Same disclosures as before. I also want to add that I don't own Battlestar Galactica. I'm really bad at making up names. Seriously. Without giving too much away, this chapter is going to focus on character relationships heavily. The Brian/Téa one is gonna explode. The brother/sister relationship is gonna get off the ground a bit, too. Also, sentences in italics is Skarra's telepathic communication. Now, without further ado, chapter 3.
Chapter 3: The Calm Before the Storm
Sunday. I finally had some free time. After my ordeal in the Shadow Realm on Friday, I had a lot to catch up on. I spent most of Saturday in my room talking with Skarra about the Millennium Items and what secrets they held. As it turns out, the Temple of Abydos had chambers that held knowledge of all the items. Most of them were still sealed off, so we couldn't learn about some of them. What we did learn is that my item had the "Power of Osiris." Skarra had no idea what it meant, but I had an idea.
"From what I know, Osiris judged souls in the underworld," I told him. "Maybe what this means is that the Millennium Bracelet can determine if someone is good or bad by looking into their soul." He had agreed with this and I wanted to try it out, just to see. Paige was my lab rat for this. I focused on her soul as hard as I could and tried to get a read, but all I got was nothing. It just told me it was Paige, that she had been in the area, and nothing more.
That was yesterday, now I had nothing to do. I thought I'd go see Yugi and tell him about my power. Maybe his spirit knew something we didn't. I went to Yugi's game shop, but he wasn't there. His grandpa told me he went out but didn't say where. "I'll try Téa," I said to myself. No one was at Téa's place either. I tried Tristan, then Joey. No one seemed to be home and no one knew where they had gone. I decided to stop by Duke's game shop and look around, but he hadn't seen them since Thursday.
"This is getting kinda weird. It's like they got abducted or something," I thought.
That is a possibility. I'm sure that there are people after the Millennium Items, and Yugi has one. They may have taken your friends to try to get your bracelet.
"I don't know, if one of them suspected something I'm sure they would have called me," I informed him.
I made up my mind to take a walk through the nearby park. With or without my friends, I needed some fresh air. I found a bench that was farther away from anyone in the park, so I sat down. I folded my hands behind my head and tilted my head up to the sky. I closed my eyes as a cool, relaxing breeze brushed my cheeks. That's when I heard a loud, booming voice.
"Attention citizens of Domino," the voice said. "I am Seto Kaiba. As of tomorrow, all businesses and schools in Domino will be shut down. I will be holding a city wide tournament." I stared at the blimp that was flying over head in awe. "Certain game shops will have signs in their windows. At these shops you can register for the tournament, but be warned, only the best can enter my tournament. You will register with a rare card. The rarer your card is, the better chance you have to get in. Registration begins tonight. The tournament starts in one week."
A grin came to my face. "Well, this should be interesting."
This has nothing to do with your destiny, Brian. Don't get into anything that will distract you.
"But this is like training. You know as well as I do that my entire deck was listed in the temple. Maybe this is some sort of test." Skarra didn't respond. I guessed he was thinking it over or something.
I glanced at my watch. It was already 3:00, so I headed home. I still didn't see Yugi or the others on my way home. When I got home, I found Paige home from work. I walked in and she asked me how I was holding up. "Pretty good," I told her. "It's still weighing down on me a bit. I mean, hey, you don't figure out your destiny everyday." She laughed. Then I got a little suspicious. "What are you doing home so early?"
"Well, it's a bit complicated. I'm off work for awhile. See, this guy named Seto Kaiba rented out the entire city for a Duel Monsters tournament," she said. "You're going to enter, aren't you?"
"Oh, that. I was thinking about it, yeah," I said. "I don't know, though. Skarra's kinda worried that it's not part of my destiny."
"Okay, you tell Skarra to give you a break from this destiny thing," she said with a smile. "We all need a vacation sometime." I nodded. I always thought that living with my sister would be a pain, but it's not so bad. The door bell ringing interrupted my thoughts. "Looks like we have company," she said. When she got up to answer the door, I noticed a fiendish look on her face.
"I wonder…" I said quietly. I carefully peeked out the into the living room. When I looked, I saw Yugi, Téa, Tristan, and Joey sneaking through the door. Then they froze when they saw me.
"Uh…surprise?" Joey said nervously.
I walked the rest of the way into the living room. "What's going on?" I said curiously.
"Merry Christmas!" Joey exclaimed.
Téa slapped him in the back of the head then tried to explain what they were doing. "Please don't hate me for this, but I kinda told them what you told me the other day. We wanted to do something special for you, so we've been out trying to plan it all day."
"We know we can't make up for everything that happened to you in the past," Tristan started.
"But we want to make you feel welcome here," Yugi finished.
"Yeah, we even got you a little present," Joey chimed in.
"You guys…" I started. I couldn't finish the thought. I was so happy I couldn't speak. Then Téa approached me and pulled a small, neatly wrapped package from her bag and held it out to me. I gently took it from her outstretched hands and slowly opened it. It was a deck holder that attached to a belt, similar to what Yugi always wore. "Thanks, this is really nice."
"The deck case is from me, Tristan, and Yug. What's inside is from Téa," Joey told me.
"Huh?" I opened the deck holder and looked inside. There was a card inside. I pulled it out and looked at it carefully. "It can't…how did you…Seiyariyu?" I was speechless. Téa had given me the card I had wanted for the longest time.
"See Téa? I told ya he'd like it," Joey commented.
"Téa, I love you," I blurted out. I looked at my friends after I realized what I had said. Téa's face glowed a bright pink and her eyes were wide open. Yugi's mouth hung open a little and Joey and Tristan were snickering behind him. Paige was half smiling and half laughing. "Wait, no…I mean…um…uh…" I stuttered. I couldn't believe what I had just said.
Téa blinked a couple times then took a couple steps toward me, as if she were under a spell. "I told you that I cared about you. That's why I'm going to do this," she said to me.
I heard a few surprised sounds from the others, but I kept my attention on Téa. She picked up my hands and held them in hers. Gazing into my eyes she slowly moved closer to me. During the next few moments, time seemed to stand still. But the next thing I knew, Téa pressed her lips against mine in long, gentle kiss.
When we finally broke the kiss, Téa was blushing even more and I could feel that I was, too. We smiled at each other nervously. "So, you guys wanna stay for dinner or something?" I asked them, breaking the silence. I was pretty embarrassed, to say the least. They all decided to stay and eat. During the meal, we all talked and laughed about things that Yugi and the others had done before I arrived. My favorite story of the night was when Joey was just starting out as a duelist and lost to Téa five games straight. After we were all finished eating, they told me of Yugi's duel with Kaiba.
"And Yugi cleaned Kaiba's clock with Exodia," Joey said to finish the story.
"Wow, Yugi. You have Exodia?" I asked.
"Yeah. Well, I used to," Yugi answered.
"A little punk named Weevil threw the cards off the boat to Duelist Kingdom," Joey continued. "But we got our revenge and kicked him out of the tournament as soon as it started."
"Hey, it's getting late. We shouldn't keep you up all night," Tristan said after we had talked for another couple hours.
"Alright, see you guys later," I told them as they walked out the door. "Thanks for all this. I really appreciate it." Téa stopped and gave me another quick kiss. We heard a "woo-hoo" from outside.
"I'm gonna kick your butt, Joey!" Téa hollered. We both laughed after that and said goodbye.
"I didn't know you had such good friends," Paige said after I had shut the door. "And that Téa's quite the looker, eh?"
I blushed again. "Aw, c'mon sis, don't start that again," I said with a giggle.
"Okay, okay. Now go get some sleep. You got a tournament to prepare for," she told me.
I complied and trotted upstairs. I sat on my bed and pulled out my new Seiyariyu card and set it in front of me. I looked at it for a few moments, thinking of Téa. I then reached over and grabbed my deck from my desk and thumbed through it. I picked out three cards, Graceful Charity, Waboku, and Change of Heart, and lined them up with Seiyariyu. I sighed and smiled. These four cards had been given to me by my friends at one time or another.
Waboku was given to me by Jack Mahour after my third tournament win. I received Change of Heart from Melissa Hensen a short time later. Graceful Charity I got from Alexis Luminari after I beat her in my fourth tournament. Waboku was one of Jack's favorites, but Melissa and Alexis bore striking resemblances to the images on their respective cards. Seiyariyu was different, though. It was a dragon and didn't look anything like Téa, but it still reminded me of her. "Maybe it's because I love her…" I thought. I snapped out of my thoughts and slid the cards back into my deck. Seiyariyu still sat in front of me. I quickly thought of my cards and replaced Luster Dragon #2 with Seiyariyu.
What are you doing? You mustn't change your deck, Brian.
"Don't worry, Skarra. I looked at all of the monsters in the temple and Luster Dragon #2 wasn't in there," I assured him.
Well, I still don't like it. Messing around with destiny isn't the best idea.
I laid back on my pillow. "Aw, you worry too much. Besides, how are we to know that putting this card in my deck wasn't part of destiny's design?" I told him.
I see. I suppose destiny isn't always as clear as we want it to be. But my statement stands.
That's the last thing he said before I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning was quiet. Since there was no school and all the businesses were closed, I got to spend the morning with my sister for once. "You know, we never did this when we were little," I told her over breakfast.
"Yeah…I know," she replied sadly. "I guess I just wanted to do 'girl' things, you know. I always thought we were too different and would never get along."
"It stinks that Mom and Dad had to die for us to disprove that." I flinched after I said that. She had never spoken about them since the funeral.
She just nodded. "You gonna go see Téa today?" she asked.
"I don't know. It's kinda rude to drop by unannounced," I said.
She stood to clean up the dishes which I helped her with. "You two have something special. Don't ruin that," she told me.
The next thing I did was grab the new deck case that my friends gave me and I left the house. I headed over to Yugi's game shop which is where he also lived. I stepped through the door and asked his grandfather if Yugi was still there. He directed me upstairs to his room. When I got there, Yugi appeared to be getting ready to go somewhere.
"Hey, Yugi. Going somewhere?" I asked him.
"Yeah, I'm going to see Téa. We were gonna do some stuff," he replied while putting the Millennium Puzzle around his neck.
"Oh…I see," I said with a tone of sadness.
Apparently, Yugi caught on and knew why I sounded sad. "Oh, it's okay. I just thought the spirit of the puzzle could use someone to talk to and who better than Téa. I think she'd understand this sort of thing better than Tristan and Joey would."
"You're right about that," I said with a grin. "Knowing Tristan and Joey they'd probably turn the conversation to something else and forget about what they were doing."
Yugi laughed then went quiet again. "I know you love Téa and I'm not gonna get in the way of that." I asked him how he knew that. "Well, the spirit of the puzzle told me after I told him about last night. He said that you told him not to tell, but he figured we'd know by now."
"Yeah, that was pretty obvious. Paige hasn't stopped talking about it since," I said.
"Why don't you go with them?" Yugi offered. "I'm sure your spirit could take advantage of the opportunity."
"Okay. Except, Skarra can't control my body like your spirit can." I said. "I'm sure he'll listen in though."
No. You can't go.
"What? Why not?" I asked out loud.
This is someone else's destiny. Don't interfere.
"No, I'm going," I told him. "We may figure something out that may help out Yugi's spirit."
"What?" Yugi looked puzzled.
"It's just Skarra," I said to Yugi. "He doesn't think I should go. For some reason he thinks I'm meant to stay out of everyone's business and not get involved…with anything. Or anyone, for that matter."
"Well, come on," Yugi said. "Let's go meet up with Téa." We left Yugi's house and started walking across town. After awhile, I asked Yugi where we were going. "I told Téa I'd meet her in front of the library. It's not too far, now."
"There's a library in this city?" I asked myself. "How come I never know these things until I'm on my way there?"
Eventually, we came upon the library. It was a huge building that looked more like a court house than a library. There were a few people going up and down the large staircase in front of the building, but sitting at the bottom was our girl, Téa. She was wearing a skirt and a tube top with an open jacket over it. She was staring off into space and didn't appear to notice us until we walked up to her.
"Hey, Yugi!" she said, jumping up from where she was sitting. She saw me and a big smile came to her face. "Hi there, Brian. I didn't know you were coming."
"Well, I went to see Yugi this morning and he asked me to come along, too," I explained. "I hope you don't mind."
"No, of course not," she replied happily.
That's when I felt something. It was a twinge that originated from my right wrist. I lifted my arm up and pulled back my sleeve, revealing my Millennium Bracelet. "Strange…" I murmured. Téa gave me a worried and confused look. But before I could explain, Yugi started yelling at someone.
"Hey! You can't just do this to me! Get back out here!" He was holding the puzzle in both hands and shaking it around. From what I could tell he was yelling at the puzzle, not a person. He paused and tilted his eyes up at us. Then he let go of the puzzle and put his hand up and said, "Uh…hi."
Téa and I exchanged skeptical looks. "You okay, Yugi?" I asked.
"Actually, I'm the spirit of the puzzle," he replied. "I guess you guys could call me Yugi anyway since I don't know my real name."
We wandered around town, sort of aimlessly, discussing what we could do to try to discover 'Yugi's' past. All we could come up with was that it had something to do with Egypt. We visited a game shop, where Yugi gained a few cards, then stopped at a café to talk and get something to drink.
"The mystery may be solved in the Temple of Abydos," I suggested. "There's a bunch of chambers there, each one marked with an item. So far, all we can get into are the ones marked with the necklace and the eye."
"The chamber with the eye won't help us, anyway. The Millennium Eye disappeared shortly after I defeated Pegasus," Yugi said.
"I'm not even sure any of the chambers will help us. All it says in the two open chambers is what the items do," I sighed.
"We know what the eye did. It stole souls. What does the necklace do?" Téa asked.
"From what Skarra and I can gather, it allows the user to look into the past and the future," I told her.
"If I could use that necklace…" Yugi trailed off. He was holding his head up on his hand and was gazing thoughtfully out the window. There was a large amount of people gathering at the arcade across the street.
"I wonder what's going on over there?" Téa said. "C'mon guys let's check it out!"
We got up and left the café and crossed the street. It turns out they all seemed to be watching a couple guys playing a dancing game. The game's clock said they had been going for fifteen minutes. The three of us pushed our way to the front of the crowd to get a better look. We watched for a little while and before long one of the guys lost. The winner turned and thanked the crowd as if he were a movie star. That ticked me off a little. He was acting like my mother. He really got under my skin when he looked down and saw Téa.
"Well hello there, gorgeous," he said to Téa as he bent down and cupped her face in his hand. "Did you come here just to see me, Johnny?"
I glared at him. "Back off, buddy," I said to the guy.
He pulled his hand back and turned his attention to me. "And who are you?" Johnny asked. "Her boyfriend?" He laughed and so did the couple of guys that came up next to him.
"As a matter of fact he is," Téa piped up. I felt Yugi lightly elbow me a couple times.
"Why don't you just ditch the pipsqueaks and come join up with us?" one of the guys beside Johnny asked her.
"Yo, guys. Cool it," the dancer told them. "How would you like to dance with me? Let's see how good you are."
An annoyed look came over Téa's face. "Okay, you're on!" she said to him. She pulled off her jacket and turned to me. "Would you hold this for me, sweetie?"
I took her jacket and tucked it safely under my arm. I was a bit surprised that she had called me sweetie. She stepped up on the stage and studied the board she was standing on. Then she tilted her head up and closed her eyes. A count down started on the screens. As soon as it hit zero, Téa's eye snapped open and the music started. They both started out good, but Téa was a few steps ahead of her challenger. She was performing elegant turns and jumps with her arms flowing with the rest of her body, landing each step perfectly nearly every time. I watched in awe, her dancing was so beautiful. I couldn't take my eyes off her.
After a few minutes Johnny started falling behind in points. A couple times he "accidentally" bumped into her and tried to make her mess up. Téa was too good for that and turned the nudges into spins and twirls. The last straw was when Johnny attempted to trip Téa. It was an obvious move that everyone saw. A bunch of them booed but then cheered when Téa regained her balance and landed in a ballet stance. The music stopped and the scores appeared on the screens. Téa's score was almost double that of Johnny's.
Téa stepped off the platform and walked back over to me and Yugi. "That was amazing, Téa!" I exclaimed as I handed her jacket back to her and the three of us left the arcade. "I never would have guessed you could do anything that beautiful."
"I knew you wanted to be a dancer, Téa, but I didn't know you were that good. It was a marvelous performance," Yugi added.
"Aw, that's sweet you two," Téa said in response. We turned down a road that lead to a short wall that overlooked the bay and a magnificent sunset. Yugi sat on the wall with his back to the bay. I leaned on the wall, propped up on my elbows. Téa was in between me and Yugi in the same position as me.
"I used to take dance classes when I was young," Téa told us. "I loved it so much, but I don't go anymore."
"Why not? Why did you quit?" I asked her curiously.
Before she could respond, an all too familiar voice broke in. "Hey, you!" we turned to look and saw Johnny.
"What do you want now, Johnny?" I asked him.
"I want a rematch! Your little girlfriend cheated!" he yelled.
"What? No I didn't! You're the cheater!" Téa snapped.
That's when Yugi stood up. "Perhaps you'd like to play a different game," he said calmly. "I challenge you to a duel!"
"You think I'm gonna lose to some spiky haired runt?" Johnny boasted.
"Wait, Yugi," I said as I stepped up to Johnny. Yugi asked me why and gave me a questioning look. I grinned. "Téa stood up to this guy earlier for me. It's time I do the same for her."
"No skin off my back. I'm gonna knock your socks off, kid." Johnny sounded pretty confident.
We began our duel. It turns out Johnny was much more of a dancer than a duelist. In about five minutes my two Luster Dragons had him on the ropes. He was down to 2900 life points and mine were completely intact at 8000. The next card I drew was one of my most powerful monsters. "Now it's time to finish this," I said courageously. "I sacrifice my two monsters, and summon my almighty Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The screeching roar of my dragon echoed across the playing field.
"What? That's impossible!" Johnny whimpered. "You! You're Seto Kaiba aren't you? I give up, I can't possibly win!" Johnny gathered up his cards and started to leave. The duel holograms shut down but I left my cards sit there for awhile and watched Johnny go to leave.
Téa stepped in front of him. "I can't believe you! You act all tough and go around challenging people, but as soon as you start to lose, you wimp out and run away!" Téa scolded him. "And he's not even Seto Kaiba!" Johnny argued with us until Yugi told him that honesty and honor led to victory. Eventually, Johnny walked out a changed man, or at least that's what we thought.
I followed Yugi back outside with Téa clinging lovingly to my arm. "Oh…it's already dark. We missed the sunset," Téa commented sadly.
"Oh man! I totally forgot! We were supposed to be helping Yugi out today," I said. "I guess we got a little distracted. I'm sorry, Yugi."
"It's quite alright. I don't think we would have found out too much anyway," Yugi responded.
"I have an idea. We should go to the museum and take a look at that Egypt exhibit." And with that Téa whisked us off to our destination.
When we arrived at the museum we went straight to the Egyptian section. Yugi went off on his own to look at the slabs that had pictures of duel monsters. Téa wanted to spend some time alone with me so I took her to see the Egyptian jewelry.
"That's not right," I said to Téa. "It's labeled as a necklace said to be worn by Isis. But it clearly says 'Nephthys' across the front."
"It's pretty, though," she commented.
"Yeah, but not as pretty as you are," I told her. She giggled and put her head on my shoulder. Then Yugi came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and looked at him. It looked like he had seen a ghost. "Yugi, what's wrong?"
"I think you should see for yourself," he replied. Téa and I followed Yugi through an open door and down a stairwell. He led us to a tablet that was hanging from the wall. At first I didn't see what the big deal was, then I looked again, more carefully.
"I don't believe it…it's Yugi…" Right there on the tablet was a drawing of two people facing each other, one of them looked exactly like Yugi. The three of us just stared at the carving for a few minutes, until a voice behind us pulled our attention away.
"Greetings, Lord Yami," the voice said. "I am Ishizu Ishtar. I have foreseen your arrival."
"Lord Yami?" Téa asked. "Wait, could that be your real name?"
"I see that you found this tablet, just as I knew you would," Ishizu continued.
"You used your Millennium Necklace to see this, didn't you?" I asked. "What importance does this tablet have though?"
"This carving shows one of the most important battles of ancient Egypt," Ishizu explained. "It takes place between a sorcerer and the pharaoh, King Yami."
"King Yami?" the three of us said at once.
"Yes. In that battle you protected the world from a great evil," she continued. "Once again, that evil has risen and once again you must defeat it."
"But how will we know what this evil is?" Téa asked.
"You won't have to worry about that. Only Yami will," she informed us.
"No way," I told her. "No matter what, we'll always be here for him. I don't care if I'm in terrible danger, I'll always stand by my friends."
"I see. Tell me, what is your name?" Ishizu asked me.
"What? I thought you 'foresaw' our arrival," I replied. "Anyway, I'm Brian Matthews, Duelist of the Roses!" I held up my right hand and revealed my Millennium Bracelet.
"That…that bracelet. Is it a Millennium Item?" Ishizu sounded shocked. "I never saw this, perhaps you are meant to help Lord Yami…"
"What is this evil you were talking about?" Yami asked.
"Yes…the Egyptian God Monsters," she told us. "Whoever holds all three cards will know infinite power. The one who is after them already has two. You must prevent them all from falling into his hands."
"What do you guys think?" Yami asked us.
"There's not much I can do," Téa said. "But I'll be there when you need me."
"Help an ancient pharaoh and save the world?" I grinned. "Sure, let's do it."
"Then it's decided, we'll all help to save the world," Yami said and turned back to Ishizu. "Huh? She's gone." It was true, during our conversation she had disappeared. Simply vanished.
"Hmm…do you think this has anything to do with the Battle City Tournament?" I asked Yami on our way out of the museum. "Skarra seems to think so now."
"I'm almost certain of it," he replied. "It seems more than just coincidence that these two events would take place at the same time."
"I wish there was more I could do…" Téa said with a heavy heart.
I reached over and held her hand. "Come on, Téa, I can't do this without you. Nothing makes me feel stronger and duel better than knowing that I'm fighting for someone."
"We should explain all this to the others," Yami said. "I'm sure Tristan and Joey wouldn't mind meeting us tomorrow."
"Right," I agreed. Yami then turned and walked off toward his home, or maybe it was Yugi's, I wasn't really sure anymore. I walked Téa home and gave her a quick kiss before saying goodnight. As I walked home I began to think about the new challenge ahead of me.
It seems I owe you an apology.
"No, not really. Destiny is hard to predict. There's no way you could have known for sure."
Anyway, now that we know that your friend is the pharaoh, we know what we need to do.
"We'll see about that. For some reason I think there's more to this story than what was revealed. This isn't over. Not by a long shot."
