Author Note: Yes, I'm aware I'm nowhere near here but I got the film for my birthday and this popped into my head.
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As he stared at the Dark Magician, he could not help but
internally grimace. He had expected her to use something like Magic Cylinder to
counter his dragon, but instead she had resummoned her replacement magician.
The black Dark Magician was a reminder to both duelists that the purple one was
gone, as was it’s mistress. It was also a sign to Kaiba that the card that had defeated
him time and time again had not just been ‘the Pharaoh’s’ favourite card, but
had been Yugi’s ally too.
This knowledge did not help him now. She would win when she
declared her attack and his chances of bringing back the Pharaoh and defeating her
would be gone. Yugi would walk away with the Puzzle and everything he had done,
every yen he had spent…it would be for nothing.
“Dark Magician!” Yugi’s voice trembled slightly as she spoke,
the microphone that projected her voice around the arena seeming to struggle
with her voice as it had been for the last few turns, “Dark Magic Attack!”
He did not even flinch as the blast of dark magic struck
him. Despite the pain caused by the wave of purple light, despite the fact that
everything had come to nothing once again, he closed his eyes and could not
help the small smile that crept onto his face. Yugi had proved herself. By
defeating him she had shown herself to be the true Queen of Games, to have been
as much a rival to him as her Oneesan.
Still that did not mean he had to show his delight at the emergence
of a second true rival in public. As he felt the attack, which he had suffered
through hundreds or thousands of times in practise, trail off, he opened his
eyes and put a stern, irritated expression, ready to play the role Yugi
expected him to take on.
Then the power cut out.
“What’s going on?” Yugi’s voice was still trembling and he
made a mental note to check the equipment. Yugi’s voice was not high enough to
cause it, so her repeated collisions with the floor had had to be the reason
for the broken microphone.
The sounds of the Millenium Puzzle hitting the floor drew
both their attention and they both darted towards it, Yugi hesitating for a
moment, giving him the chance to pick it up.
“Diva’s cube…” He had no interest in the blasted cube as he
examined the Puzzle. Nothing had come loose thankfully, not that he couldn’t
have gotten Yugi to just put it back in again. “The Millennium Ring…” Yugi’s
slightly frightened comment made him turn to look just in time to see the
darkness erupt from the item and start to swamp the arena, sucking up people in
waves of purple particles.
He was no fool, he could feel the intense darkness
surrounding them and slowly spreading out, taking over Domino City as something
emerged from the cube. Something monstrous and twisted that cackled with an
oddly mixed voice that sounded like Diva and something else that struck him
with fear, despite him having never heard it before.
“YUGI!” Yugi’s pained noise as she turned to look at her
friends, who were trapped in the arena below with the majority of the darkness,
made Kaiba turn to examine her properly. What he saw made him internally
flinch. The trembling in her voice had not come from the equipment being
broken. She was shaking. Not through fear. He knew what she looked like when
she was afraid. This was exhaustion. He could tell from her unsteady stance,
the way she had been sluggish when turning to look at her friends and the way
her breath came in unsteady gasps. He had pushed her close to her limit by duelling
her directly after her Dimension Duel with Diva and now, as she turned to look
at the demon, he could see determination in her features.
She was going to fight.
The thought made his stomach twist. He knew she could not
win on her own. She was too hurt, too tired and he had seen about half her
deck. He was pretty sure that she did not have the cards she needed in order to
win.
But she was going to fight because she was a duelist and she
fought to the end. Just as she had been taught by her Oneesan.
And he was going to fight with her.
“Yugi.” He tone made it a statement rather than a question
but she glanced at him anyway, curiosity clear, “Do you still have the power to
fight?”
Relief and hope flickered across her features, clearly
already assuming that he would aid her as she asked, “Kaiba?”
“If I’m going down, it’s not without a fight.” He confirmed
and the joy in her exhausted tone as she promised Diva that they would take him
down, together, made him feel like much less of an ass.
