Chapter 30: The Great Pretender
(Jamie Lancaster POV)
"Hmm." Jasmine raised her eyebrows, but her expression was otherwise closed off. She wore the dark green apron and visor that all Café La Geen employees did. She rarely worked mornings, but today she was at the cash register while her colleagues bustled about behind the counter and at the drive-thru window. It was a rainy and dark morning in the city, and the shop was busy with customers seeking warm drinks. No one spoke to each other, and I felt the acute loneliness that can only be felt when surrounded by other people. Jasmine, believe it or not, was a glad sight.
"I was wondering when I would see you here. Bastion told me that you did well at your interview." I said with disingenuous politeness. Dress code during the work day was a light blue button down shirt with the KaibaCorp logo on the left breast, along with either dress pants or khakis depending on the employee's preference. It was fairly comfortable for a work uniform – I figured that Kaiba would be stricter than this.
"What would you like today?" She cut off my attempt at banter with a canned customer inquiry, which was good because I wasn't really feeling it today. Exchanging witty repartee with customer service people is always a bad idea anyways.
"I'll have a medium Blue-Eyes Mountain." It was Friday and the end of my first week at KaibaCorp, so I was feeling a bit indulgent. She raised her eyebrows slightly again before accepting the cash. As I sat down and watched her work, I had to admit that Jasmine was an attractive girl, and charming when she wanted to be. She was always rather unpleasant towards me, but I could see how she could wrap Bastion around her finger like she does.
Our eyes met for a moment as she handed me my drink, and she gave me a strange look. Wordlessly nodding my thanks, I put on my raincoat and went to catch a train.
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"Lancaster, go refill the washer fluid in the Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet."
"Lancaster, laminate these forms and send them to Pam in HR."
"Lancaster, go hand out the on-call schedules for the building maintenance crew."
"Lancaster, scrub out the third floor men's toilets."
Each day was progressing similarly to this. Turns out that the secretary internship basically translated to being an errand boy, albeit a well-compensated one. At the start of each morning, I would receive a list of various tasks to be done by Roland, who received his orders from Kaiba himself. At first, the list seemed dreadfully long, but it kept me busy and I was done at a reasonable time every day. Some of the jobs were shitty (literally in some cases), but at least I was able to use a good deal of the mechanical experience I had accumulated in my previous life.
When I got to work in the morning, I always reported to Roland, who arrived half an hour before myself. He would give me the list of tasks to be done, and we would go over which of the tasks I could do myself and which I would need some help for. If there was truly nothing to do around the building, I would assist Roland with payroll or answering email.
Today was not the usual day, however – I was bid to report to Kaiba's personal office this morning. Though I had seen the little of the CEO this past week, when I did interact with him he seemed cool and professional. Perhaps his over-the-top arrogance during our interview was a performance after all, although I'd be willing to bet at least part of it was genuine.
"Good morning, mister Kaiba." I said politely as I walked in.
"Close that door." He said quickly, scanning through one last email before shutting off his monitor. I did so, his hurried tone instantly alerting me that something was amiss.
"I received a message this morning from a contact in Egypt. The message detailed a blue comet flying above the Great Pyramids of Giza, landing somewhere in the desert. She said it landed sometime on the night of May 14. That same night, one of her subordinates disappeared, and the crash site was bare." Kaiba said with his fingers interlocked.
I raised my eyebrows at that. The fourteenth of May also happened to be the day that Jaden and I dueled and ultimately defeated Kagemaru. "And you said this flying object was blue…"
"Yes. Were I to guess, I would say that a Sacred Beast has been found. And in Egypt, of all the accursed places…if I believed in fate, I would have half a mind to think it finds some sort of pleasure in dragging me back there. But it is worth investigating nonetheless." He finished with a swivel of his chair, suddenly standing.
"When can we expect your return?" I asked. "Sir." I added hastily. Something about this reeked of a trap, though that could have been because of Kaiba's vague wording regarding his contact. He revealed that it was a woman, at least. Wait a minute, could he mean…? Before I could complete the thought, Kaiba spoke again.
"I will return whenever you do, because you'll be coming with me." Kaiba said with faint amusement. I was not expecting that response, and it must have shown.
"Why are you shocked? Your job is to assist me, is it not? Though I am asking you to work overtime, so you may refuse if you like. I spared you the courtesy because you were a key keeper, so I thought you might appreciate the chance to assist in retrieving the beast. You would receive time and a half pay for this endeavor, and I would also permit you to take a paid vacation day on the day after whenever we return. I expect the journey will take three days at the most." Kaiba explained as he put on his infamous white jacket. "Mokuba will handle the day-to-day affairs around here while I'm gone."
I did feel some responsibility towards seeing the beasts brought back, it was true. I would be making a lot of money and I would get to see a bit of the world for free while I was at it. But something still seemed suspicious about this, and I still had a few questions before I could accept this offer.
"Why is Bastion not receiving the same courtesy as me?" I asked sharply.
"Bringing two extra people along is not needed. Besides, I am told that Misawa is making quite a name for himself down in Research and Development. One of the sharpest interns they've had in years, according to my department head. They are looking to keep around for as long as the summer permits. And as I said before, his job is not to personally assist me. That is yours." Leave it to Kaiba to provide a needlessly long explanation.
I still knew little about the situation, though. Risking some boldness, I replied, "May I ask who this contact of yours is? How do you know you can trust them?"
He smirked coldly. "The House of Ishtar will be assisting us in finding the thief."
Now that got my interest. "I see, so we will have some strong allies."
"So it would seem. Now then, decide. I do not have all day to watch you hem and haw." He said rudely.
"Fine, I'll go." Knowing that we would have some solid backup on the ground was enough to tip me over the fence. "Just give a few minutes to call my parents and let them know."
"Roland will be coming with us too. I'll have him prepare the plane now. Be at Hanger 18 in fifteen minutes." Kaiba said dismissively before sweeping from the room, his coattails dramatically flaring behind him.
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My parents reacted as I expected they would have, which was good because it showed that I was getting to know them better. Tobias was gruff, yet ultimately accepting. He claimed that traveling for work would help me mature. Was the original Jamie Lancaster immature in some way? It sure seemed like that, judging by Tobias' earlier statement about Duel Academy "doing me some good". I brushed it off as a harmless comment, but perhaps it was indicative of a trend after all.
Joanna was more hesitant, but in the end supported it. She seemed to dote on Jamie quite a bit – perhaps the original Jamie was coddled too much, and he became immature as a result? It was fascinating to think about these things. It didn't sicken me as it once did.
They seemed to be good parents, and I was an only child. They had to notice the changes in their son. Could it all be explained by my going to a boarding school? Teenagers often have malleable personalities. I remember back in my old life how different my high school buddies were after they went to college. Some were completely different people. They were fathers and mothers due to drunken mistakes. Some were politically radicalized while others became criminals. But that didn't matter now. And since I didn't know how the old Jamie acted anyways, this worrying wasn't productive.
So I made my way to the hanger. A few mechanics were working on company trucks, but otherwise the place was empty. Kaiba and Roland, along with a third man, stood by a small white plane bare of any Kaibacorp signifiers.
As I arrived, Roland wordlessly handed me a small overnight bag, filled with a few extra uniforms as well as a set of toiletries. That was good, I was beginning to worry that I would have to wear the same clothes for a few days. Kaiba turned to the pilot. "Are we ready to leave?"
"Yes, sir. We still have the routes drawn up from your last visit to Egypt. Weather conditions appear to be acceptable, though the wind is currently strong from the north. We should be able to land in Cairo with all speed." The pilot said clinically. It amazed how comptetent Kaiba's staff was. Not everyone could just drop everything and haul ass halfway across the planet on a lark. Then again, we were possibly dealing with a planetary threat, so pulling out all the stops was appropriate.
"Then let's go." Kaiba said shortly, boarding the vessel even as he spoke the words. Roland and I followed while the pilot made his way to the cockpit. The inside of the plane was comfortable, although it was almost more Spartan than I would have expected from Kaiba. There were a dozen seats, each of them soft and cushioned. A small table was in the center of the passenger area, with some food and a minibar in the back.
Before long we were in the air, the buildings of Domino City beginning to grow smaller and smaller. Kaiba had already taken out his laptop while Roland was reading something on his phone, but I couldn't help feeling the rush that came from being thrust into an adventure. When there was a mission to complete, a battle to fight, it was as though time slept, and the demons in my mind returned to their shadowy recesses for a time.
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I slept for an hour or so on the plane, though the jet leg was unavoidable. To my disappointment, I missed a call from Alexis while I was asleep. If possible, I would try to call her back as soon as we landed. The sky grew darker as we flew west, and soon the ocean gave way to seemingly infinite stretches of sand. The desert was extremely cool when we landed, probably about fifty degrees Fahrenheit. The air was remarkably dry, especially since I was used to living close to the sea.
When we got to Egypt, it was technically seven hours earlier than when we'd left, meaning it was about three in the morning when we finally landed in the Ishtar compound. Despite the lateness of the hour (or earliness, depending on your perspective), we were able to access the compound's helipad, and three people awaited us on the ground. Although the landing pad clashed greatly with the whole tomb keeper aesthetic, it made sense that a family as relatively distinguished as the Ishtars would have one – after all, Marik used to run an international crime syndicate, and Ishizu had armed guards with her when she traveled to Domino City at the beginning of the Battle City arc. Plus, it seemed that they were in a partnership of sorts with KaibaCorp, so that must have brought in some money as well.
As we landed, I could make out the three individuals more clearly, and they seemed quite familiar. At the forefront was a cloaked woman with tanned bronze skin and deep blue eyes a man could get lost in. They reminded me of Erin's, with the impetuousness tempered by age and wisdom. The beige shawl she wore could not entirely hide her comely figure. At her side were two men. One was tall, bald, and of a darker shade than his companions. The left half of his face was tattooed with hieroglyphs, and he wore a simple dark violet tunic. The other man was decidedly shorter, his hair white-blond and his eyes snake-like and purple. He had a decidedly feminine face, and seemed to be wearing eyeliner.
I instantly knew that these must be the Ishtar siblings. I didn't expect that they would personally greet us on our arrival. I figured that they would be sleeping, but it seemed the situation was serious enough to warrant a face-to-face greeting. Behind them stood four armed guards, each with a loaded AK-47 in hand. Oh man, I wonder how 4kids would censor that one!
Kaiba seemed to share my mild surprise. "All three of them out here?" He muttered before schooling his features into their usual cold mask. The four of us departed in silence until we were standing opposite the Egyptian entourage. The winds whipped across the dunes, sending streams of sand trailing along the ground.
Ishizu removed her shawl, letting out her long dark hair. "I am glad that you could come so quickly, Seto." She greeted with a mysterious glimmer in her eye, daring to address him by his first name. "The hospitality of House Ishtar is yours."
"It's been too long…Ishizu." Kaiba said silkily with an equally strange look in his eyes. The two smiled demurely at each other, sharing a secret joke between them silently. Marik and Odion stood back, a disapproving expression on both of their faces.
Ishizu then turned to Roland, who was still as a statue like always. "And it is good to see you as well, Roland. Congratulations on the birth of your youngest son. Give Isabella and your children my warmest regards when you see her." She said warmly, as if they were old friends. Perhaps they were – a lot can happen in ten years.
"She sends her best as well. It is a pleasure to you and yours in good health as well." Roland said, allowing some warmth into his tone.
"Who is this?" Marik tilted his head towards me, a cold intelligence slithering beneath his soft voice. Ishizu gave her brother a reproachful look that I did not miss, despite her attempts at being subtle.
"I apologize, young man. It has been a trying time for us recently –" Ishizu began to apologize, only for Kaiba to interrupt her.
"This is my new minion, Jamie Lancaster." Kaiba said stridently, his arms crossed. "He is an Obelisk Blue at Central Duel Academy."
"Ah yes, I had nearly forgotten that you took the names of the gods for your school dormitories. Obelisk Blue is the highest of your ranks, is it not? It would seem more fitting to me that the Winged Dragon of Ra would be the pinnacle, considering that it is the strongest of the old gods." Marik's voice was just as bold as Kaiba's, and I could tell that these two were going to get a pissing match somehow.
He was wrong, anyways. Ra was easily the worst of the god cards in terms of actual playability, though that was because Konami decided to weaken its more broken effects in the anime. Frankly, Obelisk was far and away the most useful of the three gods in real life. It would make more sense if the dorms were ordered Ra, Slifer, and Obelisk rather than Slifer, Ra, and Obelisk, but the current system wasn't decided by logic, it was decided by Kaiba's rather petty prejudice against Slifer, the god card used primarily by Yugi. Either way, this entire debate was pointless since the gods were sealed away along with the Millennium Items.
Kaiba fixed with a dead-eyed glare. "Luckily, it's not your decision to make."
Marik hissed, but Ishizu moved to stand between them. "This bickering is fruitless! You will both stop at once and act like adults. If we do not move carefully, our entire house could be at risk."
They both shut up, and Ishizu continued speaking. "My apologies, young man. You said your name was Jamie Lannister, right?"
"Lancaster." I corrected, though it was a humorous error on her part, all things considered.
"Right, of course. As you may have gathered, my name is Ishizu Ishtar. These are my brothers, Marik and Odion." The introductions were unneeded, of course, but understandable from her perspective.
"It is good to meet you all. As a boy I watched you all duel in the Battle City Finals." The lie came out smooth, but the slightly uncomfortable looks on their faces told me that this might have been the wrong thing to say. The worst part was that I should have known better, but at the very least I could feign ignorance about the Ishtar family's dark past.
Ishizu cleared her throat. "Ah, yes, that. It's hard to believe that only ten years have past since then. We all have come far in that time. But it seems we must take up our arms once more. We'll discuss further inside." And so, we descended into the dark tombs of the ancient kings, the torchlight casting long shadows as we were borne back into the past.
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"We should make this quick, while the compound still sleeps." It was the first words I had heard from Odion, and as I might have expected, his voice was deep and booming. If I didn't already know the truth, I would assume that he was the leader among the three siblings.
Ishizu nodded gravely as we walked down to the cellar. Kaiba, Roland and I were led into a large storage room of sorts, various munitions and supplies stacked on shelves lining the earthen walls. Dim lightbulbs cast orange light, and I wondered for a moment how annoying it would be to set up electrical lines in the desert. From a marked box on the top shelf, Odion pulled out three duel disks. The Ishtar siblings each outfitted themselves with Battle City model disks. I had my Academy make attached to my wrist, while Kaiba and surprisingly Roland grabbed Duel Disks from the company storage facility before we left.
"I hate to talk in such a dingy room, but I am sure we will be watched if we speak in the more public areas, even at this time of night." Ishizu explained.
"Just get to the point. Who are we fighting?" Kaiba voiced what I was thinking, though I would've been less blunt about it.
"Nearly two weeks ago, I awoke in the night to see a blue comet streaking across the sky, and I heard it touch down near Ishtar lands. I gathered a small force of men and rode for the crash site, only to find nothing there. The next morning, one of the watchmen on duty that previous evening was missing."
"What was the man's name?" Kaiba asked brusquely.
"It was my cousin, Hank Ishtar." She finished dramatically. Kaiba, Roland, and I started laughing derisively. Hank Ishtar? Somebody call Little Kuriboh!
"Does he have a son named Bobby as well?" Kaiba snarked.
"Shut up! It's not that funny! Sure, our uncle was kind of a weird guy, but I will not stand for this brazen insult of House Ishtar!" Marik bared his teeth, triggered. Well whatever the case, his uncle had some interesting notions when it came to names.
Growing serious again, I decided to chip in. "I might be able to explain what that blue object was, Lady Ishtar. I'm not how much you guys know about this, but during the last few months, Central Duel Academy was under attack by a group of mercenaries called the Shadow Riders. They also go by the Seven Stars in some circles. They each sought the three Sacred Beast cards that were sealed beneath the island, albeit for different reasons."
"We have heard of these Sacred Beasts, though I doubt anyone alive knows of how they were sealed beneath the island. Kaiba himself only found them by accident when he bought the land for developing his school. How did these people know of the cards?" Marik interjected. "I'd be curious to know why they resemble the old gods."
"The leader of the assassins was the former superintendent, Kagemaru. He seemed to think that the Sacred Beasts held the ability to grant him immortality, once their seals were broken. I defeated him with the help of a friend, but he used the last vestiges of his duel energy to scatter the beasts across the planet. I don't think even he had any control over where they were going. It was only random chance that brought one of them here. And judging by the fact that you said it was blue in color, I'm guessing that it was Raviel, Lord of Phantasms."
The Ishtars nodded, drinking in this information. "Do you know anything else of this Raviel?" Odion piped up.
"It is a decently powerful boss monster when an entire deck is built around it. It has a big body with 4000 attack and defense, but its effects are damn near useless. It also has no immunity to targeting, destruction, or banishing, so it shouldn't be a problem during a duel. The real trouble is the sheer mass of duel energy harnessed within it. If it's not handled carefully, there's a good chance that thing could kill us." I explained clinically.
The Ishtar's slowly nodded. "In that case, defeating the beast shouldn't be a problem. Finding it will be, though. We have no idea where my cousin has run off too." Marik said with a deep sigh. He looked more sad than angry.
"Hank was always such a quiet, laid-back sort. He was five years my senior, so we were not close growing up. He had few friends, but to me, it seemed that he bore the burden of being a tomb keeper better than most….I hope that words may still yet reach him." Ishizu said with a similarly somber expression. Kaiba rolled his eyes, but I found myself somewhat sobered by it all.
"Does he have any means of transport that you know of?" Roland asked, getting the conversation back on track.
"No, all of our vehicles are accounted for. We also have GPS tracking beacons on all of them, so even if he took one, we would know." Marik responded. "So at the very least he probably hasn't left the compound. My guess is that he's in one of the three pyramids under our direct jurisdiction."
"Why would he be there? Wouldn't he try to get as far away as possible?" I dared to ask.
Ishizu shook her head. "We're twenty miles from the nearest town, and walking the desert alone at night is a fool's errand. Perhaps he means to rally some of the other clansmen to his cause, and in the morning attempt a takeover."
"It's good we arrived when we did, then. We should begin searching the three pyramids now." Kaiba said boldly, attempting to assert dominance over the situation.
"I agree." Marik said, the petty feud between them momentarily forgotten. "I do not wish to enlist the other clansmen if possible. If word gets out about a schism within our house, the serpents will begin crawling out of the woodwork. There still remain many who believe me unfit for leadership due to my past." He said frankly. Anger briefly flashed in his eyes before he cooled. "There are six of us, so we will split up in teams of two for each pyramid."
"Roland and I." Kaiba said immediately, as if the schoolteacher had just announced a group project.
"No, one of us will each team with one of you. Neither you nor Roland have ever been in our sacred crypts before, so you will not know your way around. Believe me, it does not warm my heart to know the likes of you will be in our hallowed tombs, but there is no avoiding it. Odion, I would ask you to accompany mister Lannister."
"It's Lancaster!" I protested, and to my surprise, Odion was as well. "Marik, I swore a sacred vow to serve by your side on the day I received my tomb keeper brandings. Please, allow me to do so now."
"You are not my servant, not anymore. You are my brother." Marik said warmly. "And so I cannot give you any commands. But I am a grown man now, and I can handle danger. I shall take Roland with me, he is a competent man who has seen much. If you were to accompany the high schooler, I would feel a lot better." He explained.
I inwardly bristled at the disrespect. If the whim occurred to me, I could play my Diva deck and destroy all five of these people in the span of minutes, and then go defeat this brigand myself as well. Being treated like a child was frustrating, but then, they could not know of my true deck, and for all they knew I actually was an ordinary high school student, albeit a talented one. I swallowed the patronizing remark and moved on.
Odion set his jaw. He still looked unhappy about this, but nodded. "I will do as you bid…brother."
Marik smiled. "Thank you. And I suppose that leaves…Kaiba and Ishizu." He said distastefully. Kaiba wore a challenging smirk, while Ishizu's expression was unreadable. Marik looked like he wanted to say more, but he chose not to. "Take the north pyramid. We will take the west, while Odion and the intern will go east."
Odion looked upon me with utter neutrality. I had never seen a more carefully guarded expression. "Marik, we should all exchange numbers before we leave."
"You guys get service out here?" I asked, genuinely surprised. Then again, somehow they had to send the email requesting our assistance in the first place, so I guess it made sense.
"Of course. Though we prefer a more humble existence, there are some modern amenities that are hard to go without." Ishizu said, taking out her cell phone while Marik did the same. We hurriedly established a group message and made to split up.
Before our paths truly diverged, Kaiba pulled me aside. "If you do find this man and it comes down to a duel, make sure Odion is the one to fight."
"Why?" I asked, expecting some disparaging remark about my lackluster dueling skills.
"The only reason that we are even involved here is to recover Raviel, and our mission is complete when that task is accomplished. There is no point in needlessly placing my own men in harm's way for what is by all accounts an internal affair on the Ishtar's part. If Odion should succeed, good – he has already promised to return the beast to my hands. If he fails, then you should either escape or pounce on the weakened enemy as needed. I have already told Roland the same thing." He said conspiratorially. "Believe me, these people wouldn't bleed a drop for your sake."
It was a cynical thing to say, but his last remark caught my interest. "You don't believe the Ishtars can be trusted?"
"You don't make formal alliances with people you trust."
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A few minutes later, Odion and I were traveling to the easternmost pyramid under Ishtar jurisdiction by horse. It was rather fortunate that I learned how to ride a horse in my previous life, for Odion said that riding by horseback would be helpful in avoiding detection by Hank and his crew. It was the dead of night, and anything with an engine would be heard from miles away. Odion rode a handsome full-grown white Arabian whilst I was stuck with a pony, but nevertheless we both rode hard and fast towards the eastern pyramid.
We approached from the corner of the structure, tying our mounts to a post before running over to the base of the pyramid. "Where is the entrance?" I asked, as there was no doorway or entryway obvious to my eyes.
Odion did not answer, instead rubbing his palm over the individual blocks that comprised the pyramid. His hand glided over the stones until one began to sink inward. Pressing his calloused palm further, Odion triggered a secret entryway, a section of the stones revealed to be a revolving wall panel. Without checking to see if I was following, Odion slipped inside the wall. Hastily, I followed after him.
My eyes strained to adjust to the darkness of the catacombs, but Odion moved through them with catlike speed and ease. Every once in a while, he would press a certain panel on the wall or the floor. "To disable the traps." He explained quickly and quietly. How the fuck does he remember where these switches are? I can barely see anything in here! Were they marked? Now wasn't really the time to ask though.
The ceiling was too low for us to stand up fully, especially Odion, who was a good six inches taller than me. Just as my back was starting to voice its annoyance with me, we emerged into a large chamber with a ceiling so high I couldn't even see it.
Mounds of gold and bronze were littered about the chamber, a sarcophagus on a raised dais at the center of the room. Four limestone jars sat near the tomb. They looked plain but I imagined they served a ceremonial purpose of sorts. The air was thick with the smell of dried incense and spiced wine.
Odion gave me a hard look. "Count yourself fortunate that you have bore witness to a pharaoh's place of rest. This is the tomb of King Thutmose III. He was a brave warrior –" He began, but was interrupted.
"Indeed, one of the greatest of his generation." A voice suddenly echoed throughout the funerary chamber. "I hope a man like that would find peace in the Field of Reeds. Or perhaps his warrior's soul would find a new home…a rebirth."
We wheeled around to find a gaggle of armed guards pouring into the room. At the center of the force was our quarry. The description I was given of him matched his appearance well. A sharp, angular face with gleaming violet eyes and white shoulder-length, this man definitely looked related to Marik. However, where Marik held effeminate, serpentine beauty, this man was plainer, lacking Marik's musculature and aesthetically pleasing facial symmetry. But the malice in his eyes, the reckless hunger for power that Marik once had…the two shared that without a doubt.
"Hank! You will explain your disappearance at once! The entire compound is searching for you!" Odion lied. Wow, I didn't think he had the capability to lie, but it served our purposes well to suggest that dozens, if not hundreds of Ishtars were roving the pyramids at this very moment.
"And it would seem that more than just the compound is searching, for that boy with you is no Ishtar." Hank sized me up with an odd mixture of intrigue, bemusement and scorn on his face. "And one wearing a Kaibacorp employee uniform, no less. What is your name, child?"
I gave him a stern, closed off look. "Jamie Lancaster. And you must be Hank Ishtar." I wanted to make a snide remark about his name, but I decided not to after noticing how sharp his guards' spears were.
"I take it you are Seto Kaiba's man." He said with a seemingly lazed demeanor, as if I were an afterthought.
"I am here because I wish to see the safe return of Raviel to the seals beneath Academy Island, nothing more. I have been told that you may have an idea as to where Raviel is." I said as diplomatically as I could.
"Ah yes, I may have some idea." A torrent blue, fiery aura erupted around his body, streaking up the walls. His eyes were ablaze, his brown cloak billowing in the sudden gale.
"Well?" He questioned me with a cocky grin. "Am I supposed to hand it over now?"
"Stop this madness! You will tell us the meaning of this at once!" Odion bellowed.
"You couldn't hazard a guess, Odion? Is it truly so unbelievable, so mad, that I would wish to escape this damnable darkness? The gods have answered my prayers for freedom at long last, though they are not the gods we swore our vows to so long ago." Hank's voice, originally full of cackling humor, grew more solemn.
"Our clan's duties have been forsworn in the past by the very man you serve today. Marik betrayed the memory of the Pharaohs, and yet now we are supposed to bend the knee to him and sing his praises. It's bad enough that I am expected to toil away in the desert tombs for the sake of dead men, but to kiss the boots of my traitorous cousin as well?" Hank stepped forward, discarding his brown cloak, revealing a bare bronze chest underneath, his legs covered by billowing white pantaloons.
"Dude, put a shirt on." I said.
"You resent my brother, yet you choose to follow in his footsteps? Are you a hypocrite as well as a traitor?!" Odion boomed, laying out some harsh accusations. But then, he was never a man for half measures.
"I do not resent him at all. He saw a chance to escape this darkness, to finally grasp for the light, and he was swatted down for it by the Pharaoh Atem. Marik was defeated, but nothing about the tomb keeper hierarchy has changed. He wasn't even truly punished for his deeds, and yet we are supposed to serve meekly all the same? Not this time."
Something about this little rant seemed strange. Hank was angry that Marik was not punished for betraying the tomb keepers, and yet he himself obviously holds no regard for the laws of his clan with respect to his own actions. Could there be something deeper here? This was completely out of my depth, I had no canon knowledge to support me here. One thing is for sure – the time for talking this guy down was long past. By the sound of it, he was planning this coup for a long time, and with Raviel now in his hands he felt he could breathe life into those treacherous ambitions.
"It appears there is no turning you back from this path, cousin." Odion said ruefully.
"Spare me the patronizing words. Either prepare for battle or stand aside. Or perhaps you can join me…have you never once thirsted for freedom as I have, Odion?" Hank insinuated.
"It doesn't matter what I want. I swore a vow to serve the house of Ishtar until my dying day." Came Odion's stolid response. Hank's eyes nearly drooped in disappointment.
"But how can you die when you have never lived? The hot red blood of a man has been lashed out of you by uncle's whip long ago. But then, I should have known better than to ask a eunuch about such things." Hank's words caused my eyes to widen. I looked at Odion questioningly, but he refused to return my gaze. Could he really have been…was Marik's father that much of a monster? I couldn't help but to begin to question the tomb keeper system myself. My own sensibilities did not deem it just, but was it really my place to interfere in a system that had been in place for thousands of years?
"You have chosen your path, and now you will face judgment." Odion activated his duel disk.
"Hey, wait!" I interjected. "I can handle this guy, the sacred beast is my responsibility as a key keeper."
"No." Odion's refusal was like an anvil dropping from a rooftop – heavy and sudden. "This is an internal clan matter, and as such an Ishtar should settle it. In the meantime, try and see if you can contact the others."
I had a really bad feeling about this. "You can do that, you'll be able to direct them better than me." But this time, he did not even respond to me.
Across the room, Hank's guards fanned out to block the entrances and exits. With only the torchlight to brighten the room, the shadows were long and eerie. The betrayer of House Ishtar activated his own duel disk wordlessly.
"Duel!"
A/N
Hope you all enjoyed.
A shorter chapter this time, partly due to the fact that I have had a hard time writing a lot lately (traveling and home renovations) and partly due to the fact that this chapter is introducing a lot of new stuff to the story. The next chapter will most likely be out sooner than this one and it will most likely be longer as well.
Some people might find this Egypt plot to be a non sequitur, but I've tried to foreshadow it as best I could over the past few chapters, and it does tie into the overall story. For me, the most interesting parts of Yugioh revolve around the ancient lore. I've always like the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic, and I really liked the Nazca Lines/Earthbound Immortals in 5Ds as well. Sadly the show runners have been forced to move away from all that ever since Carly (from 5Ds) voice actress was discovered to be part of a cult. Crazy stuff, look it up.
Otherwise, it did bother me a bit how Marik's whole shtick was that being a tomb keeper was a raw deal, and that the cruelty of the system was a prevailing reason why Yami Marik was even created to begin with. And yet, we never actually see any change in the system, and it seems hard to believe that the other tomb keepers would be cool with Marik taking up his former position after betraying them and trying to literally kill a pharaoh. But then, villains are always forgiven too easily in Yugioh, so whatever. Hank Ishtar obviously has a funny/meme name, but generally speaking the character is meant to reflect the aforementioned articles in a serious ("serious") way. I also like to have some continuity with the original series and original series characters will have active roles to play in this story.
Finally, I'd just like to appreciate all of you for getting us to be the most followed story in the GX archive! It's not about the numbers of course, but your support has been truly incredible and it inspires me all the time. Thank you.