8. The Chamber of Wedju

"I hate being underground all the time," Mokuba moaned. "I can't tell whether it's day or night."

"I hear you," Téa agreed. She longed to see the sun again. "And these torches are just creeping me out," she added. "Who do you think turned them all on? Rex and Weevil?"

"I'm guessing the tjaty did it," Yugi mused. "He brought us down here for a reason. Rex and Weevil and the Millennium Puzzle are just the bait."

"Well there's a cheery thought," Tristan huffed. He was carrying Rex over his shoulder and sounded exhausted. "Nothing like walking into a trap."

"Any idea who it is, Yuge?" Joey asked as he and Mai joined them from behind.

Yugi shook his head. "I've been thinking about it all morning and I don't have a clue. It could be almost anyone in the group that got cut off from the rest of the passengers."

"Wanna bet it's Pegasus?" Kaiba offered.

"That makes no sense, Kaiba," Duke replied, defending his boss. "He's unconscious back at the camp." He grunted and shifted Weevil, who was draped across his back, from one shoulder to the other.

"Or it's all an act."

"Seems a little far-fetched to me," Joey said. "Not that I trust Pegasus or anything, but setting up a whole Shadow Duel with Rex and Weevil and then faking being taken to the Shadow Realm? Why would he bother? I'm thinking Goradon. He's the one who arranged for the tournament to be on this cruise and he's the one who kept pushing to continue."

"Yeah, I definitely don't trust Goradon," Yugi concurred.

"I don't think we should rule out Jacques Rousseau or Raul Pérez," Mai said.

"Or any of he duelists, really. At least not the men. Rex and Weevil did say it was a 'he,'" Tristan observed.

"Which doesn't really narrow things down much, does it?" Yugi pointed out. "Even if you cut out all of us and the kids like Leon and Sho, then there's still like nine or ten male duelists left."

Joey's eyes widened. "Hey, what about Ziggy von Schroeder? That guy's always been a total freak."

"As much as I can't stand the pompous windbag," Kaiba put in, "I don't see him playing servant to anyone."

"Look who's calling who a pompous windbag," Joey muttered.

"Can we take a break?" Rebecca whined. "I think my blisters have blisters."

"Well, munchkin, it does look like we're getting to the end of this cavern anyway," Mai pointed out, looking ahead to where the cavern ended in what looked like another tunnel.

"Oh good, another tunnel," Joey groaned.

"Which would be a perfect time to trade off Rex-and-Weevil duties," Tristan panted. He stopped and set Rex's limp body down then slumped down on the ground beside him.

"What a bunch of babies," Kaiba jeered. Pushing his way past them, he went on ahead toward the opening at the end of the cavern.

"Hey, it's your turn, Rich Boy!" Tristan called out after him.

"And yours, Yugi," Duke wheezed as he lay Weevil down next to Rex.

"Hold on, let me see if I can figure out by Rex and Weevil's map if it's much farther, then I'll carry Weevil," Yugi said. He pulled Kenan Bagatui's backpack off his shoulder and started digging around inside.

"Don't bother," Kaiba called out from the other side of the opening. "I think we're here."

Forgetting that he'd promised to carry Weevil next, Yugi hurried through the opening behind Kaiba. There was a short tunnel that opened up into a large, well-lit chamber. When he made it into the chamber, he stopped short.

He found himself in an enormous cavern, larger even than the first one they'd seen with all the stone tablets. It was roughly circular and more gas torches lined the walls everywhere, illuminating every corner. Throughout the vast chamber was row after row of giant stone tablets. Some hung on the walls, but most were free-standing like works of art on display in a gallery. Instead of Egyptian hieroglyphics like the tablets in the first chamber they saw, these were carved with images of Duel Monsters.

"Whoa," Téa breathed, coming in behind him.

"This is incredible!" Mai said in astonishment.

The others made their way into the chamber, each echoing their amazement. Téa started turning in circles, trying to take in all the monsters depicted on the stones.

"This is like the tablets they used to play Shadow Games in ancient Egypt," Joey said.

"Are these… like your cards?" Evan asked.

"Yes, they're Duel Monsters," Yugi explained.

Yugi started walking through the rows, trying to comprehend the vastness of the cavern and the number of stones with monsters. He saw Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress, Thousand Dragon, Battle Ox, Curse of Dragon, Vorse Raider, Flame Swordsman, Summoned Skull, Feral Imp, Kaiser Seahorse, Red-Eyes Black Dragon… the stones went on and on.

When he'd gotten to the last of the tablets on the left from where they'd entered, he found the area ended abruptly in a huge ravine. It wasn't terribly wide, but it ran the length of the cavern. A wooden bridge that reminded him of a castle drawbridge lay across the gap. Beyond were more stalactites and stalagmites and another tunnel that led away. Yugi stepped close to the edge and peered down. It was too dark to see how far the drop was, but it was enough to make Yugi suddenly feel uncomfortable standing so close to the edge and he took a few quick steps backwards.

Heading back toward the center, he started to feel strange. It was almost as if the air was electrified, sparking all around him, but with a cold, sinister edge. It seemed to get worse the closer he got to the tablets. He felt someone come up beside him and turned, expecting to see Téa, but it was Rebecca.

"Yugi," she said quietly taking his hand. The note of dread in her voice made his blood run cold.

"I know," Yugi replied, his voice equally low and awe-struck. "I feel it, too."

"Like Egypt," she said, "only a thousand times worse."

"Yes."

"I feel better with you, though."

He looked down at her and squeezed her hand.

Téa came up on his other side. "What is this place?"

"It's like a shrine, like… like the Tablet Shrines of Wedju," he answered.

"This is bad," Mai said. Yugi came around one of the stones and saw her standing in the pose he was coming to recognize as discomfort with the darkness; she was hugging herself tightly as if very cold.

"Mai?" Joey said, concern evident in his voice. "Are you okay?"

"Don't you feel it, Joey?"

"Feel what?"

"It's like… the Millennium Ring magnified a thousand times."

"Okay, I'm officially creeped out," Téa said.

"Mai," Joey repeated, then stopped and shook his head slightly as if trying to clear it. "Okay, yeah, this is freaky. I…" He rubbed his chest as if he'd suddenly developed heartburn.

"You all right?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, I just feel funny."

Yugi looked at the others scattered around the room. None of them looked particularly well, either. Téa was covering her mouth with her hand and looked almost as pale as Rebecca. Tristan and Duke had set down Rex and Weevil again and Tristan was sweating, which he hadn't been earlier even while carrying Rex on his back. Duke looked a little green, Mokuba's teeth were chattering and Kaiba had his hand to his head as if nursing a headache. Of all of them, only Evan and Serenity seemed unaffected. Awestruck, to be sure, but not ill or particularly disturbed beyond their concern for the others.

"Didn't you come here looking for something?" Evan asked.

Yugi nodded and he and Rebecca continued walking through the stones to the far end of the cavern with Téa close behind them. Towards the end there was a large open space with the stones grouped around forming an amphitheater of sorts, as if the gallery of stones was part of the audience for a duel. In the very front was a stone tablet depicting Dark Magician, and on the stone beside it, Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba saw it too, and walked up to Blue-Eyes as if transfixed. Yugi, however, turned to look at the other side of the arena.

Directly across from Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician was the far wall of the cave. Hanging high on the wall as if the focal point for all the other monsters was a stone that was larger than the rest, almost twice their size. Carved on it was a monster Yugi didn't immediately recognize. It was roughly humanoid, but massive, like Giant Soldier of Stone. It had five protrusions radiating out from its shoulders like rays of light, only more solid. Its arms ended in huge clawed fingers and its legs were like stone pillars protruding from beneath an armored skirt or kilt of some sort that looked like a mirror image of the ray-like protrusions above. Most unusual, its top half was separated from its bottom half, connected only by three bands of energy: one for each arm and a third at the torso. In the middle of each band of energy was a glowing ball of light.

"I don't recognize that monster," Téa said, looking up with him. "What is it?"

Before he could answer, his eyes were drawn downward from the huge stone. Below it were seven stone steps leading up to the bottom of the stone like an altar. Across the top of the steps lay another stone tablet that Yugi recognized immediately.

"The Millennium Stone!" he breathed. Letting go of Rebecca's hand, he walked slowly towards the tablet. The strangeness in the air once again seemed to grow stronger the closer he got to the wall. He walked up the steps and approached the tablet. It was a reproduction of the original, he knew—the original had been destroyed—but it had the same indentations for all seven Millennium Items. The notches for the Millennium Eye, Millennium Ring, and Millennium Rod were empty, but the rest were filled. He saw the Millennium Scale, the Millennium Key, the Millennium Necklace.

And in the center of them all, the Millennium Puzzle.

It looked the same, a golden inverted pyramid with the Eye of Horus embossed on the front on the center piece. It was tied to a cord like the one he had originally used to hang it around his neck rather than the thick chain he'd switched to later. For a moment he couldn't move. He was afraid to touch it, afraid to take it and find out whether it was real or not, whether it would bring back Atem.

He heard footsteps on the stairs behind him, but they stopped after only two steps. It was Téa, he knew, waiting to see if the Puzzle was real. He didn't look at her; he wanted to know what she was thinking, but he also didn't want to know. He hesitated a moment longer, than steeling his resolved, he reached out and took the cord in his hand, pulling the Puzzle out of its slot. He dangled it from the cord for a moment, then took the Puzzle itself into his hands. As soon as he touched it, felt its weight and the details on its surface, he knew.

"Yugi?" Téa asked.

His eyes met hers at last. "It's not real."

"What?" Joey asked. "How can it not be real? Are you sure, Yugi?"

"I'm sure," he said, his eyes not leaving Téa's. He saw there a reflection of his own mixed emotions. They'd come all this way and it wasn't even real. All this way… for nothing. "This isn't the Millennium Puzzle."

"Then what the hell is this all about?" Joey demanded.

"Joey!" Téa admonished.

"What? It doesn't make any sense! How did Rex and Weevil use them to start Shadow Games if they're not real?"

"I don't know," Yugi said.

"Yesterday you were saying you thought they were fake," Téa reminded Joey.

"That was before the Ring screwed with Mai!" Joey shot back. "How could it affect her the way it did if they're not real?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Yugi shouted, closing his eyes.

They all stood frozen in place, silent, and Yugi immediately felt bad for shouting at Joey. This place, it was affecting him like the duels. Opening his eyes and looking at Joey, he tried again. "I don't understand any of this," he said, " but I know this isn't the real Millennium Puzzle. It was the most important thing in my life for three years; I'd know it anywhere. The weight is all wrong and the sides just don't feel right. I don't know what it is and why we had to come all the way here for this, but it's a fake."

"Yuge, I'm—"

"Let's just get out of here," he said. "This place is bad news."

He caught Téa's eye again, that same mix of emotion on her face. Was she disappointed? Was he? He just felt… empty. And woozy. This place.

Shrugging off the backpack he was wearing, he turned back to the Millennium Stone and pulled out the remaining Millennium Items. He swept them into the bag, putting the Millennium Puzzle—no, Weevil was right. It was a puzzle, not his Puzzle, not the Millennium Puzzle—on top. It was a little too full now to zip all the way closed, so he pulled the zipper as far as it would go than put the bag back over his shoulder.

He joined Téa at the bottom of the stairs and she slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. He didn't know if he felt comforted or coddled, but at least his head wasn't swimming so much. Rebecca took his other hand and they started to walk back the way they came when Tristan stopped him.

"Not so fast. It's your turn to carry Weevil. And Kaiba, you've got Rex."

Kaiba, who was still standing by the stone depicting Blue-Eyes shrugged imperiously. "Whatever."

"Where are they?" Yugi asked, dropping both girls' hands.

"We left them a couple rows back," Duke answered.

They all followed Duke and Tristan through about two rows of stones, where Duke stopped suddenly. "Hey, where'd they go?"

Yugi frowned and swallowed over the growing queasiness in his stomach. "What, aren't they where you left them?"

"No, we left them right here," Duke said.

"You dweebs must be confused," Kaiba said.

"No, Duke is right," Tristan told him. He pointed to one of the stones, which Yugi recognized as Eight-Claws Scorpion. "I remember thinking how happy Weevil would be here by this ugly-looking thing."

"So what, they just woke up and walked away?" Joey asked.

"Are you telling me no one was guarding them?" Evan asked, irritated.

"We don't usually bother guarding people who are unconscious," Joey retorted.

"Can we please just forget them and go?" Rebecca asked, pressing against Yugi's side again. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"We can't just leave them, Rebecca," he told her.

"But they're not here," Mai pointed out.

"We should at least check the whole cavern before we leave," Yugi replied, although like Rebecca, he was growing more and more anxious to leave. His head was starting to swim and his vision was blurring and he was exhausted. Exhausted from the walk, exhausted from the strange atmosphere, exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of both hoping and fearing the Millennium Puzzle might be real, then having those hopes and fears come to nothing. He took a couple of steps, looking around, then stopped suddenly, feeling lightheaded again. He stooped over, pulling his arm away from Rebecca and resting his hands on his knees.

"Yugi!" Téa cried, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… yeah. I'm just… wow." He stood upright again. "This place is making me a little dizzy."

"Me too," Rebecca said. "Please can we go?"

"I think the munchkin is right," Mai said, her voice a little shaky. "Let's get out of here. Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dumber only have themselves to blame for the mess they're in anyway."

They couldn't find Rex and Weevil anywhere and Yugi's head was swimming worse than ever by the time they crossed the length of the cavern back to where they came in. Joey was in the lead by this point and was almost to the entrance back into the tunnel when suddenly a thunderous sound like the grinding of rusting gears startled them. Joey jumped back with a shriek as a huge iron gate slammed down in the opening, rattling loudly as it crashed down onto the cave floor.

"What the—?"

"See, it is like Raiders of the Lost Ark!" Tristan cried.

Yugi ran up to the gate and pulled on the bars. It was thick and the spaces between bars narrow. "Well, we're not going back this way."

"You mean we're trapped down here?" Joey asked, a touch of panic in his voice.

"No, you doofus, the whole side of the cave is open over there," Tristan reminded him.

"So we get to walk on that little wooden bridge over a bottomless pit? I think I'd rather be trapped," Joey moaned.

"Let's not stand around here talking about it," Téa urged them. "I really wanna get out of here."

They made their way back through their stones to the open side of the cavern. When they got to where the drawbridge was, Yugi stopped short, his heart sinking.

The drawbridge was up. On the other side of the ravine.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Duke said.

"There must be a mechanism to lower it," Kaiba said.

"Yeah, I see it. It's on that post at the bottom of the bridge. On the other side," Mokuba pointed.

"Now what?" Yugi wondered aloud, shaking his head and trying to clear it. There had to be another way out of here, but the strange atmosphere was starting to double his vision. They had to get out of here, fast.

"Now I just don't understand. You came all this way and now you're in a hurry to leave? Why don't we sit back, relax, maybe play a nice game of Duel Monsters?"

Yugi spun around, frowning. Standing behind everyone, leaning casually back against one of the stone tablets as if he were enjoying a picnic in the park, was Evan. He had a smug look of amusement on his face and his arms were crossed. On his left arm, he wore a duel disk. Duel disk? Since when does he—

"Evan?" Mai asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, perhaps I should reintroduce myself. I'm Evan Haines, Deputy Purser on the USS Chrysaor. A decade ago when Duel Monsters was fairly new, I was a regional Champion, a real up-and-comer on the tournament circuit until I opted for, shall we say, more private and personal training at the hands of a true master. One who understands the real game and its purpose and origins. In time, as I proved my skill and my loyalty, he revealed his true identity to me and entrusted me with helping him fulfill his destiny. He is the reincarnation of the greatest of all the pharaohs, the Great Pharaoh Ramesses. And I am his Vizier."