Chapter 100
Illidan was quickly taken from the top of the tower to his room by the entire group that had surrounded him after he had passed out. Joey, Mai, Bakura, Noa, Marik, Ishizu, Shadi, Odion, Tea, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, Yugi (and Yami in spirit form), and Marie all surrounded his bed.
Bakura began to pour on his healing powers, hoping they would help Illidan recover much faster. Bakura gave all the energy he had and finally had to stop when he'd reached his limit. He about fell over when he had finished, but caught himself barely.
Sighing, he said "That's all I can do for now. Once I've recovered my energy, I'll come back again. Hopefully by then though, he'll be awake. He's mostly fatigued, but he seems drained."
Marie nodded at Bakura who had given her the news. Slowly, she reached over to Illidan's face and rubbed her hand over it. She brushed his bangs away from his eyes, although he loved them to be in his eyes.
Slowly, everyone decided to leave. One by one, they left till finally Marie was left alone with a still unconscious Illidan. She sat there, staring at the one person in her past and present that had made her feel so loved. He had been there for her in the past, and he was once again here for her now. She knew he wouldn't hesitate to give his life to protect her. He wasn't one to allow anything bad to harm her, and she knew that he gladly die to protect everyone if it meant she'd live. That was how Illidan was. He didn't care about himself, but about the ones around him more than anything.
She remembered how they had met in the ancient past. Slowly, she let her memories take her back to a time where the pyramids were new, and Egypt controlled many lands.
She had been Yami's personal servant at the time. When she had reached the tender age of sixteen, the same age as Yami at the time, a discovery was made that she had Shadow Powers. Unlike Yami, Bakura, and Set, she had not been trained from an early age, so she had no idea how to fully control them.
This was uncommon mostly throughout Egypt, due that children at the age of three were to be tested for possible Shadow Powers. Many questions were raised as to why she hadn't been tested, but they couldn't be answered.
The fact that her powers had finally been noticed meant that she had to be taught to control them. After some discussion with members of Yami's royal court, it was decided that she would be taught by a young man name Illidan Stormrage.
Nearly eight years before, Illidan had been sent away for training and was due to return. Since he would have no formal responsibilities when he returned, it was decided that Illidan would teach her.
Marie had complained about not wanting some guy she didn't know training her, but Yami put his foot down saying that he and the others were too busy to train someone from the start. She half heartedly considered saying that she was to busy to train too, but when Yami made up his mind about something there was no changing it.
She was mostly worried due that she had never met Illidan. From the way Yami described him, he was a kind young man that had been Yami's friend growing up till he was eight. When he had turned eight, Illidan had been sent away by Yami's father to continue his training with a group of powerful nomad's.
That day she was remembering had started out like any other morning would. She had woken up and prepared for the day. She had looked in the mirror, staring at her lovely mid back length brown hair and wonderful brown eyes. Smiling that she looked her best as always, she then went to get Yami's breakfast for him. She was jokingly thinking of all the ways she could poison his food when she ran into someone. They fell with Marie falling on top of the young man in a rather perverted way.
With laughter, the young man said "Well I usually like to get to know a girl before we get in this position."
Turning a shade of crimson, Marie quickly moved off the man without looking at him, saying "Sorry, sir. There usually isn't anyone else around at this time of morning."
"I would say. I have been looking for someone to direct me to where I could get something to eat and couldn't find anyone. Kind of glad I bumped into you, or is it the other way around." he said as he laughed at his own joke.
"Follow me." Marie said, respectfully keeping her gaze on the floor.
Some of the visitors to the palace didn't like it when slaves looked them in the eye. Yami didn't like that Marie have to look down or away, but politics is part of being a pharaoh or pharaoh's slave.
With the young man in tow, she made her way to the kitchen and had him sit down at one of the tables. She then walked into the back and instructed the cooks to take care of their guest, who she figured had to be Illidan. She knew it had to be him due that he was to arrive in the early morning.
She then quickly gathered up Yami's breakfast and went back to his room. There she arrived to find him at the balcony in his robe, with the sun shinning off his body. It gave off a small gleam of gold, making him look more like a god on earth.
Occasionally she would stare, just liking the view, but not this morning. She called him in for breakfast and the two sat down for it as usual. Once down, she let out a heavy sigh.
"What is wrong Marie?" he asked, genuinely concerned about his friend.
She then told him that she had run over top of Illidan on her way to the kitchen, and that she had made herself look like a fool in the process. She told him she was too embarrassed to take the classes now, knowing Illidan would think less of her most likely for running him down.
Yami only laughed at this, replying with "Marie, sometimes I swear you're the drama queen of Egypt. Illidan would never think less of you with that. Now, I'm telling you that you will still have classes, so accept it."
She sighed, and nodded slowly, knowing she would never escape them. Yami then smiled and asked "What is there for me to do today?"
After a moment, she picked up a small scroll and read through what was to happen in his royal court. She would interject her opinions occasionally on things to happen during the day, which Yami took into consideration. Besides being her personal slave, she was his best friend and his confidant he always confided in. She was as well one of his advisors, making her that much closer to him.
Slowly the two continued on in discussion over the days events till finally Yami had to prepare for the day. With Yami off to prepare, Marie grabbed the tray she had brought up and took it back to the kitchen. While there, she didn't see Illidan around, and was rather thankful.
On the way back, she decided to stop by the stables to check on Yami's horse. Yami rarely got to ride his horse, but still, he wanted the horse properly cared for. The problem was, he didn't trust the trainers he had taking care of the horse, so every so often, Marie was asked to check in on the horse.
The horse was a beautiful one at that. Yami had named him Fruity due to an incident he had with the horse. One day while he had been out riding, he returned with a fruit basket that one of the people Egypt had given him. When Yami had exited the stables, he had left the fruit basket in the stall with his horse. Remembering he had forgotten it later that day, he came back to find an empty basket and a giddy horse. Not helping but laugh, he then named the horse Fruity.
As Marie made her way into the stables, she remembered why she hated to so badly come in there. The reason was the due to the trainers in there. They would just stare at her as she came in, seemingly tracking her every movement. She hated this kind of attention and often got the same kind from Gozaburo Tark, the royal blacksmith of Egypt. Often she would complain to Yami about this, asking him to do something, but every time she would, Yami could only reply with "They have yet to commit a crime. Looking isn't against the law." This always infuriated her, but she usually let it slip due that she had no choice in the end.
She finally arrived to Fruity's stall and saw he was perfectly fine. Happy that he was in fine order, she turned to leave, grumbling about the fact she had to still do this when the horse was always alright. As she was leaving, she bumped into one of the trainers.
He was a rather large muscular man, but seemed rather short in the brains department. He roughly said "Where are you going slave?"
She fought the urge to glare up at him and show her fiery eyes, but calmly said "Back to check on the Pharaoh."
She then heard two more trainers walk up, seemingly fencing her in. The one that had spoke to her said "I don't think so slave. It's time you're taught how a slave is truly used. Get her!"
When she heard this, she looked up to only see arms grabbing onto her body. She screamed and tried to get away, but they had her boxed in. Soon they threw her into a pen of hay. One man then jumped into the pen and ripped her dress off. Marie then knew what they were up to, and was in great fear. She screamed louder now and continued to struggle, trying hard to escape from them. The one that had talked to her before then came closer to her and she planted her foot in his gut. He doubled over and backed up as the other two took hold of her arms and pinned her to the ground. The third then stood back up and sneered at her. He then grabbed the cords that held up his pants and began to loosen them up, causing much more fear to enter her.
She then remembered thanks to the use of the Millennium Necklace, that Illidan was approaching the stables. He had left the palace after getting breakfast. He had gone out to ride his horse, who he had named Stormy. When he had rode out short distance from the stables, he suddenly felt something pulling him back, so he had dismounted Stormy and walked back. Illidan was not one to ignore his feelings, so he obeyed whatever reason it was for him to return.
As he approached the stables, he suddenly heard a girl screaming. She was screaming for help, and she sounded rather desperate, if not frantic. Tying up Stormy, he quickly ran to the mouth of the stables to see what was going on. There he saw a guy with two other guys to each of his sides in the hay pen. It seemed the two guys were holding someone or something down. Glancing, he saw legs, knowing it was a person.
Not wanting to know what kind of sick stunt was going on, he yelled "STOP RIGHT THERE YOU THREE!"
The one that had his back to him turned towards him, revealing the person he was towering over was completely naked. He instantly recognized the face of the young girl that had ran him down earlier in the morning. The guy that was towering over her sneered at Illidan and turned back around.
Full of anger at what he was seeing, Illidan grabbed a metal rod that was nearby and quickly swung it into the knee of the man that had sneered at him. The man instantly screamed out in pain as he dropped onto the injured knee. Illidan then saw the girl more clearly, and noticed she was being held down by the other two. Now more furious, he bashed the shoulder of the man he had hit before, instantly breaking bones on impact. When he had hit his knee earlier, Illidan had known then that he had broken his knee as well, but still he felt no remorse for his actions. The man he struck once again cried out in pain and fell backwards onto the ground.
Glaring at the other two men who had stood up and started to run, he said with icy steel in his voice "Take him with you!"
They complied and carefully helped their friend up and ran out of the stable, as fast as they could with their friend.
Glancing over at the side of the pen, Illidan saw a ripped up dress. Sighing, he turned around, so he couldn't see the girl at all. He had a small blush on his cheeks, mostly due to embarrassment for seeing her like this. He then realized she had nothing to cover up with, so he removed his outer cloak. He then tossed it behind him without looking back. Knowing she was already frightened, angry, and embarrassed already, he decided not to further insult her by looking.
Kindly, he said "Here, you can wear this. It should cover you up till you go back into the palace."
Marie was shocked that Illidan was doing this. Here was the man that was to be her teacher, and he had just saved her from being raped and possibly killed. She was furious and embarrassed at the same time. Embarrassed due that Illidan had seen her like this, and furious that those fools had tried to harm her like they did. If not for the fact Illidan had came in when he did… She shuttered at that thought of what could have happened.
Still looking away, Illidan gently said "Let Yami know what happened, or I can. Either way, those three won't be in these stables again."
She nodded and grabbed the cloak he'd thrown to her. She quickly slipped it on, tying it shut so no one could see inside it while she returned to the palace. Once satisfied, she stood up and started running towards the palace.
When she was a few feet in front of Illidan, she stopped and humbly said "Thank you. I am forever in your debt."
With her back to him, Illidan only smiled and replied with "Forget about it. You'd better hurry, seeing how you have to clean up before we have court. Farewell till then."
With that, Marie ran to the palace, while Illidan walked out to retrieve his horse. The first thing Marie did as instructed was let Yami know what had happened. He was outraged and furious that this incident happened and ordered the guards to track down the three perpetrators. Once found, they were to be executed immediately. After giving those orders, he told Marie to go ahead and get cleaned up, that he'd wait for her.
Marie quickly bathed and dressed herself up in a fresh white dress like she had worn earlier. This one was slightly different, for instead of gold trim on it, it had silver. Once she brushed her hair and was ready, she realized she still had Illidan's outer cloak. She asked a friend of hers to run it to Illidan and left a small note inside of it, thanking him again for his assistance.
That day at noon, Yami's royal court was coming to a close. Many issues had been discussed over the past two ours. For once, court had opened on time, which made Marie groan even more. Normally, something slowed the process down or delayed the courts, but for once it was running smoothly and on time. Small disputes were settled, and Gozaburo Tark was officially given the post of Blacksmith to the Pharaoh. Minor matters were also discussed, till finally Marie realized it was time for Illidan to be introduced.
Yami finally motioned for Illidan to step forward, and stood, saying with much formality "Welcome to my court Illidan. Thank you for coming promptly to my side. Would you like so say a few words before the court makes it's ruling?"
A slight sigh, but barely noticeable sigh came from Illidan, but he then responded formally with "Yes if it pleases the court."
Yami nodded, motioning Illidan on to say "Thank you for calling me back. I have been traveling for many years, as Yami's late father requested. In my journeys, I have been learning all there is to know about the Shadow Powers and Games. I am pleased that I have a chance to show someone now all that I have learned."
Silently, Marie thought "Many years my foot! He's the same age as me and Yami!"
Yami let a smile play upon his face, and replied with "If you have learned as much as my late father hoped, Marie will not be your only student for long."
Yami then turned to Marie, asking "Marie, do you have anything to say before the court?"
Marie hid her rolling eyes face, but Yami seemed to know what she had done. She stepped out from beside Yami's throne to beside Illidan, and recited something Yami had asked her to say. "If it pleases the court."
Yami nodded as a sparkle of hidden laughter appeared in his eyes. She continued, saying "Thank you Illidan for coming here to teach me. I hope to prove a worthy student. And I am sorry about running into you earlier."
"No problem Marie, but I am glad to know your name now." Illidan replied.
"Does anyone have anything else to add?" Yami asked everyone of his court.
When he received no answer, he said "Good, then let us vote on this matter. All against Illidan teaching the Shadow Discipline to Marie, say so now."
Again no one said anything. Seeing that it was agreed, Yami said "Then it is official as of today Illidan is teaching Marie. Good luck to both of you. And with that the morning session of my court is closed."
With that said, the people of the room began to leave. Yami, Set, and Bakura then walked out together towards one door. As they left, Yami's laughter could be heard, more than likely laughing at how Marie had to act.
As everyone left, especially Yami and his friends, Marie longed to join them. A long silence formed between the boy and girl as they stood side by side for a short time.
At last, Illidan broke the silence and turned towards her, asking "Why didn't you tell me your name earlier?"
Still looking at the ground, Marie shrugged, replying with "You didn't ask."
Sighing, Illidan said "You didn't give me much of a chance to ask you."
Grumbling, Marie responded with "I was embarrassed, ok. At first I thought I had run into someone important... I didn't mean that the way it sounds."
Illidan laughed at her comment, but replied with "It's ok. I understand, I think."
With a bit of difficulty, she then added "And thank you for saving me from those trainers. I'm not sure what I'd have done if not for you coming in there."
Illidan nodded and said "It was no trouble. I dislike hurting people, but they did deserve it. To commit such a vile act was worthy of that kind of punishment. There is one thing though I'm curious about."
Still staring at the ground, Marie said "Yes, what is it?"
"What I really want to know is why you aren't looking me in the eye?" he responded with kindness in his voice.
"Because I am a slave…" Marie began.
Smiling, Illidan interrupted, saying "We're all slaves to someone, so why not look me in the eye."
Marie looked up into Illidan's eyes as requested. At first, she got a vague impression of kindness and warmth, and something else that she could not figure out, but before she got a chance to decide what it was, it felt like the door was shut. It was more like a door slammed in her face. A physical blow that made her take a step back. It had never happened to Marie before, and that scared her, badly. She started shaking with fear, knowing what had happened.
In confusion, she stammered "Wh… What just happened?"
Quickly, Illidan put a hand on her shoulder, saying "Sorry, I have never had someone use their Shadow Powers on me like that before. It was so strong that I thought you could handle a bit of my power, but I guess I was wrong. I need to go talk to Yami. Do you know where he is?"
Shaking off the small bit of confusion, she replied "Oh, he usually goes outside with the others to practice Shadow Games at this time of day."
Illidan took his hand back and turned away muttering something about "killing Yami" and "why didn't he warn him about that." He then walked out of the room in a quick walk, seemingly fuming at the moment.
Marie hurried after Illidan, for after all if he did try to kill Yami, she would try to stop him. Something came to Marie as she followed Illidan through the palace. From what she had gathered earlier that morning, he had no clue how to get around the palace. Yet now, Illidan seemed to know where he was going. The question played upon her mind, making her really wonder how Illidan knew were to go. He was moving too quickly for someone who had only been the palace a couple of hours. The only reason Marie was able to keep up with Illidan was he stopped at every cross-section for a couple of seconds before moving on. It was in that way that the two of them made it to the courtyard.
As they entered the courtyard, Marie felt a coldness brush up against her skin. The courtyard always felt this way when people would be dueling. Marie had no idea why, but it always felt like this place made her skin crawl, and today was no exception.
She then noticed Yami and Set were in the middle of the field with Bakura off to the side watching. Illidan went charging in as if nothing was going on, and that Yami and Set didn't have monsters around them. Before Marie or anyone else knew what was going on, Yami was sent flying through the air by a powerful blast of Shadow Magic by Illidan. This caused Yami and Set's monsters to both disappear.
Illidan then stormed over to where Yami landed on the ground, yelling angrily "What in this world were you thinking? Why didn't you tell me how Marie uses her powers? What if I had reacted more strongly then I did? I could have KILLED her Yami! What were you thinking you idiot?"
Yami seemed completely stunned by Illidan's yelling, as well as confused. He quickly asked "What are you talking about?"
Illidan smacked his own forehead in irritation, but tried to understand. Sighing, he said "Let me guess, she only uses her powers when she first meets someone, and you had someone she already knew to test her Shadow Powers, right?"
Yami thought back to the first time he had met Marie and nodded, as Set said, "As the high priest of Egypt, it is my job to test the people of this city."
Illidan turned his full anger at Set for this comment, yelling "You aren't very good at your job, are you? I mean, the FIRST rule of testing someone is that they never have met before, because most of the time untrained people will use there Shadow Powers more with complete strangers then someone they have met before."
"How dare you say I'm not…" Set began as him and Illidan argued back and forth. This went on for a few minutes longer, with Illidan claiming that Set needed to learn to do his job better.
In the end, Bakura finally said "Why not test her now? You have only just met her Illidan, and I would love to see a testing."
Sighing, Illidan seemed to stop and think for a moment. He closed his eyes, trying hard to think of a solution.
Marie had watched the whole thing unfold in front of her, and she began to wonder what was to happen next. "I hope he takes this time to cool off. He's already possibly committed treason by just hitting Yami, but I doubt Yami would do anything about it."
She then realized that after all these years in the palace, she still didn't know much about Shadow Powers. She did know one thing though, and that was that a person's feelings affected them.
Finally, after thinking for a minute, Illidan opened his eyes and slowly said "I guess I can test her now, but it will take us a couple days before the real lessons can start anyways. I can't really start teaching unless I gauge her power level."
Irritated that the others and Illidan was completely ignoring the fact that she was standing there, she said "You guys do realize that 'she' is over here right?"
She then walked over to Yami, making sure he was alright. He slightly nodded to her, saying to her that he was fine. He had been on the ground ever since Illidan had sent him flying into it.
Smiling, Illidan said "Sorry, I guess I was a little distracted. Ok, I am going to test you now. I won't lie, but this is going to hurt, and unfortunately, there is no way around it."
She nodded, and took a place on the field where the others had been dueling earlier. Set and Bakura in the meantime helped Yami up and dragged him over to the sidelines. Once Yami was off the field, Marie squared her shoulders and prepared for whatever Illidan had in mind.
Taking a deep breath, she said "I'm ready as I will ever be."
She then looked straight into Illidan's eyes, and for the first time noticed that they were a nice dark brown color. In her mind, she noted "Nice color."
Illidan kindly said "Ok, what I want you to do and what I am going to be doing is simple. I want you to use whatever you feel when I use my Shadow Powers and push me away."
Silently, Marie asked herself "What I feel?"
Before she could ask what he meant, she felt the cold feeling that she always felt when Yami and the others where out in the courtyard dueling.
In her mind, she thought "That's it, that's what I feel, but how do I use it?"
The cold around Marie grew stronger and began to try to push her gently. With her last question answered Marie rapped her arms around her body and began to draw the cold around her like a coat. It was hard and it seemed almost impossible, and it was somehow painful like Illidan said it would be. Marie pulled as much around her as she could. She felt a growl forming in the back of her throat.
Illidan stood in front of the girl staring at him and was amazed. At the age of sixteen, and with no training at that, she seemed as strong as he had been when he was at the age of eight. This amazed him in so many ways, due that most people with Shadow Powers took years to develop them, yet this girl with no training at all had managed to become this strong. It amazed him, yet slightly frightened him at the same time. What amazed him more was the fact she was taking control of the power he was sending at her.
When a person was tested, the test was simple. Whoever was doing the testing would try to send the other person to the Shadow Realm. The resistance the other person put up was how a person's power level was gauged. Already, Marie had far surpassed many people. It had taken Illidan the first eight years of his life to build up the power that Marie was freely wielding. Seeing she was stronger than first anticipated, he decided to push her a little farther, just to see how strong she really was.
Marie felt the cold growing more intense again and began to release the power she had gathered within herself, pushing with her mind as hard as she could. Again the pain from using her Shadow Powers began to grow until finally it was unbearable. She tried to persevere, but couldn't push any further. With her reaching her limit, she began screaming loudly, and pushed all her strength into one last blast. The blast had fully drained her, and made her fall over asleep.
Illidan looked over to her form now on the ground as Set ran over to her, while Bakura helped Illidan to his feet. He had been thrown back by her final blast of energy. Standing up, Illidan now realized just how strong this girl really was. "If not for the fact she is now sixteen, she'd have been much stronger than even Squall was."
Yami soon interrupted his thoughts as he yelled, "How is she?"
After a moment, Set replied "Fine. She's just sleeping right now."
Yami looked over at Illidan, who was slowly walking across the field towards the fallen girl. He asked "So, what do you think?"
Smirking, Illidan stopped and replied with "I think that if someone had found that girl when she was younger she would be the strongest person here, if not the strongest in Egypt. As things are, I would say that by her eighteenth, possibly nineteenth year, I could have her up to her maximum power level, which will be that of about yours right now."
Illidan then walked on over to Marie as Set moved off to go get some help in moving her to her room. Illidan knelt beside Marie and put the palm of his hand on her forehead. He then closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Yami and Bakura watched in amazement, for they had never seen anyone use Shadow Powers to heal before. Marie, whose skin had been deathly white, took a deep breath as her skin returned to its normal color.
As Illidan removed his hand, he fell over on his back to lie beside her. Lightly laughing, he said "That Shadow Testing took more out of me than usual."
With a yawn, he continued saying "I used more power than usual, and had to use more to give her just a fraction of her powers back. Yami, you picked a good student for me."
With that, Illidan fell asleep beside the young girl.
Shocked, Bakura asked "How did he do that?"
Yami just shook his head, not knowing the answer. He only knew that with Illidan's return, things would be much more interesting.
Three years later, Marie's training was at last finished. The day of her final test had finally arrived.