You all are probably wondering why I have another story up, huh?
Rest assured, this is going to be a quick story, detailing how Yugi solved the Millennium Puzzle and unleashed the slumbering spirit from within.
Welcome to another story in "Between my Brother and Me", but this takes place in the same world as "Ab Initio", about one year prior to Ash Ketchum's surprise appearance there. The timeframe of the story is around the same time as "Between my Brother and Me: Ab Antiquo" but you don't have to read that story (which will be much longer than this one) to get the gist of this one.
Characters you know from both Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! will make their appearance here and, while I won't spoil too much, this will be adapting the "Pyramid of Light" movie but with Pokémon characters.
Everything in regards to this fanfic follows the notes from "Ab Initio" so yes there will be male/male pairings in the story. If you don't like it, then don't read.
Now then, let's return to the land of the pyramids…
Between my Brother and Me: Ab Antiquo
Author: Green Phantom Queen
Rated: T
Summary: Yugi Muto has solved the Millennium Puzzle one stormy night and unleashed two things: the first being the spirit of an ancient pharaoh, the second being a rogue sorcerer ready to unleash Hell on Earth. Joining his side are two peculiar groups: a young girl and her band of brothers, and a group of acolytes who work in the darkness and, despite their differences, both will have to get along in order to stop the menace.
Prologue: Awakening From Beyond
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."
-Aleister Crowley
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Light and darkness. Two forces that were there when the universe began and will still be there when it ends.
The two have fought each other in an eternal struggle to see which was superior. There has never been a clear-cut answer to this dilemma.
For in light, there are those who wish to say they are of goodness, but they act as if they are just like the very monsters they try to destroy.
And in darkness, there are those who wish to be gentle protectors for those who travel beneath a dark and starry sky.
The debate for light and darkness will never end, shall it? But this story isn't about who is better or who deserves to rule over all, but rather what happens when allies of light and darkness decide to work together for a greater good.
Sit back, relax, and breathe this all in. This is a story that will leave you curious, I hope.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The dungeon is clear, that is the first thing she notes.
The long blonde-haired female swordsman dressed in silver, and wielding with a sword that seems to glow like the stars themselves, rushes through the rooms, slicing barrels and crates in the hopes of collecting bottles of antidotes or potions that she can use to heal herself. So far, she has traveled alone, fighting off as many enemies as she can in the hopes of rare goods. She is unafraid of the various monsters here-she faces many of them in real life, after all.
The dungeon slightly unnerves her-it is corrupted, patches of red marked with yellow 1s and 0s litter the walls and floor, and there is a static-y sound in the background, but she trudges on. She can smell treasure here.
As she reaches the very end of the dungeon, her eyes grow to the size of dinner plates at what she sees.
Three girls, all dressed in black, firing rings of green hexagons and black streams of data at a monster, an Archfiend of Gilfer, before it lets out an unearthly howl and turns into a burst of black rectangles that become absorbed into the group. As the monster vanishes the spectating warrior drops her sword, the weapon hitting the floor echoing through the dungeon.
"T...that was amazing!" she gasps.
The three girls (all with blond hair in different hairstyles and all of them having equally black eyes) pause, turning to see the silver warrior continuing to talk.
"How did you do all of that?" she continues. "You rewrote his data like it was nothing! What type of weapon do you have that lets you do that?"
"It's...um, uh…" The girl in the middle stammers, pushing the tips of her second fingers together.
"Oh, sorry…" says the silver warrior as she picks up her sword. "But still, things are weird here…" She looks around and motions to the walls. "I've been playing the game for quite some time, and I've never seen anything like this before." She rubs her chin. "It's been like this for quite some time, hasn't it? I wonder if the mods at Aether Foundation know about this or-"
"Rebecca!" cries a male voice. "Turn off that laptop right now!"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Ah, damn it! My eyes!"
In the real world, Rebecca Hopkins feels someone pulling her VR headset out of her eyes as bright sunlight replaces it. She winces as she looks at her surroundings: she's in a car that is parked right in front of a building, the doors to the car open and a tall figure with spiky blond hair and grey eyes looking at her.
"What's going on?" she asks. "Where are we, Raphael?"
"The Kame Game Shop," Raphael answers, handing the headset back to his little sister. "I've been trying to get you to log out for the last ten minutes so we can drop our luggage and go out to eat."
Rebecca blinks as she looks out and see her other brothers waiting at her impatiently.
"Rebecca…" Miruko whines, jumping up and down. In his hands is a strange action figure from the "Dyna Dude" toyline that, for some odd reason, Miruko is absolutely obsessed with. "Hurry up, please! I'm soooooooo hungry!"
"If we don't get out soon, I'm going to be eating Amelda here where everyone can see!" Varon exclaims, grabbing onto a man with short red hair and dressed in a long black jacket (despite the sun shining above their heads). Rebecca gasps and places a hand to her mouth while Raphael whacks Varon at the back of the head.
"Don't give her any ideas, Varon," Raphael mutters, before noticing Amelda in the middle, looking like he's about to collapse any minute. "Shit, that's bad…"
"Sorry about that everyone," says Rebecca, slightly embarrassed before turning to her laptop and wireless controller. "Um, can I just leave one message before I log out?"
"...Fine," Raphael grunts, pulling out a large rolling suitcase out of the car. "But make it quick."
"Thank you, nii-san!" Rebecca nods her head as she adjusts her VR headset once more.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"I'm sorry for that!" says the blond swordsman, bowing toward the three in black. "I have to get going. You see, I just moved into Domino City after being in America for so long and...oh, what am I saying? Let me give you a friend request to you all so we can duel and dungeon-hunt later on. Can I get your names? You can call me, Mistral, by the way."
"Bianca," says the girl in the middle. Her dress is marked with the image of an orange bird. Mistral can't tell what type of bird it is, though.
"Elesa," says the girl on the left, her blond hair in a bowl cut and bangs covering her forehead. Her dress, with the skirt open to expose her legs, is lined in red, making Mistral think of a spider.
"Korin," says the girl on the right, her hair in a ponytail as she pumps her arm. Her dress is lined with yellow and her playful attitude reminds Mistral of a monkey.
"Right, I'll remember that," says Mistral, hastily sending the friend requests. She then waves goodbye. "Until next time."
Three rings of light descend over her as she fades away. As she does, the three other girls turn to each other.
"Do you think that she'll be involved with your fortune, Bianca?" asks Elesa. Bianca looks at her hands before shaking her head.
"I can't say for sure," she mutters. "The future is never clear, now is it?"
"Don't think about it too hard," says Korina, placing a hand on Bianca's shoulder. "We've done enough in this particular dungeon, Come on, let's head back to Alto Mare and see what the others have found out."
Elesa and Bianca nod their heads as they Gate Out of the dungeon.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Yugi!"
Yugi Muto gasps in surprise as he's tackled by Rebecca Hopkins, the two falling to the ground with a thud as the girl laughs. Walking towards the two is Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku, who helps the young girl stand up.
"Welcome to Domino," he chuckles, seeing Rebecca adjust her glasses. "It's been some time since I saw you and your grandfather." He looks up and sees Raphael carrying two large rolling suitcases in. "And Raphael, you've grown quite a bit too."
Raphael smiles as Miruko enters with a laugh, spinning round and round as he takes glances at the multiple cards that are on display. Varon helps carrying a slightly sick Amelda into the Game Shop, the red-haired man leaning against Varon's shoulder.
"Can we eat soon?" he mutters, his skin pale. Varon smiles, flashing his fangs momentarily.
"We'll eat soon enough, love," he chuckles, seeing Yugi look at the group in alarm.
"You adopted more brothers again?" Yugi asks Rebecca. Rebecca laughs nervously.
"I wouldn't call them 'brothers', exactly…" she says. "But anyway, isn't this so exciting? We'll be staying at the Kame Game Shop for a few nights before we can move into our new apartment! So, uh...you don't mind if we take Amelda and Varon to the guest room for the time being, right?"
Yugi turns to see Amelda looking like he's about to hurl before hastily opening the door that leads to the stairs. "Yeah, this way."
"Thanks, mate," says Varon, as he and Miruko help Amelda upstairs. "You'll be feeding soon enough."
As the three leave upstairs, Rebecca takes a gander at the various posters and Duel Monster cards on display. She herself has a Deck and Duel Disk ready for whenever she wants to duel, but her attention falls onto a strange thing on the counter: a golden box with an eye in the center.
"What's this?" she asks. She approaches it and lifts the lid, revealing a myriad of golden pieces. "A...a puzzle?"
"Something I picked up long ago during my younger days," says Sugoroku, watching as Raphael returns to the car to gather the rest of the luggage. "Yugi found it one day in the attic and has been trying to solve it for the past couple of days."
"It's really interesting," Yugi notes, pointing to a line of hieroglyphics. "And here, there's a riddle."
"What does it say?" Rebecca is a fan of puzzles and riddles-anything that challenges her mind makes her excited (which is why she is keen to have copies of all the Professor Layton games on her Nintendo 3DS).
"'What can be seen and cannot be seen?'" Yugi answers. Rebecca rubs her chin in thought. "It varies, but to me...I say the answer is 'friendship'."
"Friendship…" Rebecca whispers. Leaving America for Japan so suddenly means that she has had to say goodbye to her friends (which wasn't much, but they all sent her good-bye cards and wished her the best of luck). Not helping is that her grandfather still has to stay behind in America, and thus her brothers will be taking care of her for the time being. "That...that sounds nice."
"Rebecca!" cries Miruko, rushing downstairs. "Amelda needs to...um...you know…"
Rebecca briefly looks at her watch and nods her head. "All right, we'll go out to eat soon. Yugi, do you know any good restaurants around here?"
"If you don't mind hamburgers, Anzu is currently working at 'Burger World' just a few blocks from here," Yugi answers. "Is your brother feeling all right?"
"Oh, of course he is!" Rebecca stammers. "He's...he's slightly anemic and needs a lot of iron in his diet." Yugi stays quiet as Rebecca looks down at her feet suddenly, then nods his head.
"All right, then. We'll head off in ten minutes. Is that okay with you?"
"Of course!" Rebecca answers. "Just let me unpack, all right?"
Yugi nods as Rebecca hurries outside, almost bumping into Raphael who is carrying even more luggage, before she reaches for her laptop and gaming accessories, hastily packing them in her laptop bag before rushing out. As she does this, she doesn't see someone spying on her…
Or rather, five someones spying on her…
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"So...this is what Bel foresaw, right?"
The voice belongs to someone holding a camera, taking photos of Rebecca rushing back into the Kame Game Shop. He lowers his hand as he stares at the four other members of his group. Each of them are dressed in long black cloaks marked with a myriad of grey lines.
"I still have no idea why Kaiba asked us to investigate this place of all things," he notes. "What do you think, Noah?"
"It seems too quiet for my tastes, Shooti," says Noah, a youth with teal hair that, if one doesn't know better, would've looked eerily similar to Seto Kaiba himself. Almost as if they are cousins. "I am curious as to that whole 'eating thing' going on though…"
"I'm getting hungry myself," says a girl with light brown hair tied back with a large blue ribbon. She rubs her stomach. "Can we go get something for lunch after this, Reiji?"
"Of course, Molly," says a fourth voice, belonging to the tallest of the group, Reiji. "Jun, can you hear anything else?"
"No…" Jun, the last Acolyte, shakes his head. "I do hear a lot of...um...strange sounds in the upper bedroom."
"Like what?" asks Molly. "Is someone hurt? Or in pain? Should we go after them?"
"No…" Jun blushes. "We should...just leave them alone for the time being. Come on, let's head off to eat."
The five nod before Reiji lifts his hand and a black portal emerges in front of them. The groups walks toward it, before the portal blinks out and they are gone.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Rebecca: This is so exciting, isn't it? Domino City will be an amazing place to live in!
Miruko: I'd be happy as you if I didn't get the strange feeling that we're being watched…
Varon: It's probably jet lag. Don't worry about it too much.
Amelda: I highly doubt it.
Raphael: The day isn't over yet, is it? Next time, "Ab Antiquo Chapter 1: Storm Caller"
Yugi: A storm is coming, and it looks like Hell is about to be let loose.