The day that changed my life forever started out just like every other Saturday in my life: I woke up at 7:00 AM to get to my job at the pet shop, I took my morning shower, brushed threw my hair, applied my make-up, and ate breakfast as quietly as possible, as to not wake-up my cousin (well, my 2nd cousin, but I'm not one for technicalities), only to discover that she's already up working on a mid-term report.
"Iris, you have the entire weekend to finish that, get some sleep!" I replied, inspecting my lipstick in the reflection of the stainless steel refrigerator.
She smiled sweetly at me "you're one to talk!" she laughed, "you nearly faint on the couch when you get home on Friday, then you wake up early and work all morning!"
"Yes, well me getting up early means we make the rent!" I replied "you just do it for fun!" pulling on my jacket, and headed out the door, "I'll pick-up something for dinner, so don't worry about cooking-ah!" THUD! I tripped over a very large crate that the door man had apparently left in the middle of the hallway, upon further inspection I found that it was addressed to Mara Marcella and Iris Lee Ishtar AKA: my older cousin and me (though why they used our middle names I don't know!). But what interested me was the name on the return address: Ishizu Ishtar, Iris's grandmother (whom she was loosely named after, as I was loosely named after my grandfather), who had-as far as I know-died before either of us were born.
"Mara, are you okay?" Iris asked sounding genuinely concerned as she normally did no matter what I was screaming about.
"Yes, Iris, I'm fine!" I replied, "Um… how well did you know your grandparents?" I asked.
"Well, unlike you, both my grandparents were dead before I was born, so not at…" her voice trailed off as she walked into the hallway to check on me. "This has to be some kind of trick!" she gasped, shaking her head.
"Well, let's open it!" I replied, dragging it into the living room, I was quite excited to know what was in the box, I picked up the pry-bar, that we had for some strange reason, and popped the top of the box and looked inside, I felt a strange presents emanating from the box, like two people were somehow trapped inside of it.
First of all there was a letter addressed to Iris, I handed it to her and she read it aloud:
Dear Iris,
I'm sure that you a confused and maybe a little bit scared at this point, but it will only get worse, please care for Mara, so she doesn't share the same fate as the last person to hold the Millennium Rod.
"Cryptic!" I replied, digging through box full of saw dust, "what do you think it means?" I asked.
"I don't know, Mara, you're the one who grew up in Egypt!" Iris replied, casting the note aside.
"Although I'm well versed in Egyptian mythology, I was never told anything about a Millennium Rod!" I replied, just then my finger tip grazed something cool and metal in the box, I felt dizzy; I almost fainted as I curled my fingers around the object and pulled it out. "Hello!" I replied, "This must be the Millennium Rod" inspecting the golden rod more closely in the light.
"Mara, I understand that you're partial to ancient Egyptian artifacts, but, you're going to be late for work!" Iris replied rummaging around threw the box herself. I looked up at her: she had just found her own little prize in the box: a necklace with the same eye shaped crest as the rod did, her eyes were starting to roll back into her head, and she was emanating a strange, powerful presents.
I shock her gently; she blinked and looked at me with a confused look in her eye, "are you alright?" I asked.
She nodded and smiled "go to work!" she replied.
I got to the pet shop late; luckily the manager didn't come in on the weekend, but to my co-worker and best friend (Reino Bakura) quiet: I had to invite him to dinner, on me of course.
We walked home with the take-out bags in hand, exchanging friendly gossip and reminiscing about our child hood, when suddenly I felt dizzy, so much so that I lost my balance and fell, almost landing in the oncoming traffic of the main road.
"Hey, are you okay?" Reino asked, grabbing my arm, and trying to pull me back away from the street.
I put my hand on my forehead; the felling had suddenly changed from dizzy, to something along the lines of a migraine and an incredible swelling, as though something was trying to escape from the dark depths of my mind. Then –as I was told later by Reino- something in my backpack started glowing, as the pain starter to grow, it got more and more unbearable, I don't know what would have happen if it hadn't suddenly subsided. I blinked a few times, stupefied at what had just happened, looking at Reino for conformation, there was a small crowd of onlooker gathering around us, I quickly grabbed Reino hand and he hoisted me up, and we quickly and quietly made our way through the crowd before anyone had the chance to question us about anything.
We didn't talk until we were safely in the apartment lobby, I sat down in one of the arm chairs and started going through my bag, looking for whatever might have been glowing, I found only my wallet, my cell phone, a package of gum, a few beauty supplies & other odds and ins, a small photo album of friends and family, and the Millennium Rod.
"Hey what's that?" Reino asked, trying to take the Millennium Rod from me, I jerked it away before he could grab it; I was well acquainted with his skills as a thief.
"Slow down there Thief King, just because its shinny doesn't make it yours!" I mocked, "And any ways, I don't really know what it is; me and Iris got a package this morning, its part of the reason we were late," I explained, "but the weird thing was it was from Iris's dead grandmother!"
"Iris and I got a package!" Reino replied, "I swear it's like you didn't listen at all in ESL!"
"Okay, that's what you got from the story I just told you?" I asked. "And I spoke English before we came to collage, so shut-up!"
"So, Dead relatives are sending you ancient artifacts, weren't your grandparents' tomb keepers or something-"
"Hey, you don't have any room to make fun of my ancestry, considering you come from a family of Thieves!" I interrupted. "And only one of my grandparents was a tomb keeper (my grandmother was an artist from Texas)"
"My point is weirder things have probably happened! (Like your grandparents meeting)" Reino replied. "And if it bothers you that much, Mara, just call your Grandfather and ask him about it" he held out his hand "may I?" he asked, I gently placed the rod in his hands, half expecting it to shock the ever living crap out of him. "This looks so familiar!" he replied mainly focusing on the eye in the center (oh, you all know what the Millennium Rod looks like!) "Like, I've seen it before, but not here!"
I reached over and tugged on the large pendent that he often wore, a gold ring with several sharp objects hanging off of it, and the same eye in the middle of it (The Millennium Ring!) "Um, Reino!" I replied, "Your 'family treasure' there!"
"Oh, right!" he replied, taking it back from me, and as if on command as soon as we started paying attention to it, it started glowing and pointing at me.
"Um, okay, what does that mean?" I asked.
"I don't know, it's been just a pendent until today!" he replied.
"Let's just go upstairs!" I replied, standing up to leave.
I thought everything was over for today; I thought I would just go up to my loft and enjoy dinner with my cousin and best friend, what I discovered was far worse.
The door had been busted open, and the entire apartment was trashed, Iris's laptop was broken in two, the couch cushions were slashed, the refrigerator was on its side, and someone threw everything that was on our book shelves on the floor, in my room everything had been dumped out of my drawers onto the floor, my mattress had been flipped over, and as if it was just out of spite my mirror had been smashed.
"Iris?" I yelled, now franticly searching for my cousin.
"Hello, I'd like to report a robbery" I heard Reino say, as I climbed the latter to get to Iris's room.
"Iris?" I was about to have a panic attack, with one last idea I pulled out my cell phone and called her, hoping she hadn't been home. As it rang, I felt as though I was in a bad horror movie, I prayed she would pick up, I prayed harder than I had ever prayed before, because for the 6 years of my life (back when I lived in Texas with my parents), she was the only friend I had, considering she was the only person close to my age that I knew.
My prayers had fallen on deaf ears it seemed, because when someone finally picked up the phone, it wasn't her, it wasn't even Adam, or Tari, or any of her friends that would have her cell phone, instead I got a gruff, scary sounding voice "what do you want?" he yelled.
"I want my cousin back!" I yelled.
"Is that so?" he laughed, then how 'bout this, we'll give you your cousin, if you give us your Millennium Item!" he replied.
"I want proof of life!" I replied I had seen enough CSI episodes to know you always get proof of life.
There was a rusting sound, and I heard Iris's distorted voice: "Mara? Oh my God, are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" I replied, "Did they hurt you?"
"No, not intentionally!" she replied.
"Don't worry I'm going to come get you!" I told her, hanging up before she had time to protest.
"What do we do?" Reino asked, "The police won't help much!"
I sat down on the remainder of our couch and let out a sigh, "the only thing we can do!" I replied "you stay here and wait for the cops; I'm going to go get Iris from those Psychos!"
"Mara, no!" Reino yelled, "That's too dangerous!"
"Exactly, that's why you're staying here!" I told him.
"At least find someone to go with you!" he replied.
All I could hear was the sound of my own footsteps, as I paced back and forth in the ally way, waiting for my new accomplices to show up.
"Ishtar!"
I looked up, "it's about time, Kaiba!" I replied, checking my watch "come on, we don't have much time!" I said starting the trek to the exchange point. That's right the only person I could think of calling was the most privileged person I knew: Sam Kida.
"Mara!" he replied. I turned on my heels to face him "You haven't explained anything to me yet!"
"Iris has been kidnapped!" I replied "I brought you, well, because you're the heir to a large company, and frankly people will care if you go missing!"
"People would care if you go missing!" he offered, fallowing after me, he was a sweet boy if nothing else, we related, seeing as how we were both raised by our grand fathers.
"Yes, but mine are in Egypt, and probably would hear about it until it's too late!" I replied, "Just stand there and get ready to call 9-1-1 if this goes sour!" I hoped on my motor cycle, and as the common cortices I handed the helmet to Sam, he put it on and got on behind me.
I drove as fast I could, I felt sick knowing that they could do anything they wanted to Iris, and I couldn't do anything to stop it, anger and aggression were taking over and I wasn't doing anything to stop it, little did I know, it would lead to my down fall.
Authors note:
Okay, few things I want you to know before I end this chapter:
1)Mara is Marik's granddaughter, in case you didn't catch that
2)There are a few more main characters that haven't been introduced
3)Marcella and Lee (Mara and Iris's middle names) are my grandparents
4)Iris was not intended to be the Mokuba of this fan-fic, it just worked out that way
5)If you see the names Banner, it's supposed to be Reino, I changed his name because my friend pointed out to me 2 things: a) there's a character in GX named pro. Banner and b) Bakura isn't Bakura's first name.
6)I do not own Yu-gi-oh, but I do own Mara, Iris, Reino, and Sam (and in later chapters: Adam, Julia, Kari, Tari, Mari, Miranda, Dylan, and Mina)
7)I like Chocolate chips