A revised version of Chapter 1 Volume 1 once again stating this for the entire story:
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or its characters. I write because I enjoy it.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Return of the Pharaoh

Deep within a cave on an island untouched for quite some time; a door long dormant, rumbled and began to open. A light from beyond glowed as a silhouette of a tall, spiky haired man stepped into the old stone room. Lean and imposing, he lit a torch in the wake of the dimming light behind him and peered around the room worriedly.

He remembered it as it was, thousands of years before today, back when the pillars stood tall and strong and the floor was more than just scarred stone, but the memory left as reality decided to show itself. The pillars were broke and some of the ceiling had caved in creating a large, disastrous, ruin.

A voice of the past sounded in his mind. "My Pharaoh, to help stop the Shadows' revival; you must find the sacred item and give it to the boy before the sun rises, or it will be too late!"

It was as clear as it was back then. Then, he remembered where it was placed. "Well Atem, you'd better get started," he sighed to himself as he hooked the torch into a surviving torch hook and began digging in the rubble.

It took a couple of hours, but a glimpse of hope in his search came in the form of a glint, a shine of gold beneath the rubble. He lifted a large stone, and then a smaller stone, and another larger stone and there it was. A golden upside down pyramid with the Udjat symbol emblazoned on it. Such great power in such a small item; all of wish he knew too well.

He took it from the rubble and dusted it off. "Millennium Puzzle," he began authoritatively, "Open a doorway to Domino City!"

Seconds passed like hours until a bright light bloomed before him. The door was open. He checked his watch. Ten minutes until sunrise. Then, he sensed another presence within the ruined room. Someone or something was there. He turned around to one of the few standing pillars left.

"Who goes there?" he demanded. Silence followed, nothing more. The dim room was empty save for him and the magical door behind him. He let out a sigh of contempt and turned back to the door. He took a deep breath and stepped through it as old eyes watched him leave from beyond the darkness.

00000

5:30 AM.

Atem walked into the bedroom above the Kame Game Shop to find the young boy he'd known well sleeping soundly in his bed. He observed his adolescent friend, remembering the striking resemblance they shared. He's grown much since the last time they spoke, almost as tall as he was from what he could tell.

"Yugi," Atem said, lightly shaking the boy. The boy grunted incoherently in response. "Yugi, wake up." Yugi's eyes opened slightly as he rolled over to catch a glimpse at whoever was waking him up at such an ungodly hour. Then they closed again. Atem shook him harder this time.

"Uuuungh wha...?" Yugi mumbled, his eyes opening once more. "Ate-...hey?"

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?" The young man asked as he jumped out of his baby blue covers. "You're supposed to be in the spirit realm." Yugi's gaze fell to the puzzle in Atem's hands. "Why do you have that?"

Atem looked at the puzzle, then back at Yugi. "Is it so wrong I came to visit an old friend?" he asked.

Yugi checked his alarm clock on the bedside table. "It's 5:30 in the morning," he told him plainly. "What's wrong? What are you doing here?"

Atem looked to his feet. "Well," he began, "I'm here because there is another Millennium Item; one that holds power enough to bring Zorc back from the grave." Yugi's eyes widen. "It's sealed with another being, but whether that being is good or evil, I don't know."

"So what kind of power is it, exactly? Because we've seen quite a few before," The boy questioned and Atem placed the puzzle in his hands.

"You've heard of it. It's the sense that a duelist gets when another duelist is near. Long ago a few people could concentrate this power to create force fields, beams, explosions, and other such things. In this day and age though; most who have this ability aren't even aware of it. You know this power as Aura."

"And what does that have to do with the item?"

"The being within the item could use the person holding it, assuming they have that power, to make their power infinite and bring Zorc back," Atem answered.

"Okay," Yugi took in a deep breath. "So what do we do?"

"I need to find the other item," Atem told him.

"Do you have any idea where it is?"

Atem hesitated, more out of uncertainty than discomfort. "I thought I would just wait and see if it came to us."

"I guess it's worked in the past," Yugi sighed and pulled himself off his bed. "Okay, well I'll let Grandpa know you're here, maybe there's a spare room you can use."

Just as Yugi was about to leave, Atem opened his mouth to ask, "How long have I been gone?"

"Um," Yugi stopped in the doorway, "about six months." With that said, he left, vanishing into the darkness beyond.

00000

The alarm clock beeped into a quiet room, disturbing the deep sleep of the young girl. She lifted a limp hand and clicked the snooze button. She opened one groggy, emerald green eye from behind strewn about brown hair. She lifted herself to sit up and noticed something off, she wasn't in her room.

Panic rose in her throat as she gazed around the alien environment, or not so alien. All her stuff: her blankets, few stuff animals, even her bed was all her own, but the room, the room wasn't hers. She dared move her head. The closet was open; clothes were hanging inside of it. They all looked the same, looking familiar to uniforms, or had her mother just suddenly acquired a strange taste. She looked down at herself as she got out of bed. She was still in her pajamas just as she remembered, a Canuck T-Shirt. A series of possible explanations to her sudden change in location ran through her mind like a speeding train that never ended. She shelved those thoughts for the time being and decided to get out and see if she could find her mom.

She exited the room and entered the hallway. Just as foreign as the bedroom, the hallway ended in stairs that lead down to two doors on either side. She started forward. Once down the steps, she reached for the light blue door to her right, but just as she was about to open it, a faint noise from behind the other door grabbed her away. She opened the left door and saw a living room she was really okay with. Black leather sofas surrounded an oak table, a large flat screen T.V sat on a large stand, which, upon further inspection, revealed to harbor several game systems and many different games. She didn't mind that at all.

This living area had another room attached to it. She walked into it to find her mother sitting at a small round table reading the paper and drinking coffee.

"Mom?" Regan asked, taking cautious steps closer.

"Oh, good morning honey!" Jade Heartin greeted cheerfully. "You're up early it's..." she checked her watch, "six in the morning."

"Did we..." Regan started, "did we move?"

Jade smiled, Regan guessed she thought she was joking. "Yes, a week ago."

"...Where did we move?"

"To here. Domino City," Jade told her daughter, the smile wavering.

"In Japan?" Regan asked. Her mother nodded. "Why?"

"We've been over this, Regan. Work," she put down the newspaper and the coffee cup. "Are you feeling alright?"

Regan froze for a moment, trying to piece everything together. How did she manage to forget an entire week?

"Yeah," she said, "yeah fine, just..." she said the first lie that came to her head, "had a weird dream."

"Oh," Jade replied uncertainly. "Well, why don't you go upstairs and try on your uniform while I get breakfast ready?"

"Okay...sure," Regan said.

"Oh, but first, did you want to do anything special for your birthday?"

"My birthday?" Regan asked, rubbing her brow. A headache was spawning.

"Yes, it's tomorrow," Jade told her. Tomorrow must have been September 30th. A whole week really did go by. "So?"

"I'll get back to you," Regan said, taking her leave towards the bedroom.

The closet harbored the school uniform, just as she'd first guessed. That's all it had, too. The rest of her clothes, she guessed, were in the dresser. She examined the uniforms in the closet. There wasn't a lot of room for variety: white shirts, a pink jacket or two, and skirts.

She sighed and put on the uniform, it didn't look bad on her, she just wasn't use to it as her old uniform had pants, and then she turned to the door to go back downstairs to eat breakfast. A black book bag sat by her door and Regan smiled that not all of her school things had changed. She picked it up and then continued back down.

Breakfast was ready; her mother was just setting the table with plates of eggs, bacon and toast. She put her bag by a chair and sat down, ready to dig in.

"Oh, you're back," Her mother said. "Breakfast is ready," she smiled.

"Yeah, it looks awesome," Regan said, almost drooling. "Thanks, Mom." She began to charge at the meal with a fork in hand.

"I like your uniform," Jade Heartin said. "It looks good on you."

Regan didn't respond to that. They talked over a rather prolonged breakfast.

"So I'll drive you to school. You can walk home with some new friends, maybe. Sound good?" Her mother asked once they'd finished eating.

"Friends, huh? I doubt it. If anything, I'll walk home with Phoenix," Regan said. There was a knock at the door. Jade got up from her seat to walk over and answer it.

"Cat's don't count," she said as she passed.

"Yes they do, they're awesome companions," Regan replied as she got up from her own chair.

The two went separate ways; Jade to answer the door and Regan to her relatively new bedroom to collect the last few things she suddenly remembered, her headphones and her choker. She installed the headphones into her iPhone and put on the black choker, and just before she went back down stairs she heard yet another noise. It was faint, though; the distinct sound of a bell. She looked out her window.

A boy with antigravity hair and a blue jacket was walking with a girl in a pink jacket just like Regan's. 'They must go to my school.' She thought as she checked her alarm clock.

"Eeek!" she screeched. "Mom, its 8:40! We have to go!" She had a two and a half hour long breakfast? How did she manage that? She rushed down the stairs and got her mom ready. Whoever was at the door clearly wasn't there for long, she was alone. Once she was sure she was ready and out the door, Regan grabbed her backpack and other stuff and rushed out herself.

Once in the car and driving, Jade looked briefly over at Regan. "Do you have your duel monster cards?"

"Yeah, I always do. Why?"

"Well the game is a big thing around here, you might make some friends through it," Jade answered. She reached below her seat and pulled out a sizable object. "Here, you received an early birthday gift this morning."

She handed Regan a golden box. "This is different." She opened the box to find a bunch of small objects which could be seen as nothing other than puzzle pieces. She began putting them together with ease.

"The man said it was from Egypt," Jade said.

Regan paused for a minute. 'What man? Was it...no, it couldn't be. Could it?'

"He called it 'The Rivers Puzzle,'" Her mother said. Regan was almost finished. Three pieces left. She felt her mother's eyes on her. "You're fast. That the last piece?"

"Yup," she said, holding the final piece triumphantly. She clicked it into place and then...a blinding light appeared with a high pitched ringing sound in her ears. "What the hell?!" Regan screamed.

"Regan, what did you do?!" Her mother yelled as she pulled the car over. The blinding light and the ringing stopped just as suddenly as it began. Regan and her mother both breathed very heavily, the only sound in an otherwise eerie silence. "What was that?"

"I don't know..." Regan replied.

"Well..." her mother started while looking outside, "we're here." It must have been pure luck that landed them pulling over in blinding light right beside the school. "Be good, okay?"

"I'll try," Regan said, taking the puzzle with her as she got out of the car. It had a rope with it...though it almost caused them to crash; she felt the need to keep it near. She put the rope through the small loop at the top of it and hung it around her neck. 'Time to get started.'

What will come next? Hope you enjoyed.

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