Disclaimer: Yu-gi-oh and anything related to Yu-gi-oh does not belong to me.
Yami: You know you have the lamest Disclaimer ever...
Luna: I know I know....It's stupid....*looks at him surprised* Hey how did you get in here???
Chapter 5 - An Enemy Within
A blur of dark swirls surrounds a dwelling atmosphere.
"Where am I?" his voice echoes, bouncing off of invisible walls, but there was nothing as far as the eye could see. He looked around, his body shivered a little, it felt dark and damp. He held up his arm and reached out, as if to touch something solid, but all he could feel was empty space. His head swiveled around. Suddenly a cloaked figure appeared, standing before him, a woman more specifically. She looked at him, but no trace of the face was revealed, only her piercing turquoise eyes.
"Where am I?" he demanded the figure. She didn't reply, instead the figure turned and walked away.
"Wait!" he cried out, but the figure kept on walking, blending into the darkness.
The air began to get even colder.
"Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" an invisible ghost-like voice cried out. All of a sudden an immense beam of light struck out of nowhere. His arms struggled to covered his eyes from the blinding light. There the ferocious Blue-Eyes descended before him.
"What!?" he cried out. His body stood face to face with the vicious beast. It gave a tremendous mighty roar, enough to make any man quiver with fear.
"Attack!" the voice cried out again. The Blue-Eyes obeyed, gathering up all it's energy, it let out a massive blast of white electricity.
"NO!" he screamed, trying to shield himself with no avail as the white energy hit him, making him stumble into a deep hole that wasn't there a moment ago. His body fell into a pit of darkness.
Seto woke with a start. He lay flat on his back breathing heavily as though he had been running fast. Cold sweat ran down his forehead. He laid there motionless, unable to explain the bizarre dream he just had. "It felt so real" he though, his body still shaking.
Seto walked into the classroom the next morning, his eyes looked dull and tired, more then usual. Vari noticed, as he sat down in his seat next to her.
"Are you alright?" she whispered, as the teacher began writing notes on the board.
"Like you would care?" he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Well sorry for being a little concerned" she sarcastically shot back.
"If you must know, I didn't have a good night sleep." he confessed irritably.
"Nightmares got you down?"
His aggravated face was fixed in a drop the subject look. Vari shut up immediately and went back to copying her notes.
After a long while, Vari's mind was egging her to saying something.
"Thank you for what you did" she said in a low voice.
"What did I do?" a slight look confusion flashed across his face.
"For donating that money to my father's research" she clarified.
He gave a look as if it was of no importance. "Now we're even" he merely said.
"No way! I still think Kaiba is bad to core, no matter what you say!" Joey exclaimed
"Maybe he's not as cruel as you claim him to be" Vari differ.
The group was walking through the hallway. Vari had filled them in on the details from last night.
"I don't think people are all bad." she explained "Besides he wouldn't give it away if he didn't care about it." Joey gape at Vari as if she had lost her mind completely.
"Obviously you haven't hung around Kaiba long enough." said Joey.
"Well....five million is a bit much to just be giving it away like that." Yugi reasoned.
Joey sighed. "The world was so much simpler until now."
Vari giggled a little "Your too melodramatic Joey. It's not so bad"
"Oh yes it is" he grumbled.
But Vari couldn't help but smile.
*****
Back at the research center, Shiro continued to study the chest from every angle. He and Nyri had finish translating one side of the large box. But it was still a long way to go. Shiro wanted to pull his hair out, with the added stress. He felt a presence walking in, he turned around to see who it was. It was Hajime. Shiro groaned slightly, he defiantly didn't want to see him at the moment.
"A little overworked don't you think Shiro?" Hajime sneered.
Shiro gave a slight annoyed sigh "What do you want Hajime?" he really didn't feel like saying 'Hi', especially to Hajime.
"Well aren't we a bit rude?" Hajime smirked. "I see that work has been getting to you. But then again you always have been a little sluggish."
Nyri looked at each of the two men. First at Hajime then at Shiro. He sensed a bit of tension, like one of them was a nuclear bomb about to detonate. He wished he would bolt out of there but his feet were glued to the floor, only to let him listen to their quarrel.
Shiro griped his hands to prevent himself from running his fist into Hajime's face. Instead he gave a detested look at the other man. "If your visit has any particular reason, please just say it and go"
Hajime's face turned into a resentful loathing. "You should hold your tongue, or else you'll lose this little project of yours. I would advise you to be cautious or else, god forbid, something would happen to you..."
"Is that a threat?" Shiro asked unafraid. His voice tighten.
"I think that's enough bickering, between you two" Nyri interrupted. He didn't like where this was going and he certainly didn't want it to go any further. "Hajime, I suggest you leave." Nyri told him calmly.
"I'll go, for now...." Giving one last glare Hajime walked out.
"That man gets on my nerve every time" Shiro muttered angrily.
"What is going on between you and him?" Nyri asked. "Ever since he got here, you two have been at each other's throats."
"I honestly don't know Nyri" Shiro said. "He's not a person to be trusted. I've learned that from experience"
Nyri gave a sigh. "Whatever you say."
Footsteps were heard once again, Shiro grumbled. He was about to tell Hajime off. "I'm not in the mood right now Hajime" Shiro said. He turned around.
"I'm not Hajime" the voice said.
"Ishizu!" Shiro exclaimed "I thought you were someone else." He went silent.
"Who's she?" Nyri asked.
"A friend" Shiro replied simply. "Can we have a little privacy?"
Nyri gave a puzzled glance. "Sure" he said. Giving a one last inquisitive look at Ishizu, he walked out and close the door behind him.
"I take it that you agree?" she asked.
"Yes" he answers "Tell me what you know"
"First I need to warn you, that what you hear will be crucial. This is more then just an archaeological project. If you wish to change your mind then I'll take my leave."
"No" said Shiro firmly "I have my reasons, I want to know."
"Very well...we will share our information. I do not know much details about this chest, but what I do know for certain, is this chest has dangerous powers. I believe it contains magical qualities"
"Dangerous powers?" Shiro asked unconvinced, "I'm sorry to say that I don't believe in the supernatural." he almost laughed, but Ishizu's face was dead serious.
"Whether you believe in magic or not, I'm only giving the information. Now...you find that this chest dates back to around the late Old Kingdom dynasty? I'm I correct?"
"Yes...this hieratic text is definitely from the Old Kingdom. We have confirmed it.
"Then my suspicions of the history of this chest are true." her brow furrowed as she closely examines the gold chest.
"You know the history behind this?" Shiro asked, hopeful that maybe his questions will be answered.
"I do not know much, but what I do know is that this once belonged to an Egyptian princess."
"But there are many Egyptian princesses from over that thousand year period!" Shiro exclaimed "How can we know who it was?"
"That is why I seek your help, to decipher and solve this mystery."
Shiro nodded. "I have recorded what we have found so far" he took out the leather bound journal from his desk drawer. "But it's still not enough to tell us something."
Ishizu took a careful reading of Shiro's notes. "Then we must get to work." she said.
Shiro held up his hand at the woman. "I need to know, what is your real intention towards this?" he interrogated. His face twisted into a suspicious frown. "What have you really come here for?"
"I will answer in due time. But for now, I have my reasons. Might I ask why you are so particularly interested in such a small object."
"Like you said before. I have my reasons" he answered.
Surprisingly Ishizu gave a rare smile. "We may find that our goals are different but our paths are the same."
Little did they suspect however, outside the laboratory door, a person was listening in through the small opening gap. A tiny smile crept up on his lips. "Perfect..."
A/N: And so we finally get some kind of answers, but I like to keep it mysterious for just a little while longer. Anyway, I think you all know where this is going to lead...I must admit it's not the most original idea, but hey I'm still working on it. I will state that this does not follow up with the Domino City Tournament. You probably figure that out already, but I just want to make it clear. All the characters are going to have the similar ties to the show, that's about it. Next chapter I'll move away from Shiro and focus on Vari more. I feel that I didn't really have much of a good character development in her. Also I'll introduce some other characters as well...
This was a fun chapter to write for me. ^_^ I hope you like reading it as much as I like writing it. And please R/R! Again I love to hear your thoughts....it helps me a lot.