai,” Yusei hissed. “Chirp and Babble were with Yugi.”

The thought had hit Judai right at the same moment.

“There's another way around,” he breathed.

His eyes fell down towards the eyepods.

“You two,” he said. “Where's Yugi? Can you get us there?”

The pods froze for a moment, tilting up to stare at him with unmoving eyes. Judai shuddered. They were...somewhat unnerving.

And then they let out a simultaneous chirp. The pair turned around and zoomed towards the hole in the wall where the robot had crashed through. Judai thought for a moment about where that might have gone, and what about Rickten? But then he shoved that thought aside. They had to get to Yugi. They had to fall back. This place was too open.

“Yuma, Yuya, take our flanks and cover us! Dr. Wondertainment, are those the same things that made that hole that caught the lizard? Good, lay them down behind us to give a little cover! Cain, cover our backs! Yusei, with me in the front!”

Everyone reacted immediately. Judai darted forward. They moved as one unit after Chirp and Babble, Yuya and Yuma firing off shots to keep their enemies at bay.

A hand latched into the back of his shirt. His eyes flashed behind him and he met Kirtida's large brown eyes. For a breath, they only looked at each other. He realized with a start that he hadn't told her where to go. He hadn't thought about it. He had been spending so much time during this thinking about how...about how she was lost and scared and he needed to protect her. She hadn't held a weapon, she had barely used her powers in her own defense. He should have remembered to tell her to stay in the center of the group, but she must have known that already, right? She held his gaze for one more second. Then she smiled.

“Thank you,” she said.

She let go of his shirt, and fell back behind Cain. Cain swore and swiped for her but she was too small and quick. Yuma yelped and Yuya cried out for her to come back. Judai whipped around, eyes wide, heart hammering—where was she going?

“Kirtida,” he mumbled. And then, “Kirtida!!”

She was gone.

* * *

He had saved her life. More than once today, in fact, but that wasn't the important time. He had saved her from a life in a cage. A life of believing that she was dangerous. Someone that had to be hid away.

Kirtida breathed out, feeling the burning sensation dragging her onward. She kept running. Able had ignored her. She was too small, too inhuman for him to care. But he would care soon. Once she had reached it. The it that she had felt calling to her.

Thank you, Judai, she thought. Thank you, all of you.

There were too many enemies here, too many dangerous things that wanted to hurt those boys. They didn't belong in a world like this.

She was going to do whatever it took to get them out of this horrible world.

Chapter Text

“Kirtida!” Judai shouted. “KIRTIDA!”

He tried to bolt after her, but Yusei grabbed his arm.

“Get them out of here, get to Yugi!” he shouted at Judai. “I'll go after her!”

Judai opened his mouth to protest.

“We have to stay together as much as possible! I'll grab her and come right back! Protect the rest of them!”

Judai's eyes were wide, and for a moment, Yusei could see the terror there that he was trying to hide. Yusei squeezed his arm, and then ducked out from their formation and bolted for Kirtida. He struck lucky—Able was too enraged by the blasts from Yuma and Yuya's guns to pay much attention to Yusei skirting around the side. He caught a glimpse of Kirtida's hair disappearing around the corner of boxes—heading for the other gaping hole, the one were the lizard thing was!

Yusei swore mentally and picked up his pace. He still felt shaky after having come so close to suffocating just a few moments ago. How long had they been at this? It felt like days, but he had a feeling that it was more like just a few hours. They couldn't keep this up, not for much longer.

He skirted around one of the hole traps set by Dr. Wondertainment and made for the hole where the lizard thing was. It had managed to get out of the hole it was stuck in, and its head swung towards Yusei. A tongue flicked out as it hissed.

“Coming right to me, are you?” it said. “Come to die, king?”

Yusei lowered his head and bolted. He heard the air part and hit the ground just in time, rolling underneath the lizard's low slung, alligator like body. It hissed with frustration as Yusei skidded back to his feet and bolted down the hallway after Kirtida. He could hear the lizard's claws scraping across the floor as it turned around to go after him and he swore mentally. He didn't have anything to work with here. No weapon, no special powers like the others.

His resolve tightened. That didn't matter. Kirtida mattered. He had to get to her; he couldn't leave anyone alone in this godforsaken place.

Something dropped from the ceiling and landed on top of him. He yelped as he hit the ground. His hands scrabbled across the ground as he tried to find purchase enough to lift himself up. He felt claws digging into his back and heard heavy breathing in his ear. With a rush of fury, he let out a cry and ripped himself over onto his side, rolling over so that he was crushing the thing beneath him.

It suddenly disappeared as though it had melted and Yusei hit the floor again. He scrambled to his feet. What had attacked him? His eyes searched frantically for the creature, but it was nowhere to be seen. What he could see, however, was that lizard bolting down the hallway after him, seemingly have shrunk from the last time he had seen it so that it could move faster. Yusei swore and bolted.

A hand shot out from behind a corner and grabbed his arm, yanking him around the corner. He almost felt, gasping. He lifted one fist, ready to fight—before he realized it was Kirtida.

“Kirtida!” he said. “What are you doing? We need to regroup with the others!”

She shook her head frantically.

“It's calling me,” she said. “I can—I have to go to it, so that can protect all of you.”

“We have to stay together,” Yusei said, gripping her shoulders. “Kirtida, you can't go running off on your own!”

She shook her head again, jaw clenching this time.

“Yusei,” she said, voice quavering. “I have been trapped in a cell for most of my life I can remember. Until today, I thought that I was too dangerous to be around people.”

She stepped out of his grip, staring at him full in the eyes.

“I can protect you all,” she whispered. “But I need to be stronger. I need to reach it.”

“Reach...what?” Yusei said.

She shivered slightly, but it wasn't from cold, or fear. It seemed to be from...from a quiet, uncertain awe.

“I don't know,” she said. “But I can feel it. I can feel it burning. I need to get to that heat.”

“How do you know that it will help?” Yusei asked.

Her expression faltered for a moment.

“I...I don't,” she said. Then her eyes hardened. “But I have to try.”

Yusei studied her expression for a long, long moment. There was fear, there, turning her lips downward and making her hands wring together. But there was a determination, a self certainty that seemed to ripple through her, an intensity in her eyes that he had not seen from her in the short time he had known her.

He breathed out once. Then he heard the sound of claws scrabbling on the floor down the hall, saw a rotting corpse face push through the ceiling, and he made his decision. He grabbed Kirtida's hand.

“Lead the way, quickly,” he said. “We'll go together, and then we'll meet the others.”

Relief broke over her face, and she nodded.

They took off down the hall. Yusei let her lead, dangling along at the end of her grip. He glanced behind them to see that the lizard was swinging its head around the corner. It let out an angry hiss, and for a moment, Yusei thought it was going to follow them. Then its head snapped to look over its shoulder and it shrieked, whipping around to chase something else. Yusei tried not to think about what—or rather, who—it must be chasing.

God, please be safe, he thought towards the others.

Kirtida was quick for her size, and he found himself struggling to keep up. Her hand was hot in his—like he was gripping the handle of a pot that had hung a little too close to the burner. They fled down the hallway. Kirtida seemed to know where she was going somehow, dragging Yusei around corner after corner, darting through small rooms into the next hallways. How long had they been running? How far were they? Yusei couldn't have said; he tried to count the twists and turns to remember how to get back, but this facility was far too uniform, nothing at all like the characteristics of each unique street in Satellite that he had memorized with ease.

And then Kirtida skidded to a stop, causing Yusei to almost crash into her. She was still gripping his hand, and he could feel the tremble running through her. He gripped her hand tighter in a vain attempt to send silent reassurance, but he was shaking just as badly from the running, and from the sight of that rotting face poking out of walls in the corner of his vision. Whatever that thing was, it was following them.

His eyes glanced around the hallway. It didn't look any different from where they had been before, perhaps a little less ruined by the battles of supernatural monsters, but the same blank, long hallways as always. There was a thick metal door before them, unlabeled and blank.

“Is this the place?” he asked.

Kirtida nodded, her lips tight and eyes wide. She was so small for her age; he felt like if he was too rough, he would break her in half. He waited for a moment longer.

“Kirtida-san,” he said, trying to prompt her. He could feel them running out of time as surely as though there were an hourglass tipped over in his mind. That corpse was following them, their friends were in danger, and they had to find a way out of here fast.

Kirtida nodded in understanding. She swallowed.

“I have to go in there by myself,” she said.

“Kirtida—”

“No, listen to me, Yusei, the thing that's in there—it's too dangerous for you to come in. You have to wait here.”

She swallowed again, her tongue flicking out over her lips.

“I'll be back,” she said. “This won't take me long. I promise.”

Yusei met her eyes. Dark brown, glassy and glazed with fright, but behind them....

She was determined to do this whether he liked it or not. He had no right to try and stop her.

“Be careful,” he said.

She only nodded.

Her hand slipped out of his. She walked towards the door and put her hands on the handle for a moment, hesitating. For a moment, he thought she was going to look over her shoulder at him. Say something, maybe.

But then she opened the door and slipped inside, the moment passed. The door snapped shut behind her and he heard a distinct click.

* * *

It was dark inside. Darker than anything Kirtida had ever seen. For a moment, she almost panicked. Her hands darted behind her to the door handle, as though to go back, to get to Yusei and tell him that she needed someone with her.

But then she saw the spark of flame and she knew that Yusei absolutely could not join here in this.

It was tiny, she could see. Trapped behind a sheet of glass that separated this room into two. She approached, slow, uncertain. It did not respond to her as she came near. It was barely a mote of flame, attached to what appeared to be a small candle at the center of the glassy room.

"Um," she breathed. "Were...were you the one that called?"

It did not respond. She was up against the glass now, hands pressed to it. The flame danced in a nonexistent breeze.

And then it sparked upwards, and for a moment, she thought she saw a human shape inside it.

Alive, she realized with a start. More than alive...it was thinking. It could think and dream and it was calling her.

She pressed her face to the glass as though she could push right through it.

For a moment, nothing happened. And then it jumped again, and she could hear the words echo in her head.

What do you want.

She swallowed.

"I need you," she said.

Why.

"To protect."

It flickered as though snorting at her.

What kind of reason is that.

Her hands tightened. Her eyes narrowed.

"It's my reason."

It considered her for a moment, flickering.

"What do you want?" she whispered, trying to get its attention again.

It thought about it.

To burn.

Kirtida's mind flickered to the rooms behind her, the monsters that lay in wait for her and her friends.

"I think I can help with that."

* * *

Yusei swallowed once. His hands curled into fists at his sides as his eyes flickered overhead—just in time to see the corpse duck away from sight again, melting into the wall. He closed his eyes for just a second to steel himself. Every sense was on alert. His skin buzzed with nervous, hands shook at his sides despite the combative stance that he had taken. Part of him wanted to press his back to the wall to give himself some kind of backing, but with that thing popping in and out of walls, he knew that wasn't a safe choice. He had no choice but to stand in the middle of the hallway and try to keep an eye in every direction at once until Kirtida came back.

His heart jumped once and he licked his dry lips.

He was scared.

He shouldn't be, he shouldn't be scared. He was stronger than this. He was supposed to be the strong one. For everyone. He had to be. He had to be the strong one.

But now he was alone and there was no one to be strong for.

He was terrified.

He turned in a slow circle, jaw clenched, fists ready to strike, eyes flicking from every single wall and bit of ceiling and floor. It could come from anywhere. Anywhere at all. He had to look everywhere all at once—

There was a statue at the end of the hall.

Every sense in Yusei's body exploded. He could hear his blood rushing and pulsing in his ears; he was hyperaware of every tremble of his body and every flutter of his veins. He took a big step back involuntarily, eyes fixed on the thing. From this distance he couldn't quite be sure, but he knew, he knew what it was and—

He blinked before he could stop himself. The statue was twenty feet closer. He swore.

His eyes were occupied, now, he thought as he took another step back, fists raising in a desperate attempt to recall his street fighting abilities, as much help as they would be. He couldn't be on the lookout for the other thing. And where was the other thing—

He saw the movement out of the corner of his eye too late. A cry ripped from his throat as hands latched around his ankle and dropped him to the ground. His eyes ripped away from the statue and he could hear it sliding across the floor towards him as he hit the ground. Almost too late, he snapped his eyes back up, sprawled on his stomach on the ground. The creature was frozen before him again.

But there were still hands around his leg and he couldn't spare a glance to see where they came from. He kicked out wildly with his other leg. Could he catch it with his heel? He had to get out!

The hands only tightened their grip—Yusei was too afraid of dropping his eyes away from the statue to be able to flail as much as he wanted to. He could feel the fingers digging into his skin and realized with a jolt that it was about to snap his leg in half.

I can't, he thought, his senses deadening. It's going to take me, one of them is going to take me, and I'm not going to be able to stop it.

For a moment, he almost considered just dropping his eyes away from the statue. It would probably snap his neck the moment he did. Maybe that would be better—a faster way to go than whatever this corpse was doing to him. He almost whined with pain as it began to bend his leg the wrong way with an almost sadistic slowness. It knew that he couldn't escape, and it was taking its time.

His eyes flickered. All he had to do was close his eyes. It could be over. He didn't have any other options, did he....?

And then they appeared at the back of his mind.

Jack. Crow. Aki. Luka. Lua. Kiryu. Everyone. They were waiting for him to come home. They needed him to come home as much as he needed to come home to them.

He couldn't give up. Not yet. For his friends, he couldn't give up.

“I still have to go home,” he growled. “I'm not letting you assholes—”

He didn't have any plans. He didn't know what he was going to do. Maybe he could try to call on the Crimson Dragon, he didn't know, but he knew that he was not going to let himself die.

But it turned out...

He didn't need a plan.

The metal door exploded. Yusei cried out as it flew over his head and slammed against the wall, bent and twisted and melting onto the floor in thick, metallic puddles. A wave of heat rushed over him and he automatically tucked his head down and under his hand—he remembered too late that he couldn't take his eyes off of the statue and thought—I'm going to die.

But nothing grabbed him, and in fact, he didn't feel those hands on his leg anymore. The heat billowed over him in sheets, waves, like an ocean of fire. He could hear the crackling of flames snapping at the air, even behind his eyelids he could see the orange-gold glow of a firestorm.

“Yusei!”

Kirtida's voice broke through the haze of panic that had fallen over him. He lifted his head to find Kirtida over him. Her eyes were wide and—and glowing. He could see embers in the back of her eyes, sparking and glowing like flecks in a dying blaze. A golden glow wafted up from her skin like steam, and heat rolled off of her as though she were a walking furnace.

“What...?” Yusei said, and then he coughed as he inhaled a mouthful of smoke.

“I'm sorry,” Kirtida said, drawing back. “I'm a little—more unstable.”

But her eyes were shining with a bright determination and there was literal fire licking off of her arms and from her hair as though she had become the flames themselves.

“What...happened?” Yusei asked. “What happened to you?”

He pushed himself up to his hands and knees—Kirtida made no move to help him and in fact skittered back a bit as though to give him space. He understood why as he saw the flames left behind by every step she took, little flaming footprints that seared scars into the floor.

“I don't know what SCP it was,” she whispered. “But it was...it was fire. And it was calling me. It wanted to burn, and it knew that if it...if it came with me...”

She didn't seem to be able to put words to it, but her face was shining with revelation, as though she had just reached epiphany.

“I can protect you all now,” she said. “I can do it.”

“Kirtida—”

The statue appeared right behind her, the hands latched around her waist before it froze at Yusei's eyes snapping to it. He shouted, struggling to his feet. But Kirtida's eyes only narrowed. Her mouth opened.

Fire poured from within her like a waterfall from her lips, hitting the ground and pooling about her feet. It swirled around her in a lazy whirlwind, spiraling around her tiny frame.

The statues hands were melting.

Yusei's lips parted with shock as the stone of its hands burned red and molten, beginning to drip to the floor like lava. It burned holes in the floor and dripped down through to the floors below, leaving gaping, burning holes. It took only a few seconds for Kirtida's heat to reduce SCP 173 to a molten pile of goopy lava.

It was dead.

Kirtida's eyes met Yusei's. She smiled. A smile tugged at his lips as well.

“Kirtida,” he breathed. “That was...amazing.”

She grinned, shining with both a happy light and a real, fiery light.

“I have never felt so—alive!” she said, gasping with excitement. Her face slipped a little for a moment. “I—I can't touch you anymore, though, I'd burn you pretty badly. I'm not sure I can keep the fire inside me anymore.”

Yusei shook his head.

“It's fine—take your time to figure yourself out,” he said. “But we need to make it back to the others.”

She nodded. For a moment, her hand almost reached out to his, but then she seemed to remember and drew back. They nodded at each other awkwardly for a second. Then they started back down the hallway.

Yusei could feel the heat rising off of Kirtida like a haze. It was hotter than standing beside a bonfire, and he was already starting to sweat inside his coat. It was incredible; he couldn't understand how a human body could contain so much heat. She was a raging fireball at his side.

The corpse dropped from the ceiling and landed on top of him.

Kirtida screamed as Yusei went down, wrestling and struggling with the thing on top of him. He could feel scratchy hands gripping for his neck, the horrible half burnt face was right in his and he could see its terrible grin of lipless teeth.

Kirtida was shouting, trying to say something—Yusei thought he understood. She couldn't kill the thing while it was on top of him without burning him, too. He had to try and get it off!

The creature was scrabbling for his wrists, now, trying to stop him from pushing it off. A knee was shoved into his stomach as he attempted to roll, trying to buck it off of him. But it had an incredibly tight grip and had braced itself well, he couldn't get it off! Claws ripped into his stomach and he screamed—blood bloomed warmly against his side and oh fuck he hoped that hadn't hit anything internal—

“Kirtida!” he shouted. “Kirtida, burn it!”

Don't worry about me, just kill it, if we leave it, it could hurt the others, just BURN IT—

She wasn't doing it, she wasn't doing it, she wasn't going to attack it, as long as Yusei was in danger she wasn't going to attack—

“KIRTIDA!” he shouted again. “JUST DO IT!!”

Please, he added mentally. Oh, god please, just kill it. I can't—I can't fight it.

He was starting to black out. He could feel it, he had been taking too much damage and with the claws ripping into him over and over again he knew he was going to be losing too much blood. Shock was already deadening his struggles. He couldn't get it off of him and it was going to rip him to pieces until he was nothing more than a puddle of blood on the floor.

The heat washed over him. The last of his struggles relaxed.

Thank you.

He heard the corpse above him screaming, felt it begin to writhe as the flames licked over it, and over Yusei as well.

A heat that had nothing to do with Kirtida's fire bloomed on his right arm. He could see the glow of crimson on the edge of his vision. The song of the Crimson Dragon swelled at the back of his head and for a moment, his vision completely blacked out.

“Why won't you die!” was the last thing he heard Kirtida scream.

It could have been minutes, it could have been seconds, it could have even been hours when his eyes opened again.

He groaned, closing his eyes for a moment. He felt—heavy. Very heavy.

His eyes opened again and he found himself staring at the ceiling. He hadn't moved.

He rolled carefully to a sitting position. Everything ached and he winced—but as his hands moved to carefully probe his skin, he found that although his shirt was ripped to shreds, there wasn't even the tiniest hint of a scratch. Hadn't...hadn't that thing been ripping into him? His shirt was bloodied, yes, but...he himself was fine.

He glanced around the room. His vision was a bit hazy, as though there were a mist of crimson hanging in the air.

The dragon, he thought. The dragon must have protected me—it must have healed me, and shielded me from Kirtida's fire.

And then,

Kirtida.

Yusei shot to his feet, spinning in a tight circle.

“Kirtida,” he said, his voice hoarse. He coughed, trying to dislodge the smoke from his lungs. “Kiritda!”

The floor and walls were covered in scorch marks. He could still see the holes where the lava from 173 had melted the floor. There was a pile of ash scattered around the place where Yusei had been laying, and in fact, his clothes were scattered with the gray dust. He smacked it off of his jacket as he turned in another quick circle.

“Kirtida,” he said again. “Kirtida! Kirtida, where are you?”

Nothing. No answer. The hallway was dark and silent. Only the ash moved in his wake. Panic sprouted in his chest as he turned in another circle, and another. He stumbled back towards the room where they had come, ripping the metal door open and peering inside. It was dark, but even he could tell from the sounds that it was completely empty. He stumbled back from the door, falling against the wall and pressing there for a moment.

Oh, god, no, she couldn't have—how? How? Where was she? This was a joke, just a trick, Kirtida couldn't be gone—

The ash stirred under his feet as he slid down against the wall, his legs unable to hold himself anymore. As it dusted through the air, he heard, one last time, a voice whispering past his ears.

Tell Judai thank you for showing me I could leave. And thank you, and everyone—for showing me that I could be strong.

Please be safe.

Go home.

All of you.

Go back and be happy.

The tears left trails of ash across his face as he pressed his hands against his eyes.

Kirtida was gone.

Chapter Text

Yuma stumbled after the fleeing shapes of Chirp and Babble, Yuya's hand tight on his wrist, dragging him along. Behind him he could hear Cain swearing, Judai shouting, and he wanted to look behind him but he was too scared, dammit, why was he so scared??

Astral zoomed along beside him, a blur of pale blue at his side. Zir golden eyes were focused forward—not even once did they flicker to the commotion behind them, to the scrabbling of claws and the hissing of a lizard's tongue. Yuma gasped and almost closed his eyes for a moment. This was a dream, right? It had to be. It wasn't, he knew that but—how could anything so terrible even happen?

Yuya dragged them around a corner as Chirp and Babble streaked around it. And then Yuma heard Dr. Wondertainment yelp, heard Judai make a strange, strangled hissing sound, and something slammed into his back.

Yuma went flying out of Yuya's grip. He heard someone scream—Yuya, or Judai? Or someone else? Astral shot after him, eyes wide with fright.

“Yuma! Yuma, get up, get up, get up, it's coming—”

Yuma spat dust out of his mouth and his eyes scrabbled for light. His back stung with the pain of a hundred splinters of wood in his skin and when he pressed his palms to the ground to try and push himself back up, he cried out in pain—there were splinters in his palms, too! What had he crashed into, none of these doors were wood?

Outside the door, Yuma heard shouts and hisses and the slam of something striking the walls with a force beyond what any normal person could do. He struggled for breath, to sit up. What was it?

He managed to bob up to a sitting position and blink through the fog in his eyes. He caught the glimpse of fangs glinting in artificial lighting, a dribble of slimy saliva, the flash of crocodile eyes that darted suddenly to Yuma.

Yuma froze—the lizard, it was the lizard, it had caught up—

Before it could do anything, though, there was a cry and a crack, and the creature fell away from the door frame with a shriek. Yuma felt frozen to the floor. His mouth was dry and he couldn't breathe, couldn't think. He could hear the shouts of his friends, fighting, struggling. It was that more than anything that jolted him back to his senses. He had to help! He had to do something!

He dragged himself back to his feet, swaying dangerously. His hands caught against a wooden crate for balance and he took a step forward.

He almost screamed at the pain that exploded down his spine and his ankle.

“Yuma, no, stay put for a second,” Astral said frantically. “You're hurt—worse than I thought, by the Code...”

Dizziness washed over Yuma and he blacked out. He was still standing against the crate when he came to again, so he couldn't have been gone for more than a second. The pain hadn't faltered, though, and it was taking all he had not to slide to the floor in a heap and sob.

“You were just thrown through a metal door, Yuma, you need to sit down,” Astral said. “Try to—try to get behind these boxes, you need to get out of sight for now—”

“The,” Yuma mumbled, but his tongue felt so thick in his head. He hadn't had a break. None of them had. They couldn't keep this up, not for much longer. “The others.”

“They—they're fine, Judai-san is holding them off.”

The way Astral's voice cracked told Yuma that they were certainly not fine. He swallowed thickly. Then he tried to take another step forward.

Everything in him screamed. He gasped and his knees gave out, sending him sliding to the floor.

Leg is out, he thought vaguely through a haze of pain. Back too. Don't know—what I broke, exactly. It hurts.

This room was a mess. He had crashed into another warehouse room—there were wooden crates scattered all around the room, not on shelves, as though they had been in the middle of loading things when everything had gone to hell. Yuma had shattered through a few of the boxes on impact—that was where the wooden splinters came from. And part of the pain—although most of it was probably from being shoved through a metal door.

Yuma gasped for breath, his chest feeling so tight. His vision wouldn't stay clear. He could hear more shouting, more cracks of power and hisses from the monster outside. He had to do something. Why was he so helpless?

He tried to pull himself up again but the pain pinned him to the ground. He could only whine, left uselessly sprawled on the cold metal floor. He tried to turn his head. There had to—had to be something he could use. To prop himself up, at least. Had to be something...

His eyes caught on something leaking from a crate near him. Water was dripping onto the floor, shards of ice scattered among the wood chips. He could see the edge of a largish ice cube poking out of the box. What was...that?

Most of it seemed to have shattered off when Yuma had struck, and he could see that there was something small and round inside. Something dull green, something...like a ball of moss, maybe? What was that for? Why was it frozen?

Well, it was better than nothing—maybe he could throw the ice cube or something, make the lizard slip on a wet floor. He inched his fingers across the floor, whining in the back of his throat as he tried to shift himself forward the few, careful inches he needed to reach the cube...

Astral blinked at Yuma's sudden movement, zir eyes tearing away from the commotion outside the door. Ze looked down at Yuma's hand, and then at what he was reaching for, and—

“Yuma, no! Don't touch that!”

Yuma heard the words a fraction of a second too late. His fingers paused just a centimeter over the ice cube, too close to the ball of moss—which Yuma was only just now noticing was starting to move.

He jerked his hand away too late. The moss unfurled like a ball of snakes and latched onto his fingers, more strands snaking down to the water on the floor.

Yuma screamed.

He could feel the roots piercing into his veins, feeding off of him, snaking up his fingers and towards his arm and stabbing into him with its roots. It was going to consume him—it was moving so fast, it was already halfway up his arm and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, it was sucking the life out of him, he was going to die—

“YUMA!” Astral shouted.

Astral flashed forward, scrabbling at the moss with zir glowing hands, but while Yuma could feel Astral's hands, it seemed as though ze couldn't touch the moss itself—ze wasn't solid enough!

“Yuma, Yuma no, you can't—Yuma!”

Astral's voice broke and then the world froze. A whine screamed through Yuma's ears, the whine that he only heard when he was in a place where the world wasn't fully solid and he knew that he could—

Zexal.

Oh god.

They could use Zexal here.

Yuma's good hand snapped out and grabbed Astral's shoulder. Their eyes locked and in that very second their wills locked too.

The light enveloped them in an instant, turning them into pure energy. Immediately, the pain burned away as the moss lost organic tissue to hold onto. It dropped uselessly to the ground, curling up into a little ball again as the two beams of red and blue swirled together, melding into a deep violet and recreating the form and shape, refracting light into solidity, forming limbs, fingers, face, eyes.

Zexal's eyes snapped open. They gasped for breath, ghost pains skittering down their arms. For a moment, they could only kneel there, arms crossed over their chest, trying to make sense of themselves again. It was always just the vaguest bit...disconcerting, simply becoming a person again. Yuma's pain was gone, though, and Astral's terror had smoothed out into a vague whine of anxiety. For a moment, Yuma's relief and Astral's nerves battled for dominance, and then they settled together gently, both of them accepting both emotions.

And then there was a shout from outside the room and Zexal snapped back to awareness. They shot for the door and skidded, swearing as a tail went for his head and he had to duck.

Judai was in half-demon form, snarling as he went literally toe to toe with the dangerous lizard monster—682, the part of them that was Astral supplied. Cain had called it 682.

And there was Cain right as Zexal was thinking it, stumbling back with sword in hand, shoulders trembled as he took up a stance again. His eyes flickered over his shoulder and then he did a double take, whipped his head over his shoulder to stare at Zexal. For a moment, Zexal thought he was going to turn his sword on them.

“Who the hell—” he started.

“It's me,” Zexal said. “Or rather—it's us. Yuma and Astral.”

“What?”

“We'll explain when we can! First we need to deal with this thing and—”

They ducked instinctively as a blade swished over where their head had been a second ago. Able. Able had caught up too.

Zexal spun on their heels, reaching inwards to the core of light that kept them stable, and drawing out the breath of energy they needed.

“Zexal Weapon—Lightning Blade!” they cried, hands thrusting forward.

There was a roar emanating somewhere from within Zexal's core of light, and a beam shot from within. The beam of light swelled into the form of a great, metallic white tiger that snarled at Able. Then it leapt for Zexal and became to transform—pieces of its back shifted and clanked and moved until it had become a sword that dropped into Zexal's palm.

Zexal rose to meet the next strike with an ease that belonged to neither Astral nor Yuma, but something of the both of them, something that neither of them had awakened within themselves yet. Sparks flew between the two blades, and then Zexal forced some of their power down the metal so that real lightning jumped from the steel and shocked Able right in the eyes.

Able shrieked and stumbled backwards, dropping his weapon. Zexal leaped back lightly beside Cain, still holding the weapon in a careful stance.

Cain seemed to stir out of some kind of trance. He took up a stance beside Zexal, a form that Zexal somehow knew. They recognized that motion, that form of swordplay that Cain was ready to slide into. Cain's eyes flickered to Zexal's for a moment, and he grunted.

“You seem to know the same style I do,” he said. “Where did you learn?”

“I don't remember,” Zexal said. “I just know it.”

“Hm. And you said you're...Zexal?”

“Yes.”

Cain made a soft humming sound.

“What?” said Zexal, looking over his shoulder briefly to check on the lizard. That tail was swinging awfully close.

“Nothing. It just sounds...oddly familiar.”

Able, despite still being blind from the electricity to the eyes, had taken up a long shadow lance and was making a lunge for their voices. Zexal and Cain mirrored each other unconsciously, both of them rippling out of the way of the attack in opposite directions. Almost as though they had been training for this together, both of them went for Able at once—a pincer movement. Zexal knew this. They understood this, in a way they shouldn't.

Able was faster than them, though, and heard the sound of their blades whistling through the air. He ducked before the twin blades could take him out at the neck.

“What does it take to kill either of these guys?” Zexal shouted at Cain.

“Able can take a lot, but once he's out, he's sealed again,” Cain called back, taking up another stance that was incredibly familiar to Zexal. “682, though...”

Impossible, Cain's face was saying.

Nothing can be impossible, Zexal thought, and the part of them that was Yuma surged with determination. We just have to figure out how, the part of them that was Astral thought—we need a plan.

And their brain almost immediately jumped to that little ball of moss.

Crazy?

Yes. Very crazy.

The part of them that was Yuma approved.

Zexal dove backwards, dodging both the swing of a tail and a blade.

“Give me two seconds!” they shouted. “I have an idea!”

Cain could only grunt as he met blade to blade with Able. Zexal ducked back and released Lightning Blade to smoke, tucked their head in, and bolted back for that warehouse room. They almost knocked into Yuya on the way, grabbing his shoulder before he went down. Yuya's face was pale and shoulders trembling—that little scarf that had wrapped itself around his wrist appeared to have been doing most of the fighting for him, smacking away flying claws and tails that got too close with far more strength than a scarf had any right to have.

“What—who—” Yuya fumbled.

“No time!” Zexal said. Their eyes flashed down the hallway, where they could see Chirp and Babble running in frantic circles. “Yuya, listen, go ahead! Follow Chirp and Babble, find Yugi! Tell Judai and Dr. Wondertainment to put on some distance, too! I'm about to do something stupid!”

Yuya just stared at them for a moment, mouth hanging open. And then something seemed to click in his eyes, comprehension dawning over his face. His mouth formed the word “Yuma” silently, and he nodded. He tugged on Scarf and it retreated back to his wrist. He bolted for Dr. Wondertainment, who waspressed up against the wall, grabbed his hand and dragged him towards Chirp and Babble.

Satisfied that they were going to have the space they needed, Zexal dove back into the warehouse room.

They found the little ball of moss sending tentative feelers into the pool of ice water, but without any organic material to sink its roots into, it was having trouble growing.

682 is a regenerator, the part of Zexal that was Astral kept thinking. An adapter. It takes on characteristics that it finds useful in order to keep itself alive.

Zexal plucked the ball of moss from the ground without fear—they were made of refracted light and energy in a way that the part of them that was Yuma was not. The moss could have no effect on their constructed body. There was nothing for it to feed off of.

Won't it just adapt to this, then? The part of them that was Yuma responded. Or worse, it'll be able to do the thing the plant does!

Possible, the part that was Astral replied, as they darted back into the next room. But...if we set it on fire as soon as it adapts...

You mean—well, won't it just adapt to that?

The moss has a weakness—it should take to fire much easier. If it adapts, it's sure to take on the adaptation's weakness as well. If we strike quickly enough for it to be unable to reform, it should work...

It was the only plan and the arguing bits of Yuma and Astral settled back into the single-minded plan of Zexal. They skidded back to a stop near the giant lizard.

“Oy!” they shouted. “Lizard brain! Over here!”

The lizard's head swung towards Zexal, hissing with a forked tongue.

“Judai, back!” Zexal shouted.

They thanked the stars that Judai didn't question. He shot backwards, arms in front of him defensively as Zexal hurled the ball of moss at 682's face.

The lizard flinched as the little ball bounced off of its nose, rolled towards its eyes. It didn't have even a second to react before the moss tendrils stabbed into its eye.

A horrible screech rent through the hall. The lizard bucked upwards, its head striking the ceiling. Debris shattered down around them as it writhed and cracked into the walls. Its tail struck the walls and cracked rents across the surface. Zexal ducked under a flying claw and skidded towards Judai, shoving him back and out of the way of the flailing lizard, moss climbing up its body as though turning it into some deadly topiary.

“What—” Judai started.

“Can you help me set it on fire?” Zexal shouted as way of response.

Judai was action-oriented, his eyes only narrowed and he nodded.

Both of them spun to face the writhing lizard—it was half moss now, and Zexal thought they saw the transformation slowing.

It's adapting!!

They swung their hands around in front of them, stretching them as though they held an invisible bow and arrow.

“Zexal Weapon—Phoenix Bow!” they shouted.

And the bow burst into flames at their hands, already drawn back, the arrow already alight with the heat of a phoenix, the air snapping with dry heat against their face. Beside them, Judai had cupped his clawed hands around each other, a light bursting to life between his palms.

The lizard's struggles were slowing—not because the moss was winning, Zexal realized, as its eyes snapped open and glowed from somewhere inside the moss shape. Because it was adapting.

This was their only shot.

Zexal released their arrow with a cry. Judai flung his own ball of fire. Both fiery projectiles struck at the same time. For just a half second, Zexal thought that it wasn't working, it wasn't catching fire, not quickly enough—

But the moss was just a little too dry. It wasn't moist enough in this hall, there wasn't enough sunlight to give it strength.

It caught fire like a dried out cornfield in the middle of summer.

Somewhere inside the lizard-like shape, a screech rang out. The horrible fireball engulfed almost the entire room, causing Zexal to stumble back, desperately escaping the burning. Judai grabbed them by the collar and dragged them backwards. Zexal's brain tried desperately to think of what they might be missing—was this going to be enough? Yuya and Dr. Wondertainment were safely away. Yusei wasn't here, far out of reach of the blast. Cain—oh. Cain.

“Cain's on the other side!” Zexal shouted. “He's on the other side of the fireball!”

Judai swore and struggled forward, but the horrible heat snapped at his arms and he had to fall back, hissing. Zexal tried to move forward next—their body wasn't real, they shouldn't be able to be burned, but the heat was so intense that even their body of refracted light and energy could at least feel the potential to be hurt, the part of them that was Yuma shrank back with the ghost feelings of pain that would become real if they got too close to the blaze.

It was Judai that finally grabbed Zexal's shoulder and dragged him away from the writhing fireball.

“We have to go!” he shouted. “Cain can—Cain can take care of himself!”

Was he right? Would Cain really be all right on the other side of that? Would the lizard adapt to this too, and he would be trapped between fiery moss lizard and a deadly weapons master?

Cain is strong. Cain knows what he's doing, the part that was Astral said.

But we can't just leave him! We can't leave him alone, the part that was Yuma argued.

He wanted to leave you here to die, Astral said, a little more venom to zir voice than was perhaps entirely necessary.

But that doesn't mean he deserves to die either! We can't leave him!

He knows this place better than we do, what about the others? They need us too!

“We have to get to Yuya—Yuya and Yugi will need our help!” Judai shouted.

Zexal startled back from the argument at Judai's desperate voice, edged with Yubel's angry tones. They were right. The both of them. Zexal's internal argument settled, and squeezing their eyes shut with distress, allowed Judai to tug them down the hallway after Yuya and Dr. Wondertainment.

The smell of burning followed them down the hall, the screeches and keens of the lizard dying—hopefully—echoing down the hallway after them. They were rounding the corner when—

Yusei stumbled through a doorway and crashed into Judai. Judai gasped and let go of Zexal, gripping Yusei's arms instead. The boy's face was streaked with ash and—and tears? Zexal's heart jumped. Yusei had gone after Kirtida, hadn't he? Where—where was she?

“Yusei! Yusei, it's okay, it's okay,” Judai said, as Yusei tried to say something, his voice coming out hoarse and incoherent. “Yusei, calm down, you're all right, what happened? Take it slow.”

Yusei looked like he was going to collapse, but he managed to stay upright, his hands gripping Judai's shoulders. He was so unsteady that he didn't even seem to notice Zexal, or at least, didn't acknowledge the different face. He swallowed twice before he was able to speak.

“Kirtida,” he mumbled, his voice hoarse, as though he had been inhaling too much smoke. “She—I couldn't—”

Judai's face went white. Zexal felt their heart almost stop.

“How?” Judai said, voice cracking. “How?”

Yusei couldn't speak, gasping for breath, fresh tears leaking from the corners of his eyes as he squeezed them shut. He opened his mouth to talk again.

Then Yuya skidded out of a doorway—that was it, that was room 048, the one they had left Yugi in—his face white and his eyes wide.

“Guys,” he gasped. “Come quickly—something's wrong with Yugi!”

Chapter Text

Yuya pushed through the doors and into the control room, his heart hammering in his chest. The others were right on his heels as he held the door open for them to crowd inside. Dr. Wondertainment was already there, where Yuya had left him, with Chirp and Babble sitting silently, unblinkingly, near his feet. Yuya could hardly hear for the blood rushing in his ears and he closed the door quickly behind them, flipping the lock—as though that would do anything all to keep out what might be after them.

“Where is that woman?” Judai snapped. “She was here, wasn't she? We left her behind here with—”

His voice cut off and Yuya knew he had noticed Yugi.

The boy knelt in the middle of the room, hovering over a puzzle. It was over half done, with only a few spaces still missing. His eyes were fixed on his work, not even glancing up at the sound of the others filing in. He mumbled to himself, incoherent words that meant nothing. His fingers kept scrabbling for pieces. He kept trying to shove them into places they clearly wouldn't fit and swearing under his breath, his voice taking on almost an angry, crazed tone as he swore. His eyes—crimson, wide—seemed like they were going to dry out, he wasn't blinking at all.

“Yugi? Yugi-kun!” Yusei said, dropping down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“What's wrong with him?” that person that was somehow Yuma, somehow not said, their golden eyes narrowing with uncertainty.

“I don't know,” Yuya said. He felt like he had been punched in the gut, he could barely breathe from all the exertion. “I tried to talk to him and he wouldn't listen to me. He won't respond to anything I said.”

Judai crouched down on the opposite side of the puzzle, as though trying to catch Yugi's eyes. His mouth parted with concern, brow furrowing.

“Hey,” he said, quietly, calmly. “Hey—Yugi. Yugi, listen. What's wrong?”

Yugi just continued to mumble, his fingers dropping the pieces as he tried to pick them up. His hands were shaking. Badly.

A spray of sparks jumped from one of the computers and everyone jumped. Yuya found a swear jumping to his lips but it died before it came out—he was too tired to even verbalize his fright. Yusei jumped up and walked over to the computers. Most of them were black, shut down, but one of them still glowed. His fingers rested for a moment on the keyboard.

“It's malfunctioning,” he said. “Look at this—I don't even know what's going on.”

The whole screen was wobbling, coated with brief waves of static, as though it were trying to catch a television channel that was out of reach. A desperate, static hum emanated from somewhere inside the machine, and another spray of sparks jumped from the hard drive under the table. The screen seemed to have a picture much like the puzzle Yugi was working on—only it wasn't quite as complete as Yugi's version, and as pieces were moved across the screen, it seemed unable to figure out where they were supposed to go. The picture kept freezing and lagging and the hum only grew louder, more desperate.

“What is going on?” Yuya said desperately.

“Where's that woman?” Judai snapped. “Where is Luelle?”

As if in answer, the other screens flipped to life, showing Luelle's face on every one of them, in varying sizes and qualities.

“I decided it would be more beneficial to retreat to a place where I could better observe you,” she said.

Yuya flinched at the sound of her voice, dropping back against the wall. Zexal's fists raised in front of them, and Judai's skin immediately started to take on a scaly cast as he snarled, fang-like at the screen.

“You're behind this, aren't you?” Judai snapped. “What's going on?”

Luelle only smiled for a moment, her eyes sweeping the room as though she were counting.

“I see you all made it,” she said. “Well. Except for Cain, it seems. I lost some track of you when you set 682 on fire.”

“Answer the damn question!” Judai said, slamming his fists on the counter. “What is going on? What do you want with us?!”

Luelle shook her head, a rueful smile on her face.

“Such a temper, Mr. Yuki. Don't be so troubled. I have no problems with explaining.”

She adjusted her glasses briefly.

“I brought you into this dimensional and temporal point to observe your abilities. To get a handle on your full capabilities, as it were.”

“Why?” Yusei said. “Why us?”

“Because you are successors,” Luelle said, smiling. “Successors to the Throne of Light and Shadow.”

For a moment, there was only a brief silence in the room. Processing. What did that mean? Yuya thought, desperate. What was the Throne of Light and Shadow? And what did it have to do with any of them?

“What the hell does that mean?” Judai said.

Luelle only smiled at them, quietly. Her eyes dropped to Yugi.

“I suppose I should explain his game,” she said. “Your souls are tied to this point through the use of a paradox machine, anchoring you to these temporal and dimensional coordinates. Yugi challenged SCP 079 to a game—whoever finishes the puzzle first wins. And if Yugi wins, the paradox machine breaks down, sending you all back home.”

Again, another silence. Yuya could barely wrap his head around what was going on. Was there something wrong with the puzzle? Was that why Yugi wasn't responding to them? Considering all the other ridiculous shit in this place, he wouldn't be surprised if that puzzle was slowly killing him.

But if it was the only way out...

“You're changing the subject!” Judai shouted, punching one of the screens. “Why us? Why kidnap us? Why are you doing this?”

Luelle's eyes flickered to him.

And her smile disappeared.

Yuya could not truly express the way that face, that expression, made the terror seep into his stomach. The cold green eyes that bored into each of them like a snake.

“I have failed...” she whispered, “one too many times.”

Yuya thought he heard the scratch of nails against a desk, and thought she might be clawing at it in her barely concealed frustration.

“The King is the most powerful sorcerer in the world. I was there when the first King was born, when the goddesses gave up their powers and sacrificed themselves to become the soul of the King. To keep the world in balance.”

The word came out with a hiss, and Yuya could have sworn he saw her pupils narrow for a moment.

“I have waited for too many years,” she said. “Too many times have I tried to take the King's power and failed. You remember Able, who is chasing you? The result of my failed attempt to steal Cain's power.”

“Cain was this...King thing too?” Zexal said, eyes widening.

“He doesn't remember. But yes.”

She sucked in a breath, closing her eyes for a moment. As though composing herself.

“So this time,” she said, without opening her eyes. “I will be prepared. I will know exactly what you're capable of. So that I can take the King's power for myself. The power that should have been mine in the first place.”

“And what are you going to do with that power?” Yusei said, his voice hoarse.

Her eyes opened. She met Yusei's eyes for a moment.

“I'm going to make the world the way it should be.”

The door crashed open and Yuya felt warmth blossom over his back. Bleeding. I'm bleeding. Yusei was shouting and Judai shot forward to grab Yuya as he stumbled forward, grabbing him in his arms. Yuya managed to look over his shoulder enough to see Able swinging his sword at Yusei's head, eyes flashing with rage and a silent scream making his mouth into a wide O. Yuya felt Scarf tightening around his wrist and he tried to sit up. His heart roared in his ears and he could only barely hear Judai shouting at him to sit down, stop moving, he was bleeding too badly.

Able's sword slashed towards Yusei again—and then Zexal shot forward, a blade crackling to life like lightning in their fingers, meeting him blade for blade. The impact sent a thunder's roar through the room and Yuya felt like he was going to tumble to the ground. He gripped at Judai's arms as the boy tried to drag Yuya to the side.

“Yugi,” Yuya mumbled. “We have to help Yugi finish the puzzle. And then this—this can be over.”

“I know, I know, but just—you're bleeding so much, he got to you too quickly, just stay still—”

Yuya felt bile rising in his throat from the pain of his back. He gripped Judai's arm a little tighter, felt Scarf tightening in response.

“Get me to Yugi, I'll try to help him,” he said. “Just...just get me to Yugi while you fight...”

Judai swore and ducked, covering Yuya with his own body as a black sword whistled overhead. Zexal was shouting, but Yuya couldn't hear what was being said. He could vaguely see them wielding a great blue shield now, backing off with their lightning blade poised over the top of the shield. Judai gripped Yuya's shoulder for a second, and then leapt to his feet, wings snapping out from his back. He snarled as he went for Able.

Yusei hunkered down beside Yugi with one arm raised, as though he could somehow shield the boy. For a moment, Yuya thought he saw Yusei trying to scrabble for some pieces, try to see where they fit in.

And then Yugi finally reacted. His eyes flashed and a strangled cry screeched from his throat. He smacked Yusei's hands away. Hunkered over the puzzle like some wild animal protecting their prey, his eyes wide and wild. Yusei backed off with a swear.

What is that puzzle doing to him? Yuya thought desperately. We can't leave unless he finishes it!

And he didn't seem to be able to. Even in the commotion, Yuya was able to keep his eyes on Yugi, watching him fumble for pieces, barely able to pick them up. And even when he didn't drop them over and over again, he couldn't seem to fit them in right. He would turn them the wrong direction, or put them in upside down and have to pry them back out. He kept staring at the two small spaces that hadn't yet been filled, as though they didn't make a lick of sense to him.

For the barest second, his eyes flickered to violet. He grabbed a piece with much more conviction and shoved it right into place—and then his eyes faded to crimson again and he was back to his almost insane fumbling for pieces that he couldn't fit. Every now and then he would freeze, as though there were a headache striking him, his hand pressing at his head and his eyes squeezing shut.

Scarf tightened around Yuya's wrist.

Something was wrong with Yugi.

Yuya tried to push himself up against the wall. He whined as the pain skittered down his back. Dammit, dammit, dammit...he had to try and get up! Get to Yugi! He had to do something!

Dr. Wondertainment appeared then, dropping to one knee by Yuya's side.

“Hang in there, my boy, hang in there,” the man said, his mustache twitching as he carefully leaned Yuya forward. “Oh, my, now that's a little bit of a mess there. Hang on. I might have something to stop the bleeding.”

He retrieved what looked like an ordinary handkerchief from his pocket and frowned at it. He grimaced at Yuya.

“Fair warning, lad, I haven't actually tested this one properly. It might sting.”

And before Yuya could protest, Dr. Wondertainment was pressing the handkerchief to Yuya's bloody back.

It didn't sting.

It burned.

Yuya almost screamed at the pain rippling down his pain. His arm flailed and caught Dr. Wondertainment against the side of the face. All he could think about was the pain, total and incredible pain, just a burning in every limb and pore and he couldn't see and—

And over. It was over. He groaned as he blinked through the whiteness of pain.

Dr. Wondertainment looked very pale as he replaced the still pristine handkerchief into his breast pocket. He muttered something about chemical imbalances and certainly not ready for release yet.

Yuya gasped for breath, trying to take in the situation. Zexal and Judai double teamed Able, but even Yuya could tell they were slowing down. He had to do something.

“Dr. Wondertainment,” he gasped, gripping his arm. “Do you—do you have anything? Any ideas?”

The man looked incredibly pale. He shook his head slowly.

“I'm afraid I may be fresh out of those,” he said. “What about you, lad? Got any tricks left up your sleeve?”

“Me?” Yuya said. “What could I do?”

The man shook his head for a moment, considering Yuya like a grandpa might, squinting a bit as though it were hard to see him.

“Well, I just thought—I mean, you've been remarkable ingenious thus far. I could hardly believe how well you took to my toys. Quite an imagination, you're really quite something.”

“I...what?”

“There's always some sort of possibility, lad. I'm positive that you can find it. After all,” he said, and he nodded towards Scarf. “Scarf seems to like you. And you've been able to do things alongside it that I didn't know were possible.”

Yuya glanced down at Scarf. He looked back up at Yugi, at the others fighting for their lives.

He had to do something.

He had to find the last possibility.

Dread was pooling in his stomach as he thought that. He didn't know how. He didn't know how to find that possibility. He didn't know the first thing about fighting, he had no tools, he barely understood what was going on, and they were going to die. They were alone, and they were trapped, and were there even any possibilities left?

Scarf touched his chin. He startled out of his thoughts, swaying from the dizziness.

It didn't matter if there wasn't a possibility left. He had to try—until the very end!

Yuya dropped to his hands and knees and crawled quickly over to where Yugi sat hunched over the puzzle. Yusei sat warily near him, watching the fight. His eyes flickered to Yuya.

“I don't know what to do,” he said. “He won't respond—won't let me help.”

“The puzzle is consuming him,” Yuya said. “We just have to find a way to—”

Scarf was nudging him insistently. He was getting those images again, impressions, like when the shelving unit had fallen on them. He got the sense of Yugi. No, two Yugis. One with crimson eyes, one with violet. The violet eyed one, putting pieces in with ease.

Two Yugis.

The violet-eyed Yugi knew how to finish the puzzle.

That meant they had to get the violet eyed Yugi back out.

How, though? Yuya thought desperately. Think. He had to think. How to get the other Yugi back out? Scarf sent him an impression of...of his own pendulum?

Two Yugis. Like the sides of a coin. Or like—or like the opposite sides of a pendulum's swing. He had to swing the pendulum back to the other Yugi. Yuya found his eyes screwing shut, feeling out with his mind in a way that he wasn't sure how he knew how to do it. His pendulum felt warm against his chest, but was that just his mind playing tricks on him? His imagination?

He felt a light somewhere in front of him. Yugi. He felt Yugi. Two lights, glowing in one space. One fighting against the other one, struggling, screaming, trying to get his voice to reach. The other wasn't listening—couldn't listen.

They need to switch, Yuya thought. You both need to SWITCH!

He pushed. He wasn't sure how he knew how to do it, but he did. He pushed on those lights, trying to shove the other one back. Swing it back, switch the pendulum's swing to the other direction.

He thought he felt the lights shift.

And then there was a cry, and Yuya's eyes snapped open, his head whipped around to see what was happening—

Judai dropped. Yuya felt his heart clenched as he saw the boy wobble, trip over his own foot and tumble backwards to the ground, arms wheeling, swearing. A sword going for his heart.

He's going to die—

Another blade caught the sword before it reached Judai. Judai hit the ground and lay there for a moment, briefly stunned. But alive.

Cain was back.

The man held his ground, shoulders heaving up and down, face twisted with irritation.

“You,” he said, “are really starting to wear out your welcome, brother.”

And he swung the sword for Able's neck.

Against every odd, Able wasn't fast enough.

The blade sliced right through him. Tendons and veins splitting at the edge of steel. The head dropped from the shoulders, hit the ground, rolled. For a moment, Yuya was only staring at it's unseeing eyes, wide with the shock of death. And then it, and the body, dissolved into dust.

At that moment, there was a cry of—triumph? Yuya's eyes flashed back to Yugi. Violet eyes, he recognized with a snap. Violet eyes, and a look of wide-eyed triumph.

“Finished,” Yugi gasped.

The puzzle was done.

The last thing Yuya heard was Luelle letting out a tiny, almost satisfied sound through the computers.

Everything ended.

. . .

….did we do it?

I…I think so.

Where are we?

I think we're getting sent back. The machine went down.

Then...we won?

We won...we definitely won.

It ended so quickly.

I know...we're not going to get a chance to say goodbye, are we?

I don't think so.

…well...if I don't see you guys again....thanks.

You too.

We all made a good team, didn't we?

In the end, we pulled through.

Let's not do this again, huh?

Yeah. Never again.

But...

What?

Do you think we'll ever meet each other again?

............................

I think so.

Really?

Yeah. I do. We'll meet again. Somehow.

I hope so.

I just hope we're not trying not to die the next time, too.

That's always the hope.

Well...

Until next time, then.

Goodbye.

. . .

His eyes cracked open. For a moment, even the tiniest sliver of light blinded him, and he gasped. Fingers twitched in an attempt to cover his eyes.

He heard a small gasp over him.

“Yuya—Yuya, are you awake?”

Yuya squinted, coughed softly. He remembered—what? Where was he? Where was...

A name, several names danced on the edge of his mind. For a moment, panic shot through him. Had they made it? Was everyone okay? Were they—

And then the panic faded. Sunk beneath a layer of water, as though disappearing into the ocean depths of his brain. His eyes opened all the way, and he found his mother leaning over him, felt her cool hand on his forehead.

For a moment, tears pricked at his eyes. He managed to pull his hand up to put it on top of his mother's hand, to reassure himself that it was solid.

For some reason, he felt like...like he had been somewhere else. Somewhere where he thought he would...never see her again.

“Yuya?” she said, brow furrowing with concern. “Yuya, are you okay? What's wrong?”

He swallowed through a dry throat.

“I think...” he mumbled. “I think I just had...a really bad nightmare.”

. . .

Yuma yelped. He blinked the impact from his eyes, squinting at the faraway ceiling, eyes still blurred with sleep. Overhead, his hammock swung softly back and forth.

He groaned. Everything ached. He must have slept funny.

For the barest moment, ghost pain gripped his entire body. He gasped, eyes bulging. It hurt, it hurt so badly, he was—

He was okay.

It was only the fragments of a dream.

Astral hovered into view, golden eyes furrowed with concern.

“Yuma?” ze asked. “Are you all right?”

Yuma swallowed once. The memory of pain still skittered down his arms, making his hair raise. Like he had just been put through hell and back. And there was a weird feeling in his stomach, like something squishy had crawled in there and made a home. Something orange, he thought for some reason. He tried to smile, for Astral's sake at least.

“Nightmare, I guess,” he said.

He was not expecting to see Astral's eyes go vaguely out of focus.

“How strange,” ze said. “I seem to recall...having a nightmare as well...”

. . .

Yusei stirred, feeling something press harshly into the side of his face. He startled then, jerking up from sleep and knocking into something with his head, momentarily panicked—where was he? What was going on? Oh, dammit, he was getting in through the door and—

He heard a swear behind him and flinched in spite of himself.

But it was only Crow, rubbing his nose.

“Geez, Yusei, calm down,” Crow said.

Yusei realized he must have hit Crow with his head when he jerked up. He winced sympathetically as he rubbed his own head.

“Sorry,” he said. His eyes flickered around the room—he had fallen asleep against his D-Wheel, in the middle of fixing it, it seemed. His tools were scattered around his knees.

Crow shrugged in response to Yusei's apology.

“You all right, though? You were sounding pretty agitated in your sleep there.”

“I...was?”

“Yeah. Nightmare?”

Yusei thought about it for a moment. There was a strange sense of...something crawling down his spine. As though he had just been running away from a monster.

“Must have been,” he said after a beat. “I don't remember.”

He shook his head as his eyes dropped back down to the bike. Where had he been when he had fallen asleep? He shouldn't be doing that...

His hand pawed automatically to his back pocket, where he kept his wrench and screwdriver. He was going to need the wrench for this...

Oh?

Where had his tools gone?

. . .

Yubel's reflexes were better than his, and she was the only thing that kept Judai from face planting onto the ground. Her wings retreated back into his back as he steadied himself, blinking away the disorientation of waking up so quickly. He had...what? Where was he? He looked up as he blinked through the sleep. A tree. Oh—he had fallen asleep on the branch last night. He remembered that much. He grimaced to himself. If he was going to be falling out of trees while sleeping, he should probably just find somewhere else to—

He was starting to rub the sleep out of his eyes when his fingers brushed against his cheeks. Oh? They were...

He blinked a few times, and realized then that the blurred scenery wasn't from the grogginess.

He was crying.

He blinked a few more times as determined tears rolled out of the corners of his eyes. He rubbed at them with the back of his hand.

I couldn't save her, his brain said suddenly.

Save who? He thought to himself.

“Judai? Are you all right?”

Yubel's voice echoed in his head. Judai blinked the last of the tears away, staring up at the blue sky over head. Why did he feel so...upset?

“Y-yeah,” he said. “Must have been one hell of a dream.”

. . .

Yugi wasn't sure what had woken him, but he found his eyes fluttering open, his gaze drawn by the shadowy ceiling. The moment he fully recognized that he was awake, he found a coldness gripping his heart. Terror pinned him to the bed for a moment, his throat dry and a cold sweat matting his bangs to his face.

The sleep paralysis passed, perhaps a little quicker than it shoulder, and Yugi just lay there for a moment, gasping for breath.

He heard the softest sigh echo in his brain, and glanced over to his side. His other self's projection sat at the foot of the bed, his chin resting on his hand, eyes unfocused.

“Other me?” Yugi whispered.

Yami no Yugi stirred, his eyes flickering to Yugi briefly.

“Did I wake you?”

“No. Are you okay?”

He shook his head, slowly.

“I...don't know.”

His eyes lifted up to the moon shining through the window.

“Yugi...I don't believe...I've ever had a nightmare before.”

He paused.

“In fact...I don't think I've even...really slept before.”

Yugi blinked at his other self. What a strange statement...one that made Yugi's spine crawl briefly, the heavy impression of something that he was forgetting creeping up on the back of his mind. Like a blanket, suppressing the dark corner of his brain, something that he wanted to remember but...couldn't. Like a nightmare fading away at the edge of wakefulness.

“What...do you mean?” Yugi asked.

Yami no Yugi didn't answer for a moment. Then he tried to send Yugi a smile—an unconvincing one, at that.

“Nothing,” he said. “Go back to sleep.”

And he faded back into the Puzzle, leaving Yugi to lay there, staring at the ceiling, and feeling a knot growing in his chest.

Nightmares, even ones you couldn't really remember, weren't real, right?

Right?

. . .

Luelle flicked through her notes with an evergrowing smile of satisfaction on her face.

“They completely exceeded all of my expectations,” she said. “This was a remarkable experiment—more than a success. Not only did they all survive, but it seems they won't remember it at all.”

She smiled widely, her the light of her computer screen reflecting off of the whites. Behind her, Waverly remained at attention, as always. He looked...a little more uncomfortable, though. Rickten was sprawled over a table again, looking positively desolate.

“I didn't end up getting to kill anyone,” he moaned, throwing his arm dramatically over his eyes. “I was so close, too.”

Luelle only laughed softly as she turned around in her swivel chair, to face her subordinates.

“There will be plenty of time for that, Rickten, of that I assure you,” she said. “And with this data, I can say for certain that this time...this time, they won't slip out of our grasp.”

Again, that wide, too white smile. Waverly shifted, his hands clasping tighter behind his back.

“And I have to thank you as well,” Luelle said, flicking her eyes to the corner, where the other man still stood, wringing his hands nervously. “You did an admirable job, Dr. Wondertainment.”

Dr. Wondertainment wrung his hands again, swallowing to make his Adam's apple bob. What an odd little face the “doctor” had decided to build for himself. Really, it could make itself look like anything it wanted, and it chose an elderly human man? A waste of its potential. She'd never understand the quirks of slimes.

She shrugged to herself, and turned back to her own notes.

“As we agreed, your little business will remain as it is,” she said, tapping a pen to her lips. “And you'll receive the promised compensation for your help. All items confiscated by the Foundation have been retrieved, and all files related to you have been disposed of.”

“And Scarf?”

“Has been returned to you already.”

Dr. Wondertainment nodded jerkily, looking pleased. Luelle side-eyed him.

“Don't think I didn't notice,” she said softly. “Your little...sucking up to the Kings back there. Praising that one boy on his ingenuity so profusely. You're hardly subtle.”

Dr. Wondertainment didn't look particularly perturbed.

“A good businessman keeps his options open,” he said, with a short bow. “And should that very ingenious young man ever come into the throne and keep it, I would much rather he like my business, instead of wanting to shut it down, like all of you other people seem to want to do.”

He muttered once to himself, something about “not my fault if people can't read warning instructions, not my fault if humans buy my merchandise by accident,” and then turned on his heel and poofed out of existence.

Luelle decided the best thing to do was ignore him. His little business was hardly a threat; he had the power to make incredible weapons, and decided to make toys instead. But he had been useful in his own way, and he was sure to be useful in the future. He would go without incident.

Luella brushed her fingers against the keyboard, feeling a familiar rush of anticipation.

“All right,” she said softly. “Time to get to work.”

. . .

That had been a mess. A terrible, terrible mess. Cain groaned as he leaned back against the wall. He wished he had some kind of baseball to start tossing up and down, because that was the kind of cliché mood he was in.

Hours, he had spent with the SCP officials. Asking him all sorts of questions—what had happened, what is the situation, what SCPs are still loose, what were you doing here in the first place when we were supposed to evacuate, the usual sorts of questions. They didn't believe him when he said that some of the most dangerous SCPs of all time were dead.

Even fucking 682, Cain thought, with a burst of vindictive pleasure. I can't blame them for not believing it.

Officers and personnel were swarming the base now, decked out in their riot gear, trying to do damage control. An inventory of the SCPs lost and still loose, reviewing security footage that was surely completely erased to find some understanding of what had happened, cataloging the dead and drafting form letters of consolation to their families. Cain himself had been shuttled back off to containment, so that “we know where you are for once.” They were suspicious, he supposed. They had a right to be. This was...kind of ridiculous, even by this foundation's standards.

No one would know what had happened, Cain found himself thinking. That paradox machine had been destroyed when 079 lost. They wouldn't be able to study it. Cain was the only one that had been there for any of that disaster, the only one that hadn't died, at least. All camera footage was gone. Most of the most dangerous SCPs had been killed with little to no remains. It would be weeks before he could convince them that yes, the Human Phoenix had in fact melted 173.

They left, he thought, his mind turning to the strange boys that had appeared from nowhere, and disappeared just as quickly. They're gone, now. Back to their own times, I hope.

He snorted softly. Part of him wanted to think “good riddance,” but the other part of him...the part of him that was beginning to question the gaps in his memory....

He heard a scream outside his door. Every bit of him tensed—god, now what—and he leaped off his bed, sword in hand, just in time to see the metal door to his room...melting....

The metal bubbled and popped, turning a bright orange as it pooled down to the ground, faster than any metal had any right to melt.

He wasn't sure why he was surprised to see Kirtida standing outside his door.

She smiled at him—what an odd expression for her. He couldn't say that he disliked it. Made her face light up a bit. He let his sword arm fall to his side.

“Wondered when you'd be coming back,” he said.

“It took me a little longer to regenerate than usual,” she said.

“You remember yourself this time, I see.”

Kirtida's face was radiant.

“I remember everything,” she said, in wonder. “I remember—I even remember parts of myself before I came here. What Judai did for me, I...I don't know who I'm going to be now, now that I know who I am, and what I can do.”

He could feel the heat rippling off of her, and wondered exactly what she had done to herself to make her this powerful.

“Why come to me, then?” Cain said. “Did you need something?”

She nodded.

“Confirmation,” she whispered. “That—all of it—happened, right? They were here. They were here, and they fought with us.”

He blinked once. Now that she said it out loud, it all felt...so dreamlike. If he couldn't see the results in front of him, he wouldn't have believed it himself. And it was only now, now that she had articulated it, that he realized...he had been looking for the same time.

“It did,” he said, and the conviction in his own voice startled him. “It really happened. They were here.”

“And they made it out?”

“Yes.”

“Back to their own times, their own places?”

“They must have. The paradox machine broke down. They would have snapped back.”

Kirtida nodded, and for a moment, her eyes went out of focus. They stood there in that almost dreamy silence for a few moments, both lost to their own thoughts. And then Kirtida's eyes snapped back into the now. She grinned, her teeth flashing bright white against her dark skin. In spite of everything, he found himself cracking one back.

“I'm leaving,” she said. “I'm leaving the Foundation.”

“Good,” he said. And then, “where will you go?”

“I don't know. Everywhere. I want to see everything. I want to breath again. To be under the sky.”

He shuddered softly, eyes fluttering half closed at the thought. How long had it been, since he had seen the sky?

“Will you come along?” she asked. “See where the path leads?”

He opened his eyes again, met hers. For a moment, then, he saw them—all five of them, those ridiculous human children with powers they shouldn't have, determination beyond their years, a stubbornness and desperation to survive, to live, to thrive.

He found himself grinning.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think I will.”

They left nothing but melted metal and a silent promise in their wake.

. . .

A/N: IT'S FINALLY D O N E. This monstrosity is finally over. Praise Madoka and Homucifer and all the angels in magical girl Valhalla. :'D Gosh, this Halloween special has overstayed its welcome. Thank you all so much for sticking with it, even when I starting throwing weird world-building at you that I probably won't build on until another project down the line. I hope you'll continue to stick around and read some more of my works, and I hope you enjoyed this one! A very, very late Happy Halloween to you all, and here's to finished projects. I love y'all. :)