I'd like ta thank those who reviewed the last chapter (thank you!)…um…that's all!

Chapter Sixteen: The Shadow Game

Winry took a step forward to try and stop Pride only to find herself frozen a few inches away. Pride had used the Millennium Rod to render her immobile; he had a very devious smirk on his face as he said,

"Cute…but never the best choice in these kinds of situations. You never EVER advance on someone who clearly has the advantage, that's a sign of stupidity. Honestly, what makes you think that just because you're willing to risk your life that it's going to throw me off? Leave that crap to fairytales cause it doesn't work in the real world."

The eye in the center of the Millennium Rod flashed and threw Winry against the opposite wall knocking her out. Al charged at Pride, a look of near pure hatred on his face, but he too was temporarily frozen in midstride and thrown backwards into a wall.

"Humans…are so predictable, now listen, I'm going to get back what is mine and neither of you OR that damn Pharaoh is going to stop me," Pride pause a second, "Damn that was cliché." He then shook his head dismissively and left the room. Alphonse regained the ability to move and ran over to where Winry was; she had come too but looked a little dazed.

"Are you all right Winry?"

"Yeah…I'm fine, just a little stunned that's all." she replied rubbing the back of her head.

"He's gotten out of control…we have to stop him." Al muttered standing, he frowned and punched the wall, "But how? My brother is still in there…"

"Al? You don't look so good," Winry said getting up slowly, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Al said, his tone though said otherwise, "Come on, we have to go after him." Al rubbed his sore fist as he stormed out of the room after Pride. Winry had a worried expression on her face, there was definitely something wrong with Al, he's normally calm and composed but now he seems more agitated and annoyed. Sighing, she quickly followed him out the door, she wasn't sure what to think anymore, her two best friends where acting completely against their own character and it really bothered her.

--

Pride made his way down the long hallway in search of where they keep the sacred stone tablets. He'd passed by a familiar stone pillar for the fifth time when he paused and made an aggravated hissing noise,

"Damnit…this place is annoying! Where the hell are those stone tablets!" he kicked the pillar and put a sizable crack in it, temporarily forgetting his rage, Pride blinked and examined the crack, "Holy…well I'll be damned." once again Pride mentally hit himself for using a bad pun.

Heaving a huge sigh he continued on, he could tell this could take some time and his patience was going to ware very, very thin. That of course ended up being what he thought would happen, it was exactly ten minutes later that he stumbled upon a particular room with several stone tablets lining the wall. Slipping inside, Pride started looking around, there was quite a few so he tried to look through all of them as fast as he could.

"Where is she?"

"Is it cold in here or is it just me?"

"Shut up!"

"I'd love too…but I just want to tell you that this place doesn't feel right."

"Doesn't feel right…feh…go away."

"Pride…don't use the Millennium Rod, just look for her another way." Edward said slowly.

"Wait, are you saying I could have just looked for her using the Millennium Item! Damn you, why didn't you tell me sooner!"
"Because, if you use it you'll…" Ed paused, "Listen, can't you feel it? It's unnaturally cold in here, I've only ever felt this cold before in one other place."

"Oh really? And where's that?"

"The Shadow Realm…"

"What?" Pride glanced around, it was only then that he realized just how dark it was in this particular room and how the shadows seemed to move on their own, and it was indeed rather cold. Seeing he didn't have too much time left he took out the Millennium Rod and shouted,

"You're not going to stop me from taking back what is mine!" holding up the Millennium Rod, Pride used it to locate and summon Marie the Fallen One.

"What the hell are you doing?" Edward shouted, he tried to take control of his body but found that the more he tried the weaker he got, "Stop it!"

That's when out of the shadows Pharaoh Atem appeared and just behind him were the five priests. Pride smirked and laughed,

"Figured it was you…but you're too late…I've successfully summoned my Ka and I'm ready to make you all pay."

"Do you have any idea what you are doing?" Atem asked simply.

"Of course I do, I'm going to kill you and your stupid priests."

"You're a fool!" Priest Seto interrupted, "You can't possibly win against us, your inexperience has made you weak."

"This coming from a fool who allowed me to steal his Millennium Item without much of a challenge." Pride hissed, "You are the one who caused the most pain, therefor you will be the first to die." He commanded Marie to attack Priest Seto, when suddenly Atem summoned a Ka. It looked like a magician with armor and was carrying a long staff, with one hand it created a sort of shield around Priest Seto thus blocking the attack.

"It's one against six, you won't win." The Pharaoh said.

"Then I'll just have to even things out won't I?" Pride held out the Millennium Rod, the eye in the center flashed again as he summoned two more Ka from the surrounding tablets.

"Aagh! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Ed was going berserk inside Prides' head, the Ka then vanished.

"Shut up, what did you do! Can't you see I'm trying to destroy them! If you keep screaming like that I won't be able to…" Pride stopped, he shut his eyes so he could see his other half, what he found shocked him. He found his other half lying on the floor of their subconscious with large gaping holes all over his transparent body, "What the hell is this?"

"It's like Priest Seto said," the Pharaoh replied, he could tell what was going on, "Your inexperience has made you weak, if you keep using the Millennium Rod, you'll eventually kill yourself, it eats away at your soul."

"I don't have a soul! I am a homonculus!" Pride snapped.

"You might not…but that body does…you and Edward share a body and mind am I correct?" the Pharaoh continued.

"Something like that…"
"Well, the body needs a soul to survive and the mind needs a body to survive…in a whole…if the soul dies, everything dies." Atem had a very serious look on his face now; Pride though was glaring at him. Pride then started looking around; he could feel something coming towards them, turning his head so he could see just behind him two figures where making their way over.

"I really hate you…" he muttered returning his attention to the Pharaoh.

"All right then…but the only way to escape from this place is if you beat me in a Shadow Game."

"What?"
"I summoned the Shadow Realm here, therefore in order to escape from here either you have to defeat me in a Shadow Game or I win the Shadow Game. Everyone who's in here at this very moment cannot leave as well, and by the looks of it I must have caught your friends in here as well." The Pharaoh answered.

"Fine, what is the game?"

"Simple," The Pharaoh called up five stone tablets but they were face down, "All you have to do is call up five stone tablets, but you can't look at them. Each tablet as you well know, houses a Ka, whichever Ka is the strongest wins the round. Whoever wins three out of five rounds wins the game."

"Right, but won't that kill my soul?" Pride smirked.

"No, in a Shadow Game the Shadow Realm enforces the rules, since I started the game I make the rules and they say that the summoners' soul cannot be harmed." The Pharaoh said.

"All right then, what happens to the loser?"

"Their soul will be trapped inside the Shadow Realm forever." The Pharaoh replied simply, two large cages appeared around both Pride and the Pharaoh. Pride smirked as Alphonse and Winry finally appeared,

"Pharaoh, what are you doing here?" Alphonse asked.

"I said I had a way to help your brother, this is it." He replied, "It's a Shadow Game."

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Winry whispered over to Al, he nodded but said,

"I know, but…we've tried everything, lets see if Atem can solve this."

"But Al, he's your brother, what if he gets hurt?"

"HE, is not my brother," Al hissed, "My brother is trapped in there and if the Pharaoh can help, then I'm going to let him."

"All right…"

--

"Lets get this Shadow Game going then!" Pride sneered; he called up five face down stone tablets. The Pharaoh summoned the first tablet, it was a Beaver Warrior, Pride tilted his head and laughed,

"What the hell is that thing? A rat!"

"Then summon your monster." The Pharaoh replied calmly.

"Fine." Pride waved the Millennium Rod and his first stone table raised and the monster was summoned, it was a Spherous Lady. The Beaver Warrior charged and slashed Prides' monster right in half, out of nowhere a shackle snapped around Prides ankle.

"What the hell?"

"That would be the Binding Chains, they appear each time one of us lose a round, once a person is bound in three places then the final two will appear and permanently lock you away." The Pharaoh said. Pride glared and said,

"Real cute Pharaoh…lets continue shall we." This time Pride summoned his second monster first, it was Doma the Angel of Silence. The Pharaohs' monster was a Celtic Guardian, Doma razed its' staff and called forth a giant bolt of lightning, it struck the Celtic Guardian and disintegrated it. One of the Binding Chains appeared around the Pharaohs' wrists, he glared at Pride.

Alphonse, Winry and the five priests watched, they really couldn't help considering they weren't apart of the Shadow Game save for being trapped there with the two. Winry leaned over to Priestess Isis and asked,

"So, what happens if Pride loses? Will he just be trapped here or will both he and Edward be trapped?"

"The rules, according to the Pharaoh, state that Pride will be trapped here if he loses." Isis replied.

"What about his body?"

"You mean his physical body? I'm not sure…I don't think so." Isis answered, that was a good question; she tried looking into the future of the elder Elric and gasped.

"What is it?" Winry asked.

"Your friend, Edward, he's in very bad condition."

"What do you mean?" Both Alphonse and Winry asked.

"His soul was beat up pretty bad when that other him summoned those Ka, if he tries summoning a Ka outside this game again, it could rip his soul apart." Isis replied darkly.

"Behold! Rogue Doll!" The Pharaoh summoned.

"Nice toy," Pride sneered, "Now, behold my monster." The stone flipped up and a coffin with a sward threw it appeared, Trial of Nightmare. Rogue Doll pointed her staff at the coffin and blew it away with a bright beam of light; a Binding Chain appeared around Prides' right wrist.

"That's two, one more and you're finished." The Pharaoh stated.

"Shut up!" Pride snapped, "Summon your next monster!"

The Pharaoh obliged and summoned his fourth monster, there was a blinding flash of light when this monster appeared though, it was a giant dragon with scales of pure diamond. Everyone gazed wide eyed at this monster; it was the dragon known as Hyozanryu. Pride though wasn't enthused about it; he waved the Millennium Rod and summoned his fourth monster. Everything seemed to dim as the area around the stone tablet that Pride had just summoned started to resonate a dark energy, two evil looking red eyes appeared on the stone.

"What is it?" Al whispered.

"I'm not sure…" Isis muttered. That's when out of the stone tablet a deafening roar split the silence, a giant dragon emerged with jet black scales and red eyes that pierced everything it gazed at, it was the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

"It's Red Eyes!" Priest Seto gasped, "A monster that rivals that of the great white dragon."

"Ooh, looks like my dragon is stronger then yours," Pride sneered; "Incinerate that pathetic lizard." The Red Eyes opened its' mouth and engulfed Hyozanryu in a blazing inferno, when the flames died down there was nothing left of the Pharaohs' monster.

"Pharaoh!" The priests all started towards him as a second Binding Chain appeared around the Pharaohs other wrist.

"I'm fine, stay back." He replied, he looked kind of shocked though that Pride had summoned a monster stronger then the Hyozanryu, it was terrible luck. It was down to the last monster, this last round would determine who would stay and who would leave.

-To Be Continued-

For those who are not familiar with the monster mentioned in the Shadow Game:

Beaver Warrior: Level four Beast Warrior type monster, its' attribute is earth and its' attack strength is 1200 and its' defense is 1500.

Spherous Lady: Level three Rock type monster, its' attribute is earth and its' attack strength is 400 and its' defense is 1400.

Celtic Guardian: Level four Warrior type monster, its' attribute is earth and its' attack strength is 1400 and its' defense is 1200.

Doma The Angel of Silence: Level five Fairy type monster, its' attribute is dark and its' attack strength is 1600 and its' defense is 1400.

Rogue Doll: Level four Spellcaster type monster, its' attribute is light and its' attack is 1600 and its' defense is 1000.

Trial of Nightmare (a.k.a. Trial of Hell): Level four Fiend type monster, its' attribute is dark and its' attack is 1300 and its' defense is 900.

Hyozanryu: Level seven Dragon type monster, its' attribute is light and its' attack is 2100 and its' defense is 2800.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon: Level seven Dragon type monster, its' attribute is dark and its' attack is 2400 and its' defense is 2000.