This fanfic was originally written by my friend and all the credit goes to her. I'm just posting it for her because she can't find time to post it.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh does not belong to Sandra. The only characters that she has rights to are Sandra Castro and Maura Matataki.
Chapter Nineteen
"If you think I'm going to let summon a slime token from your Jam Breeding Machine, you're wrong!" Sandra yelled to Marik. She meant what she said, she just doesn't know how she's going to prevent Marik summoning a slime token. If he does then he'll have enough monsters to sacrifice for the Winged Dragon of Ra. She drew a card from her deck. With some luck, she drew Magic Jammer and she got rid of Marik's breeding machine by discarding her Trap Dustshoot.
"Quite impressive," Marik said to Sandra, "but you'll need more than a little luck to save you from this duel." Marik drew a card and ended his turn.
While it was Sandra's turn, the stranger that was following her before showed up at the warehouse and hid behind some stacked boxes. Everyone was so focused on the duel, nobody noticed the stranger except Mokuba. At first, he thought he was just seeing things, but he went over to the stacked boxes just to make sure. He didn't see anyone. He thought that would make him a bit relived, but it only worried him more.
"Mokuba," said Seto, "Come back here, I don't want you to get lost."
Sandra ended her turn by not playing anything. So, by Marik's move, a monster was summoned to the field.
"Well, looks like I have this duel at the palm of my hand," Marik said to Sandra while trying to hold back his laughter. "By having three monsters on my side the field I'm allowed to summon a high leveled monster. Can you guess which one I'm gonna bring out? Give up? It's my Winged Dragon! You can still back out from this duel Sandra, all you have to do is say you'll be my queen..."
Sandra looked for a moment like she was actually considering it and she was. It wouldn't be that bad, she thought. She would get to save herself and her father whom she waited so long to see. But what about her friends? What about Seto? There's no way she could just let them down. She thought a while longer about what she really wanted and finally said, "Screw you Marik! I don't turn my back on my friends and I never will!"
Marik looked disappointed and said, "You foolish girl. I gave you a chance to save your soul and you're going to refuse? Well too bad for now I summon the Winged Dragon of Ra!"
Sandra watched as Marik sacrificed his three monsters and summon his Egyptian God. The great golden dragon rose up from the field and stared Sandra straight in the face. She looked helplessly at it. There's no way she could protect her life points from that powerful beast. She knew it... the duel was over... she had lost...
"With the magic within my scepter, I break the power of this shadow duel and release all the dark energy from the Millennium Rod!"
Everyone was out of the shadow realm and Marik's rod seemed to have lost all its powers.
"Who's there!" yelled out Marik, "I demand to know who took the power of my Millennium Rod!"
"I did!" said a voice in the darkness. The stranger stepped into the light and everyone saw that it was a teenage girl dressed in modern Egyptian clothing. She had a scepter in a right hand as she stood akimbo. Then Mokuba saw it was the mysterious stranger he had seen earlier.
"Maura?" said Marik quietly to himself, but Sandra heard him.
"Great..." she said, "Who's Maura?"
"I'm Maura," the stranger said to Sandra, "I've come because it seems that Marik has disrupted the peace and stole the Millennium Rod once again."
Seto rolled his eyes and couldn't take anymore of this. "That's enough!" he said, "Look, if you're going to start about some magical nonsense then you can just save it. You broke the duel now we can just get Sandra's father out."
"Hold on," said Noah, "He's not getting out until I say so. Remember, I still have the control so he's not going anywhere."
Marik hadn't moved from the spot he was in. He stood there looking at Maura not noticing what Seto and Noah had said. "You weren't suppose to be back in the Egyptian caves for another year," Marik said to Maura.
"I've came back because your sister was worried you might come back for the Pharaoh's power and it seems like you have," she said calmly to him.
"Umm... hi!" said Sandra to Maura, "I'm sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but I would like to know what's going on!"
"So will I," said Yami, "The power of your scepter intrigues me. Are you also a descendent from ancient Egypt?"
Maura shook her head. "I'm much more than that," she said, "My family's worked with Marik's family for centuries. They guard the Pharaoh's secrets from inside the Egyptian caves and we guard them from the outside. Every 10 my family is allowed to leave the duty of guarding and live a life of our own for 5 years. My family come from the lines of powerful sorcerers dating back to the time of ancient Egypt where we guard the Pharaoh."
"Well it doesn't matter!" yelled out Marik, "Because I know why you're really here and let me tell you... YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SUCCEED! THE POWER SHOULD BE MINE AND YOU KNOW IT!"
"Marik!" said Yami, "How many times must you be told? The power of the Pharaoh doesn't belong to you!"
"I'm not talking about your powers... Maura wants to take my rod and give it to its rightful owner..."
"You mean-"
"That's right, she's going to hand it over to Kaiba..."
Everyone was quiet during the awkward moment. "The rod rightfully belonged to Seto?" thought Sandra to herself. "Shouldn't he have sensed something before? Or did he and just never told any one?"Sandra stopped for a moment to look at Seto. He would not look at her back, he was just standing there paralyzed. He would not talk to any one, he would not look at any one.
"Well," said Marik to Maura, "you've made everyone's day, haven't you? First you ruin my duel then you inform Kaiba about a past that he keeps rejecting. I think it'll be best if you leave."
"You know perfectly well that I'm not leaving," Maura said,"you've disrupted the balance of your home and now I'm trying to fix it."
Marik was going to talk back to Maura, but Kaiba spoke. "Excuse me," he said, "I don't mean to interrupt, but what the hell is going on? Why are you, a girl I've never seen before, telling me
all this hocus-pocus crap like everyone else? Have you ever considered that I don't want this, I don't want any of it! Just leave me alone with my normal life!"
There was going to be another awkward moment, but Yami spoke up quickly. "Kaiba! How can you just deny your ancient past like that? Even after Marik and Noah showed us some of our ancient past. I've
accepted my past and so has Sandra, why can't you?"
"Don't put her in the middle of this! Stop feeding her mind with magic junk! You and those other weirdoes just need to stop-"
"Hey!" interrupted Sandra, "How many times do I have to tell you? I believe in the stuff you call crap even if you don't. I believe in fate even if you don't. I also believe in-" She stopped
talking because she got a striking pain in her head. The pain stopped and she saw that Maura was looking straight at her.
"Sandra," Maura said to her, "how much do you know of your past?"
"Oh, uh... well, my name was Naomi and I was suppose to marry Seto, but I loved Yami and-"
"No," Maura interrupted, "I'm talking about your actual past. The one you have in this life. You have hidden memories that want out, don't you? You're experiencing pain right now because the
memories are starting to overwhelm you, aren't they? I think every one would like to know what you're hiding. Don't worry, I already know about the mysterious four years of your life that no one knows about, but I'm surprised you haven't told Seto Kaiba. Aren't you suppose to trust him?"
"How the hell do you know so much! Are you a stalker or something? No one knows about those four years except me!"
Kaiba had a very annoyed look on his face, "What the hell is she talking about?"
"Seto," Sandra said to him, "I meant to tell you, I really did, but I just-" She stopped again as the pain in her head came back stronger now. She lost her balanced and fell back. Marik caught her before she hit the ground.
"Don't touch her!" yelled out Yami. "Get your slimy evil hands off her you creep."
"Not even a Thank You?" asked Marik, "Even after I rescued this poor girl just now? Although, why wait for your gratitude when I can just take her to be my queen right now?"
"You will do no such thing!" Yami and Kaiba said at the same time.
"Stay out of this Yugi," said Kaiba, "my girlfriend, my problem. Got that?"
Yami looked pissed off, "This is much more than you can comprehend! You need my help! Why can't you admit that?"
"Are they always like this?" asked Maura to Marik.
"Unfortunately yes," he said, "Once that happens, I loose all the attention..."
Kaiba kept yelling at Yami saying, "How many times I have to tell you? I don't want the damn rod!"
"Well you don't have to worry about that yet," said Maura, "The Millennium Rod will belong to you as soon as you're ready. You are obviously not ready yet, but you will be as soon as Sandra over comes what happened to her."
"What does my past have to do with Seto's ownership with the rod?" asked Sandra.
Maura smiled and chose her words carefully trying not to reveal Sandra's secret. "When the time comes to overcome your past, Seto Kaiba will be a believer."
"Don't act like I'm invisible Maura," Marik said to her, "The rod rightfully belongs to me as does the puzzle. I've known you for years, why should their side? Come join me..."
"You haven't changed one bit. You're still stubborn and hard headed. I'm not going to join your side and you know that."
As everyone was arguing with each other about something, Mokuba was quietly moving toward Noah. Noah was watching the duel, waiting for the right time to butt-in. Mokuba was still undetected by Noah and Mokuba grabbed the control that was in Noah's hand.
"Big brother!" Mokuba called out to Kaiba, "I have the remote! Now we can free Sandra's father and get out of here."
"No," said Noah, "You're not going to ruin my only chance of getting my revenge and ruling Kaiba Corp! Give back the control!"
Noah jumped on Mokuba, but Mokuba threw the control toward Kaiba. Kaiba caught it, but Marik tackled him and he dropped it. Sandra got it and was about to push the button to release her father
and finally see him again. Her finger touched the button, but the pain came back in her head and she dropped the control. She fell on her knees with her hands on her head screaming. The pain didn't stop and she kept screaming. Finally, the pain disappeared and Sandra fainted.
"It's happening..." Everyone stared at Maura when she said that. "Her past finally overwhelmed her and it's about to reveal itself."
Sandra woke up and started to stand up very slowly. Everyone stared at her as if they were waiting for something to happen. Seto stared deep at her especially. He hates himself for not coming to Sandra's aid when she first fell, and he hates himself now for not moving. He stands still as if he was paralyzed. He hates the thought of losing
her, but why won't he help her? Unless... something about his past- NO! 'For the last time,' he thought to himself, 'I don't believe in hocus pocus fairy tales about the past!' Finally, Sandra fully got up with her hands on her head.
For a moment, she was silent, but then she said, "My head hurts... what happened?"
"You don't remember?" asked Yami as he came to her aid. Immediately, Seto snapped back down to Earth and pushed Yami out of the way so that he could comfort Sandra.
Seto took her hand and said in a firm voice, "Come on!" He grabbed the control from the floor. "After we free your dad we're leaving! Lets go Mokuba!"
Mokuba had a worried look on his face as he stared into his brother's eyes. "Maybe we should stay a while."
"WHAT! Are you serious? There's nothing here for us and I'm not letting you two get brain washed by some made up story!"
Yami got so annoyed by that comment that he grabbed Sandra's hand from Seto's and yelled out, "Kaiba! How many times do I have to tell you? You must accept your past!"
Seto took Sandra's hand back and stood face-to-face with Yami. He glared at him angrily and said very quietly that only Yami and Sandra could hear, "And how many times do I have to tell YOU? I don't believe in this crap and I never will... I don't want you or any of your weirdo friends corrupting my brother or girlfriend... GOT THAT?"
Seto was about to leave and pull Sandra with him, but she stopped. "Come on," said Seto, "lets just free your dad and go."
"Well," said Sandra, "after we free my dad, you're going to have to leave without me. I am tired of you calling all of this crap. You knew perfectly well when you got with me that I believed in all this stuff and you still insult it. You even promised to be nicer to my
friends, but you still treat them like they're inferior to you! Why can't you accept what is and deal with it!"
Seto was going to respond, but Maura beat him to it. "Because he's afraid," she said, "Aren't you Kaiba?"
"Afraid?" he said, "Afraid of what?"
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. You won't let yourself accept your own past because there's something there that you regret doing... something that has to do with Sandra."
'She's right,' Seto thought to himself, 'But how can she know? I don't even know what it is. It's not that I'm afraid... I just don't know what's there...'
"It might seem a bit confusing to you now," Maura went on, "but if you'll let me, I can tell you why you're so afraid of your own past and why Sandra won't reveal hers. I know that even you don't know of your past. As a matter of fact, hardly any of the tombkeepers
know either. The Pharaoh managed to erase all that information to protect Naomi."
"You can go on with your little story," said Seto as he turned his back to Maura, "but I'm not sticking around to hear how it ends. I have more important things to do."
"All right, you don't have to stay. I'm sure someone can fill you in on it later, but do answer me this Kaiba... Why didn't you run to Sandra when she first fell?"
Seto stopped dead in his tracks. 'Why didn't I go to her? How dare she ask that. My life is my own business and what I do with it is no one else's...'
"Why didn't you help me Seto?" asked Sandra as she just now realized that Seto never came to her aid. "I really did need you when I fainted, why didn't you come?" Seto stayed quiet thinking of some kind of answer that wasn't related to his own doubts or fears.
"Answer me, damn it!" Sandra yelled out.
That remark really pushed Seto's buttons. "Answer you? I always have to answer you!" he yelled out. Sandra was stunned by this, it was the first time he had ever raised his voice at her like this.
"Why don't you ever answer me for once?" he went on. "Every time something comes up in my life, I tell you about it. Every tragedy in my past, I tell you about it. Now I'm stuck in some abandoned warehouse trying to help you save your good-for-nothing father while this Egyptian girl is saying that you have hidden memories that you won't share. You better look at yourself twice before you say that I don't care..."
With that, Seto gave her the control to release her father and started walking away. Somehow, all the anger and rage that was building inside him activated something in the Millennium Rod. Marik had not taken notice, but Maura did. She knew Seto's time for the rod was approaching and Sandra's memory should be revealed now.
"He somehow knew of my past," Sandra said to Seto before he got too far. Seto stopped but did not turn to her. "He sensed some kind of energy inside me that was unexplainable. He called himself a Saiyan. Although I'm still not sure what that means, he did something to me. His name was Goku and he had a son named Gohan and a wife
named Chi Chi. When I first came to him, he took care of me and when I got better he told me something. He said to me, 'I know about you. Even though I'm not entirely sure what it's all about, you can count on me to give you the power you need when the time comes.' I stayed there for four years, but then left because of a terrible accident. He was battling some green powerful creature named Cell and... before I knew it.. he died. I don't really know how it happened, but I do know that when he died some of his energy was transferred to me and I haven't felt the same since."
'She's finally coming clean,' Maura thought to herself, 'It's almost time.'
"In an instant," Sandra said, "the happiest years of my life felt like they never happened... he was gone..."
Yet another chapter. I hope this one will inspire you guys to review.
Hikari-RyouBakura06: If you fucking hate it so damn much then stop reading it! I did find your story and I will read it. The stories I write will be much better then this one! So for right now, back off! This story is not mine! If you hate it so much, either tell me whats wrong with it or stop reading it!
ilvryne: Thank you for your review. I'm glad you like it and I'm glad you think it has improved. You are much nicer then Bakura. I will tell Sandra what you said.