The drive over to KaibaCorp was quick, quiet, and tense, but the four headed into the building, to find Mokuba waiting at the entrance for them.

"Hey, there you are!" He replied, a bit more relaxed than the rest of the group. Though, spying the girls, he frowned at Yugi, "More observers…?"

"This is Sarah and Jessie, Mokuba," Yugi explained, "They're Joey and Tristan's daughters and they happened to be with Noah when I picked him up."

"You know Seto's not big on too many people being upstairs…And this is all confidential."

"Which is why they should be around to hear it."

Mokuba sighed, but as they started towards the elevator, he looked to Jessie and Sarah with a frown. "I'm sorry…It's nothing against you; I really would have no problem with all of you up there, but Seto is…"

"Oh, it's okay," Jessie replied airily, and waved off his apology, "He's super busy, after all—It's cool. We're just here to be support for Atem and Noah."

As the elevator started climbing upward, Mokuba frowned at Noah. "How's that been, exactly? You seemed…kinda sick, last I heard."

Noah grew tense for a moment, before trying to mimic Jessie's airy wave. "I-I'm fine now, thanks. I-It's no big deal. I-I've just…kinda been fighting myself, lately."

"That's more accurate than you're letting on," Atem replied sadly from next to him.

Noah stiffened, but tried not to react too much, since Mokuba was still watching him. The rest of the ride was quiet, and the hall to the office wasn't that long of a walk.

~bump—BUMP—~

Noah gasped tersely and lept back.

It had been weeks now since he had last felt that hard beat, the feeling of his heart jumping up into his throat and then plunging into his stomach, but he recognized it. Just like before Jet and Kevin had come barreling through his front door, or when he'd nearly been suffocated by dark energy. Except this was different; instead of only a brief jump, his heart remained down in his stomach, and his throat felt tight with sudden fear and adrenaline.

It seemed Atem picked up on the sudden jolt as well, and he watched Noah carefully, but couldn't question before Yugi did.

Yugi frowned, coming back over to them. "Noah–? Is something the matter?"

Sarah and Jessie looked back at him as well, but Yugi's brows quickly furrowed when he saw the look of absolute distress on Noah's face, placing his hands to his shoulders. "Noah–?"

It felt like a stone weighed in Noah's gut, making him feel ready to cry with sudden panic. He wanted to speak, but found his throat still clenched painfully. Atem came up to his side, putting a hand to his shoulder over one of Yugi's.

"Noah, it's okay," Atem gently comforted, "I know you're scared, but it will be okay. We're all here for you. It'll be fine."

Noah almost started to mention the feeling he had, the sense of anxiety and dread, the feeling that something terrible was coming…

But with how everyone was looking at him, his throat remained clenched until he decided against it.

"I-I'm f-fine…" He got out quietly, just barely steeling himself again.

Atem noticed how forced the words were, however Noah then slowly moved back in with everyone else, flinching at the doorway, but then moved on into the room. The feeling died away right after he crossed the threshold, so Noah let go of a terse breath, and the sudden panic eased out of his system rather abruptly.

The office now had a few crates scattered about, a couple men unloading various artifacts from straw and packing peanuts.

"Hey, hey, gently–!" Yugi went over to one, helping to lower it carefully to the ground, glaring lightly at the man, "These are priceless artifacts and scrolls that carry important information—be more careful."

"Easy, Dad…" Noah replied with a small smirk, still shaking a bit, but pat Yugi's shoulder.

Coming up to the desk, Yugi noticed the list strewn out over it. "So this is what came up from the rest of the excavation?"

"Yep," Mokuba nodded, smiling as he took up only one page of it, "It turns out you were right: there was a whole separate burial site just nearby the one you had been looking at—it's where all of these new artifacts came from. It's astounding in a lot of ways—a lot of these artifacts are unique individually, so there isn't anything like them in museums today. It's a pity you couldn't've been there to see your own discovery…"

Noah smiled with slight pride and gave another small pat to Yugi's shoulder again, though both turned to Seto when he scoffed from his chair behind the desk. "It was Tsukane Shirogane that took care of your 'theory,' not you…"

While Noah jumped and gave him a small glare, Yugi only gave a stern nod to Seto. "Yes, he was, and I appointed him to do so. After all, you didn't even want him around in the first place, even if he was a graduate student."

"You don't take enough risks," Seto said, simply.

Yugi looked away at that, taking up a folder of the inventory he had put together himself ten years earlier, which was much smaller than the recent one. "You and I have very different ideas of what 'taking risks' means, Kaiba."

"Doesn't change the fact that you were too scared to carry out your own theory," Seto continued, looking up from the inventory list himself, "You had your reserves about disturbing burial chambers and spiritual nonsense that prevented you from keeping the backbone you have in duels present in the rest of your life. Sometimes I'm not sure you should've given up that profession. And you're a teacher now, aren't you…? You're moving farther and farther down the totem pole out of cowardice."

"Piss off!"

Everyone jumped at the sudden snap. Although Jessie and Sarah had tried to hold him back, Noah strode up to the desk, planting his hands to the surface with a slam, the small force pushing a few papers around.

"You don't know half of what he's been through!" Noah leaned forward on the desk himself, "I'd like to see you brave the shadows, I'd like to see you be taken away from your brother for ten years and see how quickly you recover! I'd love to see you have to negotiate with a—a stingy miser like you just to gain some sort of insight into what the hell is happening to your own family! I'd love to see you go through what my family has gone through, I'd love to see it!—"

"Noah, that's enough," Yugi quietly responded, barely moved as he closed the folder.

Noah didn't tear his gaze away from Seto. "Get this straight, you—you windbag: You can only say what you want 'cuz you have your own people do the real 'dirty work,' you can say how you don't believe in any of this 'ancient magic'—I'm still not sure how much I believe in it myself. But don't ever talk about something you know crap about! I don't care if you're a CEO or my dad's rival in a card game, but if I ever hear you talk shit about my dad again, I'll—"

"Noah, that is enough!" Yugi finally stepped up to him at that point, taking Noah firmly by the arm and bringing him back and away from the desk.

While Noah did fall silent, he was still seething, breathing heavily.

Yugi looked at him with a glare. "Stand down, Noah. This isn't a fight you want to start. I don't want you doing something stupid for my sake; and it isn't for my sake, it's for yours. Let it go."

Noah was still seething a bit from how unmoved Seto looked, but Atem, too, came into Noah's sight and 'took' his other arm. "Noah, please, listen to Yugi…! He's right, and you know it; Seto isn't worth your integrity."

At that, Noah gave a final huff, and finally stepped back from the desk, settling with crossing his arms. Seto glared back at Noah himself, though didn't say anything.

Mokuba was the one to finally break the tense silence, clearing his throat before taking up the list himself and organizing it back into a pile. "If we can…continue with this…?"

"Gladly," Yugi replied for everyone, and the whole room gradually relaxed, now that there wasn't going to be anymore shouting.

While two men came in to unload the last crate, Mokuba went to the last item on the list. "Now, the real reason why I wanted you to come back so soon was because of this last artifact your team found, right before leaving the site. It doesn't match up with any of the other artifacts, in the sense of the time period in Egypt—like it had been added afterwards."

Yugi's eyes narrowed, letting go of Noah and coming over to look at the list. "'Added'–? Like someone else put it there?"

"Not recently," Mokuba replied with a shake of his head, the crate creaking as they pried it open, "It's still very old, even older than the rest of the artifacts—but it doesn't match the rest of the items, either, culturally speaking. According to the inventory list, it was a tome of some sort, very much Egyptian."

Yugi jumped, startled and worried as he faced Mokuba directly. "Wait—a-a tome? A scroll? Like—Like a—"

Noah turned to look, right as the crate was broken open; lying right on top of the hay to keep it safe and in-place was what looked like a breathing scroll, an eye with a red gem sealing it, and strange hieroglyphics coating the outside from left to right. It pulsated with dark energy, a voice emitting from nowhere in particular muttering in ancient Egyptian as soon as the crate was open.

Noah straightened, Anubis' red markings around his neck appearing and abruptly glowing bright, and his eyes gained the same red glow. "The book…!"

For a split second, everyone was frozen.

"NO–!"

At the same moment that Noah lunged for the crate, Yugi lept for him in turn, arms tight around his son's frame in attempt to prevent him from moving any closer to the scroll. "Noah, stop! You don't know what you're doing–!"

Something had completely consumed Noah at that point, because his eyes retained the bright red glow, and he struggled against Yugi with surprising and sudden strength, considering how sick he'd been. It seemed he didn't recognize anything around him anymore, glare locked on the tome in the crate that only seemed to be getting louder with its chanting.

"Get that thing out of here–!" Seto ordered the two men, who had been watching in complete bewilderment.

Just as they quickly moved to pick up the crate, Noah seemed to snarl and practically tossed Yugi off, him hitting the edge of the desk, right on his shoulder blade, before collapsing to the ground.

"Yugi–!" Both Jessie and Sarah rushed to his side as Noah strode forward.

However, Yugi quickly waved them off, trying to get back onto his feet. "No-No, stop Noah, first–! He can't touch that scroll–!"

Similarly, the two men tried to restrain Noah, grabbing onto his arms, however he kneed one man in the gut, and then shoved him into the other man so that they fell backward into one of the empty crates.

Now just a few feet away, Atem's form appeared between Noah and the crate, glaring at him. "Noah, you have to stop! Don't let Anubis do this to you!—"

Noah walked right through him. As simple as the action was, it felt chilling. Eyes wide for only a moment, Atem then whipped around as Noah picked up the scroll.

Noah then repeated the same ancient Egyptian text that the Book of the Dead was chanting non-stop, letting the scroll open up as soon as he spoke. The red glow that sprouted from the tome was nearly blinding, and some invisible force pushed Jessie and Sarah back when they were even remotely close.

Atem, however, was free to grab onto Noah's hands in an attempt to influence him to let go. He barely felt a burning sensation from the scroll. "Noah!—Noah, please, you have to stop! You'll kill yourself!—Please! Let go!"

But the words being spoken abruptly changed. It didn't sound like much of a difference to everyone else, but Atem understood clearly:

"Breathe life into the spirits, resurrect the dead, resurrect to flesh through your pages and incantations."

Atem's eyes widened. "NO–!"

A surge of red light shot up from the scroll, outlining a pentagram around Noah, and consequently Atem, and a greater force of air lifted papers and bits of packing hay and wood, creating a small cyclone within the room.

Atem tried to look back at Noah through the flying debris. Noah was clutching the scroll with a vice grip, but had gained a blank expression, the markings around his neck still glowing brightly.

"Noah–!?" Atem tried calling again.

Except, then something even stranger occurred: he breathed in.

Atem looked off with wide eyes, before looking to his hands that clutched the sides of the scroll. It started out slowly—just a strange, ghostly feeling of touch and nerves—before it rushed into him, all at once.

In flakes, like pieces of paper, Atem gained an opaqueness of skin and fabric that gradually formed around his spirit. From his hands and feet, up to the top of his head and hair, the same force from the book suspended him just an inch into the air, his head tilting back as the sensation worked its way through him.

Jessie and Sarah looked to Yugi, whose eyes were wide. "I-Is—I-Isn't that–!?"

Red light and energy circled around Atem's form, sealing any cracks from the flakes—creating a physical body. It also transferred the Millennium Puzzle from Noah's neck to Atem's, its power stabilizing the new form. Even the clothes, the same as Noah's (though now they seemed half a size too big), lazily moved around his limbs from the surrounding energy. Then, as soon as the red magic passed over his chest and head, Atem opened his eyes with a small gasp; if anything, he looked tired, but he started panting as his heart was getting back to a regular beat after having been stopped for so long.

Still, soon his feet were set onto the ground, his knees almost buckling from lack of using his own muscles for thousands of years, and then he shook himself back to the present situation.

Atem took better hold of the scroll, clenching his jaw briefly before looking back at Noah's blank face.

"Noah!" He had to remember how to use his actual voice again, "Let go of the scroll! Let go!"

"Impossible…!"

A new voice, though one both Atem and Yugi recognized, suddenly came from the tome, much louder than before. Noah's face was hidden from view, but the markings around his neck now barely cut into his flesh.

"Impossible, but…intriguing," The voice replied, "So, the spell affected you as well…? You DID once have a body after all, Pharaoh, before this mortal…This shall be enjoyable, then…"

Noah's neck gave a small crack as his head jerked up. Atem gave a shout of disgust, stumbling back outside the pentagram's boundaries.

Noah's eyes were pitch black, some tar-like substance leaking from the corners like tears, as well as from his gaping mouth, however the same tar-like liquid bubbled up from beneath his feet as well.

Anubis' disembodied voice laughed. "I will have the opportunity of killing you again—with my own hands!"

The tar like substance began crawling up Noah's legs. Atem jumped and lunged, but was shocked back, now that he was outside of the pentagram. "Noah–!?"

Maybe the two still had a mental connection of some kind, because for a moment, Atem caught a glimpse of Noah's actual face, tears in place of the tar substance and distress and anguish present on his face. That, and a small scream of "HELP" before the image was gone.

Noah's form, as well as the tome, became covered in the tar, and it soon grew and melded into an entirely different form.

Yugi lurched to try and get himself up, Jessie and Sarah hanging onto him. "NOAH–!"

Atem could only watch with wide eyes, feeling a slight mistiness he wasn't used to, along with a shortness of breath; he stepped back as the form grew around Noah, not looking anything like him anymore.

And then it solidified, gaining skin and hair and definition. The man, or monster, stood at practically eight feet, retaining muscle and protruding veins, and the same ancient robes he carried as the Egyptian god of the Dead. The stringy locks of his hair draped over the shoulders like a second cloak.

As he turned his head up, Anubis smirked at Atem. The last thing to form were his eyes, still as red and sly as they had been in their previous encounter.

"Pharaoh…!" Anubis chuckled, "Once again, we are face-to-face…!"