Yu-Gi-Oh!

Every Side of Me

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters are not mine (except Velma) and the story is! David Tanaka is canonically unnamed, but in canon he is the character Duke is talking to near the beginning of episode #46, identified in the dub as his store manager. This is a YGO version of the third Pokemon movie, Spell of the Unown, because while watching it I mused on how it seemed YGO-ish in plot and I wanted to see how a YGO version might work. It has no correlation with the manga-based movie The Dark Side of Dimensions, although I attempt an exploration of how the Duel Monsters anime Seto might handle Atem's departure. It does include elements from some of my past YGO fics, including Marik and Mokuba having formed a friendship and Yami Bakura separating from Zorc's spirit and returning to Bakura. Anything from past fics I have tried to explain within the story so it won't be too confusing! Also, hee, since this is based on a Pokemon movie, there are some Pokemon characters out and about!

Chapter One

Mokuba sighed to himself as he stood outside Seto's home office and listened to the conversation inside.

Things had been so strange lately. Well, they had been strange ever since first meeting Yugi, for that matter. But those days were over now and almost everyone had been able to move on.

Almost everyone. . . .

Overall, Seto had been better since Atem had departed for the afterlife. Without his favorite rival to challenge, he had put his attention to more constructive pursuits. Still, Mokuba could tell that he missed those days. He had challenged Yugi a time or so and had found it wasn't the same, even though Yugi had certainly grown stronger as a Duelist. But he knew there was no way to challenge Atem again and he had tried to force himself to accept that.

It was almost like a weird type of mourning, in a way, Mokuba decided. They hadn't been friends, but they had developed a certain respect for each other. Seto missed Atem, even if only for the challenge of dueling him, but he didn't want to acknowledge that because he was trying to live in the present and the future, not the past. Mokuba had tried to encourage Seto to accept his feelings and let them out in the hopes that it would lead to a full healing, but that had gone practically nowhere. Seto was still denying that what Mokuba had said was true.

Today, Seto wasn't at all impressed by something else as well. A search party sent to Atem's tomb to try to uncover more information about him had returned instead with a bizarre ancient box filled with equally bizarre letter-engraved tiles. That was the conversation Mokuba was hearing now.

"What is this?!" Seto snorted. "Alphabet soup without the soup?!"

"We're sorry, Mr. Kaiba," the leader of the expedition apologized. "We weren't able to learn anything about Pharaoh Atem that hasn't already been uncovered. But we found this box in a secluded corner of the tomb. We thought the contents might be of some relevance."

"I don't know what they are." Seto held up a handful of wooden tiles. "But I do know the ancient Egyptians didn't write with characters like these! These look like Roman characters. They couldn't have anything to do with Atem!"

Nevertheless, he was undeniably curious as to how the box had gotten into Atem's tomb if it had nothing to do with him. He kept the box after dismissing the search party and sat at his desk to go through the tiles.

Mokuba came in to watch him before long. He was shuffling the pieces around on the desk, apparently making letters out of them.

"Those are pretty weird," Mokuba commented.

"No kidding," Seto grunted. "They resemble Roman letters and yet they don't, entirely. They have a style all their own." He paused, one hand in the air with a Y tile. "I wonder if the Ishtars might know anything about this."

Mokuba perked up, eager to be helpful. "I can call Marik and see if he can come over and look at them," he said hopefully.

"Do that," Seto said.

It was odd how those most unlikely of people had become close friends, but when the Ishtars had moved back to Domino after Ishizu had been given the assignment of running the museum, Marik and Mokuba had somehow struck up an acquaintance that had turned into a deep and lasting friendship. Mokuba, who was far freer with Seto as his guardian than Marik had ever been at home, was a link to a childhood Marik had never really had. At the same time, they could relate to being locked up in their respective homes without much freedom. Gozaburo hadn't been a much better parent than Mr. Ishtar, with all of his obsessive strictness and cold-hearted attitude. And Marik reminded Mokuba of Seto in some way, with how he had fallen into the darkness and then tried desperately to climb back out of it and make amends for the wrongs he and his former split personality Yami Marik had done.

Seto was alright with the friendship, especially since Marik was responsible and didn't try to encourage Mokuba into doing dangerous things. It meant he had to see Ishizu more often than he would like, but at least without the Millennium Necklace she didn't prattle on about the future so much anymore.

He scowled as he spread the tiles on the desk. He had ended up spelling Yugi and then Atem without half-thinking about it. "Pathetic," he muttered to himself.

He was just moving to gather them up and replace them in the box when a blue light shot out from every tile. "What the . . . !" He fell back in the chair, shocked as what looked like a portal opened in mid-air. Before he even had a chance to react, a strange force pulled him into it and it closed behind him.

"Big Brother, Marik said he'd be right over and . . ." Mokuba stopped short when he ran into the doorway. The last traces of Seto's scream were still in the air as the portal spun shut. The tiles he had been holding in his hand clattered to the floor.

"Big Brother!" Mokuba tore into the room, his eyes wide and horrified. Whatever these things were, they had taken Seto away.

He knelt on the floor, desperately looking through the tiles. "Bring my brother back!" he yelled. "Bring him back!" In anger and frustration he threw them across the room to hit the wall. Nothing happened.

He turned back to the box, digging through it for more tiles. "What are these things?!" he cried. "Where did they take Seto? Why did they take him?! I've gotta find out. Maybe then I can get him back. . . ."

Finally he turned the box on its side, dumping all the contents on the carpet. There was nothing in it but the tiles. He sorted through them, turning each one so the letters faced upward. He was so involved with his task that at first he didn't see them starting to glow.

xxxx

Marik was grim as he rode his motorcycle through the streets towards the Kaiba Manor. Ishizu had been very disturbed when he had described what Mokuba had told him about the strange tiles. She had told him to waste no time getting out there. She and Rishid would follow in the car.

They had all thought the chaos would end with the destruction of the Millennium Items. That had certainly been foolish and inaccurate. First the Spirit of the Ring had reappeared, badly damaged after being separated from Zorc at long last. Bakura had tried to help him and Atem and Shadi and a mysterious angel had granted him a chance to earn a second chance at life. Apparently, he was supposed to help in some mysterious upcoming conflict, for which the Infinity Ring Shadi had given him would be used. In the meantime, he could use it to generate a physical form for himself, but he couldn't try using it for evil or the power would be taken away. Bakura's relationship with Yugi's group had always been strained to a certain extent, and this hadn't helped.

And it hadn't helped when Yami Marik had reappeared, announcing that he had become his own being and not merely a part of Marik, and had abducted Yami Bakura for the purpose of torturing him and "taming the darkness." Marik had helped all he could in that mess, feeling partly responsible. Joey and Tristan, especially, hadn't known what to make of any of that disaster.

Duke Devlin, meanwhile, had had his own problems when drug smugglers had tried to take over the Black Crown Game Shop. Duke had nearly been killed by them upon discovering what they were up to and he had gone undercover, faking his own death and pretending to be someone else in order to investigate. That had eventually brought a stop to their activities, but it had also brought an end to his store manager David Tanaka's life. Duke had never been the same since then.

Marik still wasn't fully clear on what had happened next, but from what he had been told, Duke had tried to get over it and simply could not. Domino held too many bad memories and he had fled to Los Angeles, hoping to ward off a nervous breakdown. There he had met a time-traveler and together they had tried to find a way to get David back. The results had been long, painful, and largely unsuccessful, and when they had finally succeeded, it had temporarily wiped the memories of everyone about David's death. Everyone remembered now, and no one was quite sure what to make of any of that, either.

It looked like this was just the latest chapter in a series of bizarre and unfortunate events. And Marik was both furious and dismayed that young Mokuba was at the center of it.

He arrived at the mansion while barely not breaking the speed limit. Velma the maid let him in with a confused blink. "What's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly," Marik replied as he ran up the stairs. Thinking of what Ishizu had told him, he added, "It might be the Unown."

"Unknown what?" Velma said in bewilderment.

Marik didn't reply. He reached the second floor and quickly found Seto's office. "Mokuba?" He knocked on the door. When he didn't receive an answer, he pushed the door open and then stopped still in disbelief.

Mokuba was standing in the middle of the room, gazing up at an open portal near the ceiling. Dozens of bizarre creatures that resembled alphabet letters with one eye each were pouring out of the portal and swirling around Mokuba, chattering in their language.

Marik shook himself out of his daze and ran into the room. "Mokuba, what happened here?! Where's your brother?!"

"They took him away." Mokuba sounded vague and far-away. "I was just trying to get him back. . . ."

The creatures leaped away from Mokuba and started to swirl into a sphere-like formation, chanting back and forth as they went. As Marik and Mokuba watched, a blue light shimmered in the center of the room and took the form of Seto. He stood and looked back at them.

Mokuba's face lit up. "Big Brother!" He ran at Seto, hugging him close around the waist. "You came back!"

"Of course I came back." Seto held Mokuba and looked up at Marik. "You can go now. Everything's fine here."

Marik frowned. "Everything isn't fine here," he countered. "These things are still flying around. And . . ." He gasped as the floor started to crystalize under his feet. "What's this?!"

"We want to be left alone." Seto looked at Marik and his eyes were colder and harder than Marik had ever seen them.

"Why?" Marik demanded.

Mokuba turned now and his eyes were glassy and blank. "Seto's right, Marik," he said. "They say that if you don't go away, Seto can't stay here. You have to go. I'm sorry. . . ."

Instead of going, Marik ran forward and grabbed Mokuba by the shoulders. "You're under their spell!" he exclaimed. "Your brother must be enchanted as well. If that's really Seto Kaiba at all." He looked to Seto with suspicious eyes.

Mokuba's eyes flickered. "Not . . ." Then they were glazed again. "No! Of course this is Seto!" He jerked away from Marik. "The Unown are right. You have to go away, Marik."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Marik retorted. "Mokuba, you're not yourself! If this was really your brother, my presence couldn't make him go away. This isn't the real Seto Kaiba!"

"NO!" Mokuba's scream echoed heartbreakingly throughout the room. A huge crystal stalagmite shot through the floor, separating him from Marik. More burst up in rapid succession.

Marik stumbled back. The entire room was crystalizing-the floor, the desk, the lamp. . . . Through the stalagmites he could see that Mokuba was unharmed. But at the moment, he had no idea how to get to him. Even without the stalagmites, there was a gulf between them just as impenetrable, if not moreso.

Velma threw the doors open. "What's going on in . . ." She shrieked as the crystalization spread over the walls and outside into the hall.

Marik leaped out of the room, grabbing her as he went. "We have to get out of here!" he barked.

"But . . . the Kaibas . . ." Velma protested.

"We're going to help them," Marik vowed. "But first we need more information on what's happening!"

He ran down the stairs, pulling the shocked maid with him. The other servants, terrified by the bizarreness enveloping their place of employment, soon rushed from all parts of the mansion to join them. Behind them and on all sides, crystal stalagmites were shooting out of the walls and up through the floor. They were barely keeping ahead of the disaster. Just as they burst through the front doors and outside, the crystal coated the doors and sealed them shut.

"My gosh," Velma gasped.

Marik knelt on the ground, staring up at the mansion in a mixture of amazement, disbelief, and horror. Gigantic lotus petals were coming up from the ground and beginning to encircle the newly crystalized structure. If the petals reached the roof and closed, the mansion would be entirely sealed off. Not that it wasn't already.

His hands shaking, he drew out his cellphone and dialed Ishizu's cellphone. "Sister?" He tried to keep his voice even, but it shook regardless. "We have a problem."

xxxx

Ishizu was badly disturbed by what Marik was telling her of what had happened. Still, she tried to stay calm to work out what to respond. There was no sense getting her younger brother more worried than he already was. Rishid, hearing both sides of the conversation as he drove, was grim.

Marik slowly got to his feet, staring at the crystal formation that the Kaiba Manor had become. "I don't understand any of what's happened here," he said. "I thought these Unown only brought people's dreams to life. I didn't think they put people under a spell! But to look at Mokuba, something was obviously wrong with him!"

"There are renegade Unown that do put people under spells," Ishizu said. "It's a little-known tale, but Pharaoh Atem had to stop some of them from turning all of Egypt into utter chaos. He must have had the box with their letters placed in his tomb. It isn't generally possible to summon the Unown from their dimension without their letters."

"And now somehow they ended up in Kaiba's possession!" Marik groaned.

"That isn't as important as sending them back to their dimension now that they are here," Ishizu said. "Unfortunately, penetrating the crystal fortress will not be easy."

"Naturally not." Marik rubbed the back of his head. "I'll probably have to call Yugi and the rest for help."

"That isn't a bad idea," Ishizu said.

"And what about the Kaiba I saw?" Marik suddenly wondered. "It was so strange how I had to go because he was there, almost as if an unbeliever would break the spell and influence Mokuba into realizing that he really wasn't Kaiba."

"And maybe that is exactly the case," Ishizu said. "But if so, the real Seto Kaiba must have been transported to the Unown's dimension."

"Why didn't they simply bring him back out when Mokuba wanted him back?!" Marik finally burst out in frustration. "They're supposed to make people's dreams and wishes reality!"

"I don't know," Ishizu had to admit. "We're almost at the Turtle Game Shop now. I will stop and ask Yugi for help."

"Thank you, Sister." Marik sighed. "I guess I'll stay here and monitor whether the situation is going to get any worse."

"I am certain it will," Ishizu said.

Marik was not in a good mood when he hung up. His worry for Mokuba was steadily increasing the more he looked at the monstrosity the Kaiba Manor had become. What was going on in there? Was Mokuba with a fake Seto? If so, was he in any danger? Was the real Seto in danger? How would the Unowns' spell be broken? How would they even get in the house to try? He snarled, running both hands into his pale blond hair.

"What is that thing?!" a male Brooklyn voice yelped.

Marik jumped. It wasn't Joey who had spoken just now. He turned, not knowing what to expect.

He found himself staring at two teens around his age, a boy and a girl. With them was a Siamese cat walking on two legs. All looked horrified.

"It looks familiar," the boy whimpered. His voice was not the one Marik had heard first.

"It's Greenfield all over again," the girl said in annoyance. "Let's keep walking and maybe we won't have to get involved."

Marik's eyes narrowed. "Wait." He came down the sidewalk and stood in their path with folded arms. "Do you know something about this?"

"We don't know anything," the girl said brusquely.

"Not about this," the boy added.

"About this kind of crystal formation then," Marik pressed.

Something in his manner prompted them to stop walking and answer. "Yes, we've seen something like this before," the girl admitted.

"It was in Greenfield," the boy added. "That's a little town South of here."

"But we had nothin' to do with what made it! Or with what made this one! We don't know from nothin'!" There was the Brooklyn voice again. It was coming from the cat.

Marik stared blankly at the animal. "Are you two ventriloquists?" he asked the teens.

"Why, no," the boy grinned.

"Whatever makes you ask that?" The girl spoke airily with a wave of one hand.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Marik retorted.

"Hey, ain't you ever seen a talking Meowth before, Bub?" the cat snapped.

That gave Marik pause. "I've never seen any kind of a Meowth," he said. "There aren't any around here, or many Pokemon at all, actually. But I've heard of them."

"No Pokemon?" the boy blinked.

"Heh! It's probably like New York City and they're around, just good at hidin'," said the Meowth.

"Most likely," said the boy.

"Well, in any case, who are you people?" Marik asked.

He quickly regretted it.

"Ha!" said the girl. "Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double," said the boy.

Before Marik could get a word in edgewise, the two continued their little performance.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

The cat grinned. "Meowth, that's right!"

Marik was not impressed. "Do people really stand still for you to introduce yourselves like that?"

"Of course they do!" Jessie snapped. "After all, we're the illustrious Team Rocket!"

"A criminal organization," Marik remarked. "I've heard of you, but I never crossed paths with you when I was running the Rare Hunters. We were interested in different things."

"Your organization specialized in stealing pieces of paper," James sneered. "We steal living, breathing creatures."

"Or try to," Marik countered. "You always fail. At least my organization was successful in what we were after. I wouldn't have tolerated incompetence."

Jessie was red with mortification and anger now. "We don't always fail!"

"Oh, not the organization as a whole," Marik agreed. "But the three of you do. I heard about the odd ones out who wear white instead of black and never seem to catch a break." He paused, his annoyed mood softening. "Although I've also heard that the reason is because you're good at heart and so you fail at being bad."

They froze, caught but certainly not about to admit it.

"That's just a rumor started by some people in the organization who hate us," Jessie said hurriedly.

"Yeah!" Meowth nodded. "You think the boss would keep us around if we was really good guys?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Marik said. "We've got completely off the subject. I need to know what you know about crystal formations like this." He gestured at the Kaiba Manor. "My dear friend is in there, apparently under some kind of a spell. He said these creatures called Unown took his brother away. They supposedly brought him back, but he's acting very strangely. And my friend has started to act strangely as well."

Team Rocket looked at each other and gulped.

"We've never heard of the Unown putting people under spells," James said.

"It's a renegade batch," Marik said.

"Then you know more than we do," Jessie said. "Let's go."

"The Unown we saw didn't bring the kid's dad back even though they knew she wanted him back," Meowth offered instead of obeying Jessie. "They got all mixed up and brought a Pokemon that reminded her of her dad."

"So they can get their signals crossed," Marik mused. "But in this case, they either didn't and put the real Kaiba under their spell or they made a fake Kaiba who isn't acting quite right."

"Well, we don't know if it's dangerous," James said slowly as he repeatedly brought the tips of his forefingers together, "but the Pokemon the other batch summoned never hurt the child. Although he didn't know what was best for her, either."

"I'm not going to take any chances," Marik growled.

At that moment his phone rang. "Excuse me a minute," he said. "But don't leave!" He kept watching them as he took it out and answered.

"Marik, Yugi and his friends are coming," Ishizu told him, much to his relief. "Rishid wants to help as well. We'll come by to let him out and then I'm going back home to go through my research on the Unown. I may be of better help that way."

"That's a good idea," Marik said. "I've found some . . . beings who know about these crystal formations, but not renegade Unown. Still, I'm hoping to keep hold of them." He gave Team Rocket a firm glare.

"We can certainly use anyone who has had experience with any version of this phenomenon," Ishizu said. "We should be there in a few moments."

"Good," Marik said.

Team Rocket was staring at him while trying to whisper among themselves.

"This place looks big," Meowth hissed. "The guy who lives here must be totally loaded, even if he don't have any Pokemon!"

"Then there'll be tons of security," James worried.

"And we'll find a way to break it!" Jessie retorted.

Marik hung up. "Try anything funny and I'll know about it," he said. Although he couldn't hear all of their words, he could imagine what they were thinking of trying. "Remember, I wasn't just in the Rare Hunters; I led them. You might want to keep that in mind." It wasn't something he generally liked to bring up, especially now that he was trying to put his past behind him, but he had the feeling it might help in this case.

Indeed, the thieves froze. They hadn't really paid attention to that statement before, but they did now.

"You . . . led them?" Jessie gulped.

"That's right." Marik glowered at her.

"I heard that the leader of the Rare Hunters had a mystical weapon that could put people under his control if he got mad at them," James whimpered.

"If he's gone straight, he probably doesn't still have it," Jessie countered.

"Maybe we'd better not make him mad anyway," Meowth said. "Why take a chance?"

"Good idea," Jessie and James responded in unison.

Marik nodded in approval.