Yugi exits the bathroom. He's wearing his blue pajamas. He has just brushed his teeth and is ready for a good night sleep. He stretches. He takes the Millenium Puzzle in his hands and looks at it. 'Good night, partner,' he says with a sleepy smile.
He enters his room and... almost screams in shock. In the dark, he can make out a silhouette. Is he... wearing a turban? And what is that thing hanging down from his neck? It looks like a Millenium Item, but, in the dark, Yugi cannot discern any further details or this man's features.
'Do not fear, Yugi. I mean no harm,' the man says, though his voice sounds threatening. 'I am here to give you a warning. Beware of the thief.'
'The... thief?' Yugi mouths.
'He wants your Millenium Puzzle and he shall strike soon,' the man carries on. 'He has neither the honor nor the nerve to face you directly. He shall use one of your loved ones. A person really close to you, brainwashed by him, shall attack you when you least expect it.'
'Which person?' Yugi gasps. 'And who are you?'
After a moment of silence, the man answers only the second question. 'You can call me Shadi.'
Without a warning, Yugi turns the lights on. But Shadi is no longer there. As if he never was there!
Pegasus is sitting in his chamber, at his desk, and checking something on the Industrial Illusions site. He's wearing a white bathrobe. With one hand, he's holding a glass of red juice. With his other hand, he's sliding the mouse.
Mai, who has been sleeping on his bed (!), sits up and stretches with a smile. It is implied that she is nude, though certain 'strategic' parts of her body are covered by the sheets, so that this fanfic remains T rated. Her eyes fall on her lover.
'Awake already, honey?' she wonders.
'Yes,' Pegasus nods, not taking his eyes off the screen. 'I'm checking out some feedback on my company's site.'
Mai casually hugs a pillow. 'Feedback about duel monsters?' she asks.
'Yes,' Maximillion nods again. 'It's sent from players from around the world.'
Mai puts on her nightgown. She stands up, approaches her lover and gently wraps her arms around his neck. She looks curiously at the screen. 'So there are people who think this game could become better?' she raises an eyebrow.
'There is always room for improvement, Mai,' Pegasus replies. 'I wouldn't be such a successful businessman if I rested on my laurels.'
Next he proceeds to read some players' comments. 'Here, one points out that, as more and more new card sets' booster packs are released, more and more people gain access to strong monsters with over 2000 ATK points, which, when the game first came out, were very few and rare and thus a privilege of players who were either dedicated enough to find them and rich enough to buy them or at least lucky enough to pull them out of a booster pack. As a result, weaker monsters tend to become useless in competitive game.'
'I don't think this will ever be the case,' Mai argues. 'I mean, most weak monsters have effects that render them far from worthless. Besides, don't forget that including too many powerful monsters in your deck is a double edged sword. If, for instance, the opponent plays a card that prevents you from using powerful monsters and you have no weak monsters in your deck, you can't keep playing and you automatically lose. If I recall right, isn't this how you defeated Kaiba at the Duelist Kingdom?'
'Even so,' Pegasus sighs, troubled, 'I still think that I should modify the rules a little, in order to give weak monsters more chances to shine. I could possibly introduce some summoning condition so that powerful monsters won't be able to be summoned right off the bat.'
'Any other interesting feedback?' Mai changes the subject.
Pegasus searches a little, until he reads something: 'Here, one complains about how annoying it is when you gain the upper hand over the opponent and the opponent manages to stall by playing monsters in defense mode for 10 consecutive turns.'
Mai laughs. Although she has included in her deck plenty of cards that can stop the opponent from avoiding losing by doing this, such as Stop Defense and the Shadow of Eyes, she admits that there have been several times in her career when some opponent got on her nerves by stalling in the aforementioned way for many, many turns. Moreover, theoretically, there is always the possibility that some worthless player might cause an opponent to run out of cards this way, thus achieving an unexpected victory, which is not very fair come to think of it. 'Yeah, I, too, think you should fix this part of the rules,' the woman agrees out loud.
'Anyway,' Pegasus stands up and stretches. 'I'll give this more thought later. Now it's time I started getting prepared.'
'Huh? For what?' Mai raises an eyebrow.
'I'm going to Domino City. Have you forgotten, honey?' Pegasus asks, a little annoyed. 'Today is the day that Duke Devlin, the young, talented gamer who created dungeon dice monsters will present his game in public at his store. He has a contract with my company, so I have to be there. Do you want to come?'
Mai caresses her chin. 'Is that dungeon dice thing good?' she wonders.
'I wouldn't have offered that Duke boy a contract if his game had no sales potential,' Pegasus answers, kinda offended.
Mai agrees to come along. After all, this will be a good opportunity to see her friends again.
In the hotel room, Rebecca Hawkins is restless. 'So, is it time to go visit your old friend, Solomon, gramps?' she nags her guardian, Arthur Hawkins.
Arthur is still wearing his bathrobe, which is an old fashioned, dark brown color. He is sitting at the dining table and reading his morning newspaper while drinking a cup of coffee.
'Be patient, Rebecca,' the older man chuckles, taking his eyes off his read. 'We arrived in Japan only yesterday. There is no need to hurry.'
'But I can't wait to get my revenge on that stupid old man who stole your Blue Eyes White Dragon card,' Rebecca bounces impatiently. 'I want to defeat his grandson, Yugi Moto, in a duel.'
Arthur sighs. Here we go again! He has tried to explain to Rebecca many times that Solomon didn't steal anything; he gave him the Blue Eyes White Dragon on his free will. But that stubborn, spoiled girl just doesn't want to listen!
'Just let me finish my coffee,' Arthur shakes his head and goes back to reading.
Rebecca looks around. How is she to pass the time in this boring hotel room until she gets to fight Yugi? She knows! She can watch the Duelist Kingdom finals. For the umpenteenth time.
Rebecca sits on the carpet, in front of the tv, and pushes a videotape in the player. Mai appears on the screen, dueling in the finals.
'Mai Valentine, the Duelist Kingdom champion, is so cool,' Rebecca comments. 'She is my idol.'
Still reading his newspaper, Arthur chuckles, shaking his head again, this time with amusement. Since the day Rebecca first watched that video, she has developped a feeling of worship towards the Duel Queen. That has caused changes in her demeanor as well. Although Rebecca is 12, until recently, she seemed more like an 8 year old girl or something; she would tie her blonde hair in pigtails that made her look way younger than she is, she would babytalk and she would never part with her teddy bear. Nowadays, she lets her hair down, both literally and figuratively. Often, her attempts to imitate her new female role model result in her acting like an adult in ways that Arthur deems inappropriate for her age. He thinks that Rebecca has unintentionally sexualized herself too much lately. (Well, he really hopes it is unintentional! If it turns out that his little angel is interested in boys already, he will probably have a heart attack!)
In a dark room, in an unknown place, Marik is sitting on a throne like chair, stroking the Millenium Rod. His face is partly concealed by darkness as well as his black hood. He is lost in thought.
He cannot think of anyone he has hated in his life as much as the nameless pharaoh. It was because of that person, that self proclaimed infallible representative of Gods, that Marik was forced to spend the first 11 years of his life in the darkness. While normal children were outside, playing in the sunshine, he had to sit in a dimly lit, dull, miserable room for hours, learning by heart long, tedious passages from ancient, religious books. While normal children enjoyed their mothers' caresses and lullabies, he suffered his father's lashes over the most trivial misdemeanors. While normal children celebrated their 11th birthday with friends, songs and fun games, he 'celebrated' his with a hellish ritual. He will never forget the horrible physical pain he felt that day. Even if he tried to, the tattoos on his back shall never let him!
And what would his reward for all the above be in the end? Death! That's what his sister, Ishizu, and his father taught him. The only reason that them Tomb Guardians exist is to guard the tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh. When the prophecy is fulfilled, when that pharaoh returns, they will have to kill themselves, since they will have served that purpose.
In other words, he was born merely to be a pawn. He had no rights. As all pawns, his destiny was to be sacrificed. For the sake of a worthless pharaoh, a person he never met. It is funny that a person he never met, a person he doesn't even know what looks like, whose stupid mug he has never seen, is the person he hates more than anyone and anything in the world. But at least he knows that much: That pharaoh is a 3000 year old spirit. And, instead of remaining dead, as every 3000 year old spirit does, he demanded that generations of people threw their lives away waiting for his return.
This is so unfair! And whenever, in his childhood, he asked Ishizu, with tears in his eyes, why things are the way they are, his big sister, with that exasperatingly apathetic expression on her face, would always give him the same answer: Destiny!
According to the Ancient Egyptian religion, we all are prisoners of our fate. Gods have already decided what will happen to us, which of us will be righteous and which of us will be corrupted.
Even so, Marik eventually managed to prove that wrong. He managed to take matters into his own hands, to escape that underground dumpster his family called home, to determine his life himself.
Still, though, he doesn't feel completely free. Only when he has had his revenge on the pharaoh, only when he has gathered all 7 Millenium Items as well as all 3 God Cards, thus stealing the pharaoh's power, will he be really free from his past.
Marik feels he deserves that power. He knows he deserves that power! It is fair compensation for everything he has gone through in his life. He is sure Gods condone it.
Odeon, his loyal stepbrother and servant, has tried many times to reason with him, to convince him to just let go of the past, to forget about revenge and make a fresh start. But Marik is determined not to let it go until he has obtained total power.
He is not sure what exactly will happen when he places all seven Millenium Items in the Millenium Stone and presents the God Cards before it. But, whatever it is, he sure can't wait to find out.
Marik's thoughts are interrupted by a henchman who has entered the room. 'Master Marik, the person you have brainwashed is ready. We are just waiting for your command to send that person against Yugi Moto.'
Marik raises his eyes and smiles. 'Let the operation begin,' he declares and laughs like a madman.
