Malik- What is this!?
Azzure- A new fanfic, why is there a problem?
Malik- Another one? Don't you have like three already?
Azzure- This is the second Malik, I only have two at the moment.
Malik- There'll be a third around here soon enough I know it!
Azzure- Sure, sure, now the disclaimer if you would.
Malik- Fine, but only because I like you. ArcherAzzure does not own Yugioh, but she does own this story plot.
4 Years Before
Atem gazed out the window as the flickering torch flames came closer, followed by the shouts of his uncle's soldiers. He felt his cousin Yugi clinging to his arm as the two boys stared down into the city lite by the burning flames.
He felt the eleven year old's shivering form pressed into his side, "Atem." He whispered softly, his voice almost drowned out by the yelling below, "What's going on?"
The older boy's red eyes danced with the flickering flame light, "I don't know Yugi. I don't know."
Suddenly behind them there was a loud bang and only seconds later the door flew open and a guard bolted racing inside. "My princes! Please get away from there! It's dangerous!"
Yugi glanced fearfully away and whimpered in alarm, "What's happening!?"
The soldier walked over to the window and gazed outside, "Our enemy draws near my princes. Every second that we speak the resistance draws nearer and nearer to the castle."
Atem's gaze flickered first towards Yugi then towards the sword lying by the door frame, his father had given him that blade and he used it in many practice battles. It can't be any harder in a real fight, he told himself. So after one last glance at his cousin he bolted towards the door and grabbed his cloak and sword on the way.
"Atem!" Yugi screamed his name and rushed towards the door.
The guard also turned, "NO! My Prince!" He pushed back into the room behind him, but Atem was already too far down the hallway.
By the time he had reached the outside fighting had erupted from almost every corner, Atem pulled up the hood on his cloak and gazed in circles at the guards locked in combat with creatures of the likes he had never seen before, or as far back as he could remember. A skull demon blasted down three guards just emerging from the guard house with a blast of lightning.
Atem's eyes widened and he turned back as if to flee to the castle. He gasped as he noticed that in the few precious seconds he had turned his back the area he had covered had been filled with fighting groups of men and these creatures.
He was debating whether or not to risk trying to pass the skull demon when a black panther wearing a long flowing purple cape and sword belted to his side streaked past him screaming a battle cry. He watched as the feline unsheathed his sword and drove it into the chest of an oncoming soldier, the soldier let out a short cry before falling to the ground dead as a door post.
He let out a cry as a soldier next to the feline drove his sword through the chest of silver colored wolf attacking nearby. The wolf howled one last long note before it broke off into a shower of shimmering lights that vanished before making contact with the ground. The panther turned his head and killed the guard with a single quick movement and without a second glance.
Atem's eyes widened, these creatures didn't die like normal humans did. That meant only one thing, they were shadow creatures. Demons said to have been released into the world at the death of his father Pharaoh Aknamkanon. He frowned; his uncle Gozaburo had told him that he had driven these beasts out of their lands and killed them all. But shouldn't that mean that they shouldn't be here?
He stared in horror at the panther that was slashing his way through soldier after soldier, that defiantly was not an illusion, and it wasn't dead either. He shivered, well whether it was supposed to be dead or not it was killing too many people for Atem to just stand by and not do anything about it. He would be the pharaoh of Egypt someday, and he wanted to show his people that he was willing to fight by their side no matter what.
He took a step towards the feline as he killed yet another of the guards, the cat didn't seem to notice him as he pointed his sword at his back. He took a deep breath, preparing to stab the sword into the creature's back, but at the last second the cat glanced over his shoulder.
Atem leaped backwards as the cat spun around, his sword flew through the hair where the boy had been only moments before. He purred, "A surprise attack? That's a smart idea." He swung his sword back and forth in front of Atem, "I'm impressed that a shrimp like you could come up with an idea like that." Then he made a growling sound that caused Atem to step back nervously, until he realized that the panther was only laughing. He winked, "I like kids, so I'll give you a shot and we'll see what you can do huh?"
Atem blinked and the shadow creature took a bow, "You first my friend." Atem's eyes widened, this creature was actually taking him seriously. He lifted his sword up and pointed it at the panther, the creature's eyes narrowed. "Give me your best shot kid."
Atem nodded and lunged forward quickly, his sword angled towards his opponent's leg. The panther took a step back and deflected the blow with his own sword, "Nice." He narrowed his eyes and slashed towards Atem's head.
The boy ducked and rolled under his attacker's arm and stabbed his sword towards his foot, but just before his sword made contact the panther moved his foot and flipped over his head, Atem's eyes widened. The creature landed with a thump and brushed the cloak from over his head, "Nice try kid, but you have to be faster than tha…" He looked down at the sword blade that had pierced straight through his heart.
He spun around quickly causing the man who had stabbed him to let go of his sword and fall back in fright. The cat narrowed his eyes and took in a shaky breath, "That" He stated, "was just cheap." Then his eyes rolled back and after one last breath he exploded into a shower of sparkles just as the others had.
Atem stood still as stone trembling, he had just help kill a living breathing creature, and he hadn't even been able to defend himself from the attack. He'd been so occupied with Atem himself that he didn't notice… he looked over to see the soldier who had stabbed the shadow demon caught his sword on its decent towards the ground, he winked in Atem's direction, "I don't know who you are kid, but you've got my thanks for this."
A scream of rage filled the air only a few feet away, and both of them turned to see a warrior slashing his way through numerous groups of soldiers. He was well taller than Atem and even the soldier for that matter and dressed in a blue and orange, he held a flaming sword in his right hand and he swung it with surprise force. The man's eyes widened and he turned towards Atem, "Alright boy, this is when we get ourselves out of here."
"It's a bit late for that don't you think?" Atem looked up to see the warrior staring down at them, he had his gaze turned towards the soldier, "After all, he's already dead isn't he!?" He screamed his last comment and Atem took numerous steps backwards, but the soldier he who had killed the panther was rooted to the spot quaking in fear.
"He was killed in cold blood!" The expression on the soldier's face drove the swordsman into a fit of rage, "You want to know why!? Did you give him a chance to defend himself!? I THINK NOT!"
Atem flinched as the monster drove his sword through the man's heart, and as he toppled over dead the creature looked up towards the sky, "I'll kill you all! DO YOU HEAR ME!? YOU WILL ALL DIE!" He brought his head back down and looked around, his eyes narrowed as they scanned the surrounding area, and when they settled on Atem he tightened his grip on his sword, "Starting with you."
Atem's eyes widened as he stumbled backwards into a narrow alley way, but the swordsman moved towards him with surprising speed, "Oh no! You are not going to run away from me!" Atem stumbled and fell into the dirt; he closed his eyes and waited for his inevitable death, but it never came.
"Unhand me!" He opened his eyes at the sound of his attacker's struggling; he was surprised to see that the swordsman was being held back by what looked like a dragon. It was a shade of tan and looked as though it was made of bone, its eyes glowed red along with several other spots on its body. The swordsman struggled against the beast that had wrapped itself around him, "You will unhand me at once!"
"Actually, I don't believe we will be doing that." Atem jumped as he looked to the left of the dragon creature to see a cloaked figure standing nearby, "At least not while you're in this mind frame, we'll end up with unnecessary death unless you calm down."
The swordsman continued to struggle as he glared at Atem, "You call his death unnecessary!?"
Atem flinched as the man turned to look at him, he briefly caught the gaze of the man's green eyes before he turned back towards the swordsman, "Indeed I do Frank."
The swordsman stopped struggling and his eyes widened, "You saw what he did! Panther Warrior's dead because of him!"
The man shook his head, "The boy did nothing Frank, you already killed the culprit. Panther Warrior was killed because of a cheap trick, nothing more."
The swordsman started to struggle again, "I don't care! If he hadn't distracted him he wouldn't be dead! Now unhand me at once so that I can kill him!"
The dragon tightened his grip and the man groaned, "Frank please just listen a moment!" When the swordsman continued to fight at his prison the man grabbed part of his helmet and dragged it towards the ground, "You WILL listen to me!"
His yell echoed through the air a moment and the swordsman slowly stopped his struggling, after he hadn't tried to pull away for several minutes the man let go of his hat and he slowly moved his head back so that he was looking the man straight in the eyes. The man sighed, "Look Frank… I know you're mad about Panther Warrior's death. I mourn for your loss, he was a good fighter, but revenge isn't the answer."
The warrior looked away, "You wouldn't feel that way if it had happened to one of you priests." Atem frowned, priests? What did he mean by priests? And why did the cloaked man's voice seem so familiar? He looked the three over, who were these people?
The priests sighed, "That's not true, had it been one of the others..." He paused, "Yes I would have been mad, but I couldn't go recklessly endanger my life and lives of innocent people just so I could kill the men who killed them." He gazed down at the ground, "If it came to that I would do the only thing I could do, I'd wish their souls luck in the afterlife and move on with my task." He frowned, "As should you, we can't change the past Frank."
The warrior scoffed, "I knew you wouldn't understand; you humans don't understand what my kind goes through." He looked up into the cloudless sky, "If we die we don't go to the afterlife like you humans, we're forced back into our stone tablets." He glared back at the cloaked priest, "And we're forced to stay like that until we're summoned. Except that now isn't even an option, if we die then we're sealed in that prison for the rest of our lives." He gritted his teeth and spat at the ground, "And we can't change that."
The man dipped his head, "While it's true that I don't understand the pain that the stone tablets cause you nor do any other humans for that matter and we'll probably never know. But I still know that violence isn't the answer." He shook his head, "And I'm still not letting you go until you're calm enough to act rationally."
The swordsman's eyes narrowed, "Why I should…!" He started struggling madly and the man just stood where he was and sighed. "Unhand me at once! I demand it!"
The swordsman fought again for another few minutes yelling and kicking the entire time before he finally let his body go limp and let out a rough breath. The man watched him for a moment and sighed, "Are you willing to behave rationally now?"
The swordsman was looking down at the ground; his hat cast a shadow so that Atem couldn't make out his eyes, but something about how easily he had given up made Atem nervous. As he nodded and the man turned to the dragon Atem took a few steps backwards just to be safe, "You can let him down now."
The dragon nodded and slowly uncurled himself from around the warrior, as he was doing so Atem tensed as though to run. He didn't have to wait long, because as soon as the dragon had unwrapped himself the swordsman jerked up his head and threw himself towards Atem, his eyes filled with bloodlust.
The boy took several startled steps backwards and the swordsman drove his sword into the ground where he had been standing for so long. "Frank!" The priest raced forward to grab the swordsman's left arm, as the warrior struggled to pull away the man yelled over his shoulder, "Curse of Dragon! Help me!"
The dragon swooped down and once again curled himself around the swordsman, but instead of just staying there he flapped his wings and took to the air taking the captured swordsman with him.
The man fought madly when he found that his feet no longer touched the ground, "Unhand me! I'll cut you to pieces if I must! Don't think I won't!"
The dragon struggled to stay airborne as he fought back. He looked down at the man, "Get the child out of here! I'll hold him off while you get away!"
The man shook his head, "What about you?"
The dragon continued flapping, his wing beats becoming strained, "I'll be fine." The man frowned then nodded as the dragon groaned, "Now go! I can't hold him here much longer!"
The man nodded and grabbed Atem's arm, "Let's go boy." He took off down one of the alley ways with Atem in tow. Behind them he could hear the swordsman screaming after them, he looked ahead as they ran through several alley ways with twists and turns before the man rounded one last corner and leaned up against the wall panting.
Atem pulled out of his grip and moved several steps away, the man glanced around the corner, "There… we should be far enough away from him now." He turned back towards Atem, "Now the only question is what should I do with you?"
Atem stood there staring at him a moment, his eyes taking in the man's appearance. When they had been running the priest's hood had blown back revealing his green eyes in more detail, along with his black hair that hung down to just above his shoulders. The man looked so familiar and Atem was trying to place him when his eyes caught the sight of a dark shadow moving towards the man.
The man wasn't paying attention to either him or the shadow, he knew he should flee for it, but he couldn't just let another person die, even if they were the enemy.
When the shadow was just a few feet away he screamed, "Look out behind you!" The man's eyes flashed on him for a single moment before he spun around to face the creature behind him.
At Atem's yell the figure had stopped moving and stood still where it was. The priest reached his hand into his cloak and withdrew a sparkling object; the scales sparkled in the moon light, "Don't come a step closer." Atem gasped, at the glowing scales, he'd seen them before!
The shadow bowed, "Karim." Atem's eyes widened, that name! It was so familiar, but he couldn't place where he had heard it before.
The man, Karim, tightened his grip on the scales, "Who are you?"
The shadow figure moved forwards until he stepped into the light only a foot from them, he wore a cloak similar to the one the first man was wearing, as he tipped his head up Atem caught sight of his blue eyes.
The man Karim gasped and let his arm fall down to his side, "Thank the Egyptian gods, I thought you were someone else."
The man folded his arms over his chest, "If I would have been anyone else you would have been dead." He leaned around to look at Atem, "Who's this?"
Karim glanced over his shoulder, "He's a kid we've picked up."
The man looked back at Atem, "This wouldn't have anything to do with Frank would it?"
Atem watched Karim stiffen, "What do you mean by that?"
He narrowed his eyes as he looked back Atem, "He's on a killing spree Karim, he's out for blood."
The man put his head in his hand, "Oh my Ra, I got him started on this." He glanced back at Atem, "I was just trying to protect the kid." His green eyes were wide, "What about Curse?"
The other man looked him in eyes, "He's kept him from killing anyone innocent so far, but it's only a matter of time before he does something."
Atem saw the pain written across Karim's face, "I have to go help him." His friend nodded, Karim sighed and looked over his shoulder in Atem's direction, "But what about the kid?"
"Leave him with me." Atem shivered under the man's gaze, "I'll take care of him."
Karim frowned, "No offense, but since we left you haven't exactly been what I would call the children type."
The man turned to him, "We don't have any other options, Curse needs you now!"
Karim turned and started into the alley, "Alright, but take care of yourself and don't get caught. You know we can't lose you."
He winked, "I won't be caught."
Karim shook his head; Atem could see that he was clearly worried, "Just keep telling yourself that." Then he nodded once at Atem pulled up his hood and took off down the alley.
Atem turned and looked at the man he had been left with, the man was looking him over, his blue eyes searching for something, "Who are you?"
Atem jumped, he frowned and gazed at the man but didn't utter word. The man sighed and reached under his cloak to pull out a necklace. It was a golden ring with a triangle in the center and multiple golden spikes hanging from the ring itself. Atem gasped it had to be the millennium ring!
The man turned and his eyes flickered down from the ring to Atem, "You recognize this?" Atem kept his mouth shut and stood where he was, not showing any emotions. The man scanned him over again, "You're not wearing the uniform of the guard, so you can't be part of the military." He looked down at the ring, "And yet you recognize this." His eyes flicked up as he lunged forward, his hand outstretched towards Atem's hood.
The boy stepped back but tripped and his hood fell back revealing his hair, the man gasped and instantly dropped into a bow, "My prince."
Atem took a step backwards, "Who… Who are you?"
The man slowly lifted his head, "You don't recognize me?" Atem shook his head and the man bowed his head, he sat like that for a moment before he reached up towards his hood, "Perhaps I can refresh your memory my prince." He pulled back the dark material and strands of dark brown hair fell down and settled around his face. He looked back up at Atem, "Now do you remember?"
Atem recoiled, it couldn't be! The Millennium Scales, Karim, the Millennium Ring, and now… He shook his head and moved away, "It can't be! You're… You're dead!"
The man looked up, his eyes showed that Atem's last comment had clearly hurt him "Who told you that?"
Atem shivered, "It…it was my uncle Gozaburo."
The man spat on the ground, "That man is nothing but a lying cheat; he doesn't deserve to be called the pharaoh." He looked up at Atem his eyes softened, "I can assure you my prince I am very much alive. Just as much so as I was when we last met."
Atem looked at him, "Then you really are…?"
The man rose to his feet, "Indeed, Priest Mahado wielder of the Millennium Ring."
Atem's eyes widened, "Then the other priests are…?"
Mahado nodded, "Indeed, they are also very much alive as you have witnessed with Karim." Atem blinked, that's where he had heard the name before, he had been one of his father's priests. Mahado looked around, "We haven't much time my prince, I must be brief and to the point." Atem opened his mouth to object, but Mahado just shook his head, "I'm afraid I cannot answer your questions at the moment." He reached into his cloak and pulled out a glittering puzzle dangling from a chain, Atem gasped as he dropped to one knee, "I have taken a great chance by taking this, but I felt that you would need it." He looked into his eyes, "You do know what it is don't you?"
Atem nodded, "My father's Millennium Puzzle."
Mahado draped it over his neck, "It is yours now, but I must stress do not let Gozaburo get his hands on this item, it would be the end of us all if he did."
Atem nodded and the two turned at the sound of shouting in the distance, Mahado bowed, "I must leave my prince." Atem's eyes widened and Mahado bowed his head, "I like it no more than you do, but should you ever need us we priests are there for you." He turned to leave, "Should you need us, we shall be there. And should you every wish to come and join us, I will be waiting eagerly for that day." With one last grave nod he took off into the alley way and vanished into the darkness.
Atem paused a moment then ran after him. Upon hitting the main street he was instantly surrounded by his uncle's soldiers, "My prince, your uncle has been worried sick. Please come at once."
Atem was placed on the back of one of the horses and slowly rode back towards the palace, just as the gates were shutting he heard his uncle yelling, "Gentlemen, we will soon have won ourselves a great victory. Now finish them where they stand!" But unlike the others, he found that he could not celebrate as the remaining soldiers raced through the gate to chase down the retreating enemy.
Instead later when he was alone in his room and the moon was at its peak in the sky he gazed out the window and looked down at the puzzle around his neck. He felt a tear run down his cheek, he wanted so badly to leave the palace and join Mahado and the other priests. He turned to see Yugi's shape lying in slumber on the bed, but he couldn't leave his cousin, not now, not ever.
He gazed out the window at the dessert beyond where the fires of battle could still be seen, "I'm sorry Mahado, but I can't." He grasped the puzzle's chain in one hand and felt tears running down his cheek. He sat at the window, and eventually cried himself to sleep.
As his head dropped down to rest on the window a burst of light flashed through the sky above the battlefield on the plains
A man looked up at the moon in the sky; the light reflected off his head and almost caused his tattoos to glow in the light. All around him were the bodies of the pharaoh's guard that had been killed in the battle. "It shouldn't be this way. We've always worked with them to protect the pharaoh, now they are our greatest enemies."
He looked over his shoulder at the woman standing a few feet away; her long black hair flowed freely down her back since she had removed her cloak. "Indeed, it has always been that way since we were young and the seven items were first created." She looked around them at the blood red sand, "Now that way of life is on the verge of collapse."
"It's all because of that filthy imposter, if he would just give up the throne like he had agreed to we wouldn't be in this mess." The man closed his eyes and drew in a slow breath, "It is not place to say such things though; after all he is the prince's uncle." When she didn't respond he sighed, "What are we doing Isis? Are we right to be here acting against the pharaoh? Or should we return and serve him instead?"
"No" Isis whispered behind him, "We can't stop. If we go back and give him the items like he want's there's no telling what he'll do with their power." She shook her head, "No, we cannot do that; regardless of all of the other options we cannot take that one."
He nodded, "I agree, too many people have given up their lives for this cause; we cannot just throw all of it away now."
There was a slight shifting of the sands behind them, and the two turned to see a young girl slide down the sand dune and run towards them. Her long white hair lay scattered around her face, she ran with one had holding onto her red hat and holding a slip of paper close to her chest with the other. As she ran towards them her black and red dress streamed out behind her. As she neared them she stopped and bowed. Isis smiled, "Perhaps some good news at last."
He frowned as the girl neared him holding out the paper, her expression seemed to go against what Isis's prediction. "I wouldn't be so sure."
Isis frowned as he took the paper, "Why is that Shada?"
He looked down at the paper and didn't answer for a moment as he read. After reaching the half way mark of the page he shoved it towards Isis and started to walk away, "I'll be right back."
Isis frowned and looked at the paper in her hand, "Shada, what are you…?"
Shada glanced over his shoulder, "Just read that and stay where you are, I'm checking something; I'll be back in a moment." Isis huffed but Shada noticed that she remained where she was.
He reached the top of the hill and turned north moving quickly through the sands after crossing another good distance he stopped and scanned the ground. In the moonlight it made it harder to make out colors then it would have been in the day time, "Hello?" He called cupping his hand to his mouth, "Is anyone there?" There was no replay and he slammed his balled fist into his leg and cringed at the pain, "For the love of the Egyptian gods, where are you?"
He looked around and around urgently, but the only things he saw were the bodies of the palace guard, they were spread out everywhere, dead. There wasn't anything else out there, just death. Just as he was turning to walk away his eyes caught sight of a single form lying still on the ground. At first glance it didn't look any different from anyone of the dead soldiers lying around, but after a closer glance he could see that he wasn't wearing the palace guard uniform, in fact he wasn't wearing anything that Shada was very used to, but he had seen the outfit before on rare occasions.
Shada scanned the sands furiously, that was one of them, but where was the second? They never were far apart unless they were forced away from each other; if he was here then he should be around here somewhere. Unless… he suddenly stopped and turned back to look at the figure, he wasn't near close enough to see him clearly, but he could tell for a fact that he was indeed human. He lay stretched out on the sand, Shada noticed that his chest was slowly rising up and down, so he was alive. A lump formed in his throat, "Oh my Ra." He looked around mentally taking note of his location before racing over the sand dune back towards where he had left Isis. This news was not going to go over well with Seto. That much he was sure of.
She looked up startled as he neared, "Did you find them?" He nodded and a smile broke out over her face, "Oh!" She turned to the girl behind her, "Is Len close enough to speak with Seto?"
The girl frowned and concentrated moment before nodding, "Alright, can you have him tell Seto that…"
"Wait Isis!" She turned startled, "That's not it, there's more."
"What else is there?"
Shada stopped panting, "There…there was only one survivor."
Isis's eyes widened, "But both of them were missing…are you saying that one of them is dead?" Behind her the girl looked alarmed and paused to concentrate on something.
Shada shook his head, "No." Isis and the girl both started to relax, Shada shut his eyes and tightened his hands into fists, "No, I'm afraid that we weren't lucky enough for that."
Isis looked at him, clearly shocked, "You're not saying!"
Shada felt tears running to down his cheeks, "Yes Isis, I am."
The woman bowed her head, her black hair falling into her face, "That's not possible, they couldn't have done it. It couldn't have happened!"
"But it did." Shada bowed his head, "I don't know how exactly they managed it since all they had ever told us was that it was a possibility."
"Then Seto banned the topic." Isis whispered.
"Indeed." He paused, "It seems that they pursued the issue regardless." He turned and looked at the girl who stood nearby trembling, he sighed for a moment before looking her in the eye. "Have Len tell Seto that we found a single survivor." Isis closed her eyes and tears started to run down her cheek as Shada added, "But also tell him that the other isn't dead."
Malik- That went over well… so who died?
Azzure- What makes you think anyone died?
Malik- I looked over your notes.
Azzure- Malik I will not tolerate spoilers! And no one died.
Malik- Aww…so am I going to be in this story?
Azzure- Indeed you are. Eventually.
Malik- Shoot, that's not good! I'll ah… I'll see you later.
Azzure- Where's he going? Oh well, please read and review. I hope to have the next chapter up shortly.