Disclaimer: It's time for chapter three, boys and girls. I don't own Yuugioh. Dur. You'd think by now people would know that, but no!
Under Pressure
Separation and Names
The boys spun around, Tristan tripping over himself.
"Who're you?" Kaiba demanded.
"I've already told you, child. I'm Aura."
"What'd'you want?" Mokuba spat furiously.
"I've come to assist you, my dears."
"Help us, eh? Well then you can help us by telling us what the heck those weird things chasing us were!" Tristan asked, trying to be as polite as possible, not wanting to scare off the only thing in this weird world that hadn't attacked them yet.
"The things that stole your friends were Water Sprites. They-" Aura began kindly.
"What'd' you mean friends?" Tristan asked, worried.
Aura blinked at him.
"Two young ones were captured by a large amount of Sprites… a female and a male. One was blonde and as fiery as any shark I've ever seen. The other had brown locks… the female… she was loud and complained the whole way to the palace. I think she was hoping to be let go because she was annoying. And of course the Pharaoh and the young man whose mind he inhabits." Aura said.
"That's Joey and Tea." Tristan said quietly.
"What palace?" Kaiba said.
"The palace of the Empress Typhoon." Aura said.
"Typhoon?"
"Yes. Empress Typhoon Sapphire, the queen of this area."
"Her name is Typhoon?"
"Indeed. Her powers over water showed at a very young age, so she was named after what she frequently caused when she threw a temper tantrum." Aura answered promptly.
"That doesn't sound good." Mokuba said.
"What does she want with our friends?" Tristan asked suddenly.
Aura's large aqua blue eyes turned slowly on Tristan. "She wants nothing with you friends. She merely wants the pharaoh."
"First: the pharaoh is our friend, too!" Kaiba said, a little more loudly than needed. "Second: why does she want him?"
"Your… friend?" Aura said slowly.
"Uh… yeah."
"Hmm… I wouldn't think a pharaoh would befriend commoners."
"Well this one did." Mokuba said, fiercely.
"You never answered my question!" Kaiba said, exasperated. He was getting annoyed with Aura's short attention span already. "Why does Typhoon want Yami?"
"One does not know. One can only hope she isn't in the mood to slaughter innocent people again."
"Again?"
"Yes. Empress Typhoon is not a kind girl. She get angry and starts ordering her men to kill off villagers who become too rebellious."
"Girl? Typhoon is a kid?" Mokuba asked.
"Yes. The Empress is only sixteen years of age."
"Isn't that the same age as Yami?" Mokuba asked Kaiba.
"Give or take a few thousand years." Kaiba answered.
"Pharaoh is sixteen as well?" Aura asked, suddenly showing signs of worry.
"Yeah. Why?"
"It is said… that the young Empress is looking for a… suitor." Aura said, watching the three boys' jaws drop.
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"Let me out of here! I said 'LET ME OUT'!" Tea screeched at the top of her lungs.
"Oh my God Tea… shut up." Joey said, supremely annoying by the racket Tea was making.
"Ugh… why are we here?" Tea asked, miserably, sitting down.
They were locked in a dark, filthy dungeon. Together, as the creature who captured them had promised. Their furnishings included a heap of hay, a bucket, and a single tiny, warped candle. The dungeon was about four feet wide and six feet long, which was terribly cramped for two almost fully-grown teens.
"I can answer that."
Tea leaped up again getting ready to start screaming again. Joey turned slowly. A girl was standing a few paces from the cell door, and a pretty one at that, twirling the keys to the door on her index finger. She was dressed as if she were extremely rich, wearing a beautiful silk gown. There was a loop of silver on her brow studded with sapphires.
"Who're you?" Joey asked.
"I am Empress Typhoon."
"Who now?"
"I am the ruler of this land."
"So… can you let us out? We really want to go home." Joey asked, cranky and tired.
"But then you would miss the wedding." Typhoon said, giving an evil half grin.
"What wedding?" Tea said.
"Why… my wedding, of course. I've finally found the perfect man." Typhoon answered.
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but we want to go home." Joey said, irritably.
"You'll miss the wedding," the empress said in singsong voice.
"Yes, yes, I know." Joey snapped. "But why do I care about the wedding of a gal I don't even know?"
"Because it'll be the wedding of one of your friends, too." Typhoon said calmly.
"What friend?" Joey asked, suspicious.
"The pharaoh!" The empress said gleefully. "But we'll have to get rid of that pesky alter ego… which will be a simple task with my magical abilities."
"You're going to marry Yuugi?" Joey choked.
"No, you fool." Typhoon sniffed. "I'm going to marry the pharaoh. Not some useless little boy."
"You can't have him!" Tea shouted, as if talking of a toy Typhoon had just taken from her.
"I am Empress Typhoon Sapphire! I can have whatever I want! And I want Pharaoh!"
"Does he know about this?" Joey asked, his eyes narrowed in fury.
"It doesn't matter if he does or doesn't. I will have him." Typhoon said, speaking in a soft, dangerous voice.
"He won't marry you!" Tea spat.
"He will if he ever wants to see you two again."
"You vile woman! You're using us against him!" Joey shouted.
"Yes, I am. At first, I ordered my men to do with you what they pleased, (I thought they would kill you, but apparently not) … but then when they brought you back to me, I decided it never hurt to have some extra leverage."
She let out a cold laugh. She turned on her heel, and strutted to the staircase leading out of the dungeons, pocketing the keys to their cell.
"I'll see you at the reception." She called walking out of sight.
"You won't get away with this!" Joey screamed at the hem of Typhoon's dress.
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-Yami? Yami? Can you hear me? Are you alright?-
Yami's eyes cracked open. His chest and arms burned. He looked up to see Yuugi hovering over him.
-Yami! Thank goodness!- Yuugi cried.
Yami sat up. He had no shirt on, showing off pure white bandages that had been wrapped around his arms and chest. He looked around, soaking in his surroundings. He was in a very large, elaborately decorated room. He was laying in the center of a huge canopy bed, with silky sheets.
-Yami, it's awful! You're going to be married to some spoiled queen or something!- Yuugi cried apparently bursting with worry.
-What?- Yami said, utterly confused. No I'm not.-
-Yes you are!- Yuugi said, miserably. -The queen person said so!-
-Maybe you misunderstood?-
-No! Yami… this little girl wants to marry you!-
Yami stared blankly at him. -Little girl?-
-Yeah, she was only about as old as you!-
-I don't want to get married!-
-I know that and you know that, but this girl know that?-
The door slammed open. Standing in the doorway was the girl Yuugi had seen earlier who said she was going to marry Yami. She closed the door with a snap, and turned to face Yami.
"Oh, Atemu!" She exclaimed. She ran forward and threw her arms around Yami's neck, who promptly turned a delicate shade of pink.
"I'm sorry… have we met before?" Yami asked the girl.
"Oh… how foolish of me… you don't have your memories, do you?" She said, playing with Yami's bangs. "Well… a couple thousand years ago, my family promised your father that if you married the oldest daughter in our family when she came of age, we wouldn't invade and attack Egypt. But before you could marry her, you and her had to turn of age, twelve. You were four years older than her. But just as you turned sixteen and she turned twelve, you just happened to have sealed your soul in that little trinket around your neck to save your country. Obviously, the deal was broken. And we would've attacked, but Egypt was nothing but a bunch of rubble. You had failed in your attempt to save your country. It was destroyed."
Yami and Yuugi stared blankly at her.
"And who are you, pray tell." Yami asked.
"I am Empress Typhoon. And I've come to take your father up on that promise he made to my ancestors all those years ago. You and I are to be married!"
"But I don't want to get married!" Yami cried.
Typhoon turned her eyes on Yami with extreme fury. She grabbed a piece of his hair that she had been twirling around her finger and yanked on it, causing Yami to wince in pain. "You and I are to be married!" She said in a little more than a whisper. Her face was turning red as if she were about to throw a fit.
"I can't get married, I share a body with a young man who has his own life." Yami said, disregarding the enraged queen and ignoring the sharp pain in his head.
Typhoon let go of Yami's head and stood up and crawled off the bed. "Oh I know… and I intend on fixing that little problem." She said, snapping her fingers.
"How-" Yami began but the door slammed open again. Many creatures, that looked exactly like the ones who had attacked him in the jungle, filed in to the room.
"These Water Sprites are my loyal soldiers." The young queen said, standing in the center of the room. "My wish is their command. And I wish for them to take you upstairs and prepare you for the separation."
"Separation? What separation?" Yami and he heard Yuugi echo the same thing in his mind.
"Yours and that annoying little boy you share a body with, of course!" Typhoon said.
The Sprites had surrounded the bed and grabbed Yami and hoisted him the air and started to march him out of the room.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Yami bellowed, trying to wriggle free. "LET ME GO!"
But Typhoon merely smiled and watched as her warriors carried out her soon-to-be husband.
"Can't I?"
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"Yami can't get married!" Kaiba shouted, as he struggled through the bushes. "He's too young!"
"Not for my people." Aura said.
Aura was leading them to the Empress's Palace, which proved more irritating to her than imaginable. The youngest boy complained a lot. The older brother of the youngest was too loud. The brown-eyed boy was too quiet. The two brothers were horrifically out of shape. They struggled to keep up and then complained or yelled if they fell behind.
"Why does Typhoon want Yami to be married to? Of all the people there are?" Kaiba asked.
"Isn't it true that the Pharaoh saved the earth on multiple occasions?"
"Well… yeah."
"Is it also true that the Pharaoh is a sort of protector of you, your friends, and your family?"
Kaiba glanced at Mokuba. "Yeah."
"Is it also true that the young king is extremely powerful?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that in it's self is enough to catch the Empress's attention, you know. She is attracted to power. As for him being a protector, she enjoys being pampered." She said with a little bitterness, that Kaiba hadn't heard her use before.
"How do you know so much about Typhoon?" Tristan said suddenly.
Aura looked at Tristan for a long time before answering.
"Empress Typhoon is my sister."
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Yami was strapped to a ice-cold table. His arms and legs were shackled to the table with metal loops. His bare back was chilled to the bone against the steel table. He was jerking and fighting hoping to break free of his restraints. He couldn't make out his surroundings because he was in a dark room with one light, right above him, which was burning brightly.
"Now, now Pharaoh, quit squirming." An old, decrepit man with rotted teeth was standing next to him. "This won't hurt a bit." The old man reached down with bony, knotted hands, and with one finger, pushed Yami's head up so they were looking each other in the eye. "At least… I don't think it will."
Yami jerked his head out of the old man's grip. "Don't touch me!" He snarled.
"Oh, not very friendly, are we, Emperor?" The old man said with a wheezing noise Yami could only imagine to be a laugh.
"I'm not your Emperor!"
"No, but you soon will be."
Typhoon entered the room, walking slowly and trying to look as royal as possible, something of which she was failing miserably at. The old man stooped with a low bow.
"Now, Hubby, are you ready?" Typhoon asked cheerfully.
Yami shot her a venom look.
"Oh my," Typhoon said gently.
"If looks could kill, eh?" The old man asked, pushing a cart with a pair of gloves with what looked like enormous needles sticking off the end of every finger except the thumb of each hand.
"Indeed," Typhoon said, picking up the gloves and putting them on.
"What are planning on doing with those?" Yami snapped.
"Pull out you out your other half." She said simply.
"I'll be killed!" Yami said, confused.
"No you won't." Typhoon said, as the old man pushed a button to make the table raise higher to be level with Typhoon's stomach. "You'll be given his own body, just as he will. Now… are we ready to begin?" She asked.
"Yes, Your Highness." The old man croaked.
"Then let's begin." The old man put some sort of mask over Yami's mouth. Immediately a gas was spouting out of it and into Yami's lungs.
He couldn't hear what Typhoon was saying to him. Yuugi was shouting in the back of his head. He couldn't hear Yuugi either. His words were being slurred and mashed together, like a talking toy whose battery was running out. Everything was going dark, but not before he saw Typhoon plunge the gloves into his chest.
The pain was unimaginable. It wasn't physical pain, though. It was as if every bad feeling he had ever felt in his entire life had come back and he was lost in it. Drowning in it. He struggled to fight it off and it only increased. In the back of his mind Yuugi was screaming like he was being torn in two.
The scream was getting further and further away and Yami felt a sensation he'd hadn't felt for years. He was… alone. No Yuugi in the back of his mind. He felt the mind link snap, like a twig underfoot. He had his own thoughts now… and he was alone!
And he felt being pushed back into a body. A body all his own. It was… his body. It was stronger then Yuugi's; he felt it. But there was a horrible pressure pushing his chest. He gasped for air but it wouldn't come in. He felt his heart pounding, his pulse quickening. The pressure was pushing harder and harder on his chest like it was trying to crush him.
"What's going on?" He cried.
"Oh that's right… your old body had asthma, didn't it?" He heard Typhoon's voice float in and out of his head.
Asthma? Is that why he couldn't breathe?
Then he remembered… he was always ill when he was younger, that's why he was always kept inside the palace. He had other illnesses other than asthma, too.
But how on Earth did he suddenly remember that?
The world around him was still black, but he felt another mask being pushed on his mouth, but it wasn't sleeping gas that was being pumped into his lungs this time. It was oxygen. And he accepted it gratefully. He closed his eyes and allowed the air to fill his lungs.
After a few minutes the pressure went away. It didn't vanish completely, but it was just a raw soreness that came with him breathing so hard.
He opened his eyes and noticed that his vision was sharper than Yuugi's. He knew Yuugi's grandfather hadn't been blowing off hot air when he told Yuugi to get glasses to see the blackboard at school. But Yuugi's mother refused, claiming that Yuugi didn't need glasses, he just needed to work harder.
He looked at his hand. It wasn't pale anymore. It was a beautiful shade of tan. He realized that he was lying on the ground, and sat up wondering where Yuugi was. Yuugi was unhooked from the table and was sitting up, looking wildly for something. Yami noticed that the Puzzle was no longer around Yuugi's neck. It was around his.
Yuugi suddenly realized that Yami was staring at him.
"No…" he said, "we've been…"
"Separated, that's right." Typhoon said, pulling off the gloves and throwing them on the cart, which the old man promptly pushed away.
"Yuugi… I can't read your mind." Yami said dully.
"Of course you can't. You don't share a body anymore." The Empress said.
"Yami… you look… darker." Yuugi said.
Yami stood up. He was the same height as Yuugi but held himself differently so that he looked several inches taller.
"Now then, are we ready to prepare for the wedding?" Typhoon asked.
"No, I'm not to be married!" Yami said calmly.
The girl looked furious. "You will if you ever want to see those annoying little worms you call friends again!" She screamed. She stamped her foot on the ground as she yelled and there was a vein pulsing in her temple as if she were holding her breath.
Yuugi and Yami looked incredulously at her. What mood roller coasters this girl rode on…
"Your just a… just a spoiled brat!" Yuugi exclaimed.
Typhoon turned a deep shade of red. "You will pay for that!" She cried. "Seize him and then take him down to the dungeons to be hanged!" There was a crash from above and tons of Sprites came running to their queen's aid.
Yuugi felt his heart drop. Oh no! What have I done? He thought. But Yami stepped between him and the upcoming Water Sprites.
"Stop."
The Sprites did as they were told. They looked helplessly at their queen, not knowing what to do next.
"Get out of the way Pharaoh!" Typhoon screeched.
"No." Yami said calmly. "You will not touch him."
"And who decided that?"
"I did." Yami said. His voice was soft and calm.
"And why shouldn't I have my soldiers pull you out of the way and chop off the little boy's head?" Typhoon asked, her eyes wild.
Yami was silent for a second. Yuugi looked at him. He was surprised at how… old Yami looked. There were tiny hardly noticeable frown lines that led from the corners of Yami's mouth to almost to the edges of his face. There were lines on his brow. There was a regal look about him that Yuugi had never noticed about him before. Yuugi could only imagine all of this was evidence of Yami's years as pharaoh.
But at this moment Yami's brow was furrowed in thought and his mouth pulled into a severe frown. Yuugi guessed these were the traits that had gotten him the minuscule lines etched into his face at such a young age.
Typhoon was still waiting and Yami still had no answer. A look of hopelessness entered Yami's eyes.
"Yuugi is my most loyal friend." Yami said slowly. "Surely you wouldn't want to harm your future husband's best friend, would you?"
Yuugi stared at him. He was going to marry this wretched little girl because if he didn't Typhoon would have Yuugi murdered on the spot.
Typhoon brightened up immediately. "My 'future husband'? So you've finally realized that if I can't have you, you can't have your friends, have you?"
Yuugi jerked his head back to Yami. Yami looked beaten and his eyes reflected the sorrow that must been tearing at his heart.
"Yes… you win, Typhoon." He said miserably.
"Yami, no!" Yuugi cried.
"You will refer to him as Emperor Atemu now, little boy." Typhoon said coldly.
"Atemu?" Yuugi echoed.
"It is my name, Yuugi." Yami said without looking at me. He was staring at the ground. "My real name. I remember now."
"Atemu…" Yuugi said weakly.
"Yes! And he's all mine!" Typhoon cried, lunging forward and grabbing Yami. No… Atemu.
His name was Atemu.
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Yes, yes I know it was little longer than normal. But I used a smaller font while typing it up so by the time I put it at the right size it was huge. Review please.