Holy flaming Kuribohs, two updates within a month!? It must be the apocalypse! I know I said it would take a bit because I had to make some decks, but I realized that I had to set the setting for all that jazz. Also, I am now caught up to where I was before disaster struck and the life of poor, poor Andromeda was untimely ripped from its heart of silicon circuitry. But only four people read the last chapter? And no reviews? Is it really that bad? If it is then tell me! I can't make it better if I don't know what's wrong with it. And if no one likes it just because it's started out rather slow…well…if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!
Chapter 4: Lost
(Unknown Location)
"Well, Luna? Was it successful or not?" his voice boomed. He stared down at the girl garbed in white armor trimmed in gold. Luna, the Warrior of Light, looked deeply into the orb that floated before her. She was the only oracle of the group and the only one that could track the progress of their operation.
"Partially," came her surprisingly monotone reply. Her beautiful figure and long hair that started out pure white and gradually changed to azure at the ends would fool most beings into believing that she was beautiful on the inside as well. Her voice is what put the indecision into her foes' minds.
Her master's black eyes narrowed. "What do you mean partially?" he demanded, letting anger creep into his voice.
"The Millennium Items have been pulled into the Shadow Realm," Luna replied. Her pale blue eyes looked deeper into her scrying orb. "Another force has diverted them from being brought to us."
The other warriors looked between each other. They knew that if they had failed, their master would sooner destroy them than give them another chance. Before any retaliation could be done, however, a mocking laugh echoed through the hall.
"Did you really think that the Millennium Items would just drop right into your lap so easily?" Bakura cackled. Unlike the warriors, who knelt before the wicked king, Bakura casually leaned against one of the pillars in the chamber. "Please. Even though their powers were given to the Pharaoh, they still have their protection charms."
"Why didn't you mention this before, Bakura!?" the furious response reverberated off the stone walls. "Your insolence is starting to give me reason to end your usefulness to me!"
"You really ought to control yourself, master," Bakura said snidely. As if he could destroy me. "The Items are in the Shadow Realm now. All that's left to do now is to go and collect them."
"Very well then," the ruler concluded. The anger in his voice had subsided, but only by a small amount. "I'll send our new recruit out to collect them and bring them here."
"When the Items were captured, we also collected something…more," Luna's voice came up once again.
"What do you mean?" her master questioned her. The anger was almost gone this time. Instead, it was replaced by intrigue.
"When the items were picked up, ten humans were also taken," Luna informed him. "They too are in the Shadow Realm. I have separated the group and placed them safely away from the Items."
"Interesting," the man said as he stood before them. He then paced the length of his audience while stroking his short beard. "Luna, you shall remain here. The other five of you go and deal with these nuisances." He then turned to the shadows where he knew his 'recruit' was waiting. "As for you, collect the Millennium Items and bring them to me."
(Unknown Location)
Téa's eyes fluttered open slowly. Her initial reaction was to squeeze them shut again. However, the blinding light that she remembered to be there a second ago was gone. She sat up and held a hand to her throbbing head. What in the world happened? An icy shiver passed through her body. She rubbed her bare arms instinctively to warm herself. Wait…where's my sweater? She looked down at the yellow tank top and short white skirt she had on. "Isn't this what I wore five years ago during Battle City?" she wondered out loud. She quickly placed her hand on her chest and breathed a sigh of relief to find her locket still hanging around her neck.
"Oh…my head…" a voice groaned. Téa looked over around to find Yugi lying next to her. He too was wearing the exact outfit he wore during Battle City, his Domino High uniform, the coat left open, that surely couldn't still fit after five years. His head turned to see Téa's concerned eyes staring down at him. "Téa? Where are we?"
"Oh! Well, we're…" she began. It really hadn't occurred to her to try and figure out where they were exactly. She gazed at her surroundings only to find blackness. At the edges of her vision seemed to be purple clouds, but whenever she tried to look directly at them, they seemed to slide with her eyes, keeping themselves at the edge of her peripheral vision. "Wherever we are, I don't think we're at your house anymore, Yugi."
"I think I'll agree with you there," Yugi replied. "But it looks familiar for some reason. I think I've seen this place before somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it."
"Yeah? Can you think of any reason why our clothes have changed too?" she asked in a slightly frustrated tone.
"No…" Yugi replied thoughtfully. The place they were in was cold, but Yugi knew it wasn't because of the temperature. Something about this place sent chills down his spine.
"I can't see anyone else," Téa told him. Yugi looked up to see the girl now standing, searching in every direction. The fear in her voice was starting to become more and more prominent. Yugi got up and placed a hand on her shoulder gently.
"I'm sure Brian's fine," he assured her, seemingly able to read her mind. Téa blushed slightly and nodded. "Let's worry about us for right now and try to find a way out of here."
(Unknown Location)
"See anything Joey!?" Tristan called out. Joey looked down from his place on the very peak of the mountain at his friend who was gradually making his way up to him. Joey now wore a white t-shirt with a blue stripe across the front and a pair of blue jeans while Tristan had a plain white shirt with a red and black jacket over top along with a pair of brown jeans. Neither of them had been able to explain the change.
"Nothin' but more mountains as far as the eye can see," Joey replied. How in the heck did we get up here? There's no path down and it's way too hard to climb for someone to have carried us up here…
"So what do we do now?" Tristan asked. "Sprout wings and fly off into the sunset?"
"Not a bad idea," Joey told him. "It would certainly make this terrain a lot easier to deal with."
"So you're still serious about trekking across the mountains to find Yugi?" Tristan asked, baffled. "This is nuts! We should just stay put until someone finds us."
"After that beam of light hit us, I shudder to think who'd actually find us up here," Joey told him before starting down the other side of the mountain. Tristan sighed, called him crazy under his breath, and scrambled after him.
(Unknown Location)
"You ok, Mokuba?" Noah asked his brother as he pulled him back to his feet. The intense heat of the hundreds of volcanoes surrounding them was killing them. Not to mention their new outfits, both consisting of long sleeves and pants and the vest that had also appeared on Mokuba, weren't helping matters much either.
"Yeah, I just slipped is all," he replied as he brushed himself off. "This volcanic ash doesn't make for the best terrain to walk through."
"Agreed. I wonder how all these volcanoes even sprouted so close to each other," Noah commented. "I've never heard of this many so close together and active all at the same time. I mean, you see things caused from tectonic drift, like Hawaii, but not even those volcanoes erupt all at once."
"You really are a know-it-all, Noah," Mokuba sighed.
"Well, perhaps if you actually paid attention in science class instead of gawking at Aura all the time, you would have known it too," Noah scolded.
Mokuba blushed slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, come on! It's so obvious!" Noah laughed. "Mokuba and Aura sitting in a tree…"
"Now's not really the time for jokes, you know," Mokuba informed him as he trudged on through the slippery ash that coated the ground. "We need to find Seto as soon as possible. He'll know how to get us out of here."
(Unknown Location)
Stupid…Duke…lose some…weight! Mai dragged Duke toward the edge of the beach she woke up on. She stopped dragging him about ten feet from the water and dropped him. She then ran over to the water and scooped up some in her hands, which she then dumped on Duke's face. He choked and coughed as he suddenly came around. "Welcome back Dukie boy," Mai taunted.
"Mai!? What the heck did you do that for!?" Duke screamed. He paused and looked her over for a moment. Her clothes had changed from earlier to a white corselet under a purple jacket which in turn matched her mini skirt. "You weren't wearing that before…damn, Joey's lucky…"
"What was that, pretty boy!?" Mai yelled while she shook him by his collar.
"Nothing! Nothing!" Duke hollered. Mai closed her eyes in frustration and dropped Duke back into the sand. "Jeez…have you ever heard of whiplash?"
"What is this place anyway?" Mai asked as she stood back up.
"Beats me," Duke replied, crawling to his feet as well. "There's no beaches like this around Domino, and even if there were, it's the middle of winter in a blizzard, but all I see is sun and blue sky."
Mai sighed and began walking along the water's edge. "Yugi would know where we are. He always seems to know these things." She smiled to herself. Or else Joey would run around like a chicken with its head cut off until someone found out.
(Unknown Location)
Kaiba stopped at the edge of the canyon ahead of him and spun on his heel. "Are you still following me?"
"Look, there's no one around for god knows how far and it's better for us to stick together. For survival," the auburn haired girl shot back. Paige Matthews, one of only a few people to have stood up to Seto Kaiba and survived, trudged slowly through the heat of the desert her and Kaiba had woken up in. She examined her clothes for a moment. Her white cloak was now smeared with dirt from having been dragged through the sand and her white pants and shirt were also beginning to collect dust from the air. Last time I let Brian convince me to wear all white.
"I don't need you to survive," Kaiba informed her coldly. "Unlike you, I don't rely on other people. I can take care of myself just fine. Come to think of it, that's probably why you didn't last at Kaiba Corp."
Paige blew a strand of hair away from her eyes. "Excuse me? I believe I quit Kaiba Corp so I could go help my little brother with his company. But you wouldn't understand something like that since you only think of yourself."
Kaiba glared at her, but said nothing. What did she know about him anyway? She relied on her brother to take care of her. Of course, without Mokuba and Noah, I'd probably be a lot worse off. "Fine. Follow me if you want. I don't care. But know this: if you get in my way, I'll simply run you over."
"Oh, peachy," Paige remarked as Kaiba turned and continued walking. "I'll keep that in mind when you need my help."
(Temple of the Millennium Bracelet)
Brian groaned and rolled over quite painfully onto his stomach. Slowly, he pushed himself up, finding he had been laying on solid stone moments before. No wonder I'm hurting so much. I probably got dropped on this stuff. He glanced around at his surroundings as he got onto his knees. "Oh, great. The Shadow Realm. Exactly the place I wanted to visit today," he said out loud. A small shine caught his attention for a moment. Frowning at the sparkle, he edged closer to it and found the Millennium Bracelet just sitting on the ground in front of him.
He picked up the Item and slid it onto his wrist carefully. It brought back some memories, some good, but mostly bad. Because of this piece of gold and its other seven companions, his friends' souls had been removed from their bodies and ran the risk of being destroyed, including his love, Téa. Of course, without the magical coma he had been put under when he first got it, Téa might never have confessed her feelings to him in the first place. Then I wouldn't be in this mess either. No one to come back to would have left me in New York, far, far away from this abduction situation.
Soon he realized his pain had subsided completely, as if he had never hurt to begin with. When he stood the rest of the way up, he noticed something strange. He looked down at himself to find himself wearing pitch black boots, some tight pants of the same color, and a black tunic with gold along the stitching. The pants seemed to be made of an extremely light and flexible material, but had the feel of metal, and apparently wrapped around his feet within the boots as well. Surprisingly, the clothes were quite comfortable.
"So, I'm here in the Shadow Realm, but where exactly?" Brian asked himself out loud. He began scanning the area and found the temple looming behind him. "Oh, this place again." He looked down at the Millennium Bracelet. "Another fine mess you've gotten us into. I suppose I'm here for a reason and I bet that particular reason is in there again."
Brian headed to the temple, just as he did five years previously. Last time, he remembered, he was off to face Marik Ishtar with Yami in order to take back the Millennium Ring and Rod and Yugi's soul. Back then, the bracelet had allowed him entry to the temple, but now, without its powers, Brian wasn't so sure he'd be able to open the gates again. Upon reaching that gate, however, his mind changed quickly.
"I should just turn around, right now, and walk away," he commented while examining the mangled iron bars that used to fortify the temple entrance. Something, he couldn't say what for sure, pulled at him, urged him to enter the temple once again. With a deep breath, he started in.
From the state of the gate, he expected the main hall to be in shambles. Instead, everything was exactly how he remembered it. From the faded yellow light that trickled in from the high arched windows to the polished, mirror-like marble floor, nothing had changed a bit. Brian continued his way forward toward the carved stone that sat at the forefront of the hall, and that's when he saw them.
"The other Millennium Items!" he exclaimed before rushing straight to them. "Puzzle, Necklace, Eye, Ring, Rod, Scale, and Key. Yep, that's all of them." Just when he was about to collect them, another person entered from the doorway that Brian remembered led to the trial rooms.
"No! He's here already!" the woman gasped in horror. "No…wait…you're not…it's you…Brian!"
"Yeah, it's me. Atoli?" Brian said slowly. The terrified priestess nodded quickly. "What's got you so scared? What happened here?"
"There isn't much time!" she began. "Listen carefully, for I only have time to tell it once." Brian nodded impatiently. "A dark force from the Shadow Realm attempted to steal the Millennium Items. Their powers are gone but they still have charms on them to protect them. However, the charms were not strong enough this time and we had to intervene. We diverted the Items to land here, in the temple, in the hopes of hiding them from this evil. But somehow he knew where they went and he sent his most powerful servant against us to retrieve them!"
"What about Aida? That guardian that I fought five years ago. Shouldn't he be here to protect you?" Brian asked.
"Alas, he was the first to fall. Aida was no match at all for the power that this man wielded," Atoli explained. "The other priests and priestesses are attempting to slow him down, but I don't think it will be long before-"
"How noble of you all to die in order to protect the Millennium Items," a deep voice interrupted. A pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness of the passage Atoli had entered from. "It seems that I chose well when I selected you as the guardians of the Bracelet."
"That voice…" Brian murmured. The red eyes grew nearer as the person came further from the passage. The pale light revealed his features slowly and surely. Familiar spiked black and red hair with golden yellow bangs and highlights made him unmistakable. "Yami!?"
Yami laughed as a greenish glowing symbol of an encircled hexagram appeared on his forehead. The sight caused Atoli to tremble in fear. "The King of Darkness has corrupted the spirit of the Pharaoh!"
