Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Guardians of the Watchtowers ❯ Reunion ( Chapter 13 )

Ugh…I hate school! I barely have the time to write…bleck!

Fanfiction reviewers:

Mistress Ethereal: LOL, yeah I guess both can be a bit stubborn. :) Thanks for your review!

Yugi-Obsessed: Thanks for the review!

Mediaminer reviewers:

Technical Dragon: Thanks for the review!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Yugioh.

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Chapter 13: Reunion

As the small brown fur ball continued its frenzied dance of warning, Raven quickly swept her eyes over the forest around them. The others were looking as well. Suddenly, Belinos let out a roar of warning as he spotted some creatures approaching them from behind. Yami spotted more coming from their right, and Yugi spotted some from the left. At the same time, both Raven and Kaiba saw a host of ghastly creatures coming from directly in front of them. The group quickly shifted so that Yami, Raven, and Belinos formed a protective circle around Yugi, Kaiba, and Kuriboh. To Kaiba's dismay, however, the little fur ball had decided to make him his new buddy, pressing itself against his leg. Kaiba looked briefly down in annoyance, but then quickly turned his gaze upwards again. Now was not really the time to worry about that…

Both Yami and Raven recognized the creatures that were advancing towards them. They were minions of the Elders, conjured up by the darkest of magicks. These were the vampires that had been killed, by stake, by fire, or by beheading, and had turned into a pile of dust. But now, they had risen again, the dead of the undead. With their flesh dripping and sagging from their bones, they could no longer pass as humans, as normal vampires usually could. They were more powerful than normal vampires as well. They felt no pain, no remorse over what they did, nothing. They only existed to serve the Elders, to carry out their evil tasks. They were relentless, not stopping until their task was completed. Only then would they return to dust.

Yami narrowed his eyes as he focused on summoning all of his magick. Taking a deep breath, he raised both arms towards the sky and shouted, "Ram en' naur!" towards the advancing things. Fire gathered between his hands briefly, then shot out, blanketing the area in front of him. It pushed the demons back some, stopping them momentarily in their tracks. But still they came.

Belinos roared in annoyance and frustration as his white fire attacks were not doing much. He let out attack after attack, but whenever one group of gruesome things was blasted away, another would quickly replace it. Some even managed to get close to the tall human-wolf boy standing behind him, but Belinos was fast and quickly snapped his tail at the offending things, sending them back into the masses of their fellow minions. Kaiba saw what the dragon did for him, and nodded briskly his thanks. But his attention quickly returned to Raven.

Raven had her arms raised, just as Yami did, using her element to flood the area before her with icy waters, washing away the approaching minions. Apparently, they were not very good swimmers. However, she could not keep this up for too long. There had to be another way…

Yugi looked wide-eyed from Yami, to Belinos, to Raven, and back to Yami again. He could tell they were starting to tire. And he had a feeling those gruesome things could tell as well. But what worried him even more was that he *recognized* these things. They were the ones attacking the Guardians in his dream. He desperately hoped that the outcome would not be the same.

Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted, "Villa yanta!" as a torrent of wind whipped through the demon masses, scattering them far and away from the group of six. All stopped their attacks and turned towards the direction of the wind. Yugi's eyes lit up as he spotted two familiar-looking pointy hairstyles, one blonde and the other white. He ran out to greet and hug his two friends. "Marik! Bakura! You're alright! I'm so happy to see you both!"

Marik frowned. "Well, *almost* alright anyways." He looked behind him as he raised a long slender pointed tail. "We ran into one of Bakurian's old "pals"."

Bakura, who sported a similar looking tail, nodded. "Yes. Someone with a very deep grudge against Bakurian. But Yugi, why do you and Kaiba have ears and a tail?" He looked very confused, thinking how could the spell that had given him and Marik a tail possibly affected Yugi and Kaiba as well.

"We ran into a bit of trouble with someone that knew Yami. A vampire named Isabella."

Marik frowned again. "Apparently, we picked the wrong side to join," he grumbled under his breath.

As the friends traded stories of their adventures, the Guardians greeted each other as well. Bakurian punched Yami lightly on his shoulder. "Heh, saved you again, now didn't I Yami? Good thing I came along to scatter your problems away with my wind." He grinned.

Yami rolled his eyes in return. "Still doesn't compare to the number of times I've saved *your* butt."

Bakurian only frowned in reply.

"Enough bickering you two," Raven said. "We have other things to worry about than whose saved who more times." She paused. "Now, I have a plan to-"

An aggravated cry interrupted her before she could finish. She glanced over her shoulder before turning fully in the direction of the cry. It appears Kaiba was having some trouble with his new-found "friend". The little fur ball was jumping around, from the ground to a tree, to Kaiba's shoulder, to another tree, to the ground again, back to Kaiba's shoulder. Kaiba, meanwhile, was trying to swat it away with his hands, but not having much luck there. Even Belinos was trying to help, using his tail to swat also at the fur ball. But Kuriboh was fast, deciding to make a game out of the entire thing, and continued jumping around.

Raven shook her head as she walked towards the group, raising an arm and sending a gently wave of magick towards the bouncing creature with a soft, "Lanta kaima." The creature immediately stopped mid-jump, closing its eyes and falling to the ground with a soft thump. Raven stood next to the now-sleeping fur ball as Kaiba breathed in a sigh of relief. He watched as Raven let out a low strange whistle of a tune, then gasped in surprise, taking a step back towards the dragon, as a whole mass of furry little creatures came tumbling down from the trees. They gathered up the sleeping one, then scurried back up into the tree tops.

Raven watched the retreating band of fur balls before turning back towards the others. "Now, as I was saying," she continued, "I have a plan that will defeat the Elders once and for all. But it demands certain…sacrifices."

At this point, Yugi and the others had joined them as well. They were giving each other worried looks. Sacrifices?

"What do you have in mind, Raven?" Yami asked his cousin. He was ready to do anything if it would mean that Yugi would be safe.

"We summon Slifer the Sky Dragon."

The other three Guardians looked at her, their eyes wide with shock, as they considered her statement. Was this the only way to win?

Yugi looked curiously between the faces of the four Guardians. He hated asking a stupid question, but… "Umm…who's Slifer?"

Yami sighed. Of course Yugi and his friends wouldn't know who Slifer was. How stupid of him not to explain. "Slifer the Sky Dragon is a monster of the gods. Not many times has he been summoned, for he is indestructible. No one, except perhaps another god monster, can match up to his power."

"So why didn't you guys just summon him in the first place then?" Kaiba asked a bit off-handedly. "We could have been out of this place by now."

Raven shook her head in dismay. The boy understood so little about their world. "Because, as I have said before, there are certain sacrifices that are demanded when summoning the aid of a god."

"What kind of sacrifices?" Yugi asked, concerned. He hoped they weren't too great. But he knew his hope was in vain, knowing that probably to summon such a powerful monster would demand something great…

"We…we would have to sacrifice all four of our elemental magicks," Raven answered very quietly. She glanced at Kaiba. "Now do you understand why we have waited, to see if there is another way?"

Kaiba was silent, lowering his eyes to the ground.

"And…and there isn't any other way?" Yugi asked quietly.

Both Yami and Raven shook their heads silently.

There was a long silence as everyone thought of the situation at hand, until Bakurian broke out in an angry voice, "Of course there is another way! I say we march through those gates and right into Castle Istar and defeat those old fogies in robes with our magick. We can take them!"

"I agree!" Marius joined in. "Why bother to sacrifice our powers to some god when we can win just fine on our own?"

Yami and Raven looked at each other. They should have known Marius and Bakurian would never give up their powers without a fight.

Yugi vividly recalled the images of his dream. "But what if you can't win on your own?" When the two Guardians gave his strange looks, he quickly described his dream to them.

"Pfft," Bakurian huffed, "it was a just a dream. Nothing to be alarmed about."

"Two on two…" Raven murmured to herself. "Stalemate. We can't summon Slifer without Bakurian and Marius, and they will need our help to take the Elders head on."

Marius started walking towards the gates of Castle Istar, motioning for Marik to follow him. Bakurian and Bakura started to follow as well. "Well, we're going with or without you," Marius called over his shoulder. "If you want to give us a fighting chance, I suggest you all follow us."

Raven narrowed her eyes and growled slightly. They were forcing their hand. Seems they finally decided to not listen to her any more. They couldn't have picked a worse time, either. She glanced at Yami, who nodded his agreement, then turned towards Kaiba. "Come on, Seto. We're going to Castle Istar," she said in a quiet voice.

Kaiba could tell she was not happy with this at all, but only nodded and followed her. Belinos followed close behind the two.

Yugi walked side-by-side Yami, having to walk a bit faster in order to keep up. He looked up at the crimson-eyed boy. "Yami, do you think you guys have a chance?"

Yami glanced down at the small boy. He wanted to reassure the boy that everything would be alright, that they did have a chance. But he couldn't bring himself to lie to him. "I don't know, Yugi. I honestly don't know." He looked forwards again.

Yugi turned his glance forward as well. He had a very bad feeling about this, one that was shared by both Yami and Raven. Ahead of him, he just see the outlines of the dark gates of Castle Istar. Soon, now…

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Whew, done! I hope this chapter was somewhat interesting. Ack, I stink at fight scenes. So at last they have reached Castle Istar. Wonder what fun await them there?

Translations:

Ram en' naur! : Fire field!

Villa yanta! : Wind tunnel!

Lanta kaima : Sleep

Unfortunately, I have stupid classes now *grumbles*, so updates will be very irregular. I don't have the slightest clue when I'll have the next one. I'll try very hard to put aside some writing time though.

Thanks for reading and please review! ;)