Welcome to Robyn writing this next arc simply for Alexander the Great content. All of the opinions about said conqueror are Christine's not mine. I know Capsule Monsters is extremely cheesy and all that but I find it very amusing... and cheesy in some instances. I hope you all enjoy!

*I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! I only own my OCs Meg - who only appears in like the first five seconds - and Christine. If you recognize anything else, I don't own that either.*

"Stiiiine!" Meg whined for the fourth time that morning as I walked her to school with her. "Come on!"

"What exactly are you wanting me to do?!" I asked, laughing. "Yami already did something to her."

"Yeah but that was over a year ago. I think it's time for a reminder."

I rolled my eyes. Of course she would want that.

It's been nearly a month since we came back from Kaiba Land and just about that long since Meg arrived in Japan as well; I still needed to write Pegasus to thank him for getting my best friend here. Things had been a little slow, except for the slow increase in Capsule Monsters purchases in the shop. It seems so long since I've seen those being sold; it probably helped that it was being updated with Duel Monster monsters. Was it like that to begin with? I couldn't remember. "Hey… Is Yugi doing ok?" I looked back to Meg, seeing her face contorted slightly in worry. "You mentioned the other day he's been having nightmares."

"Oh… Yeah… He's still having them."

Most mornings for the past week have consisted with Yugi falling out of bed from a nightmare. I'd catch him just as he was standing back up, chuckling nervously when I'd ask him if he was okay. Neither he nor Yami would tell me what was going on.

"He's not telling you anything?"

I shook my head.

"They say they don't want to worry me."

"They're worrying you by not talking."

I nodded my head in agreeance. I couldn't help but think they find didn't me trustworthy enough to talk about it. I shook that away. Of course I was trustworthy; why wouldn't I be? Sure I could be a smartass but… Had I done something?

It also didn't help that Grandpa hadn't come home yet. He was gone for a week visiting some site and was supposed to be home last night. My worry for Yugi was only combined with my concern for the elderly man who has taken care of me for so long. I was woken from my self-loathing by Meg humming. "Kaiba not coming today?"

We were at the entrance of the school and Kaiba's limo wasn't there as usual. Seems he was at his office building; he was still the CEO of his company.

"Doesn't look like it." I turned a teasing smile on my friend. "Why are you so concerned, Meggie? Want to see your favorite character?"

"Of freaking course! Why wouldn't I want to see him?!"

"You hang out with the geek squad."

Meg laughed at the 'derogatory' name the gang had acquired. "Come on, Meggie." With no argument, we walked into the school grounds and into class.

I was actually amazed to see Jounouchi had beaten us there. Meg gave a roll of her eyes at how excited he looked, tapped me on the back like it was a good luck charm, then headed to her desk. I tried to settle things at my own desk but was dragged by an arm around my neck to where the rest of the gang was. "What the heck, Jounouchi?!"

"Ya need to be part of the pow wow!" He exclaimed.

"Pow wow? For what?"

A set of tickets were thrust in my face, making me back up and attempt to read what the paper said. It looked like a ticket to some place. Wait a minute… He did mention hearing about a place where you could win tickets to some place. "Did you actually win?" Jounouchi nodded his head so fast, I was scared it was going to fly off. "Color me impressed."

"Be nice! Or I'm not taking you!"

I gave a laugh at that but gave a peek at Meg. She was rolling her eyes and doing the 'shoo' motion with her hand. She was ok with me leaving? I was still slightly concerned since there were apparently a lot more ghosts here than in the town where she was before but… The concern gave way to an idea.

Hopefully she wouldn't kill me for going through with it.

After school that day, I walked back to the game shop with the gang. Jounouchi and Honda were up front while Anzu, Yugi and I were a few paces behind. Meg would have joined us but she decided to be a good student and remain behind to catch up on things she might have missed in the curriculum that she should know in order to pass some classes. It was very studious of her; she whacked me for saying so. Jounouchi was still smiling and laughing about his luck.

"Do you have to walk like a freak?" Honda asked, eyebrow raised. "I know you're excited about winning this trip but it's a little embarrassing."

Jounouchi suddenly flipped around, moving to point a finger in Honda's face. We all stopped to see what he was going to do.

"You're the one who should be embarrassed for not thanking me!" Jounouchi retorted.

"You're right!" Yugi quickly thanked his friend, bright smile on his face. "Thanks a lot, Jounouchi!"

"And do you have something you want to say to me, Honda?"

"Yeah." Honda retorted. "I call dibs on the aisle seat!"

I laughed, rolling my eyes. My friends…

"Should be fun!" Yugi chirped. "Right, you two?"

"Anything with those two is bound to be a riot." I replied and Yugi laughed.

"I guess…" Anzu replied.

Yugi and I both turned to look at Anzu. She looked conflicted for some reason… Oh. I think I know what she was concerned about. Every time we go someplace, we wind up in trouble. It's happened with Meg, in Kaiba Land and who knew how many other places. She was probably hoping for a peaceful vacation for once. I for one would love a normal vacation but after over a year of being with these guys, it wasn't very likely. I was going to take what I could get. Anzu still hadn't spoken in a couple seconds so Yami popped out, most likely for the shock effect. It worked.

"Anzu?" He called and the girl jumped.

"Oh! Yugi!"

Anzu glared at me for cackling wildly. Yami also retaliated by elbowing me slightly but I only continued to laugh.

"Ready to do this?"

There was a moment before Anzu smiled again and nodded.

"It's party time!" Jounouchi cheered.

Honda and Jounouchi then started off, singing a song about how they were going on vacation, leaving Yami, Anzu and I in the dust.

"Well, at least it will be entertaining." Anzu looked over at me and I smiled, agreeing.

We had to survive the rest of the week of classes before we were able to get to the airport hop on the plane taking us to India. I didn't pack too much, only a few light clothes so I wouldn't be swamped with the heat. For the flight there, I settled with a similar outfit from California but this time with more durable shorts rather than leggings. I saw that Anzu and Honda followed similar ideas but Jounouchi… He had another idea. "Hey! Slow down! This isn't a race, ya know?!" Jounouchi had to have been carrying an entire laundry room on his back. That had to be the only explanation for why his stuff was so heavy. He was also panting like he had just run a marathon.

"Who told you to pack everything you owned for a six day trip?"

"A boy scout always comes prepared! You never know what we might need out there!"

"I'm going to regret asking this but what'd you bring?" I asked.

Jounouchi actually had to think about it. Oh no… please not a washing machine.

"Well… Ironing board… Hair dryer…"

Yep… I regret asking. The rest of the gang laughed at my expression as well as Jounouchi's need to bring a full ironing board.

"You're worse than me!" Anzu teased.

Our revelry was broken by the pilot of the plane arriving. Jounouchi had to dash after us as the pilot took us to the plane itself. It was a small one but hopefully not too small where they weighed even the smallest purse to see if it would stay up.

It was a long flight, longer than getting home from Kaiba Land. We flew through who knew how many time zones till we reached the subcontinent. A lot of us spent time resting, taking photos and other activities. I spent a majority of the time reading, as usual. The night before we were scheduled to get there, I was up late reading a book grandpa had gotten me on influential people in history. There were the basics like Caesar, Napoleon, Queen Victoria and others but I skipped one chapter entirely, not even wanting to deal with it. Yugi must have noticed as he flipped it back. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"You tell me not to skip chapters." Yugi chastised. "Why are you skipping this one?"

"I'm not a fan of the person they're discussing." I simply replied, moving the pages back so I could skip it.

Yugi stopped me again, practically snatching the book out of my hand. I gave a sigh, hopefully quiet enough that no one would hear me. Yugi looked over the page, reading the name of the chapter I was skipping.

"Alexander the Great?"

"Yes…"

"What about him do you not like?"

I gave a heaving sigh at that. There were a lot of things I could say but they would all send me on a rant that I didn't want to make Yugi endure. I settled on a sentence that was vague enough for me.

"I don't like what he made the world."

Yugi lifted his eyebrow at the sentence. I took my book back, setting my bookmark at the beginning of the chapter, and moving to the page where they had a map of the world. "Do you know a lot about Alexander the Great?"

"Not as much as you probably do but crash course me."

I rolled my eyes again but did as he asked.

"Alexander the Third of Macedon was born the heir to an already powerful kingdom. His father, Philip the Second, conquered the entirety of the Greek mainland before he was… suspiciously done away with and Alexander became king by the age of 20."

"Suspiciously?"

"Alexander is one of the main suspects for his father's murder."

Yugi gave a hum at that but allowed me to continue. "For the majority of his reign, he set about the known world on the most insane military campaign the world had ever seen at that point. From Greece, to Asia Minor," my finger traced the extent to which the Macedonian's campaign led him, "to the Middle East, even down to Egypt. For about 10 years, he ruled as the Pharaoh, even if he wasn't in Egypt for most of the time." Yami came out real quick with that. "He was considered a liberator to the Egyptian people, giving him royal titles and names in hieroglyphics. An oracle eventually proclaimed him the son of a god, Zeus-Ammon; some sort of mixture between Zeus and the King of the Egyptian Gods, Amun."

"You don't sound happy about that." Yami hummed.

"I'm not. There are rumors that he possibly bribed the oracle to say that, just to make him look better."

Yami adjusted the arm rest so that he could adjust me to lean on him. "He didn't leave Egypt until he consecrated a city with his name, Alexandria, up on the delta, where it would become a large port city as well as the home base for the…" I had to fight not to sneer at the name. "Ptolemaic dynasty." Yami didn't berate me for the pause, simply waiting for me to continue. "After that, he went back into battle against the Persians, claiming Babylon and Persepolis. Poor Persepolis, it didn't last long before someone set it on fire."

"Did he do anything to help?"

I adjusted so Yami couldn't see my face.

"He did order them to try and put out the flames but it came too late; the city was just… up in smoke."

I changed gears. "Eventually, he made it to the edge of India, crossing the Indus River valley. He stayed there for a little, moving every which way, while before his troops began to revolt."

"Revolt?"

"They were tired. They wanted to go home. Alexander wanted to stay. Had he continued on, he would have lost the respect and loyalty of his men – and he nearly did a couple of times – so he went back to Babylon to rest and plan. He was dead within a few weeks."

"What happened?"

I shrugged.

"No one really knows. Lots of theories from poison, illness, problems from heavy drinking and injuries, grief from losing his closest friend and or possible lover a couple weeks earlier… Too many. He was sick one day and 12 days later, he was gone."

Yami was silent and I took it as the chance for me to be done talking about the Macedonian. I put my book back into my bag, unclipped my charm so that it didn't get caught in my hair as I slept, reached up to turn off the light, then adjusted to get some last minute shut eye. Yami stayed out for a little bit longer. He adjusted when I was just starting to fall asleep so that he could whisper in my ear.

"What did you mean by you don't like what he made the world?"

I gave a sigh. Guess we were still on this topic. There was a moment of thought before adjusting back to him.

"Alexander wanted a world where there were mixed marriages, unprecedented friendships between people of different cultures and ethnicities et cetera et cetera. That's probably the one thing I do like about him but… The Hellenized world he created… It definitely put people of Greek heritage at the top of every food chain and the people who had lived there for centuries hurtling down the totem pole."

"Even in Egypt?"

I nodded. Yami adjusted further so that he could wrap an arm around my shoulders. I gave a happy hum at the affection. "It's not a bad thing to dream big."

"True… but he did have a big ego, kinda like someone I know…"

I was poked mercilessly for the tease and I had to hold in my laughter. "It's a good thing you have me so that your ego doesn't get too big."

"And I'm grateful."

The top of my head was kissed. "Get some sleep, Mereret." I happily listened.

When next I woke up, the rest of the gang were already jumping in their seats. I gave a quiet stretch before looking out my window. It was a legitimate jungle out there, a long river stretching for miles. It was utterly beautiful.

"We're almost there, kids!" One of our pilots cheered from the open cockpit.

"Think we can bungee jump over that river, guys?" Anzu squeaked.

"Why not?" Yugi replied cheerfully.

I would have replied with a firm no – I may have been an adrenaline junkie for rollercoasters but bungee jumping was right out – but I was stopped when my ears suddenly popped. The airplane suddenly was shaking violently.

"We're experiencing some minor engine trouble so please remain in your seats, keep your seatbelts fastened and don't panic." The pilot called back at us.

I think I may have been the only one not vocally panicking. I kept my hands clenched in my seat with my eyes shut. The grip only tightened when we took a near nose dive. "Mayday! Mayday! Our engines are down!" I barely had time to scream when our plane hit the water and crashed into the shore.

Thankfully, no one was hurt in the crash, not even the pilot. I had been shaken a bit but that was the extent of my injuries. I quietly berated myself when I saw the bit of ice clinging to the nose of the plane; while it may have stopped us from being flung into a tree, it was in public! Neither of the pilots noticed so that was a relief for me.

I walked over to where the rest of the gang had collapsed. Jounouchi had fallen to the ground in shock.

"I lost all my stuff!" He whined.

I had as well but I still had my strap bag. Thankfully, I had kept my charm inside it rather than trying to get it into my main luggage. Even if I lost the small bag, the charm Kokona had helped me place on it would ensure I didn't lose it for long.

"That was enough excitement to last the whole trip." Honda sighed.

"The pilot sent a distress signal," Anzu then breathed to us, "but he said it may take a while before help arrives."

Jounouchi then perked up quickly.

"Well I don't know about you," Jounouchi said as he bounced to his feet, "but I'm not wasting my free trip waiting for a rescue team!"

"I'm with you, dude!" Honda agreed. "Let's check this place out!"

"Later!"

Jounouchi and Honda then dashed into the forest. I would have been content to let them wander alone except Yugi and Anzu chased after them. Feeling left out, I dashed after them, if only to keep them out of trouble.

It felt like we walked for hours but it had only been a couple of minutes. I was starting to lose my sense of direction because of all the tress.

"So am I the only one who thinks walking aimlessly through an unknown jungle – that's probably filled with wild, man eating animals – is a bad idea?" Anzu mused.

"Nope!" I called out in agreeance.

"Nah!" Jounouchi hollered loudly, far more loudly than I did. "They're more afraid of us than we are of them!"

Honda's gasp sent the 'brave' Jounouchi scrambling up a tree. How brave. "Please tell me it's not a wild animal!"

"It's not a wild animal!" Honda gave Jounouchi that. "It's a person!"

A person? All the way out here? We all took a glance at each other before running into the clearing. A blond man wearing a dark coat of some kind had collapsed onto the ground. There were cuts and bruises across his face. What had happened?

When we got him sitting up, I sat closest to make sure he stayed upright. Anzu then gave him a bottle of water which he chugged nearly to the bottom. "Someone was thirsty!"

"Are you feeling better now?" Anzu asked.

The man gave a relieved smile after he finished swallowing the water.

"Much better in fact." The man replied. "I'm quite lucky you all came along."

He adjusted to sit better and a piece of cloth slid out of his robe. Yugi picked it up to hand back to him.

"Here you go!" Yugi then took a look at it and his eyes widened. "My grandpa has the same bandana!"

The man flew out of my grasp to grip at Yugi's shoulders. I squeaked at the suddenness.

"Wait! Are you Dr. Motou's grandson?!"

Yugi blinked up at the man. How did this guy know grandpa?

"As a matter of fact, yes. Is my grandfather ok?"

The man then gave a sound of discomfort.

"He's… uh… Now, how shall I put this…"

The man leaned back against the rock we had settled him on. "Dr. Motou is a colleague of mine and on our latest expedition together, he disappeared." Disappeared?! Great! Another installment of the disappearing Grandpa! I didn't dare say that in front of Yugi, who looked just as panicked as the last time this happened. "My name is Dr. Alex Brisbane and your grandfather is my archaeological mentor as well as one of my dearest companions. Now come and I'll show you where I last saw him." I wasn't too enthused with following the man but… if Yugi went, I would go.

We all followed Dr. Brisbane further into the jungle. I felt the slight shiver down my spine that was the notice that Yami was poking his head out slightly. He didn't take control so he was just talking to Yugi. Yugi was probably needing the comfort after the latest Grandpa disappearance. I was able to keep walking a couple more feet before Yugi came over to me.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I asked softly. "Or Yami's at that?"

"He's convinced this is too convenient." Yugi replied. "We win the trip, plane crashes, meeting Dr. Brisbane…"

Yugi's hand then moved to the puzzle. "And the puzzle's also been acting strange. I'm starting to agree with him…"

Was this something to do with their nightmares? When Yugi didn't say anything more, I settled a hand onto Yugi's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"And I agree. It seems too perfect for it to be just coincidence. I'll keep my eyes open."

Yugi nodded his head firmly.

After anther few minutes in the trees, we finally exited into a large clearing. I was blinded by the sun for a second before they adjusted on the strangest sight I had ever seen. "What is a pyramid doing here?! And how the hell did they build it inside that pit?!"

It was a full pyramid complex inside the pit below us, complete with the long passage way up to the pyramid itself and two smaller pyramids next to it. I stared at it for a long moment, trying to make sense of it.

"That is exactly what Dr. Motou and I were trying to find out." Dr. Brisbane replied to my confusion.

It took us a few minutes to climb into the pit. I kept muttering about how perfect the pyramid looked: from the color of the stone, to the fact that the capping stones were still in place and all the way to the ben-ben stone still in place at the tip. What the heck was this?!

"So spill it, doc!" Jounouchi turned to Dr. Brisbane as we walked along the passage up to the pyramid. "What's the deal with this place?"

"Well, if my theory is correct, it's the legendary Pyramid of Alexander!"

"I'm gonna need more info. For starters, who's this Alexander?"

"Why Alexander the Great of course!"

My huff alerted Yugi, who tried to muffle his laughter.

"Your favorite person!" Yugi tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

"Joy…" I replied. "But why is it here of all places! Alexander was buried in Alexandria! In Egypt!"

I was gently shushed by Anzu, who was listening to Dr. Brisbane talk.

"At one point in history, he controlled Egypt, making him one of the great Pharaohs." Dr. Brisbane continued talking.

I held back a scoff. Great, huh?

"Huh…" Jounouchi nodded his head. "Well I guess that explains the whole pyramid thing."

"But it doesn't explain why it was built in the middle of a jungle hundreds of miles from Egypt." Anzu added on.

"Indeed." Dr. Brisbane looked back at us. "It is that very mystery that led Yugi's grandfather and I halfway around the world in search of its origins!"

But when they entered, Dr. Brisbane was the only one to come back out. Yikes. I hoped Grandpa was ok.

We all had to stick close for when we entered the Pyramid. The traps made that abundantly clear. From sharp needles in the floor, collapsing stairs, deep pits with spikes and even a dark and dusty tunnel, this pyramid was chock full of surprises. I agreed with Anzu's question of how he knew this pyramid so well despite only having gone through it once. Now I was getting suspicious.

I kept my eyes and ears peeled as we continued on, eventually reaching a split off room. There were two stairwells, one that went up and one that went down. Dr. Brisbane explained that he and Grandpa split up in their initial search of the pyramid. When the man came back down from the upper level, Grandpa wasn't there to greet him. He then found the lower staircase and found Grandpa's bandana there. Following that clue, we all walked down the stairs to reach the largest room yet.

"Hey, doc!" Honda huffed. "Didja forget to mention there's a room the size of Cleveland down here?"

How would he know how large Cleveland was? I didn't but… huh?

"And check out the floor!" Anzu gasped. "It looks like a map or something!"

Sure enough, there was… From the darkness of the room, it was hard to see what it was of. The only thing I could truly make out was the splashes of blue water at an edge.

"Yeah!" Yugi agreed. "But of what?"

"Let's stop standing around and look for him!" Jounouchi barked before racing down the last bit of stairs and into the room.

We all called for him to wait but it was too late. The moment he stepped on one of the tiles of the map, he was sucked inside with a blast of light. What the heck was… We dashed to the side of the map but I stopped a few feet back. The magic rolling off this thing was immense. It sent pulses out all around the room with it faintly reaching outside.

This was the thing keeping the pyramid in pristine condition. But what was it?

"Well, according to my research," Dr. Brisbane suddenly jumped in, "this pyramid is supposed to contain some sort of ancient game."

That would definitely lure Grandpa here. But I would have stayed far away from it. There was no excitement in me now. I just wanted to get away.

I was then grabbed by the arm.

"You're coming with us!" Honda cheered.

"What?!" I gasped.

I had no choice but to jump onto the map with Anzu, Yugi and Honda. I was only able to let out a squeak before we all were sucked inside the small map tile.

Yami Bakura: Cheese galore.

Shaddup! I thought it was really good!

Yami Bakura: ... and cheesy.

Shut up!