Ch.1: Darkness Duel

It was dark; Extremely dark and Yugi could barely see. He flung his hands around wildly trying find something to hold on to, but all his efforts were in vain. Then he had an idea.

"Hmmm...I'll use the millennium puzzle to light up this abyss." Yugi said. He reached down to feel the millennium puzzle but it was no longer there.

Suddenly, a deep and distorted voice rang out in the darkness, "If you needed a light, all you had to do was but to ask my pharaoh." The room immediately illuminated slightly. "Now you have your light." Yugi was about to ask the voice who it was and where it was coming from when the voice said, "Please, sit down my pharaoh. I will answer your questions in time."

Yugi then studied the room. It was filled with ancient Egyptian artifacts, most of them made of gold. The walls of the room looked ancient and worn and they were all covered in hieroglyphics. In one corner of the room there was a small golden throne. Yugi did not see any other places to sit so he walked over to the throne and sat down.

"Welcome, my pharaoh. I can see that you are worried about the Millennium Puzzle. Do not worry it will be returned to you shortly." Yugi did not trust this voice but he knew that at the moment it was more important to find out where he was. "You are in a place known as Babarus." the voice said.

"You're reading my mind aren't you?" Yugi asked.

"Yes pharaoh. I am."

"Then you know what I'm going to ask next, correct?"

"You want to know where Babarus is and who I am. Very well, I shall tell you. Babarus is an arcane library that used to house the Book of Ra and the Book of the Dead. You have heard of them?"

"Of course."

"I have watched over the books for thousands of years until just recently when they were stolen."

"Thousands of years? You must be a spirit...Why would anyone want these two ancient books?"

"The books contain secrets about the shadow realm that even I do not know. More importantly, they contain the ritual that can summon the reshef back to this plain."

"Who is this reshef?"

"You do not remember?" Yugi shook his head. "The reshef is the being that you faced 5000 years ago. You defeated him. However, you were so badly injured that your priest, Simon, and your pharohess used their power to seal your spirit inside of the Millennium Puzzle."

"Speaking of the Millennium Puzzle..."

"Oh yes, of course. I shall return it to you before you leave. But first I must ask you a favor my lord."

"A favor? What is it?"

" I need to duel you my lord."

"A duel? Why?"

"Before you were locked inside the Millennium Puzzle, you taught me all of your secrets, all of your strategies. You see, I must duel you to make sure that you are still as capable of a shadow duelist as you used to be."

"I assure you, I am still quite skilled."

"Of that I cannot be sure. Please, if you are not strong enough to defeat me, then you cannot defeat the reshef. And if you cannot defeat the reshef then the world is doomed."

"You give me no choice. I accept your challenge."

"Thank you, my pharaoh. Please take out your...cards. And I shall transform my stone tablets into...cards as well. "

"Are you going to show yourself? It is awfully difficult to duel when I cannot see my opponent."

"Of course, my pharaoh. How rude of me." The light suddenly became a little brighter and Yugi could make out a form in the darkness. The form walked closer and is it came into the light it slowly became Tristan in strange, Egyptian garb.

"Tristan? Is...is that you?"

"Tris...tan? I'm afraid I do not know that name. I am Taknut. Why did you call me Tristan?"

"You look just like a very close friend of mine."

"Hmmm...Perhaps your friend is a reincarnation of me..."

"Maybe so."

"Now my pharaoh, we will duel upon this." Taknut held his hand over the floor in front of Yugi and the floor slowly rose creating a large stone table. "And now for the shadow realm." The room was quickly engulfed in an eerie, purple light.

"This is all too familiar. Please let us duel quickly. I would prefer not to stay in this dark hell."

"Yes pharaoh, please shuffle my cards and I shall shuffle yours." They handed each other their decks, shuffled the decks, and then returned them to their owners. "We shall each start with 4000 life points. First turn honors are yours, lord."

"I draw," Yugi drew and quickly looked over his hand. "I place two cards face-down and summon Obnoxious Celtic Guardian in defense mode." An elf-like monster appeared above Yugi's card. "It is your turn."

"A strange opening play," said and drew his card and hand, "Excellent. Anubis has smiled upon me. I play the spell Mystical Space Typhoon and use it's magic to destroy one of your face-down cards." The left of Yugi's two trap cards become engulfed in white light and when the light faded the card was gone. "Then I will summon Luster Dragon (1900 atk) and attack your Celtic Guardian." A blue, glistening dragon arose from the card and made a mad dash towards the Celtic Guardian and then breathed massive amounts of blue flame at it. The Celtic Guardian however, jumped out of the way. "What? How was your Celtic Guardian saved? Did you use your trap card?"

"Not exactly. Obnoxious Celtic Guardian has a special ability. He can't be destroyed by monsters with 1900 attack or more. So you wasted your attack."

"Ah...now your starting strategy makes sense. Well done. Your move."

"I am just getting started." Yugi drew his next card. "Now I sacrifice Obnoxious Celtic Guardian to bring forth the Summoned Skull(2500/1200). Summoned Skull, attack the Luster Dragon with fiend lightning!" A large winged fiend jumped out of Yugi's card and put it's huge claws in the air and drew energy to itself, then it unleashed all of it's fury on the Luster Dragon by attacking it with huge amounts of purple electricity. The Luster Dragon vanished into hundreds of shards.

Yami: 4000 Taknut: 3400

"It's only your second turn Taknut, and you are already down 600 life points. Do you still question my skill?"

"Oh my pharaoh. It was never your skill that I believed was weak. It was your strength of mind that I questioned." Taknut drew a card, "Now my pharaoh, the real test begins. I summon the monster Joey Wheeler(1650/1300)!" Yugi gasped. Slowly a gray form appeared onto the field. It had strange blond hair and familiar brown eyes. It was definitely Joey. However, Joey was wearing strange golden armor and held a huge sword.

"What? How...This can't be. How have you done this Taknut?"

" I read your mind my lord. I had to know your biggest weakness. If you cannot overcome this weakness the reshef will exploit it and easily crush you."

"You can make the cards look like my friends but I don't not fear forms in the shadows!"

"I must apologize again my pharaoh. They are not just simple forms. They are the souls of your friends incarnate as monsters. If your friends are destroyed in this shadow game, their souls will forever be trapped in the shadow realm."

"You are that desperate to test me? You would endanger innocent lives?"

"I am truly sor..."

Keep your apologies. Anyone who would endanger the innocent for any reason is evil in my eyes. How dare you do this." Yugi drew a card. "I will no attack my friends, but I swear to you, I will find a way to win. For now, I summon Alpha the Magnet Warrior in defense mode." A silver machine with a magnet for a head appeared on the field holding a sword defensively. "Your move." Taknut drew his card.

"He must be a reincarnation of me...Now I summon Tristan Taylor(1100/2150) to the field." This time Tristan appeared on the field. He was in the form of a robot with cannons on both of his arms. "Your move."

'This game can't go on any longer,' Yugi thought, 'What if he sacrifices my friends or attacks my monsters in attack mode on purpose to destroy them. Can't think about that. I must remain strong.'

"This card will help. I summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in defense mode." A yellow robot appeared on Yami's field and it's arms crossed over it's body in order to fortify it's defense. "And I play Chorus of sanctuary. This field card increases all of my monsters defense by 500 points. I will end my turn by switching Summoned Skull to defense mode as well."

"Little good that will do you in the long run, I'm afraid" Taknut drew another card, "I summon Tea Gardener(2100/0) to the field."

"No!" A huge flash of light erupted from Taknut's card. Tea appeared their. Her hair was long and sleek. She had scales all over her body and two large wings on her back. Her tail swung around loosely in the air. On the end of the tail was a huge razor-sharp spike. She had spikes going up her back and her eyes glowed a nightmarishly evil red. "You monster. How could you?"

"You cannot be weak pharaoh! You could have won this duel if you had but attacked! If you refuse to fight your friends will simply perish in vain. Strike my monsters or you will lose!"

"Never. You will not win with these tactics. Prepare to lose!"

"Oh pharaoh. I had hoped I was wrong. Go, it is your turn." Yugi drew a card.

"Perfect. I summon Gamma the Magnet Warrior. And when Gamma is on the field with the other two magnet warriors, I can transform them into a much mightier beast. Now magnet warriors! Become Valkyrion, the Magna Warrior!" A purple machine with wings appeared on the field along side the other two magnet warriors. All three of them then split into pieces and reformed as a giant sword and shield-wielding machine (Valkyrion 3500/3850). At first Taknut looked worried when he saw this giant magnet warrior but his fears soon disappeared.

"You refuse to attack. That monster no matter how powerful will be useless." Yami just smiled.

"You are right about that, for now at least. But soon Valkyrion will destroy you and your life points. I swear it, Taknut."

"Your empty threats will not frighten me." But Yugi knew Taknut was unsure because his voice wavered slightly when he spoke. "My next monster is Mai Valentine(0/ 2800)."

"Ahh!"

Mai appeared on the field. Her skin was pale and she was transparent like a ghost.

"Well pharaoh, that's four of your friends in danger of losing their souls. If you had just attacked when only one was on the field you could have won by now. Instead, you will watch more of your friends suffer. I pity you. It is your turn now" Yami drew a card.

"No, It is I who should pity you."

"What do you mean?"

"Soon, I will win this duel. And all of my friends will be fine."

"We shall see."

"I set monster face-down in defense mode. Your move." Taknut drew another card.

"I play one card face-down and summon Seto Kaiba to the field." Seto leapt from the card riding a small Blue eyes White Dragon. "I will win in two more turns pharaoh, I promise you. It is your move." Yugi drew a card and looked at it disgustingly.

"I pass. There is nothing I can do this turn."

"I also shall pass. Do want me to tell you why I am about to win pharaoh?"

"By all means."

"You see, my face-down card is called Ultimate Nightmare. It normally allows me to sacrifice as many monsters as I want to deal 500 damage directly to your life points. However, every turn it stays facedown It gets a counter and for every counter on this trap card, I can double the damage to your life points. So if I had activated it this turn I would have only dealt 2500 damage to you. Next turn I will instead deal 5000 damage to you, ending the game. So make your final move. It is truly sad to see you so weak."

"I am not weak as you will soon see."

"If you say so my lord. Your last move." Yugi drew his card and the frown on his face changed to a grin. "Hah. Here is my last turn. First off, I activate the spell card de-fusion to break apart my own Valkyrion." Valkyrion broke apart into its three separate parts.

"That's peculiar, how could that possibly help you?"

"Here's how. I now summon Mind Bender(1950/350)!" A magician appeared. He was headless.

"A headless beast? I am confused..."

"Let me clear it up for you. Mind Bender's special ability allows me to take control. To take control of one of your magic or trap cards!"

"What? No...that means..."

"Yes it does. I will use your card against you. I activate your Ultimate Nightmare and sacrifice all of my monsters which will deal 5000 damage to your life points wiping you out."

"I lost..."

"I thank you. If you had not told me what your trap did I would have lost the duel but instead I am the victor."

"You have won. Well done my pharaoh. Since you defeated me I will let you leave. But please lord, be cautious. Your friends could have lost you the duel."

"But they didn't. If anything they made me stronger."

"What do you mean?"

"My caring for my friends made my determination to win even stronger allowing me to beat you."

"Perhaps you are right. Please, take this with you. Hopefully it will help." Taknut handed Yugi the Ultimate Nightmare trap card. "Good bye my pharaoh. May Ra and Anubis watch over you."

"What? What are you...uuunnnggghhh." The room began to spin and suddenly Yugi's vision blurred and he plunged into darkness.

WARNING: I have edited this story a TON. All chapters after chapter one will not make sense. PLEASE do not read chapter two until it has been updated.