Important Note:

If there's only one note you read in this entire story please read this one because I would like to avoid confusion. I am blending the anime with the manga. I will use personalities in the English dub, but I will use the manga in order to explain some of the back stories. If you'd like a guide to English vs. Japanese names let me know!

Please be aware that I've shipped YugixTea and JoeyxMai and that it's been twenty years since the Pharaoh entered the afterlife, so I've had to fill in events between the dub and now. I promise that it won't become a next gen saves the world story.

-ForeverLily

Higher Stakes Chapter 1:When your past comes back to Haunt You

Yugi…remember that darkness cannot triumph as long as you believe…

Yugi stopped where he was, turned around, and grabbed his deck- his daughter was in danger. His title was both a blessing and a curse and had made him the target of thieves and vessels of jealousy and darkness who wanted to dethrone him. But there had been times when he had to fight the shadows and the darkness within him. For all that the Pharaoh had been his other self, his shadowed half; he too had a dark side. It had been there long before he met the pharaoh, nudging at him to take revenge against his tormentors. But he never listened to it, refusing to sink so low. It was times like this, when his family was in danger, where he made sure that this part of him was locked even more securely in the back of his mind.

He opened the door, shut it, and then closed his eyes and started running without hesitation. Somehow his feet always knew where to go, even though his mind had no real idea. After a second he opened them and began to scan the streets for his daughter.

There were kids chasing each other gleefully, litter scattered on the sidewalks, and the odd stray cat, but not his kid until he heard a yell. It wasn't one of distress; it was more like a battle cry.

"You guys think you're so tough because you happen to pull some illegal combo?" Somehow he managed to run faster and he found his daughter dueling against a cloaked duelist. Tendrils of shadows surrounded the opponent. There was a number of things that Yugi wanted to say, but having been in a number of duels where the odds were stacked against him he knew that it would only make things worse. He had two options. He could either step in, or encourage her. Stepping in wasn't an option, no matter how much he wished it was. If he were to step in the 'duelist' (no true duelist would ever stoop so low.) who was clearly using shadow magic would use it as an excuse to end the duel.

"Akari! Remember the Heart of the Cards!"

She turned around with a smile that he was sure was meant to hide her fear. "Dad!" If only he could take over for her he would in a heart beat.

"Yes, I'm here." So she did know that she was in deep trouble. Usually Yugi was able to keep her away from dangerous situations, and it was painful to watch his baby girl fight a shadow duel-the use of shadow magic was a bad omen as it was. He hadn't seen one since Egypt… "Listen to me! You can do this. Don't give up hope-like Joey always says "it's not over 'til the last point is gone". I won once with half of a point left!"

She nodded. "I'll make you proud!"She then turned around and faced her opponent. "Fine! I'll lay one card face down and summon Gemini Elf in face up attack position and attack your life points directly!" The man grimaced.

"With that I'll end my turn."

A dark grin crossed the man's face. "First off, I'll activate dark snake syndrome. This will take away life points directly, and the number doubles each turn. Then I'll end my turn." The duel had better end quickly she only had 800 life points left and the mystery duelist had 2500 life points left. If she didn't win in the next four turns she'd lose-and that was without monster damage. Next I'll summon one monster in face down defense mode. And attack your life points again."

"I activate spell binding circle! Give up little girl. There's no way you'll defeat me-I have the power of shadows on my side!" If it was possible the shadows around them only grew thicker.

Eyes narrowed in determination, Akari looked straight at him with determination. "Then I will make the darkness disappear!"

"And how do you plan to do that?" He laughed. "You're just a child!"

"With the heart of the cards!"

His grin was predatory. "The Heart of the cards can't help you now!"

"We'll see about that!"

"Now I will summon my Zombie master and attack your face down monster!"

The card flipped to reveal the mystical elf! So she had been using the cards he had given her…

"Your Zombie master is destroyed! Not much of a master is he?"

"It's your turn-not that you can win anyway. You've just lost a quarter of your life points!"

"Oh?" She closed her eyes and mouthed something. She smirked in a very teenage fashion. "I send my monsters to the graveyard in order to summon the Dark Magician. Do your thing!"

"If that's really you Mahad, please protect her," he whispered. Mahad had once been one the pharaoh's guardians and Yugi still felt drawn to the card that resembled the monster that Mahad's soul was infused with. He nodded and attacked the life points, leaving him with 100 life points left.

"I summon a monster in defense mode." Now he was really panicked. It was obvious that he was running scenarios in his head, and judging from the look on his face none of them were in his favor.

"I'm not letting a little punk like you beat me! I'll activate another spellbinding circle and then I'll end it. There's no way you can beat me in the next turn!"

That left her with 200 life points. This was her last chance. Yugi had faith in her, but the father in him was terrified. What if she didn't draw the right cards?

This time another smirk appeared and Yugi was relieved."You wanna bet? Fine, I'll use my Ookazi to finish off the rest of your life points!"

"Well Yugi's daughter, it seems I'll be greeting my master early. He has a message for your father. "He says to say hello to his host and tell him that he should be expecting a visit soon."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she wondered. At first he was wondering the same thing when it occurred to him. It could only mean Yami Bakura was back. But that wasn't something to tell a fourteen year old. So he put on a smile and turned to face her.

"Now that the duel was over he ran up to her and hugged her. "It's over. I'm proud of you-you stood your ground!"

They stood back and she asked, "What was that?"

The question exited and terrified Yugi. "We can't talk now. When we get back home I'll explain what was going on." Without another word he took her hand and led her down the alley ways and into the shadows beside buildings to keep them out of sight until they got home. The alley ways were a calculated risk of course, he knew that someone could be waiting for them there too but wished to avoid the attention drawn from waltzing down crowded, well lit roads.

Once they were at home he ushered her inside, locked all of the doors, closed the blinds. He made them both tea and sat her down on the couch so that he could begin his tale. It was complicated to explain, and maybe even a little painful to bring up, so he was almost certain that he'd mangle the explanation too badly for her to truly understand what had happened to her.

"The game that we call Duel Monsters is based on an ancient form of battle using creatures that were…" He tried to think of the right way to put it, "a physical manifestation of a person's soul. The duel that you just had, where your soul was at stake, that was similar to how duels were played in Ancient Egypt." Her eyebrows shot up. He could tell that she was wondering what that had to do with anything. "That game that you were playing was called a shadow game. If you had lost…your soul would have been locked away in the shadow realm, where you would be forced to live your worst fears." Her eyes grew rounder and she gasped-apparently she hadn't known what was at stake.

"You mean that I was challenged to a game of ancient Egyptian duel monsters? Why would anyone bother with me?"

This was the part that he was dreading. He had put off telling her about the shadow realm and his journeys with the Pharaoh because he had been afraid that she would become a target. The world may have safe from Zork, and the shadow games may have been sealed off with the tomb, but crazies hadn't gone away. People still envied his title and it seemed as though the less she knew until she was old enough to understand the gravity of his situation, the better. "You were challenged because someone was looking for a way to get to me. Our past is…" How should he put it? "...connected to an Ancient Pharaoh who saved the world, so some people might see me as their enemy." He sighed with frustration and disappointment. "I'm sorry. I never meant to put you through this."

Akari stared at him in a way that suggested his whole story sounded insane and he couldn't blame her. It all must have sounded far too mythological to possibly be real. Sometimes his teenage years reminded him of one the books that her friends enjoyed reading."I think that's enough for right now. You need to rest. The rest can wait for another day." He put a hand on her shoulder. "You're safe now. You've won the duel, that's what matters." Truthfully he had no idea how to comfort her-normally he would dive into a situation head first because he knew that if he thought about the fear doing what needed to done would only be more difficult, but this was different. He didn't even know what situation he was supposed to be diving into.

"So it's over now?" she pleaded.

He drew her into a hug. "It will be soon, I promise. They were after me, not you. I've dealt with his kind before. Everything will end up alright." It had to.

That night Yugi couldn't sleep. He had forgotten what it was like to be afraid the way that he was then. How had lived with that fear so constantly as a teenager? He refused to even think that she may be drawn into the same dark games that he played at her age.

He went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face in hopes of clearing his head. The cool water felt good, but didn't help at all. He looked up at the mirror.

"What do I do, pharaoh? My daughter's in danger because of us..." he paused, "Today was too close. It can't happen again!"

Suddenly the phone fell of the night stand. "You want me to call somebody?" and then it came to him, "Joey! I'll call Joey!"

Without thinking about the numbers he dialed his long time friend.

"You'd better have a good reason for calling me this early in the morning. If you're one of those kids that's been prank calling me I'm call'en the authorities and then-"

"Joey, it's Yugi!"

"Yugi?"

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, something's happened."

"What is it Yugi? This had better be good. Right now you're keep'en me away from my beauty rest."

"No Joey, it's not good. Today my daughter was in a shadow game."

"A shadow game?"

"A shadow game. She won, but her opponent said that his master had a message for me. He says to 'say hello to his host and tell him that he should be expecting a visit soon'".

The other line was silent.

"You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here. Does that mean what I think it means?"

"The Thief King is back."

Author's Note:. Right now I've finished the first ten chapters and am working on chapter eleven, but I wanted to post the first chapters and see what people think. I might go back and re-edit eventually, but for now I hope you've enjoyed this chapter enough to read on and review! Thanks for taking the time to read my story!

-ForeverLily