Thanks for the reviews! I really helps me get off my ass and continue to upload the chapters. I keep on trying to make each chapter longer, but I just tend to put up a lot of small ones. I'll keep working on that. I'm not intending to have hardly any duel monsters. I'm keeping more with the comic version and the last season of YGO. The last season wasn't about traditional duel monsters, and had far less official duels. Without further ado...
There was a split moment of silence between the two figures. Diana stared at the man who was in strange attire, but considering that she didn't even know where she was, she might have been the one in the strange clothing. Before she could wrap her head around how he was down here, she noticed something off about him, as if he were out of focus. For the first time since he spoke, she blinked...
"GHOST!"
Diana jumped back what must have been a couple a feet, till her back came in hard contact with more sand and crushed pillar behind her. The book she had been holding landed with a sharp thud on the sand where she had been standing. The figure that had been posed beneath the eye of Wdjat, was now silently looking down at her, close to where she had just been, a questioning look on his face. Both their gazes locked, then the man's eyes shifted to the book on the ground, still appearing curious. He stared at the book, silently his expression grew more serious. Their gazes locked once more, his deep lavender eyes holding her olive green ones captive.
I have felt your presence for some time, I'm glad you finally came.
His voice was deep, and surprisingly soft, something that contradicted his determined gaze. Although his expression had softened, Diana wasn't about to let a hunk of a ghost in weird clothes throw her off guard, to hell if she were the one that was in fact wearing the strange clothes in the middle of nowhere.
"What...I mean, How have you been waiting for me? I don't even know who you are, or WHAT you are?" Without waiting for a reply, "And where are we, what is this place? This place is covered in Hieroglyphics, is this ancient Egypt or something?"
Still staring, he kneeled down on one knee to meet her level. Diana couldn't help but notice his handsome features, despite being transparent he had deep olive skin. He wasn't tall, but well proportioned and very firmly toned. She could just make out the slight muscle in his arms and legs. Her face flushed slightly, whether it was because of the heat or how close the handsome apparition was, was beyond her.
My name is Atem, I used to be Pharaoh of Egypt
He paused and looked around.
But I do not believe we are in my Ancient homelands, we must be in your time.
Used to be Pharaoh...? She wondered, Than that means he really is a ghost, now what does this have to do with the book... And how in the world did I land in Egypt?
I know you must have a great number of questions, but if I may ask, what is your name?
Diana paused for only a moment, what was the worst that could happen, she was already trapped in a desert. "Name's Diana... Atem, was it?"
Yes. Well Diana, I guess I should tell you that I have a faint idea of what must be happening.
He knows about the museum?
"Wait, it's not exactly what you think! I didn't even want to go inside, but I was nervous! And I didn't take that thing! It floated to me! It glowed slightly and had weird voices coming out of it and everything! I never meant to take it! I don't even want it, let alone know how to read it or what exactly it is! And then-"
Atem raised his hands in a gentle manner
Please, please, Diana. I don't know exactly what transpired with you. But I do know that because my soul has been called back from Aaru, the Millennium Items must be revived and the Millennium Puzzle must be around here somewhere, or else I couldn't be sustained without a body.
Diana, who was holding her breath, let out a gust of air. "Millennium Items? Puzzle?"
Yes, Items that were created in my ancient time, made from sacrificing 99 souls, blood, bone and flesh. Shadow objects that had specific powers unique to that item. Each item had a Scred Guardians, chosen by the item itself. There are seven of them, six of the items, the Millennium Eye, Pendant, Key, Scales, Rod, and Ring would choose a master to sit on council to the crowned Pharaoh. The Millennium Puzzle, belonged to the Pharaoh, and was passed down to the next heir. After I inherited it, I locked my soul within the puzzle, and sealed away my memories in order to save the world from a demon name Zorc, darkness itself.
Mind numb, but still listening, Diana blinked.
A roughly five-thousand year old disembodied royal apparition just told me he battled evil incarnate. Human sacrifices, ancient pharaohs, guardians, magic items... Ok, why not, worse comes to worst, I'm still frying to a crisp in the sun outside and all this and the cute ghost is a nice way to go. Figures, I finally meet a cute rich guy and he's either a figment of my imagination or a ghost.
"Ok, I'm having a hard time digesting all that, but I follow. So you locked your soul away in a Millennium Item, the Millennium Puzzle? So what do these Items have to do with me, and the haunted book over there? And how do you explain me being here?"
Atem thought for a moment, looking to the remembered book still sitting the sand just off to his left side. When he focused back, his expression had become more serious.
This place is my tomb in The Valley of the Kings, once guarded by tomb keepers till my return. I can only assume time has caught up with it since no one need maintain it. This is where I departed this world for good, and where I said some of the hardest 'goodbyes'.
If it weren't for the fact that Atem was a ghost, Diana could swear she saw his eyes glisten. How hard must it be to lock yourself up and lose your memories? Had he forgotten everything? How many times has he had to say good bye to those from his past and...
That, is the Millennium Spellbook. It is what created the Millennium Items in the beginning. It was said that that spell book contained the power of the gods, and that it took the ancient priests many years to decipher even one spell. No one has been able to read its sacred texts.
"So the Millennium Spellbook has a sacred guardian too?"
Atem's eyes widened, dumbstruck by the notion apparently. But he'd be lying if he didn't admit that was exactly what his thoughts were on all this.
If what you describe is true, the Millennium Spellbook must have indeed chosen a guardian. It sounded very much like the rite of succession, when one item chose a new guardian, in my time. But why now? After all these millennia, has a sacred guardian been chosen by the Millennium Spellbook? But more importantly... The power you hold now.
Atem finally paused, his mind whirling. He remembered feeling a strong presence while in Aaru, then finally returning to the world of the living to meet Diana, who from the looks of things was the only known sacred guardian of the most powerful item on earth. It had felt like an eternity to him, but time wasn't linear in Aaru, so he had no idea how much time had indeed passed since the last time he departed this world, or how long he had felt her presence.
"May I ask you something?" Diana asked.
I guess, I'll try to answer as best I can
"You said you returned to... Aaru?"
The Fields of Aaru, where we call the resting place of souls, our afterlife.
"Yeah, you were trapped for so long in the Millennium Puzzle, how did you move to the afterlife?"
Atem simply stared at her expressionless. His mind flooded with memories of all his friends, friends whom he missed a great deal.
A friend... put the pieces of the puzzle and my mind back together, and set me free. It's strange, looking back... Neither of us had friends when we first met, and yet we had so many when we parted.
Before she even knew what she was thinking, she blurted out the first idea that came to mind.
"Maybe, I can find this friend of yours? I mean you're here right? You can help me get back and I can find out where he is..."
STUPID! Diana! He just said he had no clue how long ago he left, and from the looks of this place, it could have been another thousand years! Help him find his friends! Way to leap without looking!
That's very kind of you, Diana. But where would you begin? Perhaps you may know who he is, he, or we, were quite well known for duel monsters.
"That's a start! I know allot of Duel Monsters champions! what was his name?"
Yugi Muto
Silence filled the tomb like cavern, light still pouring in from the top where she had fallen though.
"THE INTERNATIONAL DUEL MONSTERS CHAMPION YUGI MUTO!"
Diana couldn't control her excitement, Yugi is a legend as far as games were concerned. She just couldn't believe the King of Games...
Yes, I do believe we won that title. But-
Diana cut him off, "Atem! You couldn't have been gone that long! He won that title only a little over a year ago! We can still go see him!"
Atem couldn't help but feel excitement rise in his chest, only a year... While he was still concerned with the presence of the Millennium Items, he couldn't help but long to see his friends, especially Yugi. A rare opportunity.
"Millennium Puzzle... Yugi wore a big gold pyramid like pendant around him every time he dueled, that was you wasn't it?" Diana gazed into his eyes, searching. When she saw it. That look, the determined confident gaze she had seen many times when she watched him duel on TV. She always wondered how he could have such an expression in a duel, when other appearances he seemed completely different. But she figured that this explained everything. "You were there with him the whole time, sharing his body weren't you?"
Yes
Silence. "Well, to be honest. Yugi Muto hasn't really dueled at all since he won that championship at the opening of Kaiba Land." Atem still didn't say anything. "So! Help me get out of here and we can go see him and everyone else?" She was hoping he knew a way out, would be a bummer if she became a ghost along with him in here.
Well, how did you get here in the first place?
"Ummm" Diana still hadn't the faintest idea how THAT part had happened., "I don't know, I grabbed the book and then 'poof' I was sucking in sand and baking like a potato chip"
Sounds like the Millennium Spellbook brought you here for a purpose.
"And what would that be?" Diana raised her eyebrows.
To meet me
He said simply, a small grin across his face. A blush came to her face, he was still on one knee right in front of her.
The Millennium Spellbook can probably help you find the Millennium Puzzle and other items, It created them so it's connection to them must be very strong.
Diana thought about this. Admittedly she didn't want to open that book or even go near it, but if it could help her. Heck so far as she could tell it was actually helping her, save for baking like a chip in the Sahara part maybe.
"Okay... what do I do?"
