Destined to be Yours

Chapter 54: The Search

In Kaiba's helicopter, Akia couldn't help but feel restless. Mokuba had found Jounouchi's location thanks to the latter's duel disk, but it was all the way over to the docks.

"Stop fidgeting. It won't make us get there faster and it's very annoying," Kaiba told her off.

Akia took deep breaths to calm her nerves. She would've usually talked back to Kaiba, but she was way too unsettled by everything to argue with him. She couldn't believe the lengths to which Marik was going. How did he even get to her friends and when? She had just left them to bring Bakura to the hospital. She then started feeling guilty about leaving. Maybe if she was there with them, she could've come face to face with Marik and maybe tried talking some sense into him. The spirit of the Pharaoh, who was still in control of Akia's brother, was looking out the window with a grave expression. He was also really worried about his friends.

"The man aiming for the God Cards and leader of the Ghouls is called Marik, right?" That statement seemed to get everyone's attention to focus on Kaiba. "What do you know about him?"

"I've never seen him face to face. All I know is that, like me, he has a Millennium Item," the pharaoh replied.

"Again with the ridiculous occult stuff," Kaiba scoffed. He then turned to Akia, "what about you? You seemed like you knew the guy a lot more than all of us."

"I don't. I just met him when we were very young. It was during a trip to Egypt with my grandpa. He's definitely nothing like he used to be anymore." Tears stung Akia's eyes, threatening to come out. She blinked them away, not wanting to look vulnerable in front of Kaiba. She zoned out for most of the conversation between Yugi and Kaiba where Yugi was trying to explain to him about how he is the spirit of the Pharaoh and about the power of the Millennium items. Of course, Kaiba was having none of it.

After a while, Mokuba got up and looked ahead. "I can see Domino Port!"

Akia and Yugi's hearts leapt at the thought of finally getting there to rescue their friends.

"There's someone down there. Is that...?" Mokuba pointed.

"Jounouchi!" Akia exclaimed as she saw her dear friend standing at the port. The helicopter landed close to where he was and, as soon as the doors opened, Akia ran to Jounouchi and put her hands on his forearms. "Jounouchi, please tell me it's still you in there... It's still you right? Right?" She begged as tears were flowing down her cheeks. She saw his blank expression. She knew it wasn't him anymore. She knew that Marik was controlling him, but she didn't want to believe it. Jounouchi then slapped her hands away and walked passed her to face Yugi. Marik had decided to do everything in his power to ignore Akia. The more he paid attention to her, the more conflicted he felt about what he was doing and he couldn't have that.

"I've been waiting for you to show up, Yugi," Jounouchi said.

"Jounouchi... seems so different," Mokuba muttered.

"Jounouchi-kun, you have to wake up," the Spirit of the Puzzle yelled out.

The blond teen smirked. "Wake up? I'm wide awake. I'm more than awake enough to beat you to a pulp. Yugi, you can't run away from me or this duel. A duel where our lives are on the line, fighting until our last breath."

"Jounouchi-kun," the other Yugi replied, "I have wanted to fight you in this tournament, but I wanted it to be as true duelists. This is not what any of us wanted. You are being controlled by Marik, this is not you!"

"Follow me, Yugi. The stage for our duel of death is over there." Jounouchi completely ignored Yugi and turned his back to them with a smirk. He started walking towards the location of the special duel set up by Marik's Ghouls.