Work Text:
In the back of his mind, he feels… annoyed. Annoyed at this stupid chain attached to his leg. Maybe annoyed at more than that. He really can’t tell, Honestly, he can’t even really think. He swears he hears himself talkin’ though, which is nuts. Then again, he also swears he can smell the ocean right now, so maybe he is nuts. Battle City is close to the sea, but not that close.
“Snap out of it, Joey! Please!” He swears he hears someone yell at him, but that can’t be right. But that voice… It sounds so familiar. Why can’t he remember who that is?
“I play the magic card ‘Exchange!’” What the--? Magic card? Is he watchin’ a duel right now? And he swears that’s gotta be Yugi’s voice. He’d recognize that voice anywhere. Was he watchin’ Yugi duel?
“A foolish move!” And that-- Did that just come out of his mouth? That was his voice, right? “Look at you! Ha! You must be desperate to play a card like that!” Why was he talkin’ like that to Yuge? Yugi’s his pal, his amigo. He wouldn’t say tha--
Suddenly Joey feels himself walkin’ through no will of his own and he finally has the realization that maybe his body isn’t his right now. It’s Marik’s.
The realization must be a big one, because now he can see, and boy, he does not like what he sees. He and Yugi are on some sort of pier or dock or somethin’ in the ocean and they’re chained to an anchor. And Téa… He’s not even sure where to start with Téa, but he’s pretty sure she ain’t supposed to be sittin’ under a giant shipping crate. Just what exactly was goin’ on here?
“But if you insist, I’d be glad to take a card from your hand, Little Yugi,” Joey-- no, Marik continues. This ain’t him talkin’ and he ain’t gonna claim it is. His body makes its way over to Yugi and he can see clearly that Yugi is just as chained physically as he is. “Not that I need any help.” He looms over Yugi menacingly-- Jeez, that’s a big word-- and he really wishes Yuge wasn’t so short. It makes him feel kinda evil. “Show me your pitiful cards.” Wow, he can’t believe he just called Yugi’s deck pitiful. “Now, which card should I take?”
Joey takes a look at Yugi’s hand against his will and finds himself overcome with emotion. “My Red-Eyes!” That was his card! His card that he gave to Yugi! A sign of their everlasting friendship!
“Silence, Wheeler,” he hears in his head, which is honestly the worst place to hear things. “You’re under my control now. You have no mind of your own. I OWN YOU.”
“Playing that ‘Exchange’ card was a huge mistake, Little Yugi,” Marik says through Joey’s body again. He really wishes he was in his own body right now. And yeah, technically he is in it, but he ain’t in control of it, and that’s what matters.
“Well, pick your card, Marik.” Yugi looks away from him and yikes, this might be the worst he’s ever felt before. Yeah, it’s not him Yugi can’t look at, but it still feels like him. “You can have any one you want, including the ‘Red-Eyes Black Dragon.’”
Not the Red-Eyes! Marik can’t pick the Red Eyes because that’s his card and he gave it to Yugi for a reason! He can feel Marik tellin’ him to take it, but he can’t. Yugi needs it. “Your friend is long gone,” he hears himself say. “So I’ll be taking your ‘Red-Eyes Black Dragon.’” Joey feels his own hand brush against the card, but he fights it. He can’t take the Red-Eyes. It’s Yugi’s card now. He made a promise.
He fights Marik with every part of his being. Yeah, it makes his head hurt and his eyes all fuzzy, but he can’t take Yugi’s card. He can’t break his promise to his best friend. Joey swears he hears himself, the real him, talkin’ out loud, but now his thoughts are just swimmin’. Everythin’ hurts so bad. He feels his arm raise into the air against his will and he’s so disappointed in himself. He took the car--
“Yeah, Joey!” He hears Yugi yell. “You didn’t take it!”
He didn’t take it. He didn’t take it!
“What? How dare you disobey me? You’ll pay for this!” Marik screams into Joey’s head, and that’s not good. The guy already had control of his body. What else was he gonna do to him?
“Joey?” Yugi asks softly. He wishes he could answer.
“No. I told you, Joey has gone away. And I’m here to defeat you with my arsenal of rare magic cards so I don’t need your Red-Eyes.” Okay, so that was technically an answer, but it wasn’t from him and it was definitely the wrong answer.
“That’s what you think! Now I get to pick one of your cards, Joey.” Yugi sounds so cheerful as he takes one of the cards from Joey’s hand. Joey isn’t even sure which card it is. He hopes that means Marik isn’t sure either.
“I said Joey is gone. And you’re finished!”
“We’ll see about that. You can deny it all you want, but I know my best friend is in there and I’m gonna set him free, Marik.”
“You’re fooling yourself.” Joey feels himself walk away from his short friend.
“I don’t think so. That’s why you didn’t take my Red-Eyes. ‘Cause the real Joey is in there fighting to get out.” Joey’s body freezes. “And he gave me that Red-Eyes when he promised to help me defeat you, Marik!”
He feels his eyes narrow in anger that isn’t his own. “That’s enough.”
“Admit it. As soon as he saw that card, the real Joey came through.”
His whole body tenses because Yugi is one hundred percent right. “What are you talking about? I’m controlling his mind!” Marik yells through him.
“Not for much longer.” Yugi holds up his Red-Eyes and stares him dead in the eye. “I know I can use this card to stop you and bring my best friend back. Just wait.”
Joey can feel himself smirk and it pisses him the Hell off. “Don’t hold your breath.” Marik walks him back to their side of the pier. “Now let’s get on with this duel already so I can claim what is mine and get rid of you once and for all.”
The duel continues and the first thing Yugi does is sacrifice his monsters so he can summon the “Red-Eyes Black Dragon.” It’s just such a Joey move that if Joey could move, he’d probably cry. “It’s my Red-Eyes! Yugi!” He tries his best to take back over his body, and if Yugi’s yells of encouragement are anythin’ to go by, he’s doin’ a decent job.
“That’s right, Joey! Fight it! Look at your Red-Eyes and break free!” He’s tryin’. He’s tryin’ so hard. “That’s right, Joey!” Yugi yells again. “I know you remember your Red-Eyes.”
“I re-remember… My dr-dragon…” he barely gets out. But anythin’ is better than nothin’.
“Joey,” Yugi calls out. “Marik has taken over your mind and he’s using you to destroy me.” And he knows that. He knows. But he just can’t seem to snap outta it. “So I’m gonna try to blast you back to your senses.” Wait, what? “If it doesn’t work, you, me, and the whole world are in danger.” That’s… well… He knew that was what was goin’ on, but man, does that blow. Marik really stuck him between a rock and a hard place. “Joey, I’m only doing this because I’m your friend.” Oh no. “Now prepare to be knocked back to your senses!”
Yugi has his Red-Eyes attack Marik’s “Alligator’s Sword” and Joey’s life points ain’t happy about it. Really Joey ain’t happy about it. He ain’t happy about any of this. It’s horrible and painful and honestly, if he keeps on dueling after all of this, it’s a testament to Yugi’s and his’ friendship, ‘cause if it weren’t for Yuges, he’d be long gone yesterday. And the worst part is that Yugi’s plan didn’t even work. Marik still has control over Joey’s body. To make matters worse, Yugi--
Yugi’s taking off the Millenium Puzzle. If he’s honest, Joey has no actual idea what the puzzle does. All he knows is that when Yugi has it, there’s kinda another him. He’s asked Téa to explain it to him before, but she always starts talkin’ about DDR instead and he just doesn’t wanna hear about dancin’ games. But he does know that the other Yuge knows a lot about dueling. So why the Hell is Yugi takin’ off the puzzle?
Joey’s question is only added to when Yugi starts walkin’ to his side of the pier. While his body plays “Rocket Warrior,” his mind focuses on how tired Yugi looks. And with good reason. Yugi is down to 1,000 life points. Joey knows from experience how painful that can be.
“Wait, Joey…” Yugi says weakly. “I know you can hear me.”
And he can, but his body just keeps moving without him. Mind control could be a real bitch. He plays “Attrition” while Yugi begs for him to remember. He attacks the Red-Eyes to weaken it and it feels like a piece of his soul is dyin’.
“You’re my best friend,” Yugi says as he slowly makes his way over to Joey. “And just like you gave me your Red-Eyes, I wanna give you something meaningful to me.”
“No! Forget about him!” Marik yells into his head, and boy, does Joey’s head hurt right now. It hurts more than any pain he’s ever felt before.
“Agh, what’s happenin’ to me?” Joey breaks through to his body again as Yugi reaches him. As if the burnin’ physical pain wasn’t enough, he can see tears on Yugi’s face and he knows he put them there. Beyond that, he can’t hear anythin’ past his headache and Marik’s orders. He thinks he can make out the words “precious possession,” but other than that he hears nothin’. He realizes he’s gotta be right though, ‘cause now Yugi is putting the Millennium Puzzle around Joey’s neck, and he’d be willin’ to bet his life that that is Yugi’s most prized item.
“Now a piece of me will always be with you.” This is not what Joey wants. Don’t get him wrong, the sentiment is the most meaningful thing anyone has ever done for him. But he couldn’t take Yugi’s puzzle. Especially not when it sounded so much like goodbye. “Take care of it, Joey. It’s yours now.” No. No. No. No. No. No. NO. He watches his best friend walk back to his own side and he decides that if they make it out of this, he’s never gonna hurt Yugi again.
Unfortunately that promise relies on gettin’ out of this, and with Marik’s mind magic makin’ his brain all funky, Joey’s not sure if he’ll get that far. He feels his hands on the chain of the Millennium Puzzle and he realizes that Marik is tellin’ him to throw it into the ocean. He pops out the piece with the eye on it despite beggin’ his own body to stop. The fact that this is the second time he’ll throw the puzzle piece doesn’t escape him. In fact, it helps him.
Instead of throwing it, his body collapses to the ground. “Yugi’s… My Friend…” He regains control of his body for just long enough that he can pop the piece back in and stand back up. He puts the puzzle’s chain back around his neck before Marik takes over again.
The first thing Marik does is immediately jump into a monologue, which doesn’t shock Joey one bit at this point. It does, however, inform Joey that there is a time limit to their duel. Maybe it’s ‘cause he was bein’ mind controlled or whatever, but he didn’t notice the timer attached to the anchor earlier. The timer readin’ fourteen minutes tells him that they’ve been duelin’ for the past forty-six minutes and that they were gettin’ close to a draw, the end result bein’ they both die. Die . Wait a sec. This is a death match. The loser’s gonna… He’s gonna…
It finally hits Joey that either him or Yugi won’t be gettin’ out of this alive. It was him or Yugi. Marik was makin’ them choose who lived and who died. Joey had to choose between his life or his best friend’s life. And Yugi… Yugi already knew this. Yugi was plannin’ to--
Yugi ends his turn early and Joey feels sick to his stomach. Yugi should’ve attacked. Not… Not leave himself open! Joey can’t even think anymore. Marik is yellin’ at him and Yugi is sacrificin’ himself and this isn’t… This isn’t fair…
To add to the confusion, he swears he hears the Millennium Puzzle calling to him. Except it’s his best friend’s voice. “It’s you or me, Joey! And I’m not going to let it be you.”
He’s gonna be sick.
And maybe that’s a good thing, because he can no longer hear Marik in his mind. He purposely screws up his turn so the duel can be in Yugi’s favor. It’s him or Yugi. And he’s not gonna let it be his best friend. Not a chance in Hell. Not as long as he has control of his own body.
It takes seconds before he loses control of his own body again.
Luckily seconds was all he needed to screw up this duel for himself. Yugi tribute summons “Beast of Gilfer” and Joey prays that this will be it, the turnabout. He tries to ignore that they only have ten minutes left for their duel. He wishes he could ignore that he only has ten minutes left to live. And that was assumin’ things worked out in the end.
“Ready to lose everything?” He hears himself taunt Yugi. Meanwhile all Yugi can do is yell words of encouragement to the real him. But Marik is in his ear and he just won’t shut up ! Joey knows he can run out the timer. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want Yugi to die. If anythin’, he wants to die. And he doesn’t even really want that!
Yugi seems to sense the change in Joey’s mental state, ‘cause now instead of hopeful words, Yugi is reminding him of… Duelist Kingdom?
“C’mon, Joey. Don’t you remember Duelist Kingdom?” Of course he does. It was his first Duel Monsters tournament. And even more importantly, he and Yugi got through it together. “You gotta try. Think back.” And he does. He thinks back to Yugi givin’ him one of his star chips just so he could be on the boat. To Yugi givin’ him tips on how to play. To Yugi encouragin’ him in duels. To duelin’ against Yugi after they beat everyone else. To cryin’ with Yugi as they drew their last cards against each other. To Yugi givin’ him the prize money to-- “‘Member how you wanted to win so you could pay for your sister’s operation? Serenity was your inspiration. And thanks to you, she’ll see again.”
“Serenity…” He hears himself say his sister’s name as he thinks it. How could he have forgotten about his little sister? But… But now he can’t die. He can’t do that to her! Not after she can finally see again! This is bad…
“You kept your promise to her, Joey. And don’t forget the pledge you made to me.”
And it’s true. He promised Yugi that they’d beat Marik. Together. “I… Promised…”
“That’s right! And you’ve never broken a promise!”
Yugi looks so hopeful, which just makes it that much worse when it all comes crashin’ down again. “Then I promise to annihilate you, Little Yugi.” He places two cards face down on the field and ends his turn. It seems like Marik is hoping to run out the clock and kill them both… Only five minutes remain and Joey just wants Yugi to win.
It only takes a minute for Yugi to trigger both cards: “Graceful Dice” and “Skull Dice.” In return however, he uses “De-Spell.” While that gets rid of “Graceful Dice,” much to Marik’s dismay, “Skull Dice” remains. But as if fate was smilin’ down upon them, the dice only lands on two. It’s the break both Joey and Yugi needed, and it’s not long before Yugi’s “Beast of Gilfer” destroys Joey’s “Panther Warrior,” bringin’ his life points to 1,100. Yugi can actually win this.
Then suddenly the whole gang shows up on the sidelines. He already knew about rich boy Kaiba and Mokuba bein’ there, and it was hard to forget that Téa was literally bein’ threatened to be crushed to death-- actually it was easy to forget, but still-- now the whole gang was there. And then some. Tristen, and Mai, and Duke Devlin, and-- Serenity? Oh no. Serenity was there and there was only three minutes left on the clock. Serenity was gonna either see him die, Yugi die, or both. That is not the reason he paid for her new eyes.
If that wasn’t already bad enough, Joey ends up drawin’ “Meteor of Destruction.” If he plays that card, the duel is over, and Yugi dies…
“This is it, Joey!” Yugi yells. “You have to remember who you are now!”
And he does remember. “I am… Joey…” And he remembers a lot more than that. “It’s faint… But I also remember… My friends.” His head hurts all over again. “I remember goin’ to Duelist Kingdom, and duelin’ my hardest to get to da top…” Suddenly his head fills with memories of duels and friends. And yeah, he’s been thinkin’ about those things this whole time, but somethin’ is different this time… Everything is more clear. He’s stronger than Marik. He can fight back.
But then Marik is in Joey’s head again. “I command you to vanquish Yugi!”
This time, instead of listenin’ however, Joey actually does fight back. “I can’t!” He screams as he drops to his knees. “He’s my best friend! I won’t destroy Yugi!” His head is killin’ him again, but he can’t stop this time. “Yugi’s my pal!” He can hear Yugi cheerin’ him along faintly.
“SILENCE! OBEY ME AT ONCE OR FACE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!” Marik screams into Joey’s head, but really, what can be a more severe consequence than drownin’?
Joey keeps fightin’ to regain control of his body, but the clock is at one minute now. He knows what he has to do… “Y-Yuge…” He says weakly. He needs to apologize… Needs to tell his best friend that he’s sorry… That he loves him and he never meant to get them into this mess. But before he can, Marik takes over his body full force and plays “Meteor of Destruction.”
“No! I won’t let it end like this! Help me!” Joey finally gathers up his strength and wills Marik out of his body for good. And leave it to Yugi to have a trap card in place to stop the meteor. Maybe everythin’ really will work out in the end… You know, aside from him drownin’ to death. But at this point, he’ll take that as a win.
Yugi’s trap card ends up being “Mystical Refpanel” and Joey loves to see it. It means that Joey’s meteor attack can be directed anywhere. And anywhere meant him. This was the turnabout. Yugi won.
But really, he shouldn’t have expected things to be so easy. Especially when he had no idea what was going on… Where was he? “Why am I wearin’ your Millennium Puzzle?”
“Because I gave it to you, Joey, when I was trying to help you remember our friendship.” Yugi yells at him from across a... dock? Pier? Why were they at the ocean?
And friendship? Why would Joey ever forget their friendship. Yugi was his best pal. That ain’t somethin’ ya just forget. “I’m confused…”
“Marik tried to turn you against me,” Yugi explains. “But our friendship ended up being stronger than his powers.” And really, that clears nothin’ up. “Giving you my puzzle helped you to break free.” That also makes no sense to him. “You’re my best friend, Joey, and no evil magic can take that away!” That actually makes a lotta sense. “And now I have to put an end to this duel, but remember, we defeated Marik together, Joey!”
Joey’s not even sure where Marik comes into play right now. And now Téa is yellin’ too. “You guys better do something soon, or--”
“Or what?” Joey asks. And why is Téa under a giant crate? That’s dangerous!
“Or you’re both in trouble!” She yells back and Joey finally notices the giant tickin’ clock attached to an anchor. There’s thirty seconds left on it… He really has no idea what is goin’ on. To make matters even more confusin’, he’s pretty sure Kaiba of all people just beat the crap outta some robed guy and saved Téa. What the fuck was goin’ on?
“There’s not much time left,” Yugi points out the obvious. “If one of us doesn’t win, we’ll both be pulled under. And there’s no way I’m gonna let that happen, Joey!”
Joey really hopes that Yugi isn’t implyin’ what he thinks Yugi is implyin’. “Whadda ya sayin’, Yuge?” He is not about to let his best friend kill himself just for him.
“I’m saying that I’ve decided to save you, Joey. There’s no point in both of us going down.” Oh no. “And if I lose, you’re safe.” Man, that was exactly what Joey didn’t want him to say.
“But…” Joey shakes his head as he sees tears fall down Yugi’s face. Oh Hell no. “I can’t let ya do this, Yuge.”
And suddenly it’s all too real when Joey’s tears start to stream as well. “It’s my decision, Joey. So now--”
“No, Yugi!”
“Take care of my puzzle.” This can’t be happenin’. This isn’t right . “Now it’s time! Refpanal, direct your attack toward me!”
A blast of fire comes from an angel in a dress and directly hits Joey’s best friend. “Yugi!” He yells. He can hear all his friends and Kaiba yell the same name. It’s too late. As the smoke clears, he watches Yugi fall to the ground while his life points hit zero. In front of Joey, a yellow box opens, and the key to his chain is released…
But he can’t just save himself! He’s gotta save Yuges too!
“Joey…” Yugi says weakly. He sounds like he’s on the verge of death, but Joey can’t think about that right now. “Free yourself now… You’ve only got thirty seconds to make it out… Then the anchor falls… You have to unlock your chains now.” But Joey is frozen. Yugi is gonna die and it’s his fault. He killed his best friend. He killed Yugi. “Come on, Joey… Hurry… Before the anchor falls and pulls you under…”
Joey’s had enough! This isn’t what Duel Monsters is about! “Forget it!” He won’t let it be like this! “No way am I lettin’ my best friend become shark bait! We’re in this together, Yuge! And there’s no way I’m lettin’ you take the fall!” Yugi takes off his duel disk, not wanting it to succumb to the same fate as himself. “We’re gonna make it out of this!” Joey can’t figure this one out. He doesn’t know what to do, but he knows he gotta do somethin’. “Don’t give up, Yugi! I’ll think of somethin’!” He swears. He will think of somethin’. He’s gotta.
Then it hits him. “That’s it! Meteor of Destruction has another effect!” Because Yugi still has a Red-Eyes on the field, Joey can control it and have it attack himself, causing Yugi to win the duel! It’s almost genius! “This duel isn’t over yet! ‘Red-Eyes Black Dragon’, attack! Wipe out my life points so Yugi’s key will be revealed!”
There’s a beam of orange and Joey is caught up in it. When the smoke clears this time, it’s Joey with zero life points. And it’s the yellow box in front of Yugi that opens. It’s a happy endin’.
Except nothin’ is ever that easy. Yugi can’t even grab his own key because he’s passed out. So Joey decides it’s time for a last minute sacrifice. He grabs one of the chains attached to the anchor and manages to swing his way over to Yuges, forgettin’ about his own key. He manages to grab Yugi’s key before the anchor drops, pullin’ them both into the freezin’ cold water.
The chains are almost nice because they help Joey find Yugi immediately. The downside to findin’ Yugi is how dead he looks. What if Joey was already too late? He shakes off the dread in his gut and quickly frees Yugi from his chain. He tries to unlock his own chain right after, but Yugi’s key won’t work on Joey’s chain and he forgot to grab his own. Well shit. He was doomed…
Joey can feel himself sink further down as he watches Yugi float to the surface. As long as Yugi is fine, this is okay. Plus, maybe dyin’ wasn’t so bad. He’s cold, but there are worse things. And he saved his best friend. He did a good job, given the circumstances. His vision starts to swim-- which is almost funny-- and black crawls around its edges. This was it. He smiles as he slips into unconsciousness.
He wakes up on the surface of the water with his sister keepin’ him afloat. He’s alive. Serenity saved him. And Yugi was saved too, which means everythin’ really is alright. They got through it. Together.
But he shouldn’t leave things left unsaid just because they survived. So he finds Yugi and apologizes. To which Yugi says it ain't his fault, but that totally ain’t true. It was one hundred percent his fault. “I almost destroyed our friendship.” And that should be the end of it.
It’s never that easy with Yugi though and Joey really appreciates that. “Yeah, but not only did you save our friendship, you saved me.” He says it like Joey didn’t put him in danger in the first place.
“I had no choice. Once I realized what I was doin’ to ya, I had to make it right or do myself in tryin’, Yugi.” Because of their height difference, he knows he’s lookin’ down at Yugi. But he can swear he’s lookin’ up at him. Maybe it’s because he looks up to him. “Ever since we’ve been friends we’ve always kept an eye out for each other. I wasn’t gonna let some Rare Hunter creep change that. Even if…” He balls his hand into a fist. “Even if my brain was turned to mush!”
“It’s okay,” Yugi says gently. But it’s not okay. But maybe Joey shouldn’t think about that. So instead he decides it’s not about that. It’s not about him and Yugi anymore.
“But that Marik made a complete fool outta me! How can I show my face at the finals now?” Boy, did he come up with the stupidest lie possible. Of course everyone ends up yellin’ at him about it, but that’s fine. And it reminds him that his sister can see now, which is amazin’! Really, everythin’ did work out for the best.
“Hey, Yugi,” Joey finally takes the Millennium Puzzle and puts it around it’s rightful owner’s neck. “I believe this is yours.” Yugi looks up at him and smiles, and really, this is the perfect outcome. “Thanks for everythin’, pal.”
“Thank you for saving my life, Joey.”
In his head, Joey thanks Yugi for the same thing.