Welcome readers to another tale in the "Between my Brother and Me" series. Before we get started, there are some things to address about this story:
First off, this story will take place after the end of the Pokémon Battle Frontier and will be an adaptation of the video game "Reshef of Destruction". Except for a few exceptions, human characters will be given their Japanese names (Example: May and Max will be called "Haruka" and "Masato" respectively), but Duel Monsters will be known by their Western names to avoid confusion.
Second, while this tale takes place in the same time frame as "De Novo", this story can be read as its own separate piece. There will be no references to De Novo in this story, and vice versa (and if they are, they will be minimal so it doesn't stop the flow of the story itself).
Third, just like in "De Novo", cards that are showcased here will be spread-out throughout the entire franchise and will be noted at the end of each chapter if need be. Moreover, made-up cards will be marked in bold and information about the cards will be shown at the bottom of the chapter (don't worry; reading through them is completely optional). Duels will start at 8000 life points unless stated otherwise.
Fourth, Human Pokémon characters will appear, but except for a certain electric mouse, the monsters themselves will not be showing up in this story. Don't worry, references to the monsters will be made here and there, but this adaptation will focus more on the humans themselves.
Fifth, I'd like to give a shout-out to these fanfiction writers: Murasaki Rose (For the inspiration based on her fanfics "Retrieving Destiny", "Evading Destiny" and "Embrace the Night"), 0ccam's Razor (who I have been a huge fan of for his Yu-Gi-Oh! stories) and Masterdramon (Who, without "My Dark King", I wouldn't be back to writing again. Thank you for bringing me back to life when it comes to writing.
And last but not least, I do not own any of the characters except for ones I made up. All rights to the characters from Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh belong to their respective creators and nothing more. The only thing I have control over is the flow of the story.
Without further ado, let us begin again.
Between My Brother and Me: Ab Initio
Author: Green Phantom Queen
Rated: T
Summary: While May and Max are off on an adventure in Domino City, Ash himself is also thrown into Domino City...except it's the Domino City of a different world, where he has accidentally unleashed the power of Reshef, and must team up with a tribe of ancient warriors in order to seal it away once more by obtaining his title of "Knight of Destiny" and learn to harness the power of Duel Monsters if he's ready to fight the Dark Being.
Prologue: Slow Start
"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."
-Nido Quebein
Ash Ketchum has no idea of the adventures that were to come the night before he decided to head off to the Sinnoh Region.
He certainly has no clue about what would happen during his match with Gary's Electvire, or when he recalls all of his adventures with May, Max and Brock. All that he could think about is what Gary said about visiting the Sinnoh Region and encountering new Pokémon, and new people, along the way.
Downstairs in the living room of their house, his mother is hard at work with her sewing, his mother's Mr. Mime is sweeping the floors to make it shine, and Ash himself is lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling of the bedroom he rarely used these days, thinking about what he will do next.
Pikachu is with him, of course, already asleep. Ash turns to his side and scratch one of Pikachu's ears, watching electricity crackle in its cheeks before rolling onto his back once more. A sigh escaped his lips as he looks at the item in his hand: one half of the Terracotta Ribbon that he split with May after their climatic battle at the end of the Terracotta Festival ended in a draw. It is a sign of their friendship and the promise that they would see each other again.
Pinning the ribbon to his jacket, Ash then thinks of Max, who wants to grow up so fast and go out on his own to become a Trainer and have his own adventures, particularly when it came to his promise to reunite with Ralts.
And Brock? He knows that Brock also has his own dreams of being a Pokémon Breeder, but also hopes that Brock would tone it down when it came to meeting girls.
The seconds slowly pass by as Ash begins to fall asleep...or he would've if a bright light didn't wake him up.
"Huh…?" he mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What's going on?"
Pikachu also wakes up just as Ash sees a strange vortex of blue and purple energy materialize on the floor. There is a loud groan as a large wind begins to suck the two in. Pikachu tries to grab onto Ash but missed, and is soon sent hurtling toward parts unknown.
"PIKACHU!" Ash shouts, grabbing onto Pikachu's paw just as he grabs the back of a nearby chair.. "Hold on, I'll save you!"
But it isn't enough; the pull of the vortex causes Ash's grip on the chair to slacken. In seconds, the two find themselves sucked into eye of the vortex, unable to cry for help before it suddenly seals itself shut like one blinks their eyes.
Then, there is nothing but silence.
0-0-0-0-0
All around her was destruction.
The sky was the color of blood, fire rained down from the heavens, monsters roamed the streets in search of prey. The smell of death and decay was overwhelming, and corpses littered the street.
She kept running all the same, carrying the bundle in her arms. She had to get it to safety, no matter what the cost. The Pharaoh was counting on her, her of all people, to do this.
Just as she was nearing the temple, she stopped. She felt a dark presence, causing her to be paralyzed. Slowly she turned around, watching as a large shadow descend on her, its mouth open wide enough to swallow her whole…
"NO!"
Haruka sits up, hand on her rapidly beating heart as she tries to shake off the remnants of that nightmare. She looks all around her...she is in her bedroom, a blue sheet draping her chest, her fanny pack on her chair and her Duel Disk sits on her vanity desk that is decorated with a multitude of wheels and silver spirals.
She is home; she is not being devoured by some strange monster.
Shaking her head clear, Haruka reaches for the flashlight she placed underneath her pillow and turns it on. Walking toward the bedroom door, there is a slight creak as she steps out. Everyone else is asleep. Good. This makes things much easier.
Walking down the hall, Haruka enters the kitchen and opens the pantry door. Whenever she has a nightmare and needs to fall back to bed, she gets herself some cookies and a glass of warm milk. Tonight is no exception, and she is thrilled to find the sheep-shaped cookie jar still filled with her mother's delicious chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. She pulls one out and takes a bite, savoring its sweetness.
"Nee-san, are you eating cookies again?"
Haruka drops the cookie jar in alarm and saves it from becoming shards of porcelain and dirty cookies on the floor by placing her hand out and watching the cookie jar hit a red magic circle designed with five petal flowers a few centimeters above the floor w
before the magic circle rises do Haruka can take the jar back into her hands. She sighs before placing the it to its proper spot on the pantry shelf.
"Mom would kill me if she found out I was snacking again," she mutters. "My skills are improving though."
"So you are eating cookies again." The voice repeats.
Haruka turns, quickly shining her flashlight on the person who spoke, a boy with short dark green hair and brown eyes, wearing a green shirt and brown shorts for pajamas. The young boy just tilts his head as his lips turn into a sly smirk.
"Masato!" Haruka hisses. "What are you doing here?"
"You were dreaming, weren't you?" Masato asks calmly, not even taking notice at how his sister is wiping away cookie crumbs off her face. "You know that midnight snacking isn't good for you."
"That's...that's not of your business!" Haruka walks toward the refrigerator and opens it. As she searches for the bottle of milk, she adds, "And what about you? Were you dreaming too?"
"I was."
Haruka pauses as she looks at her brother. For as long as they have grown up together, she knows that Masato is a bit of a heavy sleeper. So to find him waking up from a nightmare is just as rare as Haruka not going for some cookies when she wakes up from nightmares (these particular set of nightmares have been appearing for the past week or so, give or take).
After another second of silence, Haruka picks up a bottle of honey in the shape of a bear before closing the refrigerator door.
"What were you dreaming about?" she asks, going to the cupboard to find some mugs.
"I think it was about some person," Masato explains. "He dressed up just like Serena does…"
"Who would want to dress up like Serena?" Haruka places two mugs (one blue, one green) onto the table.
"Well they did, and they had a creature called a Pikachu with them." Masato sits down at the table and watches his sister pour milk into the mugs, and then took both mugs to heat in the microwave. "They touched some strange stone tablet, and then.."
"And then?" Haruka sets the microwave to low and watches it hum, the revolving tray inside going round and round.
"Well, there was a 'roar' and a BOOM! And then there was…" Masato frowns. "I don't know how to describe it, but something appeared and the boy had this strange aura around him. There's also the fact that he's standing in front of a large crowd with something glowing in his hands before a burst of light and an earthquake forms..."
There is a *DING!* before Haruka opens the microwave and watches the steam waft from the cups of hot milk. Taking both mugs onto a tray, she walks toward the table and sets them down, where Masato quickly begins to squeeze honey into his own mug before racing to a drawer to pick up a spoon for himself. Haruka, still with cookie in her hand, dunks it into the milk and takes a bite, savoring the warmth of the milk and sweetness of chocolate.
"Didn't Mokuba say he was having those dreams too?" says Haruka. Masato, spoon in hand, began to stir his milk round and round, careful not to make too much noise. He nods his head.
"Serena also said she was getting dreams. Maybe we can talk about it tomorrow when we see them. You know what tomorrow is, right?"
Haruka smiles. "Of course! Tomorrow is the Duel Monsters Spirit Festival at Kaiba Land!" She then finishes the last of her cookie before adding, "So let's forget about these nightmares and get some sleep. What do you say?"
Masato blows on his milk and takes a big sip, before letting out a sigh. "I'm in. Now let me have one of those cookies…"
"Oh no you don't!" Haruka giggles, grasping onto her little brother's arm. "Those are my midnight snacks; go get your own!"
0-0-0-0-0
"Seto?"
The voice causes the brunette teenager to stir as he noticed someone approach him. The young boy is wiping away the tears in his eyes as he recovers from a horrible nightmare.
"What is Mokuba?" asks Seto, concern for his younger brother shown in his blue eyes.
"I had that dream again," Mokuba sobs. He shouldn't have been crying-he turned 13 just a few days ago. He is a big boy now, and boys his age don't cry over nightmares. "The one about the dark god and the world being destroyed and…"
Seto immediately wraps his arms around his younger brother and held him tight. It wouldn't have been the first time that Mokuba would enter his bedroom to complain about nightmares, but it would've been the first since that his younger brother would come to his bedroom in tears in a long time.
Another figure stirs awake, this one having blond hair and amber eyes. Mokuba sniffles and steps back, noticing that both his brother and his brother's boyfriend had no shirt on, being covered by a white bedsheet.
"I...I didn't come at a bad time, did I, Jounochi nii-san?" Mokuba asks shyly. He isn't too surprised that his brother had found himself a boyfriend in Jounochi (he sort of realized that Seto and Jounochi had feelings for another early on, not helping that one time he and Serena found the two making out in the locker rooms and Serena able of taking a snapshot of the guy's love in front of them), but it still feels sort of awkward to accidentally enter his brother's bedroom when the two were going through a "romantic moment". If Haruka or Serena see one of those "romantic moments", they won't stop talking about it for days!
"Nah, I'm fine," Katsuya Jounochi replies, patting Mokuba on the head. "Don't worry, those are nothing more than dreams. And dreams can't hurt ya."
"Easy for you to say," Mokuba mutters, crawling into bed, being careful not to disturb the bed sheets. "I mean, you're not the one who's suffering through these for the past week or so, right?"
"But these are just figments of your imagination, and they can't hurt you." Jounochi ruffles Mokuba's obsidian locks with a hand, causing the younger boy to smile. "Considering all that you went through, I'm sure you'll be able to confront your nightmares and tell them who's boss, right?
"Yeah…" Mokuba looks down at the card locket that drapes his heart and opens it, revealing the picture of his older brother when they were younger, a chess piece in hand. He laid back and looks up at the ceiling, closing the locket as he adds
"Tomorrow…tomorrow is a big day for me...for all of us.."
And with Seto draping the bed sheet over the three of them, Mokuba soon fell off into a dreamless slumber.
0-0-0-0-0
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Serena can sense that something is wrong. While she isn't able to read Tarot cards like Haruka is, she can easily tell that things aren't right.
Even though she should be at bed right now, she's still shuffling her deck. This ritual helps calm her mind and helps her forget the stress and excitement that is flowing through her veins. Tomorrow is an important day for her, and she can't sleep if her mind is a panicky mess, right?
After four rounds of shuffling, she sets the deck down and flips it over. The monster that stares back at her is a witch. She smiles at it-for her it's a sign that things will be all right.
With the ritual over, Serena walks over to her bed, tucks herself underneath the sheets and closes her eyes. As she sleeps, she dreams that she's in a haunted mansion, partying with a myriad of spirits who are dancing to "Monster Mash" playing on a phonograph.
0-0-0-0-0
The first thing Ash feels is someone placing a wet towel on his forehead. He slowly sits up, feeling like someone hit him over and over again with Hammer Arm as he finds himself sitting on a couch draped with a blanket.
"Where am I?" he asks, hand on his forehead. "What happened?"
"Oh, I see you're awake now."
Ash turns, seeing an old man in green overalls and wearing an orange bandana around his grey hair, approach him. In his hands is a tray with two mugs filled with tea. Ash looks around, at the television, the sets of sofas, the posters of strange warriors and dragons on the wall, as realization hits him.
"Where's Pikachu?" he asks, frantically looking around. "Pikachu, where are you?!"
"Pika!" cries a familiar voice, and Ash turns to his left, where Pikachu leaps from a chair and onto Ash's shoulder. Ash sighs in relief.
"There you are," he said, petting Pikachu's head. "Are you alright?"
"Pika." Pikachu replies. There is some silence as the old man placed the tray down on the table.
"You caused quite a stir when you arrived in front of the Game Shop, young man," he says. Ash blinks as the old man sits down. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sugoroku Mutou, and I am the owner of the Kame Game Shop."
"I'm Ash, and this is Pikachu," says Ash. "But I've never seen you before. Are you new to Pallet Town?"
Sugoroku blinks. "Pallet Town? No, my dear boy. I'm afraid you're mistaken."
Ash feels that something is absolutely wrong, but tries to calm his nerves as he asks, "W...what do you mean by that?"
"What I mean," Sugoroku clears his throat. "Is that you are not in this place you call 'Pallet Town', but rather you are in my hometown of Domino City."
And it is in that span of few seconds that Ash feels like his world is falling apart.
0-0-0-0-0
Ash: This can't be real. How did I end up in Domino City?
Haruka: Don't ask me, but it seems you've got some explaining to do.
Masato: Like why you appeared in a dream of mine and all.
Ash: How can I explain something like that, when I don't even know what sent me here?
Mokuba: Then it looks like we're in for a bit of an introduction, aren't we?
Serena: Next time, Ab Initio Chapter 1: "Bad Dreams"
Ash: Pikachu, all I can say is that I know that we're no longer in Pallet Town anymore.