Chapter 35: Ruins and Revenge Part I

Yugi, Selene, Jupiter, Serenity, Ryou, Bakura and Kaiba landed on the other side of the warp tunnel in a valley between two vast mountain ranges. Yugi shivered, wrapping the coat tighter around himself as his breath froze in the wind. He looked up into the sky, expecting it to be blue only to realize that a storm was swirling around them. The sky was grey near black, a small amount of light from the sun seeping through to cover the area in a strange grey light.

Walking away from the exit of the warp tunnel, Yugi sensed the presence of some familiar Guardians. He scanned the skyline, slowly frowning. "Mars, Neptune, get out here!" He demanded.

Appearing from behind large stone pillars a short way down the valley they both looked at each other curiously. "How did he know?" Neptune asked.

Mars shrugged. "I guess it's his Guardian half, Sephora said it was kicking in."

Selene placed a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "It's all right, Yugi. I summoned them to assist us." Yugi frowned but nodded, relaxing his posture as the others caught up.

"Where are we exactly?" Serenity asked, shivering from the cold.

"The northern most point on the planet, the Icarus Mountains." Mars explained, looking around the valley. "This entire area is surrounded by ice, the closest city is tens of thousands of kilometres away."

"Why do they call them the Icarus Mountains?" Ryou asked, having a sinking suspicion he knew why.

"Because anyone foolish enough to try and scale them usually dies in the attempt." Jupiter explained.

"We're not planning on scaling the mountains, are we?" Ryou tried keeping the fear out of his voice.

Mars sniggered slightly. "No, mortal, the ruins are in this valley. We haven't excavated them as much as the ruins near Gold City because they're in the Icarus Mountains but we have done some work to that end to make it easier."

"Let's go then!" Yugi announced, moving up the front of the group to lead them deeper into the Icarus valley.

Ryou groaned. "I have bad feeling about this..."

Back on Earth several hours had passed since Yugi and the others had left for the ruins on Animus. Shortly after they were gone, a messenger arrived at the front door to the house, bringing a package for Nick. Nick had received it and had disappeared into his room.

It was now approaching lunch, and Sephora entered the family room to find Nick and Mai watching the BBC Worldwide feed of an event taking place in Auckland, New Zealand. Sephora's eyes widened, exchanging a look with Mai. "Nick, isn't that where...?"

Nick nodded, standing up. "Yes, it is. It seems Téa and Artemis decided to take a day off to visit Auckland." He responded as Horus entered the room.

Horus's attention quickly drew to the feed. He knew both Hanasaki and Miho were sent to Auckland, but soon realized something was amiss. "Isn't that where you hid your other friends?"

Nick smiled. "It is, it's just lucky I didn't send them South."

The Holy Guardian cocked his eyebrow. "Then where did you send them?"

Far away from New York, Hanasaki sighed, staring out the window of the penthouse Nick had put them up in. He heard the ding of the elevator chime, announcing Miho had arrived back from her shopping trip. Miho entered with a big grin on her face, throwing the bags on the couch. She approached Hanasaki, wrapping her arms around him. "Soho is so cool, you should have come!" She declared, kissing her boyfriend on the cheek.

Hanasaki blushed. "We're supposed to be hiding."

Miho rolled her eyes. "We're in the middle of London, at least let's try to have some fun than having to be stuck inside here all day and night. What did Nick call this place?"

"The Gherkin."

Miho shrugged. "Well, whatever, as long as the Guardians can't find us and... I'm with you, I'll be fine." Hanasaki blushed again as Miho broke away from him, grabbing the bags of clothes she'd just bought. "I'll leave you to stare out the window while I go try on all the sexy clothes I just bought." She announced, walking into the bedroom.

Hanasaki initially ignored Miho's announcement until he processed what she had said. Suddenly his head shot up. "Oh Miho, wait for me!"

Standing atop the building known as the Gherkin, Stella and Nanook stared out over the London skyline. Stella groaned, staring lazily at the sky. It was bad enough that her old faction, the Final Five, split up after Seiryu's attempt at destroying the universe but to become the babysitters to the two humans really dampened her mood. "Why is it we get all the jobs guarding mortals, what exactly did we do to incur this punishment?"

"Um... it might have something to do with the time you switched Uranus's shampoo with super glue." Nanook responded. He held up a clipboard with a pen in his right hand, writing down several notes to fill out a report for when he returned back to Animus. All Guardians were required to record their missions in order to keep tabs on them.

Stella blinked several times, gathering her memories of the event and the furious look on their fellow Guardian's face. She vaguely remembered Uranus saying they would regret their little practical joke. "Oh yeah... Wait, that was you!"

Nanook smiled. "Oh yeah, I blamed you."

Stella's head sunk. "I hate you."

"Whatever." The male Guardian heard a groan from her before Stella marched off on her own. He shrugged, returning back to his work.

Back in New York, Horus felt his mouth close to gaping open. The initial shock quickly wore off, and he couldn't help but chuckle at the turn of events. "Clever mortal, Rebecca heard what she wanted to hear..."

"And reported it back to the Millennium Guardians who took the bait. Noah monitored her conversation with Artemis as we farewelled Miho and Hanasaki yesterday." Nick said.

Horus had a train of thought pop up in his head. "How do you know that Artemis and your fiancée won't simply attack this mortal city in anger?"

"I don't, but I figure the Millennium Guardians can only do so much damage before a higher power steps in and stops them, permanently."

"How do you figure that?" The Holy Guardian was rather interested in hearing how the mortal came to his conclusion.

Nick shrugged. "We've all got a boss."

"Who is your boss, mortal?"

"Téa, naturally." Nick replied, walking outside. No sooner than he left, Horus, Mai and Sephora had followed him. He frowned, finding Rebecca standing on the grass, cursing herself out for falling into Nick's trap. "Rebecca Hawkins!"

Rebecca turned around, glaring at Nick. She was in no mood wanting to put up with him. "What?"

He smirked. "I challenge you to a duel!"

Entering the Icarus ruins the group had to duck lower and lower, eventually having to start crawling through the narrowest sections. The passages were so narrow the Guardians were forced to transform into their human avatars to avoid their wings being snagged or caught in the rocks. The air was stale almost putrid as they crawled forward through the passage. They could all tell this was a ruin that hadn't been opened in centuries, maybe millennia. At the front of the group there was a sigh of relief from Yugi as he emerged into a cavern large enough for them to stand up straight.

Stopping for a rest, the water can was passed around, and Yugi looked to Mars and Neptune. "How much further?"

Mars snapped his fingers and the torches lining the walls of the corridor lit up. "We walk for another kilometre, then descend another two kilometres to the entrance to the ruins."

Serenity blinked. "Wait, I thought we were already in the ruins?"

Neptune shook his head. "That's what we thought the first time we excavated the Icarus ruins. But the actual entrance is deep underground. Trinity scientists have estimated these ruins date from long before the Final Battle. They may even have existed at the creation of Animus. We've never been able to precisely date them."

Yugi pulled himself to his feet, dusting himself off. "Well we shouldn't wait around then." He announced, starting down the tunnel towards the cliff. The others ran after him shortly afterwards. As he walked, Yugi noticed that the tunnel was curving downwards, leading them further under Animus.

He stopped suddenly after about an hour of walking, finally arriving at the cliff Neptune had mentioned. He dropped to his knees and gingerly approached the edge of the cliff, not realizing Kaiba had taken hold of his belt just in case. Peering over the edge, he suddenly felt uneasy about the entire endeavour, as at two kilometres deep, Yugi couldn't see the bottom of the shaft. Sitting up, he cast a glance back to the others. "Uh, do we have a plan on how we're going to get down there?"

Mars and Neptune exchanged glances. "We were just planning to fly."

Yugi looked at the two, forcing to smack his palm on his face due to them overlooking the flaw in their plan. Jupiter tapped them both on the shoulder. "Some of us can't fly, remember?"

Mars and Neptune turned around, facing Serenity, Ryou and Bakura and blushed slightly. "Oh, right."

They immediately transformed, each Guardian's two wings expanding to full span as they did. "Well, I'm sure we can carry you..." Neptune started when he realized no one was listening anymore. In transforming into his Guardian form Neptune had suddenly pushed Yugi to the edge of the cliff, extending his wings had pushed him over the edge, literally.

Swearing at his brother's carelessness, Mars dove into the shaft after Yugi. His speed was incredibly dangerous in such a narrow space but Mars had no choice if he were to save his friend and the reincarnation of Ra.

Plummeting down the shaft, Yugi pondered what it would be like to die, he had considered asking Nick what death felt like but thought that with Téa around it was probably in poor taste. He considered whether when he hit the floor he would even feel his own head break open or if unconsciousness would take over first. He also considered after a moment that it was taking an exceptionally long time for him to hit the floor. "Wait... I've stopped falling?"

"It's nice you finally noticed." Mars replied, holding Yugi by his ankle only centimetres away from the floor of the shaft. He slowly lowered Yugi to the floor as Serenity and Ryou were carried down by Neptune.

Serenity sprinted to Yugi, trapping him in a bone-breaking hug. "Ohhh, you... Don't do that to me! I got really scared!"

Yugi blushed, wrapping his arms gently around Serenity. "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

As Selene descended with Kaiba and Bakura, Jupiter slapped Neptune in the back of the head. "OW! What was that for?"

"Being an idiot." Jupiter replied in a huff. She briefly wondered how Pluto made the decision to promote both Mars and Neptune as Genesis; not that she even wanted such a high rank in the first place as she didn't want to put up with Pluto's occasional antics.

Neptune groaned as Serenity released Yugi from the hug, now facing the entrance to the Icarus ruins. Exhaling, Yugi entered the ruin cautiously. Mars followed, lighting a spherical light that rose to hover over them as the group walked deeper into the ruins. Following the curving corridor they emerged into the main chamber. It was long and narrow with a pillar every few feet dividing the chamber into three distinct areas. The main draw of the chamber was the large tablet at the very back.

Walking up to it, Yugi reached out, dusting away some of the dirt. "We've found it..." He whispered.

Back on the surface a large aircraft carrier type vehicle hovered over the Icarus Mountains. Standing on the deck of the carrier Lucifer and Erebus stared down into the valley with deep concern etched on their faces. Erebus reached into the pocket of his robes, pulling out a communicator. "I want that ruin ripped open now, captain."

"Yes sir!" A voice on the other end replied.

Lucifer cast a side glance at Erebus. "They still obey you?"

Erebus chuckled. "I am the head of the Trinity, Matt doesn't dare question it."

Lucifer returned his gaze to the valley below keeping his suspicions about Erebus and Matt's future role as the leaders of the Trinity to himself, for now. They felt the deck hum with power under their feet as one of the carrier's main cannons began to charge.

Carefully removing the dirt and dust that had collected over the wall, Ryou and Yugi stood back to admire their work on the tablet. Yugi stepped forward to examine it more closely and frowned. "Uh oh..."

"What is it, Yugi?" Serenity asked.

"It's not hieroglyphics, it's Latin." Yugi responded, turning back to the others who had been examining the rest of the chamber.

"Well that's ok, all Guardians speak Latin, right?" Serenity responded brightly, turning to the three Guardians they had with them who looked uneasy. "Right?"

Jupiter blushed. "Um, no. Only the Millennium Guardians were ever taught how to speak Latin, they were the focus of the prophecies of what was to come. The rest of us are just bit players so it was never deemed necessary." She explained with a slight edge of anger in her voice.

"I guess this trip is bust, none of your mortal friends speak Latin..." Mars announced.

"One does." Kaiba cut in, looking at Yugi.

Yugi slapped his forehead. "Nick, of course!" He stood up, turning to the rest of the group. "Mars, can you go back to Earth and bring Nick with you? He's the only one who can translate this for us."

Whatever answer Mars was about to give was cut off by an explosion that sent everyone in the chamber to the floor. Dust fell from the ceiling as air, smoke and dust exploded through the entrance. Yugi coughed, shaking the dust out of his hair and pulling himself to his feet. "Everyone alright?"

The others responded in the affirmative as Mars flew back into the room, looking alarmed. "It's a Trinity helicarrier with Pluto and Yukai aboard. I don't think they have any intention of letting us leave alive."