Ooh, boy. I hope this works. I believe I should have the group at least heading to Egypt by the end of next chapter or the beginning of the one after that. But anyways, things are apparently moving along. I don't think I'll respond to any particular reviews this time but thank you to everyone who is reviewing and especially those who ask questions and make comments. I actually have some more ideas now because of some of the suggestions.
And I know I just posted a chapter yesterday, but I have had some free time and I finished this one. Don't expect me to do this every time, but I will try and update as often as my schedule allows. This is of course part of the reason I'm posting it now, instead of waiting till the next opportunity.
Ah yes, I don't own these people, so no need to worry.
And as always, Please enjoy the story. ^___^
"Oh for crying out loud, what are you talking about!" O'Neil snapped, breaking the silence quite effectively.
"I think what Jack is trying to say is what exactly do you mean by us, and what exactly happened?" Daniel said, trying to break the tension. Yugi opened and closed his mouth a few times as he attempted to answer. Finally, looking down at the table he spoke in a voice that was clearly attempting to hide his pain.
"Two years ago Kaiba kidnapped me. I don't really think he meant to kill me, just cause me a lot of pain, but that's what he ended up doing. Yami, he is the once connected to the millennium puzzle, tried to find me for three days. When he finally did, Kaiba had dropped me off in the courtyard to die or be found. I don't know how Yami died, but I'm told he attacked Kaiba at some point and got shot by the guards. Somehow the puzzle was shattered and Kaiba became the ruler. The next thing I'm aware of Kaiba has me in chains and working to put the puzzle back together."
"So, you were Kaiba's prisoner. What about this Yami?" Carter asked when Yugi didn't continue.
"He would have been fine, had I not completed the puzzle. You see, Yami is intricately connected to the puzzle; so long as it was shattered he could not return to this world. But when I completed it he came back. The worst part was that Kaiba was ready for him and immediately prevented Yami from using any of his powers. We need to free him from Kaiba if we are ever going to succeed in stopping him, but first we have one other person to find."
"Is that pyramid around your neck the millennium puzzle?" Daniel spoke up.
"Yes."
"If it is the strongest, why can't you just beat him with that?" O'Neil asked, genuinely puzzled.
"It doesn't work that way, especially since he has Yami. No, he has most of the other items as well as the cooperation of the shadow realm. It will take more than just one item and me, even if it is the millennium puzzle and people call me the chosen one." Yugi had finally looked up at everyone again, immeasurable pain reflected in his eyes, and he had to strain to keep his voice at least somewhat even.
"I don't know how yet, but I will not fail a second time. I didn't stop this from happening, and I was meant to. This time, this time I'll do it right, will you please help me?" Yugi stopped; he didn't have much else to say at the moment, he just wanted to know if they believed him.
"Look, it sounds like you have something planned, and we would like to get some more information on this, but we must be reasonable. I think it would be best if we slept on this until tomorrow. Besides, we can't make any rash decisions. Would that be all right with you?" Not trusting himself to speak Yugi nodded. Hammond called the guard from the hallway back in and told him to bring Yugi to a spare room, they would call upon him there. Dutifully Yugi got up and followed the guard out, all the way to his room he silently prayed that he had at least convinced them that he was telling the truth.
"Before we turn in for the night I want to know everyone's opinion." Hammond said to SG1.
"I believe he is speaking the truth General Hammond." Teal'c spoke up before anyone else.
"I'd say he is too, but he's also hiding something. Most likely about the puzzle and this Yami guy." Daniel added.
"Yeah, I get the feeling he is only telling us what he wants in order to get our help, but I think he believes that this is necessary." Jonas mentioned, agreeing with the others.
"There is definitely more to this. I think we need to go along with him in order to learn what it is. Besides, I see no reason why someone would go to the trouble of making up such an elaborate story." Carter pointed out. Everyone waited for Colonel O'Neil, who had listened to the rest of the group but made no move to speak out himself.
"Colonel, what do you think?"
"I think something fishy is going on. Doesn't it seem like too much of a coincidence that after all this time the answer to our problems would just come walking in our door?"
"Perhaps O'Neil, but I do not believe that this boy is saying he is the answer."
"Then what is he saying?"
"That he may know how to reach the answer." O'Neil glanced at Teal'c and then around the room, Yugi had convinced them all.
/The kid has me convinced too, it's just that, the way this kid is talking there is no real definite plan, which means surprises. I hate surprises./
"I believe him too, I just think we should make him explain everything before going off and doing something."
"Being cautious as always. Don't worry Colonel, I was planning on getting more information in the morning. Now, why don't we all get some rest?" General Hammond stood and headed to the door, soon followed by SG1.
~~~~~**~~~~~
Yugi sat on the bed staring glumly at the wall. He knew he should rest, they were bound to have loads of questions for him in the morning, but he couldn't seem to fall asleep. He went over the meeting over and over in his mind. Did they believe him? Did he say the right things? Did he say too much? Or did he say too little? A part of him wanted to tell them everything and let them take it from there, but he knew that he couldn't.
/I don't think I'm up to this. Before I always had Yami, Grandpa, Joey, Ryou, Tea, Tristan, and even Mai. Now, all there is, is me, and I don't think it's enough. And where have Dark and Celt disappeared to?/ Yugi shook his head in an attempt to empty it of thoughts. It didn't work, of course, so he stood up and walked around the room.
There was very little there, a desk with a lamp was in one corner, the bed in the other, a chair was in front of the desk, and on the wall was a small painting. It depicted the mountain at night, when the only lights came from the moon and stars. It was actually quite lovely and Yugi found himself staring at it, unable to look away. Unable to look away that is, until someone tapped his shoulder, snapping him out of his reverie.
"Aaaagh. What do you want?" Yugi breathed, amazed at how low he kept his voice. After taking a few deep breaths he looked up and at his intruder when they didn't answer his question. Stifling the gasp that suddenly wanted to come out, Yugi smiled when he saw he was staring at Dark and Celt.
"What took you guys so long? I thought you would get down before the end of the meeting." Celt shrugged a bit at this and moved over to lean against the doorway, while Dark settled down on the chair, after moving over nearer the bed.
"I noticed that there was an extra feral imp watching from a distance. I had to take the time to prevent it from reporting back to Kaiba. He'll probably find out, but we might as well delay him as much as possible." Dark responded as Yugi settled down cross-legged on the bed.
"Yeah, of course it would have been nice for him to let me know that. I got back after the battle and found him missing. Nearly gave myself away cause of it."
"Yes, I really had time to send you a note. Be serious Celt. Anyway, I returned and we headed down. Everyone else was just heading out when we got there, so we decided to find you instead of getting caught by them."
"That's good. At least there is very little chance that Kaiba will associate the events here with me. Okay, it looks like I'm going to have to find a way to introduce you two at the next meeting."
"We could always introduce ourselves, I've been coming up with this grand opening sequence....." Standing abruptly Dark soon had Celt in a headlock who was still trying to talk through Dark's arm.
"Ignore him, he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. Really Celt, do you think I would ever even consider doing a music routine?" Celt was obviously not really struggling to get out and Yugi could tell that the two were entered into an old, albeit friendly, argument. Smiling to himself Yugi slipped under the covers. The last thing he saw as he fell asleep was Celt tripping Dark and the two of them sprawling to the floor and dissolving into an all out brawl.
~~~~~**~~~~~
"Good morning Yugi. Did you sleep well?" Carter asked as she arrived at his door to bring him to the meeting.
"Not at first, but once I did fall asleep I was fine. How did you fare?"
"Okay actually. I managed to only spend half the night sitting up thinking about what you said and did yesterday."
"I'm sorry if I kept you up because of that."
"Hey, don't worry. You were only doing what you thought was right, it's what we all would do." Smiling a little, she put an arm on his shoulder as she led him the rest of the way. Yugi smiled back and was able to finally get rid of one of the questions from the night before; at least they believed he was telling the truth. Now could he get them to help?
"Here we are. Don't be too nervous, we just need to clear a few things up." Opening the door Carter pointed to the seat he should take before moving over to hers. The rest of the group was already there. Yugi was happy to see that there were some empty seats and two of them were on either side of him. There would be room for Dark and Celt once he figured out how to introduce them.
"Good morning everyone. We all know why we are here, so let us get right down to business. Yugi, you were telling us about how you wish to defeat Kaiba, do you have a plan?" Hammond said, dismissing the idle chitchat.
"Not
much of one I'm afraid. So far I am
just trying to find the people who can help.
I was told that after I get your support we would need to go to Egypt
and find someone there. This person
would be able to help us in where to go from here."
"Is this person
connected to the millennium items or the shadow realm?" Jonas asked.
"I don't know. I only know that she will be able to help, and that her name is Siris. Oh, and that Dark and Celt know her."
"Who are Dark and Celt?" O'Neil asked at that partially rushed statement on Yugi's part. Yugi smiled then; obviously he had wanted them to ask.
"They are my friends and two of the ones who will be instrumental in our success. Would you like to meet them?" Yugi practically jumped out of his chair and began to walk to the door.
"Do you mean that those two are here?" Hammond demanded. Nodding Yugi moved to open the door. The group remained silent as Yugi pulled the door open, and as he did so something, or someone, fell through the door. All anyone could see was a tangle of limbs as Yugi walked back to his seat, not troubled in the slightest that his two friends were face down on the ground.
"Come on you two, get up so I can introduce you to everyone." Yugi said as he swiveled the chair to watch the lump on the ground.
"I would get up if a particular elf would get off of me." Dark mumbled from underneath Celt.
"I can't move. I think I broke something. Ooh, that hurt." Celt responded, not moving at all.
"You wouldn't have been hurt if you didn't try and trip me on the way in here, now if you don't move I will break something, and you won't like it." Celt was up and standing so abruptly that those watching blinked a few times in order to assure that what they were seeing was real. Once he was up he reached down and dragged Dark to his feet, hastily brushing off any dirt that might have collected on his clothes and generally making a show of being sorry. Dark merely tried to push him away, which only succeeded in making Celt apologize more.
"Celt, that's enough. Stop. All right, you asked for it." Raising his hand he began to mutter something under his breath, only to find that his selected target was sitting upright at the table on Yugi's left with his gaze straight ahead. Lowering his hand Dark moved to sit on Yugi's right, glaring at Celt the entire time. With an amused sigh Yugi faced the group and introduced the pair.
"Okay, this is Dark, he is my Dark Magician." Yugi said pointing to the violet haired mage. "And this is Celt, you might remember him from yesterday, the Celtic Guardian." He said as he motioned at the now silent, amber-eyed elf.