Chapter 3: Realization
So before I start this chapter, I just wanted to send a HUGE HUG to those who have already reviewed this fic so far! Your guidance and praises make my day! So a huge thanks to Nightmare Troubador, talkstoangels77, seira-g, scrambled-eggs-at-midnight, and se-tar. You guys =EPIC XD.
K, now that's over with (jk) let's tell the story, shall we?
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Ishizu's eyes fluttered open as she woke, her head and side in a large amount of pain. The room she was in was white and the chemical smell of sterilization was in the air. As she made to move her arm, she realized that there was a needle in the crook of her arm, pumping medication into her system, though in her opinion it wasn't doing much.
"It appears I'm in a hospital," she thought. She winced as a stabbing pain went up her side again.
She leaned back against the hospital bed and closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the attack. The man didn't ask for money, or try to rape her, he only demanded to know where a 'dagger' was. It was unusual to say the least, but then again, she was used to the unusual.
"But why this 'dagger', and of what importance is it to him?" The man had placed an almost reverent emphasis on the word 'dagger', something she didn't pick up on until now, now that she thought about it. "And why me? Why didn't he attack someone else? Evidently I'm of some importance to this man, so important to him that he didn't just kill me when I didn't know of it. He must think that I do, but I have no idea what this dagger even is."
The dream sequence didn't exactly answer her questions. The tomb, Seto Kaiba, it was too real to be just a simple dream. "Over time, I must have internalized some of the abilities of my Millennium Necklace, which would explain the other snippets of visions I've had since the Sealing of the Items. If only I could make sense of it all..." she wished. All her life she had the answers, thanks to her Necklace. Now, she had none, and more questions were piling on by the minute.
Her cell phone, which had been placed by her bedside, began to buzz on the small table. She flipped it open and answered it.
"Ishizu, I was beginning to worry about you not answering my call," A voice, with a small hint of an English accent, kidded.
"Ah, Professor Alan Knighton, how are you?" While her voice was still somewhat scratchy and somewhat weak, Ishizu was willing to talk to the man.
"Actually, it's Doctor Alan Knighton now," he said. "I finally got that degree. Are you feeling alright Ishizu? You sound a little scratchy."
"Just a slight cold." she lied; she didn't want to alarm her friend.
"Well, good thing you can't spread that stuff around by telephone. But Ishizu, I have some delightful news!"
"What is it Alan?"
"I believe we have found the first clue to locating the tomb of one of the Lost Pharaohs! The Priest King Seth!"
"Alan, that is wonderful news! What did you find?"
"A temple complex dedicated to Anubis, or at least, I think it is, but anyway, its located near the Valley of the Kings so I'm making the educated guess that his tomb would be nearby the temple of his patron god. I remember reading from some papyrus scrolls that after the death of his nameless cousin and having the role of the Pharaoh thrust upon him, he became more and more dedicated to his god, even abandoning some of his Pharaonic duties. Apparently serving the god of the dead gave him comfort, as ironic as that sounds. Plus, the carbon dating places the complex around the time of the Sixteenth Dynasty, the time period that we assume Seth and the other Lost Pharaohs were."
"That is incredible." In Ishizu's mind, this had to be a coincidence, the discovery of the complex and possibly Seth's tomb, her and Seto's dream, the attack, all of these were somehow connected, like strands on a spiderweb, the problem was, she could only see parts of the strands at a time, not as a whole.
"I hope to see you at the site here soon. Maybe it'll help you with the paper you're working on, the one on the Book of the Dead. After all, that book was essentially a how-to book for the priests of Anubis. I'm betting that Seth must have had a beautifully made copy of it."
"As far as we know," Ishizu chuckled, which turned into a coughing fit. "I have to go now, Alan. I hope to see you soon." she hung up on him and placed the cell back to its original place. "This isn't just a coincidence. Something big is going to happen, and it seems that Seto Kaiba and I are caught in the middle of it all. How, I do not know."
"Ishizu! Thank goodness you're okay!" Marik burst into the room, Odion entering behind him at a more sedate pace, unlike his 'brother'. "How are you feeling? Do you hurt? Can I get you anything?"
"I'm fine Marik. I promise, though it seems that the hospital has left me a pudding cup while I was unconscious, in case I was hungry when I woke up. Could you hand it to me?"
Marik passed the cup of pudding over, along with the spoon next to it. He then giggled.
"What's so funny Marik?"
"The sight of you eating a pudding cup."
Ishizu flashed a faint smile, but the thoughts came back and she grew somber once more. "Marik, I need you to do something important for me-"
XXXXXXXXXX
Seto frowned as he worked on his laptop in the middle of the night. He was unable to fall asleep after taking the Ambiem, so he did the next best thing.
Work.
He was currently in the middle of developing a game system based on his virtual world. Unfortunately though, despite the popularity of KaibaCorp, he was unable to find a suitable developer to work with in order to publish the game, thus the source of his frustration. There was a knock on the door to his office. "Come in," he said, under the assumption that it was his younger brother, Mokuba. He was tragically wrong.
"You know Kaiba, you really need to have better security," Marik smirked. His hair was tousled and his motorcycle helmet was in the crook of his arm. "I mean seriously, I just waltzed right in here. Nice office by the way."
Kaiba stared for a moment, trying to see if it was an hallucination induced by sleep deprivation. It wasn't. "What do you want Marik?" He growled. He was tempted to reach for the can of mace he kept in the drawer of his deck, used for keeping intruders and overly-excited fangirls away.
"I, or more specifically, we, need your help."
"Who is this we? And why the heck are you bugging me at this hour? Can't this wait until morning?" Great, now he had a headache too. "Just peachy."
"Ishizu does. She thinks that something big is going to happen, one that will rock the foundations of the world."
"That's what she said when you were a mastermind criminal."
Marik growled at him. "This isn't funny Kaiba. She in the hospital right now, but then again, you already know that huh?"
The knuckles of Seto's hand whitened as he gripped the desk. How could she have known about the dream? Was she really there?
Marik then paused for grand affect. "She knows about your dream Kaiba."
Kaiba shook off the feeling that settled in the pit of his stomach. That last thing he needed was to show weakness. "Fine. What exactly does she need my help with?"
"In two weeks, she and I will be making an expedition to Egypt to help with the uncovering of a temple complex dedicated to Anubis, and possibly, the tomb of your previous life, Pharaoh Seth. She thinks that if you were there as well, it could help uncover the mystery."
"And why should I help her? What will I get in return?"
"She promises to never bug you about the so called 'destiny crap' ever again. Of course, what she won't tell you is that by the time this is all said and done, you'll be an even stronger believer than Yugi Muto." Marik thought, an imperceptible smile of triumph on his face. " And nor will she or I compete in any of your tournaments."
"I could care less about the tournament thing, but the promise about no longer bugging me, I might just have to think about it."
Marik shrugged. "Fine." He saw a pill bottle on the desk. "But I can tell you right now, taking those pills won't make the dreams go away. They'll still come, no matter how many of those things you take." Marik started to leave to office, but then looked back over his shoulder. "And by the way, about
those dragons in your dream, Ishizu thinks they were Apophis and Tiamat, the Egyptian and Babylonian gods of chaos and destruction." He left the room, leaving Kaiba alone with Ishizu's proposition.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
So the stuff about Seth was semi-bull. After doing some research, I discovered a period of time in ancient Egypt where the identities of FIVE Pharaohs were missing, in the time of the Sixteenth Dynasty, a dynasty that preceded the great Pharaohs like Seti I and Ramses the Great.
In the 1800's, there was a papyrus scroll discovered that had the lists of all the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt's history. It is known as the Turin King list or the Turin Royal Canon. However, during the early handling of the papyrus scroll, it was severely damaged, leaving only about 50% remaining today. During the last pat of the Sixteenth Dynasty, the identities of five Pharaohs were missing from the records.
Because of this, I am placing the Pharaohs Atem, his father (I'm not even going to try to attempt the guy's name) and Seth during this time, in order to establish some legitimacy.
Another thing to note is the title 'Priest-King'. While the Pharaohs were considered to be the mouthpiece of the gods (or even a god himself, according to Ramses), they didn't fulfill any sort of role as a priest of any sort. I did this because I thought it would make him stand out from the other Pharaohs, and as a semi sort of inspiration for the 'Heretic King' Ahkenaten (for those of you who don't know, he was the Pharaoh who for a time established a monotheistic religion). A fictional character inspiring a real life Pharaoh? O.o