Better Shadow Treaty Preview

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright herding this lot around?” Yugi worried at Tristan as he watched the last few refugees gather their bags and suitcases and head for the rooms they had been assigned.

“I should be asking you the same thing.” Tristan scowled at him in reply, “Are you really sure this is a good idea?”

“Taking in the refugees?” Yugi blinked at him, confused.

“No, heading back to England.” Tristan rolled his eyes, “Especially with only the four of you.”

“Five.” Yugi reminded his friend, who had been adamant that he should be going with them, “I have Yami too.”

“You and Yami only count for one again now, remember?” Tristan grouched in response, causing Yugi to let out a huff.

“Yes, but we’ll have Harry, Joey and Hermione for backup.” Yugi stated, counting them off on his fingers as he did so, “And we went over this last night, something’s bound to go wrong and we shouldn’t take too many people in case it does.”

“I still don’t think you should be going at all.” Tristan poked him, catching the attention of the last stragglers, who stopped to watch the altercation. “You should be here, dealing with this lot, keeping Industrial Illusions afloat and…you’re not going to agree with me, are you?”

“As long as Voldemort is hunting Shadow Touched, he’s my problem.” Yugi shook his head. “It was our,” He gestured to the Puzzle, “Screw up that created them, it’s our responsibility to protect them.”

“You couldn’t have known that Bakura was there.” Tristan pointed out, poking Yugi again, “Or what he was going to do. You’re walking into a trap because of something that wasn’t your fault!”

“Tristan…” Yugi trailed off. He knew his friend was just worried about them but they had hashed out every idea and talked them over to death. This was the plan that allowed for the greatest margin of success.

Harry had to go, no one else could get the orb out of the Hall of Prophecy. If Harry was going, so were Yugi and Yami. With his link partner going into danger and the enemy able to summon monsters equivalent to the Egyptian God Monsters, Yugi had to go, if only to ensure Harry would return.

There had not really been any question of Joey not going. He had had Yugi’s back for nigh on a decade, there was no way in hell he was going to let Yugi and Harry walk into danger without him now.

Which left the debate over the last spot.

Tristan had put himself forward before anyone else could and was still fuming over how quickly he had been shot down. It was his own fault, he knew that. He had had no magic before the gang had been split up by the Ministries of various countries. He hadn’t practised with his Shadow Magic since he had gained access to it. He didn’t have a wand, or any training with one and he was not used to the Magical Community in England.

He had the physical strength, but in this, just as he had been in every other battle his friends had fought, he was utterly useless and it was driving him to distraction.

With Kaiba taking himself out the running, since he needed to run his company, Ombre refusing to risk the safety of anyone else by going with them while her control was shot and Ryou stepping back for much the same reason, that left Mokuba, Luna, the Weasleys and Hermione.

Kaiba had nixed any thoughts his little brother had of going. Mokuba was needed to help prevent Kaiba Corp falling into complete collapse. Unspoken was that Seto refused to let Mokuba go into battle without him there to fight at his side. There was no way the elder Kaiba, who was his little brother’s guardian, would allow Mokuba to go. The elder Kaiba knew Mokuba would eventually forgive him for the oath he had extracted from his little brother to prevent just that.

If Mokuba wasn’t going, then it was decided that no one under Harry’s age should go, much to Ginny’s outrage, though Luna looked as if she had expected it.

The only hesitation Weasley twins had had was that they were looking for one person, not two, and while they were skilled at tricks and treats, they were not amongst the group that had trained for combat for the last year.

Finally it had been decided that Hermione, who had trained alongside the others, worked on her Shadow skills until they were second nature alongside Kari and knew spells far beyond her age level would take the last spot.

Ron had exploded with rage, launched a long, ranting and mostly rude tirade against the group, and then stalked off back to the castle.

Tristan, in all honesty, had wanted to do much the same but knew it wouldn’t have helped anything.

“I need you here.” Yugi reminded him, “You’re the most ‘normal’ person here. You saw how the refugees acted towards me, it was ‘Yes, Mr. Mutou’ and ‘thank you, Mr Mutou’ and ‘we’re really grateful for this, your highness.’ They’ll listen to me, but they won’t actually settle in if they think I’m hovering around. You can help them with that better than I can.”

Yugi did have a point, Tristan thought as the stragglers decided that the argument was over and started moving again. And that wasn’t the only task he had been entrusted with. Yugi was leaving the Millennium Items, all except his Puzzle and Draco’s Ring, in his care.

“Fine.” Tristan smirked slightly, “But when you get back, I’ll have full control over your people and your Millennium Items. Then you’ll have to duel me for them.”

“Don’t even joke.” Yugi groaned, even as a smile graced his features, “The last thing I need is you going villain on me.”

“Not that,” Yami appeared in his ghostly form at Yugi’s side, causing Tristan to jump out of his skin, “I’m too worried.” He said with a confident smirk, “You still can’t duel your way out of a paper bag and it’s been how long?”

“Damn it Yami! Warning!” Tristan snarled at him. When Yami continued to look amused, Tristan turned to Yugi, “You lot had better come back in one piece, because I refuse to be the one to tell the Ishtars they have to wait another five thousand years to send Atem on.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but Yugi flinched and Yami’s amusement fled at his simple statement. “It won’t be that long.” Yugi murmured, looking at the floor, “Just until the war is over.”

“Are you sure you can’t get Yami a new body?” Tristan asked, “I mean you managed it by accident last time.”

“We don’t know how the magicks merged back in first year.” Yugi shook his head, “We don’t know what Bakura was trying to do and Joey’s forgotten what he was trying to cast. Trying to recreate the effect could hurt more people than it helps.”

“But there has to be other ways.” Tristan pointed out. “Voldemort...”

“I am not using that ritual.” Atem snapped, more furious at Voldemort for his actions than at Tristan’s suggestion he try the same thing, “I don’t know where my father is buried for one and I wouldn’t disturb his rest again.” He looked at Yugi, “And I won’t ask Yugi to disinter his family for me.”

“And everything else we’ve had recommended runs the risk of the body being disenchanted during a fight.” Yugi finished, not entirely sure he could bring himself to do so, even if Yami had asked.

“So that’s it then?” Tristan asked, his own good humour fleeing, “You’ve made up your minds? Defeat Voldemort and then that’s it?”

“It’s not but I’ve been around long enough.” Atem nodded, slightly dejectedly, “Yugi doesn’t need me anymore and it’s not fair to ask him to host me.”

“I’ve never minded.” Yugi reminded his darker self.

“I know, but I can’t go back to living like this, not again. It was fine before I had my own form, but...” Yami trailed off for a moment and then, “If it wasn’t for Voldemort and the war, we’d have gone already.”

“We’d better go grab our bag.” Yugi’s comment came completely out of left wing, but Tristan could understand the need to change the subject, “We’ll see you later.” With that Yami faded into the Puzzle and Yugi fled the room.

“Shit.” Honda snarled, wheeling around and punching the nearest wall, “Damn Neos, damn Bakura and damn Voldemort!” With each ‘damn’ he punched the wall again, only stopping when he realised he was damaging the plasterboard.

He pulled his hand out of the dent and winced when he saw that his knuckles were bloody.

“Damn the crappy building work too.” He growled as he stalked off to get his hand treated.