Here's chapter seven. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh

Chapter 7

"Man, that sure ruined the afternoon," grumbled Tristan as everyone sat around.

Joey nodded. Although everyone had breathed a sigh of relief after Rex and Weevil left, the whole display had left a sour taste in everyone's mouth, effectively killing the relaxed and fun-loving mood they'd basked in since the start of the afternoon. Everyone was either walking and kicking up sand attempting to play a board game only to throw the dice around in frustration.

"What do we do Atem?" Yugi asked as he and former king sat at the edge of the water and dipped their bare feet in it. "We can't let the day end like this."

Atem shrugged. "It started when Rex and Weevil tried to steal the God cards and Kaiba told them off. It wasn't, as you say, a pretty sight."

Yugi shuddered. "That was brutal." He felt sorry for Rex and Weevil for that, and also slightly guilty for being grateful that he wasn't on the receiving end.

The two sat in silence, listening to the waves crash back into the water and seagulls cry in the distance, the wind blowing through the trees, Yugi trying to think of a way to fix the foul mood.

"Hey," said Yugi, shooting up as sudden inspiration struck him. "Why don't we duel?"

"What?" asked Atem, raising an eyebrow and joining him

"We'll duel. You and me." Yugi said, enthusiasm radiating from his whole body. "Just for fun, you know. And no God cards either. Come on, that'll cheer everyone up! Please." He folded his hands and gave Atem the puppy-dog eyes.

Atem stared. Then he grinned in anticipation. He and Yugi hadn't dueled in a while. "I'll get my Duel Disk."

Yugi smiled back and followed him to the car, unable to wait. As Atem pulled out his Duel Disk, Tea materialized behind them. "Hey guys. What are you doing?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Hey Tea," Yugi greeted.

"Hello Tea. Would you mind letting everyone know Yugi and I will be dueling in a few minutes?"

Tea gasped. "You guys are dueling?"

"Yeah, and without the God cards," replied Yugi.

"Without the God cards?" Tea frowned, a question on her lips.

"After what just happened, we'd rather not involve the Gods. Besides, Yugi and I have never dueled each other without the God cards in my deck, so it should be interesting to see what will happen." Atem grinned.

Tea stared for a moment before he face broke out in a wide smile. "All right!" she exclaimed, leaping into the air and racing back to the beach to spread the news.

Yugi and Atem arrived on the beach to the find the others crowding together, several of them bouncing on their toes.

"This is gonna be sweet," said Joey, rubbing his hands together and grinning.

Those who hadn't witnessed Yugi and Atem's first duel looked bemused.

"Is it true you guys aren't using the God cards?" asked Mokuba.

"That's right," Yugi confirmed, hefting his Duel Disk and placing his hand over his deck.

"Hmm," Kaiba grinned. "Maybe today wasn't such a waste of time after all." He ignored the several death glares thrown at him.

Atem activated his Duel Disk, drawing everyone's attention away from Kaiba.

"Ready Atem?"

"Ready Yugi!"

"Duel!"


Everyone cheered as Atem's Life Points dropped to zero from Valkyrion's attack. Atem grinned and strode over to Yugi, exchanging a high five with him as everyone swarmed them with congratulations.

The duel had been fierce, loaded with spells and strategies thought out so thoroughly that even Kaiba was left reeling. Despite the lack of Egyptian God card, the duel was fiercer than any other they'd seen or played, a Life Point difference of one hundred points more often than not. By the end stages, Yugi and Atem had been tied with fifty points, each with two face down cards and one monster on the field.

"That was awesome guys!" exclaimed Tristan.

"Absolutely remarkable!" cried Professor Hawkins. "I've never seen a duel that evenly matched in my life!"

Solomon chuckled. "Well, those're my grandsons," he said proudly, not noticing the quick flash of surprise on Atem's face.

"I knew Yugi would win," Rebecca proclaimed.

"I didn't Rebecca," said Yugi. "I almost didn't get out of Atem's last trap. And even then he had a backup."

"Because I knew I'd need it," Atem countered, smiling as Duke stepped up to congratulate him.

Yugi shot a triumphant grin towards Atem. Everyone's good mood had been restored.

Mission accomplished.

Joey nearly ran Tea over when Hidekazu and Momose set dinner on the picnic table and he realized that Professor Hawkins had brought his famous pasta in addition to the pizza that Solomon had ordered.

"Seriously, that was a really awesome duel!" complimented Duke as they sat down. "I hope it keeps getting better."

Tea laughed. "Knowing those two, it will. They're both awesome."

"Didn't Yugi win their first duel too?" asked Serenity.

"Yeah," answered Joey. "That why Atem's here with us and not stuck in the Puzzle anymore."

"It was unbelievable, Serenity," said Tristan. "You thought it was cool when Yugi destroyed Obelisk and Slifer when he beat Rex and Weevil? Well, Atem here managed to get all three God cards on the field at once, and Yugi managed to defeat all three of them in one move!"

Serenity gasped, eyes flickering between Yugi and Atem, asking for confirmation.

Atem nodded as grabbed another slice of pepperoni. "That's not all Serenity. He managed to defeat both my Dark Magicians and leave me defenseless on the last turn."

"You weren't defenseless at first," protested Yugi, taking a bite of his slice.

"No, I was. You had planned all along to stop me from using Monster Reborn to bring back an Egyptian God. I was defenseless after you defeated my Magicians; I just didn't know it yet."

"How did Yugi manage to stop you from bringing back an Egyptian God?" asked Serenity, eyes wide.

"He used a card called Gold Sarcophagus," replied Atem, grabbing another slice of cheese pizza. "He put one magic card inside a gold box, and if I happened to use the same card, the box would negate that card's effect."

"Whoa," said Rebecca, sitting down beside just in time to hear how Yugi had defeated Atem the first time. "I might have to modify my deck to stand a chance the next time I duel you."

"Yeah, me too," said Joey.

"Please, like you're ever going to beat him."

"Hey!" Joey growled. "Did you forget who took down Valon when you and Duke together couldn't pull it off? And he used the Orichalcos on me, not you."

"How the heck did you even pull that off?" asked Duke.

Joey shrugged. "I realized after he destroyed my Rocket Hermos Cannon that the only way I could win was to fight his armor with my own armor. Wasn't easy, but I did it, using my Aura Armor card, and Red-Eyes Transmigration for a while. I finished him off by using Grave Robber to steal his Big Bang Blow and combining it with Hermos."

"I thought he beat Hermos," said Duke in confusion.

"He did," Joey confirmed. "But I used Take One Chance to get it back on the field."

"Luck again?" said Kaiba derisively.

Joey growled. "Hey, my soul was on the line and I couldn't draw another card. I didn't exactly have anything to lose by trying it. And it paid off." He grinned.

"Hey guys, it's time to light the fire!" Tea called, breaking up the argument.

"Already?" asked Joey, glancing around. The sun had mostly set and a couple stars had started twinkling on the edge of the opposite horizon. "Man, time sure flew by," he said as he held a lighter to the giant pile of wood and set it ablaze.

He licked his lips in anticipation as everybody pulled their camp chairs closer to the fire and Tristan brought out the marshmallows. "All right!" he exclaimed as he stuck his first two marshmallows into the fire. "This is more like it."

Tea grinned as she glanced at everyone. Mokuba roasted three at a time and tried to convince Kaiba to eat them too. Kaiba was stoically refusing. Joey and Tristan were setting their marshmallows on fire. Bakura and Duke stuck their marshmallows close the bottom of the fire, where it was hottest while Yugi and Atem held theirs in the upper middle of the flames before quickly yanking them out and repeating the process.

It was nice to be able to enjoy this now, Tea thought. It was nice to just kick back and relax. No crazy adventures, no weird magic trying to steal or banish their soul, no more brainwashing, no more magically weird incidents she didn't understand...

She froze as a thought struck her. "Hey Atem?"

"Hmm?" he asked, freezing in the act of putting a marshmallow on his stick and focusing on her.

"I've been meaning to ask you something for a while. When we went to your past, you and Bobasa were the only ones who could see us. But this other girl could too." She growled as she tried to remember. "What was her name. Mena? Mina?"

Atem's eyes widened in recognition. "Mana?"

Tea snapped her fingers. "That's it! Mana. Anyway, do you know why she could see us?"

Atem frowned, gripping his chin as he pondered the question. After a minute, he shrugged and stuck his marshmallow in the fire. "Your guess is as good as mine Tea."

"Mana mentioned she was a friend of yours," Yugi piped up, recalling more of his conversation with the young magician.

The former king smiled at the memories. "Yes, since we were very young."

"Any others?" asked Joey, not noticing is marshmallow burning and starting to fall off the stick.

"One other. Mahad."

"What were they like?"

Atem smiled. "Mana loved pulling pranks on everyone, especially me, and was quite skilled at coaxing a laugh from almost anyone. Mahad was responsible for looking after me and tended to follow the rules, but he could also have fun if he wished."

"Such as?" Bakura prodded.

The former Pharaoh chuckled. "One time, Mana and I were practicing magic in a food storage room. She levitated a basket full of rotted fruit, but couldn't figure out how to put it back on the ground. She eventually managed to release her spell." He shook his head. "Unfortunately, the basket was upside down and directly over my head when she did."

Jaws dropped before laughter roared around the fire at the image of a young, smaller version of the Pharaoh covered with a bunch of rotted fruit.

"What happened then?" asked Tristan, wiping his eyes.

"I was a ten year old prince with a rather large ego Tristan. What do you think happened?" Atem smirked. "And Mana had fighting spirit as well."

"No way!" Joey exclaimed. "You, involved in a food fight?" At Atem's confirming nod, Joey burst out in laughter, joined by everyone else. "Oh man, that is rich."

Atem laughed as well. "After a while, Mahad came in."

"What did he do?" asked Yugi.

"He scolded us since we hadn't told anyone where we would be and for starting a food fight." Atem grinned. "Then he whipped out two pieces of fruit-which he'd somehow hidden behind his back-and chucked them at us, pegging both me and Mana in the middle of our foreheads."

Laughter once again broke out among the audience, and Mokuba actually rolled out of his chair and hit the ground, pounding his fist on the sand. "Food fight back on again after that." Tea asked.

"No Tea. It was an all out war after that. I still don't know if the servants managed to get all the stains out of our clothes or if they just threw them away and gave us new ones." Chuckles and snickers echoed around the campsite.

"Did we ever meet him?" asked Yugi once everyone had calmed down. "Or see him, I guess, since he probably couldn't see us."

"No, I doubt-Hold on!" Atem froze. "You did meet him!"

"We did?" asked Tristan, scrunching his face.

Atem didn't answer. Instead, he whipped out his deck and shuffled through it before pulling out a card and showing it to them.

"The Dark Magician?" Joey asked. "What's that about?"

"Wait a minute." Tea gasped. "When we were flying to help Atem and Yugi summoned the Dark Magician to fight Zorc's flying zombie skeletons, the Dark Magician's skin was tanned and he had brown hair, and he told us to go help the Pharaoh." Her eyes shot to Atem. "Are you saying...?"

Atem nodded. "After Bakura-" his eyes shot to the white haired teen. "The Thief King," he amended himself, "attacked the palace, Mahad lured him the training ground for magicians to try to defeat him. To accomplish that, he merged himself with his ka- a duel monster spirit that lived inside him. Unfortunately, the Thief King managed to escape and steal Mahad's Millennium Item while Mahad's soul was sealed in a tablet."

The group stared. "Oh man," said Joey. "That's rough."

Atem nodded. "He said he didn't once he didn't care because then he could always be there to help me whenever I called on him. His ka was called the Illusion Magician. When he merged with it, he became known as Mahad the Dark Magician."

"Whoa," Yugi breathed.

"What about the Dark Magician Girl?" asked Tristan. "She came to help us when we fighting Zorc."

"Dark Magician Girl was Mana's ka," Atem explained. "Everyone had a ka, but training was required to summon it. Mana managed to summon hers when we fought the Thief King at Kul Elna and she summoned it later to help you against Zorc. Interestingly enough," he added. "Mana was Mahad's apprentice, and Dark Magician Girl is Dark Magician's apprentice in Duel Monsters."

"Seriously?" asked Joey, eyes wide. "Talk about weird. But no wonder you like those two cards so much. They were yer best friends back in Egypt."

Yugi's eyes widened in recognition. So that's what he meant when he said two old friends of his could help me in my duel against Rex and Weevil.

"You mentioned Mahad owned a Millennium Item," said Hidekazu, another part of the conversation hitting him.

"Yes. In the court, there were six people known as Guardians, and each possessed a Millennium Item while the Pharaoh, me, held the Millennium Puzzle. Mahad was one of my guardians."

"Which Item did he hold?" asked Momose.

"The Millennium Ring." At the others' uneasy looks, he asked, "Do you wish to know what the irony is?"

"What's that?" asked Tea.

"The rings main use was detecting criminals and other evil in Egypt."

"Are you serious?" asked Tristan with a what-the-heck look on his face. At Atem's nod, he shook his head. "You're right, that is some irony."

"Who held the other Items?" asked Professor Hawkins.

"There was the dude who looked like Kaiba. He had the Rod," Joey remembered. "What was that guys name anyway?"

"Seto," Atem deadpanned.

Joey stared. "You serious?"

Atem nodded.

"There was another guy we saw with the dude who looked like Kaiba," said Tristan, noting Kaiba's glare and deciding to steer the conversation from Kaiba's past life. "He had the Key."

"Shada." Atem realized.

"Shadi?" Tristan asked incredulously.

"No, Shada," Atem corrected.

"Oh, who else?"

"A man named Karim held the Millennium Scales. You probably would have seen him when they found me by the Nile. A woman named Isis held the Necklace, and she greatly resembled Ishizu," he said as he reached into a box and pulled out a graham cracker.

"That leaves just the Eye," said Joey, counting on his fingers. "Who wore that?"

Atem froze, hands clenching into fists.

CRACK!

Everyone started as the graham cracker that Atem had been holding split in two and fell the ground. "His name was Aknadin," Atem replied tersely.

Tristan cringed. "Either something bad happened to this guy or he was a total creep."

"That's not true Tristan. Aknadin was known as a fair and just man who showed mercy to even the worst of criminals."

"Then what's the deal?" asked Joey, waving his hands.

"Joey!" Tea scolded.

"It's all right Tea." Atem raised his hand. "Though Aknadin was a good man, he'd done something terrible in the past in an attempt to help bring peace to Egypt. Not long after Mahad's soul was sealed in the tablet, the Thief King attacked Aknadin in revenge. But instead of killing him, he inserted a piece of his soul within the Millennium Eye." Atem sighed. "Which brought Aknadin's dark side to the surface."

"Oh no," Tea groaned. Everyone guessed where this was heading.

"He eventually helped the Thief King gather all the Items and summon Zorc to our world. He was eventually defeated along with Zorc, but the cost was dear to one of the guardians."

Silence reigned after that. Clearly there was more to the story, but no one wanted to push Atem for more details.

"I'm sorry," Yugi ventured.

Atem started. Then he glanced to the side. "You should know, Aknadin was the younger twin brother of my father."

Yugi gasped. "He was your uncle?!" No wonder Atem was so touchy about him.

Atem nodded.

"Was there anyone else on the court?" Solomon asked, hoping to find a happier topic.

It worked. Atem's dark look transformed to a small smile. "There was one other. My vizier, Shimon."

"What was he like?" To Solomon's surprise, Atem laughed at his question.

"I believe he was you in a past life."

"Really?" The old man's eyes widened.

Atem nodded, his smile growing wider. "Yes. You look exactly the same except he was tan and wore the clothing of Egyptian nobility. Otherwise, I can't tell the difference between you."

Solomon gaped, then turned to Professor Hawkins and excitedly discussed with him what he might have done in his past life to help the Pharaoh fight the ultimate evil. Atem grinned, making a note to wait awhile before telling Solomon that his ka was Exodia.

A few hours later, the fire died down and everyone made their way home. Kaiba and Mokuba took off first, followed by Joey and his mother and sister. Duke gave Tea a ride home while Bakura went with Tristan. Professor Hawkins took Rebecca in his car while Solomon took Yugi and Atem, along with Hidekazu and Momose (who'd caught a ride with Mrs. Wheeler on the way up).

Once they reached home and climbed into bed, Atem admitted to himself that this time, Yugi's surprise hadn't been so bad.

Not that he wasn't going to keep his guard up the next time Yugi planned one.


Interesting fact: these two chapters are the whole reason this story even exists. It has undergone major editing, but seeing Atem at the beach with his friends and having fun started off this whole story.

I realized that my inclusion of Joey's mother might have been a problem since she didn't know much of what went on, so everyone discussing things around the campfire could be a problem. But then I decided that Serenity talked to her mother about what happened and Joey caught her up on everything. That's going to be the case here. Just thought I'd mention it.

Also, either my computer or my flash drive decided to be wonky and for some reason, I can't open the word document containing this story. I managed to get some of this chapter on another format, but only a part of it, and I had to retype over half of what you just read. I also lost next week's chapter, but I remember enough of it to where it shouldn't be a problem to retype. Just letting you know in case you notice any mistakes in this.

Anyway, enough of me rambling. I hope you liked this chapter. Please review.