Entering with Style (Invite Only)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 picked himself off of the ground with Kikuri-Hime's help. "What is this place?" He looked around. This place gave him the creeps.
Most importantly, he couldn't see Yuugi anywhere.

Souji landed next to K1. "Something tells me this isn't the security guard's world." K1 rounded on Souji.

"Naw, you think!?" K1 said, clearly frustrated.

"This is bad," Souji commented. "Yuugi's been seperated from us, which means that he's somewhere in this world. If this is his world, then that means..."

"What?! What does it mean!?"

"It means that he's formed a Shadow somewhere. We have to hurry." Souji said, and started running. At least he had his sword on him.

K1 followed after, wondering where the heck Souji had hidden a sword like that.

[mugenginga]

"Partner, this is bad,"

Yuugi was so on edge that despite being constantly around Atem and knowing his voice better than he knew his own, he jumped. Atem looked surprised at the reaction but Yuugi shook his head, "W-What's bad? I mean, above and beyond..." He saw no need to keep the conversation inward. He couldn't see K1 anywhere, and the other teen knew about Atem anyways.

The first second of the voice Yuugi heard made him think Atem was responding, but he was quick to realize it wasn't coming from within the puzzle, but beside him. He jerked his head to the side and saw something materializing from the darkness of the tomb. His brain was trying to seize up, but if it had been thinking clearly he would have realized that it was being formed by the nonexistant "shadows" being cast by the nonexistant "light". He took a step back as it continued to speak.

"The hieroglyphs say a curse will befall one who can't find themselves in the darkness," the figure that stepped out was... disturbingly like Yuugi. He took a subconscious step back from the extremely harsh gaze of... himself.

Not quite, at least not appearance-wise. The clothes were the same, but the eyes were harsher, far less forgiving than Yuugi could remember ever having. And glowing yellow. The grin on the look of the almost mirror image was sadistic. Yuugi continued to take steps back, and managed to back right into a wall.

"W-w-who....?"

What made it worse was Atem appeared to be... gone. As in no presence in the Puzzle at all. Yuugi's eyes were full of panic at this point.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji and K1 ran through the tunnels slashing and burning shadows at they went. K1 couldn't help notice that what he'd previously thought were hieroglyphics were actually kanji.

Occasionally, K1 would hear whispers of voices in the halls. Voices that sounded like Yuugi's.

"What's thosee voices?" K1 asked.

"They'll get stronger as we get closer to him. Look for any staircases or anything resembling one," Souji instructed. K1 nodded, and turned to look at some kanji on the walls. The ones coming up were all identical.

Jump.

At that moment, the floor opened up under the two.

[mugenginga]

As the floor opened up, the two likely heard rapid footsteps impacting the hard earth ground. They were coming extremely fast, as if someone (or something) were running with extreme urgency. There was only time to reach for one. If he reached for both, he'd be dragged in after them. He honestly didn't know if this World was like his mind. As he leapt forward, having decided to take the risk of going down with them he saw Souji adjust. He'd make it on his own...

With a thunk just above, K1 would feel someone clamp their hand around his. The dim light would reveal the hand to be rather heavily tanned, "K1-kun, hold on!" - The voice belonged to Atem, and as the Pharaoh pulled up he would look very different than what K1 knew. Actually, it was possible K1 would remember the poster from the card shop earlier. Because that's roughly what the teen that had him about half way up looked like. That height, that gaze. In Yuugi's outfit but with a heavy desert tan...
-----

The "shadow Yuugi" glared at Yuugi's question. He quickly took several steps foward, getting closer to Yuugi than just about anyone would find comfortable. If Yuugi could have figured out how he would have melted into the wall, "Don't tease me. I'm you."

Yuugi's eyes widened, and his mind tried to grasp at what Souji had said earlier about the TV World. But none of it was coming clearly to him. The gaze the shadow had was extremely judgemental. Yuugi squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, "N-No... You look like you want to kill me... I'd-I'd never..."

He could practically feel the desire for vengeance coming off the shadow, "Finish that, I dare you," the voice was ice cold.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1's mind tripped at the person who was pulling him up. It was most definitely Atem. The tan was enough of a clue in this case. Once he was safely on the floor of the tomb, he looked up at the pharoah. "Thanks. Nice tan, by the way."

Souji was pulled to safety by a somewhat fishlike, winged Persona, having switched Personaes halfway through the fall. The persona disappeared and changed into a blue tarot card right after. "You'd be the other Yuugi, correct?"

[mugenginga]

Atem nodded towards K1 before turning to Souji, "My name is Atem, but the immediate concern is Yuugi. Something forced us to seperate. This place is riddled with just as many, if not more, traps than my tomb. And while we might be seperated some of the link remains," he narrowed his eyes in an intense gaze, "Something's got him to the level of fear I've only known him to have a few times. We need to go," his speech picked up speed, almost as if the Pharaoh was on the verge of panic.

He'd already taken a step back and was making to turn, "Stay with me, I can navigate this place. I can find him with the Puzzle," before taking off. If the others didn't follow him, he hoped they'd be alright. But something told him there wasn't much time...
-----

Yuugi squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, but the words weren't forming. He had no idea how lucky he was that they weren't. He heard a hand smack the wall beside his ear, and he carefully opened one eye. The shadow being appeared to be getting rather pissed, "I said, finish. that. thought."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 and Souji both nodded before following after Atem.

We need to hurry, Souji thought to himself. It's supposed to rain tonight. If Yuugi's in here any longer, then...

[mugenginga]

Atem managed to lead the group past several branching pathways. Not all of them marked by warning glyphs. It was quite likely had he not been there, one of the two other teens would have been killed. At the very least they would have taken too much time.

Atem's puzzle began to glow at a certain point, creating a paranormal lantern of sorts. He narrowed his eyes and sped up when this occured. They were getting close, and with each step Yuugi was getting more stressed. He knew a breaking point was coming for his partner.
-----

Yuugi shook his head again, rapidly. A few tears were beginning to stream down his face. The shadow Yuugi kept its dark glare and smiled, "If you don't want to say it, then do what you really want to do,"

"I just want out of here!" Yuugi shouted.

"Only partially. There's something you want more. Should I tell you?"

Yuugi crouched down, clamping his hands over his ears. It made no effect as the shadowed form continued to speak, almost as if the voice was coming from inside of him rather than a figure in front of him. He tried shaking his head again as the shadow talked.

"You want revenge. You want to be seperate from that Pharaoh and to be able to stand on your own two feet," it seemed to be getting some kind of perverse pleasure as the tears began to stream down Yuugi's face, "You want to be able to punish those that harass you, even after everything you've been through."

"N-No...You're not... no... I'm not..."

The shadow grabbed Yuugi by the collar of his shirt and pinned him against the wall. He quickly dropped him and slammed one hand near Yuugi's ear. Just a bit to the right and it would have hit Yuugi, "Say it, I dare you. Say. that. thought."
-----

The glow had gotten pretty intense by this point, to the point that K1 and Souji could probably see it even with the Pendant hanging in front of Atem. They turned another corner and Atem skidded to a stop. There was a dark figure who had Yuugi all but pinned to the wall. Tears were streaming down his face. It reminded Atem of when he had almost sent Kaiba to his death, and Yuugi had forced dominance to save the man.

"-at. thought."

Yuugi was stuttering, trying to work up the courage to yell at the doppelganger. If he could just tell it, maybe it would go away. Souji likely knew what Yuugi was about to say...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji started running forward upon seeing Yuugi and Yuugi's shadow. This was bad.

"No! Don't say it!" Souji yelled.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi wasn't even aware the others had arrived until after he had started speaking. He wasn't even aware of Souji's words until he was halfway done with his denial. Once he realized what the other teen was saying, he was on the last part of his yell. His nose was running from the panicked tears, but he forced out the shout anyways. If he could tell it off...

"YOU'RE NOT ME!"

The shadow's already insane grin got darker as it stepped back. Atem was suddenly thrown backwards as dark energy swirled around the shadow. Yuugi looked up and slid into a sitting position on the ground. It was more a controlled fall than anything. The shadow continued to speak as the darkness began to shift it.

"You're right," the voice had hit darker than Atem had ever pulled, which was saying something, "I'm not you. You're too weak to be me..."

Atem was pushing himself to his feet as the energy practically exploded outwards, creating a supernatural wind with enough force to push those whose feet weren't firmly planted backwards. The dark purple and black mist swirled around, revealing what appeared to be cloven hooves malformed to appear to have the claws of a canine's back paws.

Next were painfully thin canine legs like one might see on a werewolf, black enough that black didn't seem like a good enough color for description. The upperbody was more like one might expect to see on a horse, and the gangly arms looked almost skeletal, but kept the werewolf comparison. The nails were long and silver, comparable to some digging mammals.

The spiral continued up the head, and it looked like some horrid mixture of a jackal and an ant-eater, the ears being slender and pointing up and to the back. The swirl shot down and gathered in the creature's hand, forming a silver staff, the top revealing it to be more like an ankh with a long bottom than a normal staff. This took a good ten seconds, but the energy being put off by the shadow prevented anyone, even their Persona, from getting close. Or Atem from getting up, even.

The newly formed shadow pointed its staff at Yuugi and spoke in a flat, icy voice. It sounded like Yuugi's voice could if he had skills as a voice actor, but was far darker than anything the frightened teen had ever encountered, "I am the Shadow, the true self..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji stepped back. "Dammit! We were too late! It's gone berserk!" He turned to K1. "K1, get your demons out! Atem, summon your persona if you can!" He moved into a battle position. "The only way to stop it is to defeat it in battle."

"But Yuugi--"

"He'll be dead if we don't stop this thing!" Souji yelled. He crushed the tarot card in his hand again, summoning Izanagi this time. "Izanagi, Zio!"

The Persona shot a lightning bolt at the Shadow, hoping to hit it.

K1 pulled out his COMP and summoned a Kudlak and Kresnik.
"Kudlak, Bufudyne! Kresnik, Agidyne! Hurry up!" K1 yelled. The two demons attacked with their respective spells.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi heard the shouts of his friends from behind the shadow, but couldn't see them because of the narrow hall. He was actually still crying, but his attention was focused as well as it could be on the shadow at the same time. The shadow turned towards Souji. The turn meant it turned into the Zio attack, knocking it back about a foot. And that much closer to Yuugi.

Atem shot out his hand, "I can't do it without an Evoker! Do you have anymore of those cards!?"

The Pharaoh wasn't one to generally get panicked, but he had reached that point now. And if Souji or K1 could read people, it was pretty evident that he was going to do something reckless if he couldn't do it the "safe" way. K1 might have noticed he had no cards in his vest. Apparently they hadn't transferred when the split had occured.

The Bufudyne missed its mark, and Yuugi shouted as it hit him instead, freezing his legs to the ground. Now he couldn't run. He barely managed to avoid getting crushed by an attack from the Shadow. Despite being fought from the other side, it seemed rather focused on Yuugi. However, when the Agidyne impacted, the shadow actually screamed, whirling around and putting its full focus on K1. Or more specifically, Kresnik.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji caught what had happened, and flipped his tarot card around. If one looked, they would have seen that the image on the card had changed from Izanagi to that of Surt, a fire using persona. "This is the only card I have." He looked around to direct the group.

"K1, only attack with Kresnik, and bring out another fire using Demon if you can! Atem..." He threw his sword to the teen. "Use this if you can to attack! Don't do anything stupid!"

K1 nodded, and returned Kudlak to his COMP before bringing out Decarabia. "Decarabia, Shield All!"
The starfish-like demon glowed, and suddenly K1, Souji, and Atem were surrounded with a green glow. "Kresnik, use Agidyne on the Shadow again!"

[mugenginga]

Atem caught the sword, and gave a nod to Souji. The teen had read him right, he probably would have charged the shadow if it had come to that. Yuugi was working at getting his legs free, and he had managed one. They were still rather sore and he was grateful he was wearing denim rather than the cotton of his school uniform.

Atem ran forward and slashed at the Shadow, using the opportunity to get past. Yuugi's eyes widened when he saw Atem, and looked down at his puzzle confused, "The other me...?"

"Just work at getting yourself free! We can sort out the details later!" Atem shouted. Yuugi could tell it was from the immediacy of the situation and concern, not anger. He nodded quickly and began kicking at the remaining ice with his one free leg.

The Shadow was torn between the two sides now. Atem's blade and Kresnik's fire both hurt rather badly. In fact, it had fallen to the ground and was pretty much in defensive mode at the moment. It wouldn't take much more effort to bring it down.

Yuugi, however, was focused rather inward as he kicked at the ice. It was true he felt like he was walking in Atem's shadow, but did he really want the Pharaoh gone. He shook his head rapidly. No, he didn't! The shadow had said he wanted to hurt people. Maybe it was true he wanted to be able to stand up more... his face looked emotionally pained as he managed to chip his leg free and shakily get to his feet. His legs were still sore from the attack. As it was now, he had to stay behind Atem or risk getting attacked.

Somehow that only made him feel worse about the situation.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Finish it!" Souji yelled. K1 held his hand out, and Decarabia and Kresnik both shot Agidyne attacks at the Shadow, hoping to finish it off.

This was the most tense part of the operation. Even if they calmed the shadow down, it would just go berserk again if Yuugi didn't accept it.