Name: Rayven
Email me at: hannah.catterall@tiscali.co.uk
Website: http://www.geocities.com/goddess_zelana
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh in any shape or form. I do, however own this story and Malik's mother, plus anything in here that is not included in the series. This is slightly canon, so anything that differs from the show is created by me.
The present...
Sometimes I wonder how it all started, how I became evil, how I became insane...
I'm not afraid to admit it. I am insane. I long for power, I become irrational, and finally I just fall into fits of intense rage. I remember, when I was younger, a moment of startling anger, consuming me, taking over my body, my will. Later I found out what had truly happened, and from then on I was engulfed in a perpetual state of paranoia.
I would feel my anger rising, bubbling and fought to hold it back. Sometimes I would wake with no memory of what had happened, my hands stained with blood and my sister sobbing.
I break from my revere, looking around only briefly at the sight I have been privy to for countless time. Have I been trapped in here for months, weeks, days, even hours?
I sit in an empty hourglass, looking upon the shores of a magnificent beach, the Pharaoh and his friends playing in the surf. I know that it an illusion, a cruel illusion created by my dark side to torture me with the one thing I have never had: friendship.
I have had family, servants, but never friends. Even Rishid, my half-brother, was little more than a servant. Look at me, already speaking in the past tense. As if I will never see these people or places ever again. It is likely that I am right, that all hope is lost.
But in the shards of my sanity, I cling to one aspect of human life: hope. It drives people through the days, through heartbreak and despair, through the darkest times they will ever experience.
I look around my prison, knowing already what I will see; a sprinkling of sand on the floor, a reminder of last-times punishment, a useless gold rod floating beside me, behind me, a door. I know where it leads to; I have seen glimpses of its contents many times. It is unlocked, because it is unlikely that I would never enter, and if I did, it would just be an additional extension of my torment, a room of torture, painstakingly placed there by my dark half.
There are no 'facilities' for sleeping, cooking and the like. In this netherworld I am doomed to go without sleep, without food or drink, even without a lavatory, simply because I do not need these material things, how ever much I want for them.
I weary of my torment and close my eyes, willing my mind into a state of blankness. Inside my eyelids there is only blackness, never-ending oblivion.
?
"Malik? Malik! Is that you?" I open my eyes and stare up into the eyes of my sister. "Come, we can escape through here!" I cannot believe it is her! Eagerly I grasp her hand; vaguely noticing that it is larger, more calloused than usual.
She pulls me towards the door, the door with no lock that no-one dares to enter. Isis pulls me through, into blackness, and I look up into her eyes, her solid, steel grey eyes...and they narrow and flash violet.
I cry out, but my hand is shaken free, and I am falling into blackness, manic, booming laughter following my descent. My eyes widen as a pinpoint of light races towards me, no, I to it. For the first time in many years, I am not subject to the resignation and despair that is part of my burden, but a deep, profound fear.
With no time to scream, I am engulfed in light, swallowing me whole, shining from my eyes, penetrating every part of my being. I am consumed with ecstasy, my fear gone, a mere shadow in the light.
The rays recede, and my eyes dim and fade, closing slowly. My body weakens, and I fall onto a surface, not hard, but strangely soft and moving slightly in the breeze. Wait, a breeze? That is my last thought as I descend into a wearied sleep, another kind of darkness.
?
8 years ago...
"Master Malik? You must wake up! Your father wishes to see you." I open my sleep encrusted eyes and stare blearily at the familiar face of my half brother.
"Rishid?" The information hits me and I scramble out from between linen sheets. I stand up and slip on my underclothes and habit, ignoring the presence of my half-brother.
When I am finished I fling open the door and race down the hall, nearly falling down in my haste.
I knock and enter my father's chambers.
"Father, what is it you want?" I question tentivley.
His calm demeanour cracks and he bangs his fist on the table, his eyes pools of hatred. "I told you to call me master!"
I back away, my face a mask of fear, and throw my self to the ground. "Please forgive me, master!"
He smirks, diamond hard gaze boring into my soul. I feel naked. "You are forgiven." He waves his hand negligently, and I rise.
"Malik, it has come to my attention that you have been kept in ignorance by your foolish sister." I nod to please him, and train my eyes on the floor.
"It seems she had not informed you of the coming of your initiation."
"Initiation?" He glares, and I fall silent.
"In two years time, you will under go a ceremony that will declare your rights as the next in line to rule over the Tomb keepers." I gasp softly, but apart from that give no indication of my surprise. "You shall become the leader, care for the people, and most important of all, wait in coming for the new Pharaoh. I will not give you any more information apart from the little you can scavenge, as this is a very secret and holy ceremony." He pauses for effect. "Do you understand, boy?"
"Yes master."
He waves his hand imperiously at me and I back out of the room, glad for such a short interview with my fath-, no, Master.
When the door is closed, and I am finally safe, I catch a fleeting glimpse of violet hair. I smile slightly. It is a tiny smile, more sarcastic than anything else.
Of course Rishid had listened, he always did...
I've only heard bits and pieces of how he came to live with us. My mother, Nefertina, found him by a well up on the surface world. She tried to adopt him into the family but father refused, and made him our servant instead.
Although I love him with all of my shrivelled little heart, I pity him also. He had the chance to be one of them, to live in the sunlight, but an ill fated moment and BANG! he is enslaved to the darkness. Just imagine the chances he would have had...
The ground begins to tremble, and I wonder what is going on. Before I have a chance to correct my balance, the world blurs, and I am...lying on a slab?
?
6 years ago...
I shiver in fear as my father advances upon me, a dagger so hot that it is cherry red in his white knuckled grasp. This is the tombkeeper initiation, the thing that will enslave me to my father's will. Forever.
I scream in pain as he brings the burning metal into contact with my skin, instantly regretting my outburst. One of the guards hits me round the head and I descend into numbness, the agony becoming too much for my mind to cope with.
I know the hieroglyphs he is carving into my flesh by heart, even though I am not supposed to. My mother taught Isis to read, and she, in turn taught me.
In the dead of the night I used to sneak into the libraries and consumed the sacred scrolls with my eyes. This is what was written:
When the puzzle is complete, the two halves will make a whole and the two souls will intertwine. Here is the Pharaoh, the Master and the Concubine creating the one eternal being: Yu-Gi-Oh.
In the first year of the second Millennia the shadows will rise for the first time, and the Pharaoh will conquer.
In the third year of the second Millennia, the shadows will rise once again, and the Priest, the Pharaoh and the subjects will conquer.
The Pharaoh has a simple price to pay for his immortality: His tangibility. He will walk the world in spirit form, the concubine his vessel.
However, if he faces the shadows and destroys them for the third and final time, a mortal body will be granted to him.
So say the Puzzle, Ring, Rod, Eye, Tauk, Ankh and Scales.
I do not understand what these words mean, but I know that the times are soon upon us. Perhaps I will be the one to tip the balance?
The knife in my back slows its journey, and with a huge wrench it is pulled loose, bringing my attention back to my pain. The guards pull me up, and I face my father, unclothed, uncaring, with dead eyes to the world.
"Here is my successor!" He intones to the silent room. "You will follow him into the new age when I cannot. He bears the Pharaoh's legacy, and the time of fulfilment is at hand!
Against my will, and to my innermost disgust, a swell of pride bubbles up in my heart. I will lead them! I will save them! I am the One!
?
5 years ago...
"Isis, please!"
"No Malik, we will get in trouble!" She is fighting a losing battle. I am so cute, no one can resist me! My ego seems to have grown in the past year, and now everyone will do my bidding.
Did I mention that I have discovered a foreign substance called sugar?
"Please big sister!" I open my eyes wide, and they sparkle in the candle light. She sighs.
"Very well, but only for five minutes!" Ouch, her voice holds that ring of steel that she has inherited from mother.
I tremble in excitement as we silently ascend the stairway. I hear footsteps and dart into an alcove.
"Master! Where are you going?" It is only Rishid.
I lower my voice and swear profusely, ignoring my family's gasps. "Rishid, we are going to the surface." He protests violently, but I soon have the upper hand.
"We need you to stand guard while we sneak out." He sighs defeated, and nods. I beam at him. He always comes through in the end!
I give Rishid a hug and run up the stairs two at a time, Isis following me more demurely with a worried frown.
"Malik, I'm still not sure-"
Not leaving her enough time to complain, I grab her hand in an iron-tight grip and we emerge into the sunlight.
I screw my eyes up against the harsh glare of the sun, and when my vision had finally adjusted I gaze around myself in wonder.
We have come out of a narrow door, easily concealed in one of the many alleys lining the streets. The vast space around us is filled with people, in more colours and shapes than I could have ever imagined! How could a person have skin that pale? Is he fatally ill?
"Come on Malik, people are beginning to stare!" My sister's harsh whisper breaks through my euphoria and I began to walk automatically.
My eye is caught by small booklet floating past me. I chase after it, curious, and brandish in front of my sister like a new toy.
I pay special attention to one of the pictures, and point it out to Isis. It is a long contraption, made out of metal and with a wheel on each end.
"What's this?"
"It's a motorbike Malik, just like a horse except it is faster." She glances around worriedly and hands the book back to me. While she isn't looking I quickly rip off the picture of the motorbike and hide it inside my robe.
She looks back at the booklet and rips it from my hands, throwing it to the ground.
"Malik, if father catches you with that we're as good as dead!" My hate of father wells up inside me once again, but I fight it back down. Over the years, my fear has turned to anger, and my anger to hate. It has become harder to suppress, and I know that someday it would overflow, and that there would be consequences. I had a feeling, deep down in my gut, that that day would be sooner than later.
I nod sullenly, not wanting my sister to get blamed for my mistake. I smile slightly. This picture would be one of my many secrets.
Isis stiffens beside me, and my head shoots up.
"That man is staring at us!!"
"So? Many people do that. Our clothes are so different from theirs." It is true; many of the people around us wear skin baring blouses and tops, and even short, cut-off trousers.
"No, this one is walking towards us!" I slip and almost fall as Isis begins to walk faster.
"He's following us!" Isis breaks into a run, and I stagger along beside her.
We reach the alleyway just as the man calls out to us. "Wait!"
Isis stops. "What do you want?" She says, her voice quavering slightly. The man looks abashed and takes a step backwards.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to frighten you. My name is Shadi, the current protector of the Millennium Items."
Sister gasps while I stand there confused. What is he talking abou-oh. Those Items.
"I have not much time. All I can tell you is this: Danger looms upon the horizon, and decisions will be made. Choose wisely, for the fate of many souls rests upon your shoulders. The Pharaoh is rising."
He motions at us to carry on, but at the last second Isis turns back to him. "Excuse me, but-" The man has vanished, not a trace of him anywhere.
Deciding to contemplate this later, I turn to my sister. "Come on, we have to get back before father catches us!"
We dash through the door and down the steps, calling Rishid's name. There is no answer.
I bite my lip and run towards the main sanctum, where I can hear screams. As we get closer, the screams grow fainter until there is no sound at all.
We enter the room only to be greeted with a horrifying sight. Rishid is lying in a pool of his own blood and father is standing over him, grinning maliciously.
Rishid lifts his head. "I am...sorry master Malik...I tried..." He slumps back to the floor.
I run towards father. "What the hell have you done to him?" I stop, and clutch at my head. The pain has been getting worse lately, whenever I'm angry. This time it's really bad! I feel like I'm turning inside out and my head's splitting in two!
For a moment everything blurs and I'm shunted to the back of my mind, and something else takes over. Something evil.
'It' walks towards my father, grinning savagely. However, before it can reach him its eye is caught by the monument at the center of the room.
It freezes, then sprints to the stone table and looks inside. Two of the millennium items are within! Two! It lifts the millennium rod from the slab and raises it menacingly in the air.
It points it towards Isis, who has begun to scream, and she is thrown against the wall. 'I' turn towards my father, and he cowers under 'my' gaze.
It cackles. "Look what you've created, old man! All of his anger, his pain, his sorrow, combined to make his ultimate shadow-self. Are you proud?" My Shadow-Self waves the rod at my father's head and yells: "I banish you to the shadow realm!" With those final words, he retreats inside me, and I watch in horror and my father's body takes on an unearthly glow before vanishing into nothing.
I crumple to the ground and sob. What have I done?
Email me at: hannah.catterall@tiscali.co.uk
Website: http://www.geocities.com/goddess_zelana
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh in any shape or form. I do, however own this story and Malik's mother, plus anything in here that is not included in the series. This is slightly canon, so anything that differs from the show is created by me.
The present...
Sometimes I wonder how it all started, how I became evil, how I became insane...
I'm not afraid to admit it. I am insane. I long for power, I become irrational, and finally I just fall into fits of intense rage. I remember, when I was younger, a moment of startling anger, consuming me, taking over my body, my will. Later I found out what had truly happened, and from then on I was engulfed in a perpetual state of paranoia.
I would feel my anger rising, bubbling and fought to hold it back. Sometimes I would wake with no memory of what had happened, my hands stained with blood and my sister sobbing.
I break from my revere, looking around only briefly at the sight I have been privy to for countless time. Have I been trapped in here for months, weeks, days, even hours?
I sit in an empty hourglass, looking upon the shores of a magnificent beach, the Pharaoh and his friends playing in the surf. I know that it an illusion, a cruel illusion created by my dark side to torture me with the one thing I have never had: friendship.
I have had family, servants, but never friends. Even Rishid, my half-brother, was little more than a servant. Look at me, already speaking in the past tense. As if I will never see these people or places ever again. It is likely that I am right, that all hope is lost.
But in the shards of my sanity, I cling to one aspect of human life: hope. It drives people through the days, through heartbreak and despair, through the darkest times they will ever experience.
I look around my prison, knowing already what I will see; a sprinkling of sand on the floor, a reminder of last-times punishment, a useless gold rod floating beside me, behind me, a door. I know where it leads to; I have seen glimpses of its contents many times. It is unlocked, because it is unlikely that I would never enter, and if I did, it would just be an additional extension of my torment, a room of torture, painstakingly placed there by my dark half.
There are no 'facilities' for sleeping, cooking and the like. In this netherworld I am doomed to go without sleep, without food or drink, even without a lavatory, simply because I do not need these material things, how ever much I want for them.
I weary of my torment and close my eyes, willing my mind into a state of blankness. Inside my eyelids there is only blackness, never-ending oblivion.
?
"Malik? Malik! Is that you?" I open my eyes and stare up into the eyes of my sister. "Come, we can escape through here!" I cannot believe it is her! Eagerly I grasp her hand; vaguely noticing that it is larger, more calloused than usual.
She pulls me towards the door, the door with no lock that no-one dares to enter. Isis pulls me through, into blackness, and I look up into her eyes, her solid, steel grey eyes...and they narrow and flash violet.
I cry out, but my hand is shaken free, and I am falling into blackness, manic, booming laughter following my descent. My eyes widen as a pinpoint of light races towards me, no, I to it. For the first time in many years, I am not subject to the resignation and despair that is part of my burden, but a deep, profound fear.
With no time to scream, I am engulfed in light, swallowing me whole, shining from my eyes, penetrating every part of my being. I am consumed with ecstasy, my fear gone, a mere shadow in the light.
The rays recede, and my eyes dim and fade, closing slowly. My body weakens, and I fall onto a surface, not hard, but strangely soft and moving slightly in the breeze. Wait, a breeze? That is my last thought as I descend into a wearied sleep, another kind of darkness.
?
8 years ago...
"Master Malik? You must wake up! Your father wishes to see you." I open my sleep encrusted eyes and stare blearily at the familiar face of my half brother.
"Rishid?" The information hits me and I scramble out from between linen sheets. I stand up and slip on my underclothes and habit, ignoring the presence of my half-brother.
When I am finished I fling open the door and race down the hall, nearly falling down in my haste.
I knock and enter my father's chambers.
"Father, what is it you want?" I question tentivley.
His calm demeanour cracks and he bangs his fist on the table, his eyes pools of hatred. "I told you to call me master!"
I back away, my face a mask of fear, and throw my self to the ground. "Please forgive me, master!"
He smirks, diamond hard gaze boring into my soul. I feel naked. "You are forgiven." He waves his hand negligently, and I rise.
"Malik, it has come to my attention that you have been kept in ignorance by your foolish sister." I nod to please him, and train my eyes on the floor.
"It seems she had not informed you of the coming of your initiation."
"Initiation?" He glares, and I fall silent.
"In two years time, you will under go a ceremony that will declare your rights as the next in line to rule over the Tomb keepers." I gasp softly, but apart from that give no indication of my surprise. "You shall become the leader, care for the people, and most important of all, wait in coming for the new Pharaoh. I will not give you any more information apart from the little you can scavenge, as this is a very secret and holy ceremony." He pauses for effect. "Do you understand, boy?"
"Yes master."
He waves his hand imperiously at me and I back out of the room, glad for such a short interview with my fath-, no, Master.
When the door is closed, and I am finally safe, I catch a fleeting glimpse of violet hair. I smile slightly. It is a tiny smile, more sarcastic than anything else.
Of course Rishid had listened, he always did...
I've only heard bits and pieces of how he came to live with us. My mother, Nefertina, found him by a well up on the surface world. She tried to adopt him into the family but father refused, and made him our servant instead.
Although I love him with all of my shrivelled little heart, I pity him also. He had the chance to be one of them, to live in the sunlight, but an ill fated moment and BANG! he is enslaved to the darkness. Just imagine the chances he would have had...
The ground begins to tremble, and I wonder what is going on. Before I have a chance to correct my balance, the world blurs, and I am...lying on a slab?
?
6 years ago...
I shiver in fear as my father advances upon me, a dagger so hot that it is cherry red in his white knuckled grasp. This is the tombkeeper initiation, the thing that will enslave me to my father's will. Forever.
I scream in pain as he brings the burning metal into contact with my skin, instantly regretting my outburst. One of the guards hits me round the head and I descend into numbness, the agony becoming too much for my mind to cope with.
I know the hieroglyphs he is carving into my flesh by heart, even though I am not supposed to. My mother taught Isis to read, and she, in turn taught me.
In the dead of the night I used to sneak into the libraries and consumed the sacred scrolls with my eyes. This is what was written:
When the puzzle is complete, the two halves will make a whole and the two souls will intertwine. Here is the Pharaoh, the Master and the Concubine creating the one eternal being: Yu-Gi-Oh.
In the first year of the second Millennia the shadows will rise for the first time, and the Pharaoh will conquer.
In the third year of the second Millennia, the shadows will rise once again, and the Priest, the Pharaoh and the subjects will conquer.
The Pharaoh has a simple price to pay for his immortality: His tangibility. He will walk the world in spirit form, the concubine his vessel.
However, if he faces the shadows and destroys them for the third and final time, a mortal body will be granted to him.
So say the Puzzle, Ring, Rod, Eye, Tauk, Ankh and Scales.
I do not understand what these words mean, but I know that the times are soon upon us. Perhaps I will be the one to tip the balance?
The knife in my back slows its journey, and with a huge wrench it is pulled loose, bringing my attention back to my pain. The guards pull me up, and I face my father, unclothed, uncaring, with dead eyes to the world.
"Here is my successor!" He intones to the silent room. "You will follow him into the new age when I cannot. He bears the Pharaoh's legacy, and the time of fulfilment is at hand!
Against my will, and to my innermost disgust, a swell of pride bubbles up in my heart. I will lead them! I will save them! I am the One!
?
5 years ago...
"Isis, please!"
"No Malik, we will get in trouble!" She is fighting a losing battle. I am so cute, no one can resist me! My ego seems to have grown in the past year, and now everyone will do my bidding.
Did I mention that I have discovered a foreign substance called sugar?
"Please big sister!" I open my eyes wide, and they sparkle in the candle light. She sighs.
"Very well, but only for five minutes!" Ouch, her voice holds that ring of steel that she has inherited from mother.
I tremble in excitement as we silently ascend the stairway. I hear footsteps and dart into an alcove.
"Master! Where are you going?" It is only Rishid.
I lower my voice and swear profusely, ignoring my family's gasps. "Rishid, we are going to the surface." He protests violently, but I soon have the upper hand.
"We need you to stand guard while we sneak out." He sighs defeated, and nods. I beam at him. He always comes through in the end!
I give Rishid a hug and run up the stairs two at a time, Isis following me more demurely with a worried frown.
"Malik, I'm still not sure-"
Not leaving her enough time to complain, I grab her hand in an iron-tight grip and we emerge into the sunlight.
I screw my eyes up against the harsh glare of the sun, and when my vision had finally adjusted I gaze around myself in wonder.
We have come out of a narrow door, easily concealed in one of the many alleys lining the streets. The vast space around us is filled with people, in more colours and shapes than I could have ever imagined! How could a person have skin that pale? Is he fatally ill?
"Come on Malik, people are beginning to stare!" My sister's harsh whisper breaks through my euphoria and I began to walk automatically.
My eye is caught by small booklet floating past me. I chase after it, curious, and brandish in front of my sister like a new toy.
I pay special attention to one of the pictures, and point it out to Isis. It is a long contraption, made out of metal and with a wheel on each end.
"What's this?"
"It's a motorbike Malik, just like a horse except it is faster." She glances around worriedly and hands the book back to me. While she isn't looking I quickly rip off the picture of the motorbike and hide it inside my robe.
She looks back at the booklet and rips it from my hands, throwing it to the ground.
"Malik, if father catches you with that we're as good as dead!" My hate of father wells up inside me once again, but I fight it back down. Over the years, my fear has turned to anger, and my anger to hate. It has become harder to suppress, and I know that someday it would overflow, and that there would be consequences. I had a feeling, deep down in my gut, that that day would be sooner than later.
I nod sullenly, not wanting my sister to get blamed for my mistake. I smile slightly. This picture would be one of my many secrets.
Isis stiffens beside me, and my head shoots up.
"That man is staring at us!!"
"So? Many people do that. Our clothes are so different from theirs." It is true; many of the people around us wear skin baring blouses and tops, and even short, cut-off trousers.
"No, this one is walking towards us!" I slip and almost fall as Isis begins to walk faster.
"He's following us!" Isis breaks into a run, and I stagger along beside her.
We reach the alleyway just as the man calls out to us. "Wait!"
Isis stops. "What do you want?" She says, her voice quavering slightly. The man looks abashed and takes a step backwards.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to frighten you. My name is Shadi, the current protector of the Millennium Items."
Sister gasps while I stand there confused. What is he talking abou-oh. Those Items.
"I have not much time. All I can tell you is this: Danger looms upon the horizon, and decisions will be made. Choose wisely, for the fate of many souls rests upon your shoulders. The Pharaoh is rising."
He motions at us to carry on, but at the last second Isis turns back to him. "Excuse me, but-" The man has vanished, not a trace of him anywhere.
Deciding to contemplate this later, I turn to my sister. "Come on, we have to get back before father catches us!"
We dash through the door and down the steps, calling Rishid's name. There is no answer.
I bite my lip and run towards the main sanctum, where I can hear screams. As we get closer, the screams grow fainter until there is no sound at all.
We enter the room only to be greeted with a horrifying sight. Rishid is lying in a pool of his own blood and father is standing over him, grinning maliciously.
Rishid lifts his head. "I am...sorry master Malik...I tried..." He slumps back to the floor.
I run towards father. "What the hell have you done to him?" I stop, and clutch at my head. The pain has been getting worse lately, whenever I'm angry. This time it's really bad! I feel like I'm turning inside out and my head's splitting in two!
For a moment everything blurs and I'm shunted to the back of my mind, and something else takes over. Something evil.
'It' walks towards my father, grinning savagely. However, before it can reach him its eye is caught by the monument at the center of the room.
It freezes, then sprints to the stone table and looks inside. Two of the millennium items are within! Two! It lifts the millennium rod from the slab and raises it menacingly in the air.
It points it towards Isis, who has begun to scream, and she is thrown against the wall. 'I' turn towards my father, and he cowers under 'my' gaze.
It cackles. "Look what you've created, old man! All of his anger, his pain, his sorrow, combined to make his ultimate shadow-self. Are you proud?" My Shadow-Self waves the rod at my father's head and yells: "I banish you to the shadow realm!" With those final words, he retreats inside me, and I watch in horror and my father's body takes on an unearthly glow before vanishing into nothing.
I crumple to the ground and sob. What have I done?