Thanks for the patience and the fantastic reviews, I love each one. The holiday's kept me busy but here, at last, is the new installment. Please Read and Review, I value your comments. I think the next chapter will be the last so enjoy, and happy holidays to all….oh still don't own that YGO stuff—but I did ask Santa for it :D
Chapter 14: Cassandra
"Wake up," a sharp jab in my ribs pulled me from the darkness. Yami, the soldiers, a flash of green fire; and then nothing. The memories yanked me up right. My eyes blinked open, to find a simple white room, the arena, the men, everything-gone.
I squinted against the stark brightness of the seemingly empty room. "What are you waiting for, get up." The person spoke again. The voice was familiar. I pushed myself to a seated position and fire blazed in my chest. Glancing down, I found the puzzle, still around my neck. The material around it had disintegrated, the pyramid itself fused to the skin beneath. An intense sharp pain shook me as I peeled the icon from my flesh. The imprint remained a tattoo from the blistering heat. I should be dead, why wasn't I dead, am I dead?
"No not dead, not yet," the voice addressed me again soft, feminine, cocky. "Don't you understand anything?" A heavy sigh, "Look at me."
My eyes focused on a reflection of myself, or myself in this new body. A mirror image I supposed. The mirror me, brushed her deep black hair back from her delicate features. I realized at that moment, the image wasn't me at all, but another entity entirely and it could be only one person.
The voice, the face could only belong to the infamous Cassandra, the real Cassandra.
"In the flesh," she looked down at herself and giggled, "so to speak."
"So, you're alive?"
"Define alive? Oh, I am being difficult, aren't I? A few thousand years of banishment can make one quite crabby." Her lips pulled back into a beguiling smile. She stood up and paced the room. She crossed her arms across her chest and gasp. "What have you done to our body?" The echo of her pain renewed the ache in my own chest.
"Our body?" Idiot, I thought, sitting in this strange place, when my…her…my men are vanquished by the High Priest, let alone what he'd done to Yami by now.
"Look here. I don't know why you've suddenly appeared, but my men and the Pharaoh need help and," I glanced around the room, "where are we anyway?"
"Our soul room," she raised her elegant hand to stop my next question, " Now settle yourself or all is lost. Just listen, and understand." I became silent, I trusted her instinctively.
"Did you ever wonder why you quit dancing?"
My face flushed, the question both surprised and embarrassed me. "I wasn't any good." I replied in a flat voice, pushing down the old feelings of inadequacy that rose.
She smiled slightly, eyes narrowing, "You were good. You didn't believe in yourself or your abilities. How about friends, Tea? How many real friends do you have, let alone men, or love?"
I cringed, she was touching on tender subjects; things I didn't like to think about, or talk about.
"Didn't think so."
"What are you getting at?" I said sharply, tiring of this interrogation.
"All your life, you have been lacking something, some spark, some fire. You have always been afraid. I'm going to tell you why."
My face must have looked shocked, because she laughed, "Have you noticed a difference since you've been here, in Egypt?"
I had—definitely. Especially since I'd finished the puzzle.
"The puzzle was the conduit, our connection" she read my thoughts, " it was easier after that."
"What was easier?" I spoke much more slowly, understanding blooming in my mind. You know who you are, Tea- the old woman's voice came back to haunt me. I'm her, she is me, we are one.
"Yes, 5000 years ago-our souls were one-until Heisien and Seto."
"What happened?" I whispered now, the emptiness I held in my heart for so long fully awake now.
She frowned, "This is taking much too long, let me show you." She approached quickly and before I could voice a protest she had stepped into my body, dissolving, merging the two of us. Thoughts and memories became one, and I watched the scenes before me as a spirit observer.
+++++
I saw Seto and Cassandra, standing on a balcony, far from the main palace. He spoke into her ear. "Egypt will be ours, then the world." Cassandra pulled away, staring coolly at him, a wispy smile played on her lips.
"Why should I share?"
"Because I can enlist great magic—and you want me." His smug smile infuriated her, and at the same time attracted her. He closed the distance between them, and grabbed her roughly, crushing her to him.
"Evil Vizier, I should scream, but alas I am under your spell." She traced his lips with her index finger.
"No, M'lady, I believe I am under your spell." He pressed his lips to hers into a violent and passionate kiss.
I could feel the emotion, the wave of sensation, as if I was living it at that moment. "We were a sight were we not?"
"So you made a deal with Seto, and he involved the Priest." I felt her agree. The scene faded, a new picture arose. The royal chamber, her job-to seduce him, to make him trust her, to entice him to use the dark magic. She did what she did best; she danced. But strangely, his pity, his loyalty had touched her heart, caused her to doubt her mission. His parting words, "Trust." Something she had never done, something he inspired her to do.
She had never imagined before, that goodness was possible; that real love existed, Yami had shown her all these things. A new affection bubbled inside for Yami. Only the High Priest realized her defection. Another vision came.
He had cornered her just days before the wedding, in the dark halls near the temple. "You refuse to betray the King, then you will precede him to your doom," Heisien's voice dripped with venom. He threw a deadly ray, and her soul, her very spirit, was banished to the Shadow Realm, much as he tried just moment before.
"I did not die. My soul was reborn in you, but part of me, was still held in the shadow realm, by Heisien's spell. Yami's power was greater than Heisien conceived and it reached through the millennia, and called you."
"O.K., I get what you are saying, but isn't this all ancient history, hasn't this already played out? Why am I here now?"
"The future, the present and the past all co-exist here. You…we have been given a change to make thing right, for Yami, and for us. You have to do what I could not." She paused, took a breath and was quiet for a moment. "With the help of the puzzle, you may resist the High Priest's attacks, but I am limited in that world, little more than a shadow, so it is up to you. And it is not just our fate, or even Yami's. Should Heisien and Seto succeed the world will plunge into darkness, monsters and demons will roam the Earth again, as in the old days. Humans will become little more than slaves to these creatures.
Remember Tea, you are the key. Yami is the door, but you are the key." Her voice trailed off, and I felt her consciousness retreat.
"Cassandra!" I didn't want her to go. I wanted her strength, her knowledge.
"I'll be with you, remember-I am you." She laughed softly one last time. I opened my eyes, my mortal eyes, back in the arena, unprepared for what I saw.