Okay shock people, the actual plot of this fic is starting in this chap (and it only took me 4 chaps! 5 if you count the prologue! WGOOOOOT!) Hope you all enjoy this chap (and I know a lot of you will °smirks evilly°) Also, thanx for all the reviews I've been getting. I really do love them. Now I'll stop bugging you so you can all R&R!
--: 4 :--
Attack of the Mages
Yuugi stepped into the palace a bit nervous the next morning. He hoped the Pharaoh wouldn't be mad anymore – his ears were still hurting a bit from the day before.
"You! Slave! Come here!" a harsh voice ordered thatYuugi immediately recognized as the voiceof Pharaoh Aknunkanon's.The short teensighed and walked towards the King with his eyes cast to the ground, knowing this just couldn't end well.
"Yes my Pharaoh?" he asked, bowing before the 'great' King.
He felt the Pharaoh looking at him in disgust and wanted nothing more than to just sink into the ground and never resurface again, Sadly enough Ra wasn't as merciful on him as he would like.
"Father, stop giving him that look!" an other voice spoke. The voice sounded familiar to Yuugi for some reason and for a second, he thought he heard Yami speak; itseemed to bethe same deep voice that made shivers run down Yuugi's spine. AsYuugi glanced up however, he saw Prince Atemu glaring at his father with harsh crimson eyes blazing in fury and hatred.
"Stay out of this Atemu." Aknunkanon hissed, his eyes ablaze as well only with anger and disaproval.
"Why? This is about me so I think I can interfere all I want." Atemu hissed back. Yuugi flinched at the hateful tone that was used between father and son.
Pharaoh Aknunkanon gave his son one last glare, before turning back to Yuugi and resuming the downgrading look, ignoring his son's glare completely.
"I want you to stay by my son at all times, do you understand?" he asked as if Yuugi was the dumbest person in the world - something Yuugi guessed the Pharaoh really did think, "I don't care how you do it, but I want you to be like his shadow! If he goes anywhere," he glared at Atemu once again, "where he's not supposed to go, tell me, or face the consequeses."
Yuugi nodded, "Yes your Majesty." he said before looking back at Atemu who was still glaring at his father. Surely if looks could've killed people, Pharaoh Aknunkanon would've died a horrible death by now.
Atemu's gaze turned to his little angel and immediately softened as he smiled, "Come on." he said before leaving the throne room followed by Yuugi.
"Don't worry about my father," Atemu spoke when he was sure that his father couldn't hear or see him anymore. He looked back to see Yuugi still staring at the ground nervously, "He won't do anything to you." 'I'll make sure of that.'
Yuugi nodded, relaxing somewhat at the Prince's words, but still didn't look up; he knew it was disrespectful to look at one of the royals when he himself was nothing but a peasant.
"Atemu, would you hurry up and get your lazy ass over here." Yuugi blinked at the new voice, 'Seto?' he thought, but as he glanced up he saw the High Priest tapping his foot impatiently, giving the Prince an annoyed look.
"Would you relax?" Atemu growled. He was already thoroughly annoyed that he wouldn't be able to escape the palace from now on unless he wanted Yuugi to get into trouble – something he definitely didn't want – and Seth wasn't really helping at the moment.
Seth smirked as he saw Yuugi tailing behind his cousin, "I see your new shadow has arrived. No more sneaking away from meetings, huh?"
"Oh shut up. He just had to do this to me today! The day that there is a stupid meeting! Now I have to attend the damn thing." Atemu sighed in defeat.
"Too bad, now you'll finally get to see the boredom I'm faced with every time."
Atemu sighed again and then turned to Yuugi. He didn't mind Yuugi hanging around him all the time – on the contrary – but now he couldn't sneak away from the meeting in a few hours unless he wanted Yuugi to get punished – and knowing his father it would be a harsh punishment at that, "You can look up you know, I'm sure the floor isn't all that interesting." Atamu said smiling softly.
Yuugi blushed and slowly looked up to see Atemu smiling at him. No glare, no look of disgust, no look that said: 'I'm-better-than-you-are´, just a friendly smile. Yuugi looked the Prince over a bit better, and almost gasped as he looked into crimson eyes. He could'vesworn thatthey were the same as Yami's, but that wasn't possible, was it?
Without either of them knowing it, Atemu and Yuugi had been staring at each other, completely forgetting the world around them. Seth however, had noticed, "If you two are done staring at each other," he began smirking, "then maybe we could go to your room Atemu. I don't feel like standing in this hallway all day." His smirk widened as Atemu glared at him, and Yuugi blushed while snapping his gaze back to the floor.
"Fine." Atemu said shortly and walked towards his chambers followed by both Yuugi and Seth.
"Would you stop doing that!" Seth growled as Atemu once again used his shadow magic to fool around with the other people attending the meeting they were currently in. The meeting had started a while back, and he could see that Atemu was thoroughly bored and definitely not paying attention. Seth could understand this, but using the shadow magic from the Puzzle just to amuse himself was pushing it a bit too far. He heard a soft giggle next to him and glanced aside to see Yuugi – who had been dragged into the meeting by Atemu saying that ifYuugi was to be his shadow, he had to go with him to the meeting as well – giggling as Atemu was apperently not only amusing himself, but his look-alike as well.
Seth sighed. In the short period before the meeting, Atemu had already gotten Yuugi to loosen up and now he was even feeling comfortable enough to look at both of them all the time – although he still didn't say a lot. Seth had to hand it to his cousin, the other was damn good at getting Yuugi to laugh and just relax.
Atemu smirked as he saw Yuugi trying to hold back anohter fit of giggles so to stay quiet and not interrupt the meeting. He had been fooling around with all the people present at the meeting for a while now, and was actually having fun. The only thing that was bugging him – or should he say the only one – was Seth. His cousin kept trying to stop Atemu from using the magic in the Puzzle but Atemu wasn't really listening to him. This was the only way he wouldn't fall asleep right now and Yuugi was obviously having fun as well.
"Atemu, what do you think?" Atemu looked up at his father who was glaring at him, knowing his son hadn't been paying attention.
'I think you should drop dead.' Atemu thought - mentally smirking at the thought - but chose not to voice it, "About what?" he asked, not even bothering to hide the bored tone in his voice.
Aknunkanon let out a desperate sigh, "About what we were discussing."
"That much I gathered but as you full well know, I wasn't paying attention so if you want my opinion just say what you were discussing." Atemu said annoyed.
Aknunkanon glared at his son, "Maybe you should pay attention if you want to know what we're talking about."
"But I don't want to know." Atemu stated calmly, "You might've forced me to start attending these meetings, but you can't force me to pay attention."
Aknunkanon glared even harsher but Atemu just returned the glare with even more force. The Pharaoh looked away after a few seconds and continued the meeting without asking Atemu anymore questions, knowing his son wouldn't answer them anyway.
When Atemu looked back in the direction of Yuugi and Seth, he saw that not only Yuugi was having trouble keeping quiet with laughter, but even Seth was chuckling softly.
"You're too much." Seth whispered, "He's going to have your head for that after the meeting."
"Nah, then we'll be long gone." Atemu said.
Seth shook his head, "I can't Atemu, I have things to do." he said sighing.
"Damn, will you be done after dinner?" Atemu asked, of course referring to when they would be able to sneak into the city again since Yuugi would be gone then.
"I don't know yet; I'll try." Seth answered. At that point Aknunkanon closed the meeting and everybody was free to leave. Atemu quickly grabbed Yuugi's hand and pulled him out of the room to avoid his father's wrath. He dragged Yuugi back to his room and didn't let go until he had locked the door.
"There, now try and get me." he said smirking at the door, a look of victory on his face.
Yuugi stared at Atemu. He had gotten used to the way Atemu spoke and acted towards his father, but he still didn't get where all that hatred came from. It also made him think of how Yami had spoken about his own father. The Prince and Yami seemed so similar... Yuugi was beginning to doubt his own sanity over this.
He watched as Atemu lay down on the bed, before the Prince motioned for him to sit down on the bed, "Come on, I don't bite or anything."
Yuugi hesitated for a second, but then walked over and sat down.
"Now then, since you haven't quite gotten this fact yet, you're allowed to speak freely." Atemu said smiling as Yuugi looked at him strangely, "What? I'm a human being like you."
"But… you're the Prince." Yuugi slowly said.
"So?" Atemu asked, raising an eyebrow, "Like being royalty is such a great thing." he muttered, "Anyway, as long as my father isn't around you can just speak freely to both me and Seth. Just watch out for my father because he'll have your head if you act disrespectful in any way while he's around." Yuugi nodded, "Good, then let's see what we can think of that's fun to do, and pisses off my father." Atemu said smirking.
"You really don't do anything unless it gets the Pharaoh angry, do you?" Yuugi asked giggling a bit.
Atamu'ssmirk widened, "Nope, not really. It's too much fun to see him go mad at me."
Both Yuugi and Atemu spend the rest of the afternoon thinking of – and even executing some – plans. At dinner Atemu could see his father had a headache from hell, 'Oh how I love to piss him off.'
'Damn my father for assigning Seth with more work.' Even in his mind his words sounded hateful. Atemu sighed as he entered the Duel Ground and his mood immediately changed. He already loved being here for 3 reasons;
1. He could be himself here without having to worry about status,
2. His new friends were mostly here and
3. – this was the most important thing to him already – his little angel was here.
He grinned as he spotted the small group of friends standing around a table, watching a duel between two random boys. AsAtemu approached them, Yuugi noticed him and waved him over.
"Hey Yami, where's Seto?" Teana asked after spotting him as well, "And were have you been all day?"
"Seto had stuff to do." Atemu answered, "And I couldn't get away from my father until just now."
"Is yer father dat bad Yam?" Jou asked, not taking his eyes off the duel.
"No, he's even worse." Atemu said with a hateful tone.
Yuugi blinked as he heard his new friend speak of his father again. He was sure it was the same way as the Prince spoke of the Pharaoh, and he could still swear that their voices sounded the same. He shook the thought off, 'What am I thinking? That Yami and Prince Atemu are one and the same? That's nonsense!'
"Hey Yuugi, you okay?"Yuugi looked up to see crimson eyes staring at him questioningly, slight concern visible in those beautiful orbs.
'The same as Atemu's…' he again shook his head at the thought, "I'm fine, just thinking." he smiled reassuringly while blushing a bit.
Atemu smiled at his little one. Again they stared at each other without even knowing it, but were once moreinterrupted. Not by Jou – who hadn't even been paying attention to them because of the duel still going on – or by Teana – who had been trying to get Jou's attention – but by a group of mages suddenly bursting into the Duel Ground. Everybody in the building froze and then started to run out of the building as fast as they could..
Atemu was shocked to see mages in a place like this. What the hell did they want here! He and his friends started to run out of the building as well, but were stopped by a few of the mages – though they let everybody else go.
Atemu pulled the hood of cloak a bit further over his face to hide his features from view better - fearing the worst at the moment – before letting his protective side take over and pulling Yuugi behind him.
Everyone elsehad escaped the building and only Atemu, Yuugi, Jou and Teana were left together with all the mages, "What do ya want from us?" Jou asked, his voice sounding both angry and scared at the same time.
"It isn't what they want," a voice behindthe small groupsaid. They all turned around to see who had spoken to them, "it's what I want."
A mage dresses in royal purple robes lined with gold stood there smirking at them. His face was wrinkled whichmeant that the man was already quite old. His hair wasn't seen as a tall purple hat upon his head seemingly hid it – if he even had any hair left at all to hide in the first place.
Atemu immediately recognized the man as the High Mage, the most powerful sorcerer there was as far as he knew.
"And I want you." the High Mage continued, looking directly at Atemu.
'Just my luck. He did recognize me.' Atemu glared at the man in front of him while trying to find a way out of this without having to show who he was to Yuugi, Jou and Teana. He saw the cheer amount of mages around him and his 'must-protect-Yuugi-against-everything' mode was immediately turned on.
Teana, Jou and Yuugi looked at Atemu strangely, "What does he want from you Yami?" Yuugi whispered before strong arms pulled him closer and he was pulled againsthis crush'chest in a protective way. Although he was sure he had mentally fainted already, he still managed to keep his thoughts on track since turning into a puddle wouldn't really help right now. He was completely sure that his face was by now a bright crimson though.
"Yami?" the High Mage asked amused, "My, my, you've gotten yourself a secret identity here."
Atemu narrowed his eyes on the High Mage, "Shut up, Dakuso." he growled, "What do you want."
Jou, Teana and Yuugi looked shocked at Atemu as he spoke to the High Mage so disrespectful. Did he want to get himself killed or something?
"Power, Egypt, the throne, your Puzzle, and so much more." Dakuso started, "the latter only you can give me, Prince."
Atemu growled low in his throat again; he was never going to hide his real identity for long now. Deciding thatit wasn't worth trying, he pulled the cap of his cloak off his head to reveal his trademark spiky tri-coloured hair. He heard two gasps next to him, but was surprised to see Yuugi not really all that shocked.There was actually a look on the other's face that stated, 'I-knew-I-wasn't-going-mad-and-that-you-were-the-Prince!'.
'Damn, he must've recognized my voice at some level after all.'Atemu mused but quickly turned his attention back to Dakuso, "And how are you going to get all these things?" he hissed.
Dakuso smirked like only a madman could, "Well, my dear Prince, only the latter is to be taken really." Atemu stared at him confused, "I've killed your father Atemu; the throne is mine and therefore so is Egypt and the power of being the Pharaoh."
Atemu's eyes widened in shock and slight horror. Inwardly he was actually cheering that his father was dead, but now Dakuso - someone who he had never trusted - had the throne unless he did something about it. He knew that Dakuso was a madman and would destroy Egypt in no time, then simply move on to a new goal in life without caring about what happened to all the lives he'd destroyed.
"No…"Atemu whispered.
"What's wrong? I thought you'd be glad that I killed your Ra-damned father." Dakuso said mockingly.
Atemu glared at him, "You know I don't care about what you did to my father; he was a tyrant and I hated him. But I won't let you get your hands on the throne for you would be an even bigger tyrant, and a madman as well. You would lead Egypt to its destruction in no time."
"Well then you'll have to stop me." Dakuso grinned; "I summon Cosmo Queen!" he called as his monster materialized on in front of him.
Teana and Jou both took a few steps backwards as Yuugi tightened his grip on Atemu. He closed his eyes and slightly relaxed as he felt Atemu tighten his grip as well, obviously trying to comfort the little one in his arms.
Atemu's anger flared ever more and the Millennium Puzzle shone brightly for everyone to see as a flaring shadowy aura engulfed not only him, but Yuugi as well, "Then I summon Dark Magician!" Atemu growled as his faithful Magician materialized in front of him.
Atemu knew he wouldn't last long against a skilled Mage like Dakuso, even if his anger was giving him more power. Besides, he needed to protect his new friends no matter what so he had to escape somehow. He would find a way to defeat Dakuso but he wasn't ready yet.
"Then let us begin shall we? COSMO QUEEN, ATTACK HIS DARK MAGICIAN!" Dakuso demanded. His Cosmo Queen attacked but the Dark Magician managed to dodge the attack.
"Dark Magician, attack!" Atemu yelled, buthe wasn't pointing at the Cosmo Queen, he was pointing towards the Mages blocking their way out of the building. The Dark Magician fired a strong blast of magic at the unsuspecting Mages who were blown aside and knocked unconscious as they hadn't been prepared for such a blast. Atemu quickly used the flaming aura around him to push both Teana and Jou towards the exit, while he let go of Yuugi's waist and grabbing the smaller teen's hand to drag Yuugi with him.
Dakuso was in momentary shock at Atemu's action, but quickly recovered, "NO! Don't let them escape!" his Cosmo Queen launched forward but was stopped by another powerful magic blast from the Dark Magician. The Cosmo Queen glared and the two started fighting each other. The Dark Magician didn't stop until Atemu and the others were out of sight, only then did he fade away just as the Cosmo Queen attacked again.
"Curse that spoiled brat!" Dakuso yelled frustrated. He looked around the building to see all his Mages unconscious, some more injured than others.
"I will get that Puzzle from you Atemu! Mark my words, all the Millennium Items will be mine."
Atemu didn't stop running until they had reached the outskirts of the city. Nor Dakuso, nor his monster had followed them and he could feel his Dark Magician safely back in his tablet.
He let go of Yuugi's hand and fell to his knees panting. He had run halfway across town while trying his best to keep his monster alive and fuelled with shadow magic - a combination that didn't exactly work all to well.
"Atemu?" he heard Yuugi ask next to him.The Prince - or ex-Prince now -looked up and smiled slightly at his worried looking angel, "I'm okay, just tired." he managed to say between pants.
"So lemme get dis straight. You're really da Prince but ya were pretendin´ to be a peasant? Ya lost me dere." Jou said confused as he sat down on a nearby rock.
"Ex-Prince at the moment." Atemu corrected him, finally catching his breath enough to speak normally, "And being Prince isn't all that fun. It's boring and everybody treats you like you're made of Ra-damned glass. I hate it."
"Well you don't know if you're really ex-prince. For all we know that guy was lying." Teana tried but Atemu shook his head.
"I know what Dakuso's capable of and I could see that he was speaking the truth. He killed my father and took the throne."
"He's right." a voice behind them said. They all looked around to see Seth walking over, "I'm glad you're safe, Atemu." he said with a relieved expression on his face.
"Well I wouldn't call be hunted down by a guy who could easily destroy you safe, cous." Atemu said smiling, "But I guess I'm still alive and breathing at the moment."
"Wait, if Yami is really Atemu then," Jou looked at Seth, "you're Seto?"
"Very good Mutt, you're smarter than you look." Seth smirked.
Jou glared at him but stayed quiet, "How did you escape?" Atemu asked as he looked at his cousin.
"I managed to slip away from everybody and used your route to get out of the palace." Seth said as he also threw a small package at Atemu, "I even brought you some clothes."
"His route?" Teana asked.
"He jumps out of his window." Seth said simply, smirking as he saw Yuugi's shocked face; Yuugi knew that Atemu's bedroom was on the second floor.
Atemu changed behind a few bushes into the clothes Seth had brought him. Seth had obviously taken them from the hiding spot in the garden as they were the same as he had been wearing all day, although his jewellery was missing, 'Oh well, it's not like I really need that at the moment.' he tucked the Millennium Puzzle under the blue cape and joined the small group again.
"So uhm… are we supposed ta treat ya like royalty now or somethin'?" Jou asked, a bit uncomfortable with the situation.
Atemu let out a sigh, "No, the whole reason why I escaped that damned palace was so I could have some fun and be treated like a normal human being." he said, "As for Seth, he'll just have to deal with it." he finished smirking.
Seth rolled his eyes, "Let's talk about something more important than status right now, like where we're supposed to go? Atemu and I don't really have anywhere to go, and if you three go back into that town, you'll be caught in no time. Anybody any ideas?"
"Da caves," Jou said, "there are some caves not far from here."
"He's right, they're the best thing we can get right now." Teana agreed.
Seth let out a sigh; this was going to be hell for him, he could just feel it.
And that's it for this chap people! So now everybody who wanted that basterd Aknunkanon dead can all throw a party. Hope you enjoyed this chap and 'till next update!