The Millennium Ritual

Disclaimer: humming a happy tune lalalalalalalalalala. . . Don't own YGO. . . lalalalala. . .

Chapter 29: Scars

Amunet fell on one knee, clutching her head. Breathing hard, Yugi looked over at Amunet, seeing that she too saw the memory of Lucian. Thinking that this was his chance to escape, Yugi jumped to his feet and ran, with Amunet not noticing.

'My. . . My head. . .' she thought, groaning. 'It hurts so much. . .'

Suddenly flames started erupting from her wrists, as it burned away the gold wristbands, Amunet staring in amazement. As the gold substance fell to the ground, the flames disappeared, and a scar appeared on her right wrist, the same scar she saw on Maeve's right wrist.

The scar of light.

'But how—why do I have only one of the scars? Why do I even have a scar? Who carries the second?' Frustrated, Amunet looked at her surroundings, noticing that she was still on that same damn cloud. Then she realized something.

Yugi was gone.

In total anger and regret, she screamed.

Yugi ran faster and faster, running through clouds and sun rays all at once, thinking about what had just happened.

Through mind link, Yugi asked, "Yami, did you see that?"

'I did, Hikari.'

"Do you remember that? Considering that you were in it."

'I have no recollection of that memory. It surprised me as well.'

Stopping, Yugi turned to his Yami's spirit form, saying, "Well, how it got there, it still gave us some valuable information on Lucian."

'Yes, that's correct. Lucian is not an ordinary Shadow Monster.' Yami agreed.

"Instead, Lucian is made of all the anger and despair Egypt ever felt."

'And he is part of Maeve's ka.'

Thinking, Yugi asked, "Does that mean he's part of Aura's ka too? I mean, she is the reincarnation of Maeve. Wouldn't that mean that they share the same ka?"

'Yes. . . Yes, it all makes sense now! That was why Shanek needed Aura's body for the Ritual!'

"Because that was the only body that Lucian can use, since only one ka can belong to a body! Well, in this case, a part of ka." Yugi exclaimed.

'But remember that TWO phoenixes appeared out of Maeve's body. If the black one was Lucian, who was the white one?'

The two men looked at each other, as they said in unison, "Amunet."

"Come on! We have to tell the others of what we learned!" Yugi cried, running straight. Unfortunately, Yami didn't follow. Slowly stopping once more, Yugi asked, "What's wrong?"

'Do you not remember of what happened at the Ritual? Remember that Shanek sent Aura's mind to the Shadow Realm?' Yami questioned, looking at Yugi.

"Yeah, what about it?"

'The ka and the mind are two separate things. If Aura's ka is here, then where is her mind?'

Yugi didn't answer, for they both knew where it was.

In the Shadow Realm.

As they started to run once more, a shadow crept up behind them. Revealing its darkness, it quickly engulf Yugi, disappearing to Lucian's lair.

"Yugi! Ishizu!" Tea screamed, searching everywhere inside the room.

"Shadi! Seto!" the Healer cried.

"Mr. Motto?" Serenity said.

Tea, the Healer, Serenity, Joey, Tristan, and Duke were standing in the chamber, where their friends disappeared just moments before.

"Hey, Aura and Bakura are gone too!" Joey exclaimed, turning his head this way and that.

"Wow, no kidding," Tristan said, rolling his eyes. Seeing Serenity sighing, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing. . . but I'm wondering if Mokuba's okay." Serenity said, sighing once more.

"Why's that Serenity?" Duke asked, as everyone except the Healer gathered around her.

"Well, he's still badly wounded, and with Aura like this. . . I just don't know." Joey's sister said, as Tea patted her back.

"But you don't even know her that well, sis. How do you know what she's like?" Joey asked. Serenity didn't reply, as she remembered what Mokuba said to her when Shanek captured them.

Flashback

Serenity banged the lapis lazuli slab against the ground, as Mr. Motto paced along the room, while Mokuba watched Serenity.

"I wonder who that girl in the stone was." Serenity said, tossing the stone against the wall. Surprisingly, it did not break.

"That was Aura. She was one of my best friends when I was living with Gozaburo." Mokuba said, as Serenity stopped in mid-step.

"I didn't expect you to answer, Mokuba." Serenity said, turning around and sitting down by Mokuba. "How did you know each other?"

"We met at a dinner party. My step-father and her father were business partners. They wanted to put the two companies together, until my big brother took over Kaiba Corp." Mokuba replied.

"Wow, was she nice?" she asked.

"No, not to other people," he admitted, "But either way, Aura was the nicest person I ever met. Sure, she didn't smile much, and it looked like she didn't laugh a lot either, but I still liked her. Aura was like a big sister, because she always took care of me. Once, she said I reminded her of her own little brother, who died before." Mokuba finished.

With a sad look, Serenity said, "How sad. How did she ever recover?"

Shadows covering his eyes, Mokuba replied, "She didn't." By now, Mr. Motto also joined the conversation.

Mr. Motto asked quietly, "Aura must have been a very sad girl."

Mokuba nodded, saying, "I'm still fuzzy on how she lost her brother, but she also said that on the same year, her mom died too. That was all she told me."

"Still, Aura was one of the strongest people I knew. She cried a lot, and had a lot of mood swings, but she never meant it. Aura still misses them." Mokuba said.

"What happened? When you saw her, you seemed surprised." Serenity asked.

"I haven't seen her in over six years." Mokuba said, "That's a long time, don't you think?"

"Why?" Mr. Motto asked.

"One day, Aura ran away from her father, telling me and Seto that someone was after her. Seto laughed, and said that she was full of it. I wanted to stick up to him, saying that she wasn't, but I was too afraid." Mokuba said, "She begged to Seto to help her, that the same people who killed her family were after her again. Of course Seto didn't listen. As Aura tried to reason with him, my brother slapped her, saying that she was a crazy little girl who thinks that she is so important that people wanted to kill her."

Turning his head away, he continued, "Aura was crying. She said that she hated Seto, that she hated me, and wished that she never met us. And did you know what Seto said back?"

"What was that?" Mr. Motto asked calmly.

"He said that her whole family was a bunch of morons, that the Egyptians were stupid and that she should be sad that she was a dumb Egyptian. Aura stared at him, and ran away. The next day, we heard on the news that the Shields Mansion was raided, but nothing was taken, and that Aura was missing. From that point on, we never saw her again." Mokuba finished, "I was so mad at Seto."

Turning away from them, Mokuba went to the other side of the room, quiet.

End of Flashback

"I just know," Serenity whispered.

As everyone was silent, a scream was heard from the outside. Quickly turning, Tea asked, "What was that?"

Not replying, Joey ran outside, with everyone else following him. But once Joey stepped outside, he knew something was wrong. Looking around, he saw a most sickening sight, as they all stared at it.

The Healer was on the ground, dead, her blood all around her in the sand. Standing above her were three hooded women, each holding a dagger. The three woman stared at Joey, Tea, Serenity, Tristan, and Duke curiously.

"W-Who are you?!" Joey cried.

They did not answer. Instead, they pointed toward the east, where a dark shadow was traveling to. Then, they pointed to Joey, and once more pointed to the shadow. And in a blink of an eye, they disappeared.

Suddenly Tea and Serenity ran over to the dead corpse, with Tea asking, "Wha-what do we do now?" Serenity was crying.

"We can't do anything for her, Tea. She's dead." Tristan said sadly.

"Lets take her in. That the least we can do for her." Duke suggested. Agreeing, they carried her body inside, laying her on top of a bed. Covering her body with a blanket, they slowly walked out of the room.

"Another person is gone." Serenity replied sadly, "What do we do now?"

"Follow those three women's directions," Joey said, "I think they're leading us to the others."

"What?" Tristan asked, shocked, "They just killed the Healer. What makes you think they're leading us to the others?"

"I just know, Tristan! Believe me, I think this is crazy too, but what else can we do?" Joey cried. Tristan was silent.

Turning toward Duke, Joey asked, "Do you wanna go for a ride?"

Yugi fell to the hard ground, as the shadow slowly crept away from him. As Yugi stood up, four more shadows appeared, each spewing out a different person. Kaiba, Mr. Motto, Shadi, and Ishizu all fell to the floor, as Yugi ran up to them.

"Grandpa! Kaiba! Shadi! Ishizu! You're all here!" Yugi cried, as they each stood up slowly.

"Well isn't that obvious?" Kaiba sneered, swatting away invisible dust. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Yugi said, finally looking around. From his point of view, they were in an Egyptian chamber, with statues of jackals everywhere. It would have looked like an ordinary chamber, if everything wasn't made of black stone and gold.

"Did everyone else seen the. . . the memory?" Shadi asked, looking at his comrades.

"Well, Shadi and I have seen it," Ishizu said, "What of the rest of you?"

"Yeah, I've seen it," Kaiba muttered, "What about it?"

"I have seen it also," Mr. Motto said.

"Well, I did too," Yugi said, as Shadi and Ishizu nodded their understanding.

"Did you notice that everyone that had been sent away from the Tomb Keeper's underground lair was included inside the memory?" Shadi stated, turning to Kaiba, "Do you believe us now?"

He was silent.

"Yeah, me and Yami noticed that too," Yugi said, "And we found something out. Remember how two phoenixes came out of Maeve's body?"

"Yes," Ishizu replied.

"Well, we found out that. . ." Yugi started. But he was soon interrupted, for then the two heavy doors suddenly opened. Everyone turned around, as they saw who approached the room.

Lucian walked inside the room, grinning. On each of his sides stood Amunet and Y. Bakura, each dressed in Egyptian clothing. Quickly Yami took control, as Lucian approached them slowly. That was when Yami realized that Lucian did not look like Aura anymore. Instead, he looked like a strong Egyptian man, with long white hair tied in a ponytail, strange markings on his face, ears pointy like an elf's.

"Welcome Pharaoh," Lucian sneered, as Kaiba noticed that Y. Bakura and Amunet were each holding an Egyptian sword. As Kaiba looked at Amunet, she sneered at him, making threatening motions toward him. "It's so good of you to come."

"Why did you take us here?" Yami demanded.

"Where's my little brother?!" Kaiba ordered, looking for any dungeons of some sort. Lucian chuckled softly.

"Amunet took very special care of him," Lucian murmured, as Amunet was cleaning her sword. Yami noticed blood was on it.

"And what of Shanek?" Yami asked angrily.

"He annoyed me," Amunet said, licking a drop of blood of her sword. That was when Yami realized what she did.

"You. . .killed him?!" Yami cried, as Amunet eyed him carefully.

"As I would do the same to you," she said, pointing the sword at him, "I just had a fight with him, that's all."

"It was as if a leash was taken off of me," Lucian said, smiling, "we were planning to kill him for a while."

"Why did you do it?" Kaiba said.

Lucian looked surprise. "Do you not know? Long ago, Shanek killed Maeve, therefore killing me. The man does not know that I am a part of Maeve's ka."

"So I was right! You were the black phoenix in Maeve's body, in that memory!" Yami said.

"What memory?" Lucian asked, twirling his staff, "I did not send anything of the sort. But it makes me wonder of how all of you carry your Millennium Items."

Everyone looked down, to see that they were carrying their Millennium Items.

"You are just as clueless of everything as I thought you were." Lucian smirked, "Well, I believe this is the time of truth. Don't you wonder why I used Aura's body in order to come alive again? Don't you wonder how I got here?"

"We know of all that," Yami said, "We figured it out. You were made of all the evil things in Egypt, and that you were a part of Maeve's ka. In order to come back to life, you needed to use Aura's body, since she was the reincarnation of Maeve. When you did that, you released the white phoenix of Aura's body and turned her into Amunet, didn't you?" His friends stared at him, realizing how much it made sense.

"Why, are you not the clever little Pharaoh?" Lucian said, smiling, "But, you do not know all of it."

"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked.

"Do you not wonder why I never released myself before? And if I was a part of Maeve and Aura's ka, why, may I ask, was I not in her in the Ritual? Why was I in the Shadow Realm instead?" Lucian asked, with a smug look on his face.

They did not reply.

"It was because when the Ritual first started, Maeve gave a part of her ka, me, to the Shadow Realm with the rest of the Shadow Monsters. So, for the rest of her life, she had half of a ka, not a whole."

"But you said that when Shanek killed Maeve, you said he killed you. If you weren't in her, how were you killed?" Ishizu asked.

"Silly Priest," he said, "do you not know? Just because she put half of her ka inside the Shadow Realm, does not mean that all of myself went. You see, a part of I was still in her ka, therefore I still lived inside her ka."

"But I was weak. I needed more anger, despair. But to no prevail. Only in the last minutes of her life, did I feel the power I needed. It was delicious, tasting her anger toward the Priest Set." Kaiba looked away.

"As my stronger side was roaming in the Shadow Realm, I went with her white phoenix, Amunet, to Aura's body, where we were reincarnated. We lived there peacefully, but I was not satisfied. I wished to be with my other self, away from the white phoenix's purity. So I tainted it, slowly, ever so slowly, with my darkness. Although it did not work, it slowly led Aura to the Millennium Ritual, where I was finally reunited with my other self."

"How dare you," Shadi said, "All the pain and suffering the child went through, was because of you."

"Thank you," Lucian said, "Continuing on, I found that the white phoenix was once more overpowering me, even though I had full control of Aura's body. So, I released that half, Amunet, making her forget everything."

Kaiba turned to Amunet, who was not listening. Instead, she was eyeing Yami carefully, like a lion ready to pounce on its prey.

"For proof," Lucian said, taking off a gold wristband, "Look at this scar. . ."

Taking it off his left wrist, everyone saw a dark scar, the scar of darkness. Suddenly Amunet took off her right wristband, to reveal another scar, the scar of light. Everyone gasped.

"Y-You are the two phoenixes in the memory!" Mr. Motto cried.

"Aura carried these scars also," Lucian said, "But I knew that she had no idea of the meaning of the scars. I also knew that you have seen that memory, therefore, I had no choice but to continue to make Amunet my puppet. In fact, right now, she does not know what we are speaking of."

As Yami turned to look, he saw that Lucian was right, Amunet does not know anything.

"And so, everything is now back in order, which means," Lucian said, "we can start another Ritual."

"But what about Aura's mind? What have you done to her mind?!" Kaiba ordered, while Lucian was walking away.

"Don't question the lord!" Y. Bakura yelled.

"Quiet Tomb Robber," the Shadow Monster said, turning toward Kaiba, "Lets have a bargain Priest. If I send you to the Shadow Realm, I expect you to find Aura and the real Bakura before the sand in this hour glass is gone." Snapping his fingers, an hour glass appeared in his hand, as he tossed it over to Kaiba. "Find them, convince them to come to the real world, and I shall spare your pathetic lives."

As Kaiba stared at the small glass, Ishizu said, "Do not do it, Kaiba! It is too risky!"

"It is your choice, Priest," Lucian said, "Do you want the burden of every human's life? Or would you rather go the coward's way?"

"Don't do it Kaiba!" Yami yelled.

"Think about what you are doing!" Mr. Motto cried.

Kaiba closed his eyes, remembering what happened long ago.

Flashback
6 years ago

"Why did you slap her Seto?!" Mokuba cried, as Aura ran out the door, "she just wanted help!"

"That girl is nuts. She's just joking about the men after her Mokuba." Kaiba said.

"B-but we could've at least comforted her!" Mokuba cried out, tears spilling.

"We can't Mokuba. She's not someone to be friends with." Kaiba said, looking at his little brother.

Suddenly Mokuba screamed at him, saying, "I hate you Seto!"

End of Flashback

Clutching the hour glass, Kaiba said, "Lets do it."

Grinning, Lucian said, "Good." Murmuring a spell, he made an opening to the Shadow Realm, and threw Kaiba inside the warp.

"Kaiba!" Yami yelled, running after him. But he was soon stopped by Amunet, her eyes blank.

"Pharaoh," Lucian said, "I propose a duel."

To Be Continued. . .

Dun Dun DUNNNNNNN!!! What will happen next?! Well how the heck am I supposed to know? Wait for me to get ideas, then we'll talk. Until then, review, review, review!