Okay, even though my last Yugioh fic didn't turn out too popular, I'm willing to give you all the benefit of the doubt and put up another one.
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If at any time you get confused about events in this story, you should go check out The Queen had a huntbird, The Queen had a lark, of which this is the sort-of sequel.
Sort-of, because this was my original idea. But before I wrote it, I thought to myself, 'Hey, I should write about the stuff that happened just before this fic in the timeline, or everyone'll get confused.'
So I did.
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But that was then and this is now. Go, read, enjoy - and review, please. Running up my hit counter is sweet and all, but I'd really rather have reviews.
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Disclaimer: Hikari Hrair-rah does not own Yugioh or Black&White
Claimer: This is her idea and plot, not to mention all her original characters
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Yugi ran like he was being chased by a horde of angry demons. For all he knew, he was, because he certainly felt as panicked as he would have been in such a situation.
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But in reality, the little light knew that he was running TO something, not away from something - and he HAD to get there, NOW!
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His friends, trying to be understanding of how upset Yugi was feeling, had nearly dragged him away from the excavation site to get some rest.
HAH! As if 'upset' was even remotely close to how he felt!
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Yugi had spent the first couple of hours in the tent going over what had brought upon this incredible tragedy:
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A newly discovered ruin in Egypt, buried deep in the desert sands and basically stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and it had been discovered by an old friend of Grandpa's.
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This friend had invited Grandpa to visit the site, for old time's sake. Because of much begging and pleading on the part of Yugi and his friends - it was the middle of vacation and they were all tired of sitting around and being bored to death - Grandpa had agreed to bring them along.
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So of COURSE the stupid monument/temple-thing HAD to be a place where a dangerous sorcerer was locked up…and just their luck, one of the archeologists at the dig decided to ignore all the ancient warnings and released the sorcerer.
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That crazy and dangerous sorcerer, Akaanesis, had been locked there just about when Yugi's Yami had been crowned as Pharaoh. Yami especially had had something to do with sealing him away, and Akaanesis had been quick enough to take revenge upon figuring everything out.
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Except that Akaanesis had tried to toy with his old nemesis, threatening to sacrifice both Joey and Yugi in some huge fiery pit, and in response Yami had purposely thrown himself and the sorcerer in there, in order to make certain that this time, Akaanesis couldn't come back.
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The only problem was, neither did Yami.
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Their bond had crumpled and twisted beyond recognition, and Yugi had been so certain his guardian half was now dead…
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…But the Ishtars and Shaddi, summoned by the force of shadow magic they had felt from the battle, had said otherwise. The fiery pit was actually a gateway that lead between realms and dimensions. Sure, it technically needed sacrifices to operate, but when activated it could literally send anyone anywhere.
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The bond, though maimed, was still there. Yami wasn't dead.
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Over the last week-and-a-half, as various ideas for locating the lost Pharaoh had been tried, all of which had failed to locate him, Yugi had felt like he was going half-crazy. Erratically, the bond between them had surged, sending a confused jumble of information from both ends to both ends.
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Yugi had eventually dozed off in the tent, but he hadn't dreamed. Instead, a confused-sounding Yami had contacted him. The communication had been interrupted, but the bond was still actively thrumming in the back of Yugi's head.
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Shaddi had clearly stated that they couldn't do anything to find the Pharaoh until he could be located. Well, Yugi grimaced as the entrance to the ruin came into view, now they could easily find his missing half. Yami was at the other end of the bond, wasn't he?
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"Gah! Holy - what the heck's wrong with you, Yug'?" Joey demanded as Yugi accidentally ran straight into him, "Bad dream or something…?"
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"I can feel him, I can feel him, the bond's staying open this time," Yugi managed to force out coherently, "Now we can find him!"
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Joey, for his part, only blinked at Yugi for a few seconds, before comprehension broke over his features and he gave an ear-splitting whoop. In response, something in another room hit the floor and shattered with a bang, before -
"DAMN IT, JOEY!" Malik screamed, sticking his head out from where he and his sister were working in the ruins, "What the HELL is wrong with you! That was a priceless artifact!"
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There was more yelling as Joey explained what Yugi had told him. This lead to more loud noises as the various people in hearing range cheered, yelled, and demanded to know what the hell was going on.
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FINALLY, everyone settled down to business and everything that still needed to be got set up. For convenience's sake, they had kept the portal to the Shadow Realm open, since no monsters would go anywhere near the Gateway of Dimensions, which was where the portal lead to.
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"Concentrate," Shaddi said, holding his Millennium Ankt up to Yugi's head, as if he was going to check out the Soul Rooms again.
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He didn't - which was good, since the reaction Shaddi had set off last time had been less than pleasant - and the magic flowed around just as smoothly as Shaddi and Isis had said it would.
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A window appeared in midair.
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First it only showed random colors, vague shapes, but the image suddenly swirled nauseatingly into focus - and displayed a horrific-looking battle that looked like it was between giant animals.
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Pointy buildings were nearby, and less than half the animals seemed to be fighting to protect the buildings. Lumpy-looking people were scattered around the buildings…
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…But taking up most of the attention were the swarming colored lights that filled the skies over the battle. It was a riot of color, and each one had a symbol or something blazoned on them.
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Somewhere in that mess was Yami.
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Before they could look around to see where he was, though, the animals that were attacking suddenly turned and fled for no reason.0
"That's not right," Malik spoke up suddenly, "They're not running - they're getting out of the way!"/Yami, if you're there, RUN/ Yugi shoved down the bond.
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There was no way to know if his other half had received the message, but several of the colored lights turned and fled, apparently picking up on what was going on - the sky burst into light!
A light that turned into a burning golden blast, and that shot downwards, into the middle of the colored lights, animals, and their pointy buildings. No one got to see what happened, though, because the viewing window collapsed with the force of all that light.
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Even so, the pulse of the bond said Yami was alive, and everyone was glad to hear about it.
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"Now that he has been located, we may proceed to open a portal between that world and this place," Shaddi said, and got to work with the necessary magical adjustments.
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Thirty minutes later, it was ready.
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"All right then, fire it up!" Joey declared.
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Malik, unimpressed with Joey's enthusiasm, mumbled something under his breath that didn't sound particularly complimentary. The other blond heard, though, and eyed him suspiciously, but since the words had been in the language of the ancient scriptures, Joey couldn't accuse Malik of anything.
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And besides, the portal was starting to form.
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Shadow magic sparked and flared - tongues of green fire from the nearby Gateway of Dimensions reared up, as if sensing what was going on - and everyone braced themselves.
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After a few worried seconds, a wide hole appeared. A gentle wind that appeared out of nowhere was blowing into the hole. Shaddi frowned to himself: it was not exactly what he had planned on…
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"All right! Let's get in there and go bag us a spirit, eh?" Joey said, approaching the hole so he could look inside.
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"Be careful, Joey," Yugi cautioned, even though he also was going closer for a look.
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"Get back over here, its not safe," Malik groaned, heading over to pull them back to safety.
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Just then, though, the portal flickered alarmingly. It shivered, shrank a little in size - before suddenly rearing up at three times its original size. The gentle breeze of before mutated into a fearsome suction, reaching out to grab those who were foolishly much too close to the portal's maw to get away in time.
Specifically, three teenagers named Yugi, Joey, and Malik.
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They turned, tried to run, but before any of them could move a single step they were yanked right off their feet and swallowed by the vortex of the portal. Apparently satiated, the portal abruptly vanished.
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Almost frantically, Isis and Shaddi worked to reopen it. Now they needed to save four people instead of just one. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes later that their efforts were rewarded with a weird clump of gray mist.
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That mist stretched and twisted itself, until a great round opening had opened up in the middle of the strange mist. It wasn't a true portal, but it would allow people on both sides to see and speak to one another.
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Standing in front of the communication portal on the other end was an older man. His hair was bright silver, and the same shade of silver dominated his long, solemn robes.
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"And here we are now," the old man said, a twinkle in his eye, "Perfectly on time…I greet you, Isis Ishtar and Shaddi."
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"You know our names?" Isis blinked.
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"Indeed," said the man, "I have heard so much about you both. You may call me Kazul."
