Cut it short, had more to this but got tired of messing with it. Been out running around all day and just don't have the will in me to mess with much.

Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and everything related is (c) Kazuki Takahashi
Legacy of Kain characters, setting and everything related is (c) Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights.




Morning slowly rolled around, or at least Yami thought it was morning. The sky did lighten, but not by much. The smoke covering high in the atmosphere never allowed much sun. When a small shaft of almost solid light flickered across the gorge, he knew it was indeed in the daylight hours. He frowned as his stomach growled, while in control of the body he felt it's needs. He'd been up once before to relive himself, something he'd not done for a while. He had never been the one in control before when that was needed to be taken care of. He had almost missed it, amazing how such simple and mundane things could be missed when centuries where spent as nothing more than a spirit. Yami got to his feet and stretched, he had become stiff from sitting in the same position so long. And it did get quite chilly in the night, their proximity to the water was to blame for that. With a yawn, he walked back to the edge of the platform and sat down, allowing his feet to dangle over the edge. He leaned over slightly, just enough to rest his elbows near his knees. A small smile spread across his face as he felt Yugi stir in the Soul Room. His little Light had slept so peacefully, easy to do as nothing could disturb him inside the Puzzle unless Yami allowed it to pass through their bond. Yami waited for his Light to awaken fully before switching places and informing him of the gate he had found that night.
"Perhaps once Joey awakens we can check it out again?" Yugi said inwardly.
We could, but I'm not sure we'd turn up too much more. Wasn't much to the room. Yami replied.
"Maybe, or maybe we could find something you might have missed? I'd like to see it too, you've got my curiosity working."

The two sat in silence for a while, just watching the swirling water below. It had become strangely easy to ignore the haunting sounds that mixed with the water's roar. It took Joey a while to wake up, he complained of light sleeping, waking up several times and not being able to get back to sleep for a while.
"Ya know, I guess food is out of the question," the blonde sighed as his stomach grumbled it's protest to being empty.
"Unless we can find some settlement, I think we're on our own. We can go longer without food, at least," Yugi stated.
"Yeah, but it's still a nagging feelin, ya know?"
"Oh, wait! I think I have something..." Yugi picked his bag up from where it sat next to a bridge support and rummaged through it. His eyes lit up as he proudly pulled a plastic container out. "Grandpa gave me two small plums before we left the other day. Said to take them in case I got hungry. Isn't much, but it's better than nothing," he said before he handed one to the blonde haired teen.
"Got anything else in there?" Joey asked as he eagerly took the plum.
"Nope, the book, the water container used to be in here, that plum container an extra shirt and looks like a few school supplies. That's it, nothing that will help us now, I'm afraid." He almost sounded apologetic for not having anything to use.
"Don't sweat it. Hey, last night I think I saw a way to get to the cliff thing there on the left. We might have to go through tha water, but it's better'n nothing ya know? Might have more over there," Joey pointed to where he was talking about. He had finished his plum already, Yugi was taking his time though.
"Yami found something he thinks is interesting. Remember the door we ran past yesterday when that vampire thing was after us? It's behind there. Come on, it looked neat," Yugi said, his eyes sparkled in anticipation of it being something to help them.
"Well, since it doesn't require wading through soul soup, we can check it out," Joey nodded. He picked up both spears and handed one to Yugi, he was much shorter than his other counterpart and looked a might bit silly carrying something so tall.

The two studied the room much like Yami had, they spent more time on the images in the gate though.
I swear they were dim last night. Yami voiced his confusion over the considerably brighter images. Only one image remained dim, it showed a green room with shimmers of blues, purples and pinks across the carved face of a person.
They were all like that, touch it and see what I mean.
Yugi complied and reached out.
"Hey whoa Yuug, you sure it's safe?" Joey warned.
"Absolutely," he replied as his hand pressed up against an invisible force.
"Hm, stay there a moment." Joey walked around to the other side to see the same image, slightly different. He assumed it was just the opposite side of the same room Yugi was looking at. He reached out to touch it and met the same thing. "Well, it doesn't seem to depend on which side yer on," Joey said over the hum of the gate.
"Are you on the glowing rune?" Yugi asked.
"No, lemme move onto it, then." The blonde moved onto it, wondering how he was supposed to see a difference and how to cycle through images. As if on cue, the image shimmered and the gate hummed loudly as a new image phased into view.
"Hey! Careful Joey, we don't know what this thing might do," Yugi warned.
"Sorry bud, had no idea just thinking about how it worked made it work. Kinda creepy if you think about it."
"Everything here is creepy if you think of it," Yugi answered. "Joey, step off the rune. I'll do the same on my side." As soon as the two had stepped off the runes, the gate made a grinding sound and the images vanished. Joey walked right through the gate to get back to Yugi.
"Hey, I wonder if we should try walking through it on one of those other images," Joey said thoughtfully.
"I don't know. Seems odd everything would be brighter now..."
"Maybe it's just cuz it's day?"
"But why was that stone face one still dim, then? Something about it makes me think answers lie where it is."
"But it had that whole shimmer thing going on. All unreal and everything. Makes me think of the soul soup lake," Joey replied as he rubbed his arms to get rid of the chill he had caused himself to get.
"I suppose we could try to use the gate and see what happens. But we should stick together."
"You got it man, which one you wanna try?"
"I don't know, so many of them have the same symbols we saw on those flags and drapes. I don't really trust them."
"Yeah, but at least that means it's something familiar."
"True," Yugi agreed. "So, should we just randomly pick one?"
"Anything but that N symbol one."
"Agreed," Yugi nodded as he stepped back on the rune. The gate grinded and came back to life, he slowly cycled through the images until Joey asked him to stop.
"That one, the double crossed T. Looks a bit like a wing, don't it?"
"Which one, there are two. One has a mirror of it as well. Really does look like wings now."
"Na, just the single. I get the image of two meaning double of something and until we find out what is there, I don't want nothing double."
"Alright, the single it is," Yugi answered as he brought the gate back to the image. "After you, if I step off the rune the gate will shut down."
Joey gripped his spear as he slowly walked forward. He extended a hand and slipped it through the image. It shimmered a bit and rippled, as if he had touched water. "Feels alright, think it's a bit cooler on the other side, that's about it. Well, I'm going in, then." He took a deep breath and held it, not knowing if breathing was fine or not before he began to step through. The gate hummed louder as more of him passed through. When enough was in, he was pulled rather quickly through. His spear dropped to the ground, on the side he had just left.
"Aww, man," his voice sounded a bit distance as he realized he had lost it. He reached back through and tried to grab it, his hand got stuck as he tried to pull it through. "Wha?" he questioned as he pulled again.
"Suddenly I don't think this is such a good idea," Yugi bit his lip.
"It's cool, just bring yours and we'll be fine."
"If I can," Yugi whispered to himself. He quietly extended a hand, having to reach quite a bit to touch, he waiting until the gate was humming louder before he stepped off the rune. He was sure it would shut off if it wasn't in use and he didn't want to chance it. Yugi stepped off the rune and closer to the gate. It had done what it had to Joey, pulled when enough was in. He had totally relaxed, much like Joey and dropped the spear. He was already on the other side by the time he realized. The gate made an almost musical chord sound before it shut off. The crystal glowing on the inside and top, the runes as well.
"Damnit, guess we just have to start the gate up again and walk through to get the weapons..." Joey muttered.
"No, I don't think that will work. For some reason, they can't be brought through..."
"And why not? We made it through. Everything on us made it through. How come the spears couldn't?"
"Magic? I don't know. Let's just hope we either find something or don't need them."
"Oh, and did you happen to catch the symbol from our side in case we want to go back? I kinda... didn't," Joey said, he looked up at the ceiling a little embarrassed with himself.
"It was a swirl pattern, think of the water and you'll remember it," Yugi replied as he started walking to the only hall the room connected to.
"Right, Soul Soup Lake," he took note and jogged up to Yugi's side.

The hall was like the other gate room, stone and carved only enough so nothing too major protruded into the walkway. The door took effort to open, seemed all doors were overly thick and hard to move.
"So much damn rock. Sheesh, what is this, the stone age?"
"Well have you seen much wood around to build with? Come to think of it, only wood I've seen at all was the broken cart we used as fire wood and the torches scattered about," Yugi said quietly. Their voices echoed in here and they felt more comfortable talking in low tones anyway.
"Eh, work with what ya got, I guess. But you'd think they'd move if it was so rocky and mountainous around here."
"Well, everything was old enough to have been built when they was plant life around," Yugi shrugged.
"But these cliffs have always been here, I bet," Joey grumbled as they reached the end of one. A tier lay below it then another big expanse of rock. Joey thought he saw it drop off to yet another cliff to the left. But that wasn't of concern at the moment. There on the large rock area under them were two armored men. The men had seen them and had their weapons raised at the two teens. Out of instinct the boys put their hands up in an effort to show they weren't a threat.

"Come down, slowly," one of the men said. His voice was hard and like sandpaper. He held the large crossbow levelly at Yugi, his partner had his own aimed at Joey.
"Mm, knight in shinning armor," Joey joked as he more or less slid down the rock cliff. Yugi followed, the two stopped on the tier and waited for the armed men to ask them to hop off it. Once down the men had Joey and Yugi walk out to them slowly.

"What do you make of them, Richard?" one asked the other. He was of slighter build and seemed younger.
"Strange as they are, don't think they're a threat. Not vampires nor demons. Just, well look at them. Wizards? Only a wizard would dress that eccentrically," Richard replied. "With whom do you hold allegiance? Say Kain and we shall slay you were you stand," he threatened.
"Kain? Is that Mister Scary?" Joey asked. The armored man seemed un-phased by his humor.
"Mister Scary?" he repeated.
"Yes, taller than humanly possible man. Thick yellowish skin with stark white hair, a horned brow and three fingered hands," Yugi answered.
"Aye, that's the nave. Not a man, but a vampire. Vampire Lord. You adepts of his or worshippers?" Richard asked again sourly.
"Worshippers? Didn't even know his name. How could we worship him?" Joey asked.
"No, no we aren't. He seems to be after us for some reason though. I think he sees us as a threat."
"A threat, to Kain?" Through the helmet, Yugi could see Richard arch a brow in surprise. "Then you are certainly no threat to us if the Vampire Lord has deemed you a threat. Henry, you may lower your weapon," he said as he lowered his own. "Tell me, why did you come out of the vampire's gate? No one uses those as all lead to vampire territory. All but one, and I know for sure you did not come from there."
"We're lost. I mean, really lost. This is," Yugi paused, how much could he say? Could he say what he was thinking, that they were other worldly travelers or would that put them in more trouble?
"This is all new to us. Never seen anything before. Luck brought us to a gate and we tried it hoping it'd give us answers," Joey finished for him.
"Your accents are strange, you must be from the far reaches of Nosgoth. Your attire is strange as well, what rank of wizard are you?" Henry asked, speaking for the first time since his initial question.
"Uh, rank?" Joey questioned.
"Novice," Yugi answered for him at Yami's request. "Or self taught. We have no mentor, just learning what we can from where ever we can," he said hurriedly. Richard nodded, if they weren't from a major human settlement, it would be harder to find a master to learn from.
"And your names, strangers?" Henry prompted.
"I'm Joey Wheeler, this here is Yugi Mutou," the blonde boy answered.
"You have no knowledge of the area you now inhabit, do you?" Richard asked. Both boys shook their head. "And know nothing of the Clans that rule these lands?" Again, the two shook their heads. "Lads, you have put yourselves in great danger. And ignorance is not bliss in this case, take a seat but don't get comfortable. We're in the heart of Zephon's land. Though his brood have been sealed in the Cathedral, it isn't rare to get one out here ever so often. Firstly, how long have you been wandering around here and what have you seen?"

The two told their tale, omitting the strange door that brought them to this wounded land in the first place. They learned the open and greened ruins was a tomb, it held the great human warrior priests of the Sarafan, long ago ravaged by the vampire plague. The building with the pillars was the Sanctuary of the Clans, the center held the Pillars; symbols of Nosgoth tied spiritually and physically to the land. Their condition was the reason the land was sick and dead. The swirling vortex was the Lake of the Dead, a place that neither human nor vampire would dare venture. And the vampire they had fought was of the Dumahim clan.
"Something you should know of the Clans. There are five now, the sixth suffered a mass genocide long ago. That should prove how beastly they are. As a whole, vampires are vulnerable to sun. Fledglings will burn in it's touch. Even the feeble rays of our sun are harmful to them. Adults can withstand it, however. Adults can be told by red eyes. Impaling a vampire will kill it as well. The reason your foe was able to assault you again was because you had removed the stake. A stake must remain in place until the body has been dismembered or has rotted away. Water kills as well. Any water, it burns them like acid. Fire too will work as a method to kill them. There are exceptions to the water, Rahab and his brood evolved enough to allow them to live in water. But sun will kill any age vampire of his clan. The Dumahim are the most wide spread, their leader has been disposed of. His body sits impaled upon his own thrown," Richard seemed pleased with his last bit of information.
"How do we tell the clans apart?" Yugi asked out of curiosity. If he missed anything, Yami would be sure to catch it.
"You've seen the Dumahim, and their symbol is this," Henry said as he scrawled the N symbol into the dirt.
"That we have," Yugi replied.
"Oh! We've seen a lot of those symbols. Lemme show ya," Joey eagerly announced as he began to drag a finger in the dirt, drawing all the symbols he had remembered.
"This one," Richard said as he pointed to the angular, backwards question mark, "is the symbol of Raziel. The highest ranking of Kain's vampire Lieutenants. He was executed long ago, his clan was wiped out. Why, no human knows exactly why he was. This symbol," he pointed to the double backwards sevens, "is for Turel. Second highest Lieutenant. His clan is the most powerful. Large, fast and agile they hold great strength and can use some sort of magic blast. This next one," he pointed to the N, "is Dumah's. Nothing much to say since you have already faced one of his decent. He ranks under Turel. After him is Rahab," the five and S like symbol was tapped, "the water fiend and his brood can also use magic blasts as weapons. They swim faster and better than any man but are sluggish on land. Second to last is Zephon, where you currently are," he drew attention to the double T wing-like symbol, "they are like insects. Spiders with the ability to climb walls and cocoon their prey. So many men lay in that Cathedral as food for the monsters. Last is the weakest of the Lieutenants; Melchiah," the sideways three was pointed to. "They skin their prey, wearing the flesh to hold their rotting corpses together. Burrowers they are, can pop up behind any warrior unannounced. Kain himself holds this symbol." The last symbol was motioned too. Looking at how it had been drawn, it reminded Yugi of Kain's face. The horned brows that sat over ears just as oddly shaped.
"Why is the sky all smoke screen like?" Joey asked.
"The vampires built huge furnaces all over Nosgoth to blot out the rays with the smoke the stacks billowed. They've only helped further the decay of our land. We struggle to survive now," Richard scowled.
"I'm sorry," Yugi felt compelled to say.
"You must be from far away if you know nothing of this," Richard said.
Further than they know. Yami said to Yugi.

A clank above them followed by voices drew everyone's attention. Joey and Yugi were on guard, the two armored men didn't seem worried at all. Two more armored figures eventually appeared on the edge of the cliff that lead to the gate. Richard and Henry exchanged pleasantries with the two before giving them a short introduction to Joey and Yugi.
"If you boys would come with us, we'll take you to the Citadel. The only place that is truly safe from the vampire menace," Henry offered.
"Hey, if you got food, we're there!" Joey grinned as he took Richard's hand and was pulled up the cliff.

Yugi and Joey watched as Richard activated the gate and cycled quickly through images before stopping on a building symbol. There had been two, Yugi hadn't seen enough to be able to tell them apart as he didn't study them too carefully.
"After you," Richard motioned for the two boys to pass. As he walked through, Yugi noticed the two men clip their weapons onto their armor. Could that be why the spears didn't pass through, they weren't held close enough to the bodies to register as material to pass? It didn't make much sense, but it seemed better than having no reason. Yugi didn't bother to ask once both the armored men were on the other side, he stopped Joey from doing so as well.

There was no tour of the area, the stares the boys got made them decide against it. Instead Richard showed them to an Inn where they could stay. Luckily, being that everyone thought they were wizards board was free and anything they needed would be free of charge; so long as it was within reason. Apparently it was wizards and warriors who were responsible for the safety of humans and were therefore viewed as being higher ranked. The room the two had gotten was simple, two neatly made beds that sat more like cots were on opposite walls. A table sat beside both of them, serving as a night stand. There was one dresser, it was made of real wood and polished till it shone like metal. Unlike the other rooms, they had a bathroom. Water was constantly running in the tub, it seemed more like a fountain than a bath; complete with a drain so it wouldn't overflow. That was the extent of the plumbing, to fill the basin on the pedestal they would have to fill a bucket and dump into it. As for how they got the water back out, maybe the bucket had to be used again. The toilet wasn't much more than a wooden box with a seat on the top. Neither cared to look in and see where anything went, for all they knew it had to be stored right there in the thing with no way to be rid of it without pulling the collection container out.
"Wonder if they're gonna ask for a demonstration of power," Joey wondered as he leaned on the small window sill and looked out at the enclosed plaza below.
"If they do, we can simply say I'm further advanced than you and Yami can do a few parlor tricks. Just enough if we are forced to prove our rank," Yugi shrugged.
"Let's hope it don't come to that. Say, didn't Richard mention something about some archive? Think we could get in there and learn more about where we are? Might figure out why Mr. Sca-- Kain doesn't like us."
"I think I already know, if everyone thinks we are wizards, so must he. At the very least we might find a way back home if we can get to that archive. But first, how about we see what kind of a meal our status nets us?"
"Best idea yet, just gotta find someone who'll point us in tha right direction." Joey grinned widely in anticipation of a real meal.




Ok, it's after here that things are going to get really heavy in LoK elements. Maybe I should have posted in that section rather than here, have a feeling I'll confuse and/or bore folks to death with this ;B