Atem cries out when he feels his body slam on the ground. He coughs after the dirt below him enters his lungs and a few leaves from the trees hovering over him land on his body. The sky is dark and the moon casts a scattered light on him through the branches and leaves of the trees. Rolling to his back, his pants heavily, wondering how he even got there. It doesn't appear that they are in the city. Instead, it's the middle of a forest with no signs of life anywhere, it seems. The last thing he remembers is placing a penalty on Jiro and losing control again. And then someone collided into him, presumably Mana, to get him out of there.
Looking down to the puzzle, he lets out a heavy sigh. Will he ever get a full grasp on it? And what about the Pyramid of Light?
"I have a feeling that we will be facing a greater evil in the near future," he says to himself.
The sound of a boom in the distance shoots him up into a sitting position as he looks in the direction of where the sound came from with alarm. "Mana, where have you taken us?" he asks, assuming she is near him. But when he doesn't receive a response, he looks from left to right frantically. "Mana?"
Hearing the sound of another explosion, he springs to his feet, running off toward the smoke that begins to rise. He dashes and zig zags through the trees, wondering if the sound of the screams are coming from Mana. But as he gets closer, he realizes there are multiple screams from men and women. Emerging from the woods, he comes across a small town that is currently on fire and chaos ensuing as people run around in all directions while others have taken it upon themselves to try and extinguish the fire on their own.
He sees a weak, wooden building engulfed in flames on the verge of collapse as a woman holds her small child who sobs. "Watch out!" Atem yells, dashing off and pushing them out of the way just in time. Telling by the way all of the buildings are on fire as well as some of the craters in the ground, this doesn't look like an accident.
Raising to his hands and knees, he looks over to the woman and child. "Are you alright?" The woman nods with a tearful and frightened expression. "Who did this?"
The woman looks over his shoulder and her eyes go up toward the sky. She points upward and Atem turns around, seeing a silhouette floating in the air, partially concealed by smoke.
"Is that…?" As the silhouette comes closer, he notices they are carrying a wand, as well as wearing a magician's hat and he gasps with realization. "Dark Magician Girl?"
The magician fires off more blasts into buildings that are still standing, narrowly missing the innocent people who continue to scatter for safety. "Dark Magician Girl, stop!" Atem yells, standing to his feet. He isn't sure why this is happening, nor where Mana is, but he has to put a stop to this.
"You leave me no choice," he says, reaching into his pocket to grab his most trusted card. But the deeper he reaches into his pocket, the more he comes out empty handed and his heart sinks. He checks his other pocket, only to have the same outcome. "No…" The card he uses to summon Dark Magician is missing. But how? He has never misplaced his most treasured card before.
He watches helplessly as the Dark Magician Girl points her wand at him and the two people behind him, preparing to send an attack their way. What is he supposed to do now? Without his Dark Magician, how can he protect these people? Glancing behind him, he sees the mother holding onto her son tightly as she weeps, seemingly accepting her fate and Atem shuts his eyes. He cannot allow this to happen. He cannot just stand there and await for what's to come.
The Dark Magician Girl shoots out her Dark Burning Attack with a battle cry and the blast goes hurdling toward Atem with the mother and child cowering behind him. He shakily places his hands on the Millennium Puzzle as his heart begins to race. Now is the time to get rid of any fear. These people are depending on it. There's more to this ancient object than just initiating penalties. He feels that deep down.
The blast seemingly makes contact with him and the Dark Magician Girl displays a devilish grin as she twirls her wand and rests it on her shoulder. Feeling victorious, she turns away to continue with her destruction. That is, until the same blast she shot at her victims comes barreling back at her. She blinks and grits her teeth before attempting to escape. The blast collides into her and she shrieks, followed by an explosion in the air.
Opening his eyes, Atem gasps, seeing a forcefield has formed in front of him. The eye of Wdjat glows on his forehead and his hair and clothes gently sway from the powerful aura around him. "Did I…?" He looks down to the Millennium Puzzle, realizing that it is in fact the reason behind the shield. "So the Millennium Puzzle really can be used for more than just penalties and summoning the gods…"
He looks up to the sky where there are no signs of the Dark Magician Girl anywhere and he breathes out a sigh. He is still confused as to why she attacked this little town to begin with and he hasn't seen Mana either.
"Thank you, sir," the mother says.
Sensing something else approaching, he looks at her from over his shoulder. "Get far away from this place, understand?" She slowly nods her head and runs off with her child in her arms.
Seeing another blast come his way, he activates the puzzle again to form a protective barrier, sighing with relief when it works instantly. But he soon gasps when he sees Mana walking in his direction. Is she one that did that just now?
No. There's no way.
Her eyes are hidden by her brown bangs and part of her dress from Kaiba's event is torn, partially revealing her toned stomach. He looks to her arm that has dried blood and instinctively runs up to her. "Mana, what's happening?" He grips her shoulders, trying to get a good look at her. "Why did Dark Magician Girl do this?"
"I couldn't control it…" Her shoulders begin to tremble and she whimpers. "What I have done?"
Atem's eyes widen. Was this all a terrible accident? It would definitely explain a lot. This doesn't seem like something Mana would do out of her own free will.
"What do I do?" she whispers.
He brings her closer, wanting nothing more than to comfort and assure her that everything will be okay. But why did this happen? "It's going to be alright. We'll fix this. Somehow…"
"I'm so…weak…" she says, pulling away and looking down at her hands. "What if I truly can't handle all of this power…?"
"That's not true!" Atem says as she turns her back. "You are worthy of its power!" He hitches in a breath, placing a hand on his puzzle. This all sounds so familiar to him.
"Help…" she says, slowly stretching out her arm and aiming her palm at a cowering group of people, much to Atem's horror. "…it's just too much…"
"Wait, stop!"
"I can't control it…" A magical sphere forms at her hand and shoots out to the innocent people.
"Mana, don't!" he pleads, but it's too late and soon, the screams of multiple people fill the air.
She slowly turns in his direction, revealing her face to him and her abnormally crimson eyes to his shock. He has never seen this side of her before. Is she possessed? Has her power really gotten too hard for her to control? This time, she aims her hand at him.
"Snap out of it!" he yells. "I don't know what's going on, but you have to control it!"
"I…can't…"
"Yes you can!" He has a sudden feeling of déja vu. These are the exact words that he himself has muttered when he couldn't control the penalty he was inflicting on Jiro. And now, he is being faced with convincing Mana that she is in fact worthy of the power she possesses.
"Why should I believe you?" she asks. "You yourself can't even master your own abilities. You're scared."
Atem closes his eyes. She isn't wrong. He is scared. It's why he has tried avoiding using the Millennium Puzzle most times. But something Mana said in the past begins to finally make sense. He can't truly master the puzzle if he doesn't try. Fear will only make things worse. And with trouble on the horizon with the arrival of the Pyramid of Light, he has to master it.
He has always been confident in the past. And whatever he has put his mind to, he has achieved, even during the toughest moments.
Opening his eyes with the symbol of the puzzle glowing on his forehead, he calmly walks up to Mana who gasps. Her arm begins to tremble and the ball of energy that she previously formed in her hand withers away.
'If I can enter people's minds and cause illusions…then maybe I can do the opposite and open her mind!' he thinks to himself as his hands reach out to her.
His vision becomes pitch black for a moment until he is finally able to open his eyes. As he lays on the floor, he looks up, seeing shelves containing books tower above him, reaching all the way to the ceiling. Standing up, he realizes he is in an enormous study. On the tables nearby, there are stacks of books with several of them being opened.
"Is this really the inside of Mana's mind?" he asks himself as he walks through the room, noting that most of the books appear to be spell books. "But where is she?" Gazing ahead, he sees a main desk with a bell on it. Observing the golden bell, he taps it, causing a high pitched chime to ring out.
"You've made it," a feminine voice echoes, causing him to look around.
"Hello?"
From behind the desk, Mana emerges with her arms folded.
He gasps. "Mana!"
"Welcome."
"I'm here to help you!" Atem tells her, the events still fresh in his mind.
A smile appears on her lips and she shakes her head with a light chuckle. "There is no danger here."
Atem looks at her with disbelief. "Have you forgotten what has happened? You lost control! Burned down a town! And…" He lowers his eyes. "…hurt innocent people…"
"I assure you no one was hurt during this crash course of training."
Atem blinks repeatedly, thrown off by her words. "What?"
Her smiles grows even bigger as she nods. "None of what just happened is real. In fact, the only thing that actually happened is you entering my mind."
His eyes go big. "So this was all apart of some sort of training you came up with?"
"Exactly." She levitates over the desk to stand directly in front of him. "I wanted you to see that when it comes down to it, when you get rid of any doubt, there's nothing you can't do."
"So your magic is under control?"
Mana places her hands on her hips with a confident smile. "Of course! I only did that so you can capture a glimpse of my point of view when you doubt yourself."
"What do you mean?"
"I probably sounded so silly saying how much I doubted being able to use my powers, right?" She places her hands behind her back, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, that's exactly how you sound to me when you begin doubting yourself! You're more than capable of handling the powers of the Millennium Puzzle! I mean, you've summoned the Egyptian gods for Ra's sake!"
She snaps her fingers, appearing right behind him and he looks over his shoulder. "And you managed to enter my mind without causing any penalties, might I add."
Atem's eyes widen with realization. "You're right." When he turns to completely face her, she makes a card magically appear in her hand and gives it to him.
"Hope you didn't mind me borrowing this for a minute," she says. "I figured you'd immediately resort to using him so I took it in order to challenge you to use the puzzle."
He looks at the card with relief. "Dark Magician." Then he looks up at Mana. He can't believe she did such an elaborate training to help him. But he is grateful, and it has truly given him the boost of confidence he needs to continue honing the powers of the puzzle instead of running from it. "Thank you."
"Glad I could help!" she breathes out an exhausted sigh, dropping to her knees and he crouches down to her.
"I assume performing such a huge spell for this training has left you drained."
She chuckles weakly. "What gave it away?"
He lifts her up bridal style and smiles warmly at her. "Let's go."
She smiles back. "There's my Atem." she says, feeling that he is getting back to himself again.
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The following morning —
Only a few hours have gone by between the events that happened last night to this morning and one person in particular is feeling it as she stands in the elevator alongside Atem, patting down her somewhat unruly hair as she tries to keep her eyes open. Typically these meetings with Kaiba only involve himself, Atem and Yugi. But this time around, he has also requested to see Mana and Téa as well.
"The fact that Kaiba wants to see me too, cannot be a good thing," Mana groans. She leans on the elevator wall with her arms crossed, her eyes closed at this very moment as she tries to imagine what he will have to say. Surprisingly, when Mana relayed to Atem some of the events that led up to yesterday's fiasco, he wasn't upset.
Mostly.
Her intentions were in the right place as she wanted to protect him, but he still would have liked to know, especially since it seems like their daughter had a run in with the Pyramid of Light at the museum.
"We certainly did make a mess of things," Atem says understandably, staring at their reflection through the golden elevator doors.
"I know, but I'm so tiredddd," she whines, dragging out the last bit of her sentence.
"I bet," Atem sympathizes, feeling drained himself as the doors open. "Let's just get this over with."
Yugi and Téa are already there, anxiously awaiting for Kaiba and Kisara to show up. Not wanting to drift off to sleep, Mana chooses to stand near Téa while Yugi and Atem stand side by side on the opposite side of the blue couch Téa is sitting on.
"Hey Téa," Mana greets in a grainy and tired voice.
"Hey," she greets back, looking as equally as tired.
Mana lazily looks over at her. "Long night?"
"We spent two hours trying to look for the Pyramid of Light and came up empty handed. You?"
"Long story…" Mana feels a bit relieved that Téa is even talking to her, especially after she blew up at her and Kisara. Maybe Téa's so tired that even the thought of giving the silent treatment to her two friends seems tiresome. But Mana knows that they will have to have a discussion sooner or later.
The soft 'ding' from the elevator is enough to wake them all up, knowing that Kaiba and Kisara will be stepping through those doors in a matter of mere seconds. They can only imagine what his facial expression will be and the tone of his voice. Kaiba's signature cold stare is bad enough, but knowing that he will be justified in his anger will be a lot to handle.
Kisara is the first to emerge, causing Téa and Mana to immediately look away awkwardly, even though they can practically feel her gaze burning into their skulls. Seto soon follows, going up to his desk that sits in the middle of the office and setting his big metal briefcase down next to him. He begins to type away on his computer, leaving the room in silence initially. Although it was less than thirty seconds, it's enough for Yugi to have the urge to speak, if even a simple 'hello' to get the ball rolling.
"Do you want the good news or bad news?" Kaiba starts off the conversation to everyone's bewilderment.
"There's good news?" Téa asks, blinking.
Seto continues to look at the screen in front of him. "Yugi."
Yugi stiffens up. "Y-Yes Kaiba?"
"Your friend Wheeler actually managed to make a good impression last night. Mai, too."
A sense of relief overcomes Yugi and he cracks a smile. "Well that is good news!"
"So I will be having them both on as mentors," Seto announces.
"That's great! Thank you Kaiba!"
He then lifts his eyes to stare at them all with an angry gaze and they all gulp in unison. "Who wants to be the first to tell me what happened last night in the lobby?"
"Well…" Yugi starts off.
"And before anyone gets started, let me be the first to tell you that there are cameras all over this building, so I already have a good idea. I just wanted to hear from your mouths."
Atem groans. This was definitely the sort of conversation he was expecting from his cousin.
"There were people laying unconscious on the floor along with an escaped convict by the name of Jiro who was confirmed to be armed at that time. There were broken windows and don't get me started on the women's restroom. Actually, no. What happened in there? It's the only place where cameras aren't installed."
Kisara turns her eyes to her magician friend. "Mana?"
Mana flails her arms. "Why me?!"
"Because who else is able to tear a bathroom sink clean off the wall?" Kisara asks.
"Just take the heat for it," Téa mutters over to Mana, knowing it was actually Mai who is responsible for it. "Mai just got the mentor position. You don't want Seto snatching it away."
Mana drops her head and whimpers. "Okay, you got me."
"Mana will restore everything to is original condition," Atem says, earning a side eye from his wife. "But we have bigger problems."
"You're lucky that I was able to attribute the passed out guests in the lobby to alcohol, but if they don't wake up soon, I'll have an even bigger problem on my hands. In the future, do me a favor…keep all of that crazy mumbo jumbo away from my property."
"Kaiba, there is a greater evil at work here. One that could possibly threaten the entire world."
"Leave me out of it."
"Jiro mentioned something about stealing souls," Yugi speaks up. "I think he might have been collecting them in order to summon the spirit within the Pyramid of Light."
"Oh please. You expect me to believe there is something or someone snatching souls?"
"How else would you explain the unconscious people in the lobby?" Mana shrugs.
"Seto, I know you're upset, but it may be worth listening to them," Kisara says, to which Kaiba rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, with your luck, there's bound to be more trouble back here at Kaiba Corp.," Mana quips.
"Mana…" her blue haired friend grumbles, cutting her eyes at the magician.
"Back on the subject…" Téa intervenes. "What is the plan?"
Yugi sighs. "There doesn't seem like there's much we can do at this point except staying aware of our surroundings."
YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGO
Rex climbs the stairs that will take him to Weevil's room. His friend had insisted he come over first thing in the morning, not offering any explanation as to why his request was so urgent. He sucks in his teeth when the tip of his foot just taps one of the steps, causing him to trip a little, but he quickly regains his balance with a sigh of relief. When he reaches the top, the door is cracked and it appears the lights aren't on.
"Weevil?" Rex slowly creeks the door open, looking around the dark room. He gasps when he feels himself being yanked inside and the door slams shut behind him. Looking back with alarm, he sees Weevil leaning on the door with a grin. "What's with you?"
Weevil snickers. "Wait til you see what I've got!" He goes over to his desk that is on the right side of his bedroom wall, placing his hand on the knob of the top drawer.
Rex folds his arms, halfway rolling his eyes. "This better be good. I'd still be sleep right now if it weren't for you."
"Oh, it's more than good." Weevil pulls out the drawer and a blue light emits from it, catching Rex's interest. "Take a look."
Rex hesitantly walks up to the desk, still keeping a nice distance as he peers over to see what's inside. His eyes grow bigger when he recognizes the object. "Is that…No…it can't be."
"It is."
Rex looks over to his friend with a shocked expression. "But how? You didn't steal it, did you?"
"Let's just say it found me."
"I don't get why you're so excited about this. It's no Millennium Jigsaw," Rex points out to Weevil's annoyance.
"Millennium Puzzle. And of course it isn't. It's much better." Weevil rubs his hands together mischievously. "With this, I'll be unstoppable."
"How do you even know how this thing works?"
Weevil picks the pyramid up in the palm of his hands, gazing down at it. The blue light emitting from it causes that same color to be reflected on his golden rim glasses as he grins. "Call me crazy, but when I found it last night and brought it up here, a voice spoke out to me. It claimed that I could have whatever I desire. And what I want is to be the world's best duelist there is!"
"You're right. You do sound crazy." Rex turns away, hiding his concerned expression. Ever since this talk of the Millennium Puzzle came up and now the Pyramid of Light, his friend has been acting stranger by the day. And now he's talking about voices making promises to him?
'He has completely lost it,' Rex thinks to himself. 'But I don't know what to do. Who do I turn to?'
Weevil ignores his previous comment. In his mind, the Pyramid of Light is the one thing he needs for his father to actually be proud of him. If it can truly grant his wish, he will be unstoppable. He can beat the members of the dueling club that taunt and tease him. He could even beat Yufi after having such a humiliating defeat. Cairo is not exempt either.
And why should he stop there? The possibilities seem endless and he has a feeling the pyramid can do a lot more than just helping him win duels.
"From this point forward, I will be unstoppable," Weevil proclaims, placing the Pyramid of Light around his neck. "Just you wait."
YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGO
AN: A quicker update this time around! It's the least I could do for making you wait! Hope you enjoyed this interesting chapter! Who do you think Rex will turn to for help? And it seems Atem is taking a step in the right direction.
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