REVELATIONS

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Solomon was normally an early riser, typically beginning his day at six a.m. Yet today he was restless enough to have been up since four, having been confined to a hospital bed the entirety of the previous day.

The Muto patriarch was very proud of his ingenious plan to fake a heart attack in order to distract the Kaiba Corp guards from their posts and allow his grandson and his friends to sneak into the airport. He had timed everything to perfection, and by the time the ruse was up, he was already in am ambulance on his way to the nearest hospital.

The doctors checked his vitals and conducted a general fuss but found nothing wrong with him. Solomon played along and acted the part of the confused old man very well, so they eventually put his case down as heat exhaustion and decided to keep him hydrated and under observation for another twenty-four hours.

This was the part Solomon hadn't counted on, and it infuriated him. He wasn't some old fossil to be tucked away in a bed for an entire day! He wasn't even sick! He demanded to be discharged and left to go home, but the doctors weren't hearing any of it, and posted an orderly outside his door to make sure he didn't try to sneak out.

He spent his time flipping channels and sleeping through the day and most of the night, and now he was almost ready to burst.

Just as he was about to call the orderly in and try and bribe him to be let go early, there was a knock and then the door opened to reveal a nurse holding a tray of breakfast.

"Good morning, Mr Muto," she smiled brightly, laying the tray in front of him. "I know you are eager to leave; do not worry, you will be able to soon. Eat up, and then the doctor will run some final tests. We can discharge you after that since your emergency contact has arrived."

Emergency contact…?

Solomon was bewildered. His emergency contact was obviously his grandson Yugi. He doubted very much that Yugi would be here to take him home, because, well, he was one of the people who knew that Solomon had nothing wrong with him in the first place. He wouldn't have returned yet, surely he was still with the Kaiba boy on the Duelist Kingdom island…

As the nurse exited the room, she left the door open, and in strode a lithe, elegant girl with brown hair and a determined but exhausted expression, dragging a stroller suitcase behind her.

Tea Gardner.

"Grandpa Muto!" she shrieked, running over to his bedside and grasping his hand.

"My troupe was performing in Hawaii and the hospital called me saying you had a heart attack and they couldn't reach Yugi! I caught the next flight over: please tell me you're going to be all right!

Solomon forced a grin, but a drop of sweat rolled down his forehead. This was going to be awkward.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kaiba was standing alone in the darkness for a few seconds, before Ishizu seemed to have found a switchboard and turned the electricity on. He looked up as long halogen tube lights flickered on, and realized just how big the warehouse was: something he supposed he had been unable to see prior given how dark it was outside.

The lights were suspended at least twenty feet above them in a room he couldn't quite see the other side of, which was obscured by a grid of towering boxes and pillars. One could honestly easily get lost in here.

Ishizu seemed to have a direction in mind, and she beckoned to him and the others who had now entered to follow her. They worked their way through the maze of structures towards a far wall, a long stretch of which had transparent cases lined up against it.

The cases contained a variety of rock and sandstone slabs that almost any of them besides Mai and Pegasus would recognize instantly… from the Shrine of the Millennium Stone, where Ceremonial Battle between Yugi and the Pharaoh Atem took place.

"Here we are," announced Ishizu. "This warehouse contains archaeological findings from all over Egypt. Once you all contacted me earlier today I informed the warehouse staff I wished to examine any and all stones and tablets from the dig-site for a particular bit of research, and had them lined up like this for us to look at.

Kaiba could already recognize a fair few of them vaguely, having spent a fair bit of his time excavating the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle amongst these stones over the previous weeks. An endeavor that had eventually led to…

No, he wouldn't let his mind go in that direction again. Blocking out any and all thoughts about his obsession which one day facing Atem again, Kaiba walked over to Ishizu's side.

"Where to do we begin?" he growled. "There are dozens of these."

It was true. The row of tablets and rock slabs covered a third of the entire warehouse wall.

"How about those of us who can read ancient Egyptian text split up and scan each one for anything that either refers to the Pharaoh Seto by name? Meanwhile the others can look at the images and try and find something recognizable?" suggested Yugi.

Not a bad idea, Kaiba thought. "All right, so that's three… The Ishtars, and you…"

"Four, actually," replied Yugi. "Don't forget Kaiba, you're been able to read ancient Egyptian text too. You figured out the Winged Dragon of Ra's effects during Battle City."

As he said these words, Mai imperceptibly winced, something only Joey likely noticed. She did, however, not follow it up with any words of her own.

Kaiba grimaced. Yes, of course. Somehow, for reasons he could never fully understand or accept, he had the ability to read ancient Egyptian characters. A resoundingly useless skill in most settings, and he still wasn't sure that wouldn't always be the case even in the situation they found themselves in.

"All right," he muttered. "Let's get this over with…"

All eight of them fanned out into a straight line about ten or so feet apart, while facing the carvings in front of them.

Kaiba peered at the one directly in front of him. It was a chunk of a pillar, about five feet high, with hieroglyphics marking the entire thing from top to bottom. Somehow, as ever, his subconscious mind was able to process the ancient symbols on one end and spit out intelligible phrases in English out the other to his conscious.

It was about the Pharaoh Isesi. Kaiba had no idea who that was, and he was certain the name hadn't come up even once in relation to Atem's reign. Still, he read on, just to make sure he wasn't missing anything about his… ancestor? Former self? Kaiba had no idea how it worked, still, given that the Pharaoh and Yugi had supposedly been two different versions of the same person but now one was gone and one wasn't.

There was nothing about Seto in there. All it spoke about was Isesi's refusal to build a temple to the Sun God Ra, and the subsequent difficulties that plagued his reign, including his inability to father a son and therefore an heir.

It took him eight minutes to get through the whole thing and it was a tremendous waste of time. Suppressing a growl of frustration, he moved onto the next one before sneaking a glance either side of him.

Yugi, Ishizu and Marik were all squinting at the rocks like he had been, trying to decipher the text. Meanwhile, Pegasus, Mai, Odion and Wheeler were staring dumbly while going down the line, trying to look for iconography that resembled either Atem or Seto.

After getting through three more tablets or fragments of pillars and gleaning utterly useless information about three more random Pharaohs, Kaiba was about to curse out loud. He was on a ticking clock and he needed to get back to Domino before the clock expired and that psycho tried to hurt his brother. Thankfully, he heard a cry of triumph, coming from Wheeler of all people.

"I found somethin'!"

The group all converged on his position. Joey was standing with a grin and his index finger pointing at a large vertically rectangular tablet.

"That looks a lot like your Blue Eyes, Kaiba! And that right there is probably our buddy Atem! I'd recognize that hair anywhere!"

Mai and Pegasus raised their eyebrows hopefully, while Yugi and the Tomb Keepers looked a bit bemused.

"Uh… Joey. That's the Tablet of Lost Memories. We've seen this before; that's how Atem traveled back to the Memory World," muttered Yugi.

Joey stared for a second and then threw his hand behind his head in embarrassment.

"Eh… Guess I don't exactly have a memory for these things," he chuckled nervously.

"Idiot," Kaiba glowered, before preparing to peel back off to the next stone.

"Everyone, wait," hissed Ishizu. She knelt down so that the bottom of the rock was at eye level for her, before pointing to a very specific spot under the carving of Atem's image. It was the cartouche that was supposed to contain the Pharaoh's name, but was instead scratched off.

"Seto made this tablet to honor his friendship with Atem. If the latter's name was on here before being scratched off, it would make sense that Seto's name was inscribed somewhere on here as well."

She shuffled to the left and then pointed to another cartouche, this one with an inscription.

Mai nodded. "Great. The rest of us might not be able to read the tablets but we can look for the specific element that represent Seto's name since we now know what it looks like."

She scooted forward and took a picture of it on her phone, with the others following suit.

With all eight working now, it was much faster. Mai was the first one to find Seto's name on one, with Odion and then Yugi within a minute later on two others.

Ishizu darted over to the latter two and used a pen she had on her to mark the glass, before they all crowded around Mai's tablet.

Ishizu looked briefly at Kaiba and then back at the tablet, who tightened his fist as she began to read.

"It seems to begin with things that we already know… The Pharaoh Atem sealed himself and Zorc Necrophades in the Millennium Puzzle. He never married and sired no heirs, therefore the Pharaohship fell to his nearest blood relative, the High Priest Seto, his cousin. Seto's reign began under difficult circumstances, as the battle against Zorc caused widespread devastation. Crop failures were rampant, and one of Seto's first acts as Pharaoh was to ban the farming of papyrus and other cash crops in favor of food to ensure his subjects were fed."

"I don't really care about his farming policies," growled Kaiba. "We need to know who his enemies were. Get on with it."

"Calm down, Kaiba, we don't want to miss anything," muttered Yugi, before nodding at Ishizu, who continued.

"The economic downturn lasted two years, but by that time, Seto's land reforms had kicked in and Egypt was thriving again. Cairo was the center of commerce and trade in the Ancient Near East, and received many visitors from around the region who were eager to sell their wares in the now thriving Egyptian economy. There were problems, however.

"Naturally, where great wealth resides, crime follows. Merchants coming to Cairo found their caravans being raided by bandits. At first, it was merely a nuisance, but the raids began to increase in frequency and violence, at which point Seto was forced to increase the size of the Egyptian army in order to patrol the travel routes coming into the kingdom."

"I really don't think a bunch of bandits escaped from the afterlife and are currently possessing Mokuba," deadpanned Joey, which caused Kaiba to throw him a dirty look.

"After a certain point, Seto realized the bandits were no longer simply targeting wealth, but had begun kidnapping people. It began with a victim here or there but soon dozens had been taken. The raids seemed never-ending and threatened to paralyze Egypt's economy through fear.

"Rooting out and crushing the force behind the raids and kidnappings soon became Seto's main priority as Pharaoh. The bandits were on the verge of tearing apart the peace and prosperity that had settled on Egypt after the defeat of Zorc. Husbands had their wives taken from them and parents their children. Any of the perpetrators that were captured immediately committed suicide; as a consequence Seto was never able to glean the motivation behind the kidnappings, for there were never even any ransoms demanded."

A tense silence had dawned over the room. Ishizu walked over to the next tablet and went on.

"After months, the kidnappings suddenly stopped. At first, it was a relief, if a temporary one: people were simply too worried to relax for fear of a relapse. It was then that Seto realized a horrific truth: exactly ninety-nine men, women and children had been kidnapped."

This number meant nothing to Joey, Kaiba and Mai, but Yugi, Pegasus, Marik and Odion all stiffened.

"That was the number of villagers from Kul Elna who were massacred in a ritual to create the Millennium Items," Marik informed them in a low voice, delivering a sideways glance to the confused trio.

"I really don't like where this is going," muttered Yugi.

"Seto sent scouts out to scour the desert for signs of the gang of bandits, which he was in the process of realizing was not actually a gang of bandits. Of a particular party, only one returned. Terrified, he told them they had been chanced upon by sentries at the entrance of a gigantic, cavernous cave to the west. The others were slaughtered while he barely escaped to tell the tale.

"Seto amassed most of what remained of the Egyptian army, for it still had not been built up to its former strength after the battle with Zorc, and marched it, with the Pharaoh himself at the head, toward the cave the scout had found, intent on putting down the insurgency once and for all. Unfortunately, he arrived too late. After killing the sentries and making it into the cavern, Seto and his soldiers were greeted with a ghastly sight: ninety-nine headless corpses leaking blood, and a small army of hooded figures, one of whom was wielding a hammer to smash a sandstone mold. From the mold he then retrieved…-"

"The Quantum Cube," muttered Yugi, his eyes closed.

Ishizu and the others looked to him with surprise. "How do you know that? The text simply describes it as a square shaped item with the Eye of Anubis on it."

"Back when Kaiba and I were dueling Aigami, I heard Sera refer to the Cube as the eighth Millennium Item. This is likely what she meant. The Cube was created using the same ritual as the first seven."

"Yugi-boy," Pegasus spoke up, hesitantly. "I don't pretend to know all the details about the creation of the Items, but the sacrifice of ninety-nine souls generated enough dark energy to power each of the seven individual Millennium Items. If this ritual we're hearing about led to the creation of just one-…"

"Then the Quantum Cube is likely as or even more powerful than the other seven Items combined, yes," came Kaiba's voice, through gritted teeth.

Everyone turned to look at him, silent yet surprised to see him weighing in on matters involving mysticism. Yet, his words rang true, and no one liked the sound of them.

"As far as we know, the Cube's primary function seems to be to open portals between different planes of existence. Which means at full capability it would likely be used to open a really large portal," theorized Yugi.

The group liked the sound of that even less.

"Kaiba," managed Joey. "Just what in the hell did you let out when you used that thing…"

His brown-haired frenemy did not respond.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," frowned Marik.

Ishizu glanced hesitantly back at the tablet, looking almost afraid to read further, so her brother took over.

"Seto had his soldiers engage the enemy immediately, but they all formed a protective circle around the leader, who began chanting a spell. The Cube glowed, and the cavern began to shake. In the midst of trying to kill their way to the center and stop the leader, Seto realized they were too late, and ordered a retreat back into the desert before the cave collapsed onto them. Some soldiers made it, but the others, along with the enemy, were buried alive."

The tension in the room was palpable.

"Under the cold desert night, Seto looked on in disbelief. The idea of this… group having caused so much trouble to his kingdom for so long, only to intentionally or unintentionally commit mass suicide, was beyond grotesque, but yet it had happened. He had no time to ruminate on this, however, as the debris began to shift and a gigantic dark form began to emerge from the ground."

"That really doesn't sound good," groaned Joey.

"Shut up, mutt," hissed Kaiba, gesturing for Marik to continue. For once, Joey did not respond.

Marik hesitated. "The text does not go into very much detail at all in its description of this… thing. It says that merely looking on it drove many soldiers mad. Some went blind. Within minutes, the majority of Seto's army had either fled or killed themselves."

Everyone looked dumbfounded. Did they come all this way to learn that Seto encountered some… thing in the past but not learn what the hell it was?

"They don't even provide a name… but I think I know what this is," mumbled Marik. He was going pale as he spoke.

"Well, spit it out then," Kaiba snarled. "Just what the hell was it?"

Marik swallowed and looked down, before speaking in a low voice.

"Apep."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The leader of the team that Mokuba had sent to Cairo was sitting in the front passenger seat of the armored car the Egyptian official they had bribed had procured for them, while his subordinates were on the lengthwise benches that ran along both sides of the vehicle behind him.

The metal crate that was their charge lay on the ground in between them, rattling a little occasionally as they ran over bumps on the road to the specific co-ordinates they had been directed to.

This was the leader's first time in a desert environment, and frankly, he did not care much for it. When they landed, it was very hot. Now, it was freezing. He was a corporate man at heart and much preferred to do his master's bidding indoors, in temperate controlled rooms where he didn't need to worry about sand ruining his expensive shoes.

He consulted the GPS on his phone. They were getting close.

"Be ready to stop," he said to the driver, without looking at him. His gaze remained fixed on the road ahead of them: what little was illuminated by the car's high beams anyway. Once the sun set in the desert, it got extremely dark extremely quickly. The moon provided some illumination typically, but this was a cloudy night.

The driver, who had been assigned to this group by their bought-off government official, was uneasy about their circumstances; simply because driving through the desert at night was always something to be uneasy about. He had grown up in a small village on the outskirts of Cairo and ghost stories had always been passed down in his community. He had heard more than one instance of someone going out into the vast sandy expanse after dark and never returning.

Yet, he had no choice, for the official controlled his employment status, and if he lost his job he would be unable to feed his family. Fear of his children starving overcame his fear of the superstitions that right not were pushed to the back of his mind.

"Pull over to the right and stop here," came the command.

The driver did so, and unlocked the doors.

One of the men in the back handed the leader a flashlight, who then flicked it on and disembarked.

"Stay in the car," he ordered. "We will return shortly."

The underlings all crapped a handle and lifted the crate out with them.

The driver left the car and headlights on, but with the moon mostly hidden tonight, he couldn't see anything beyond a few feet to his front and barely anything to his sides. It was a very uncomfortable feeling.

As he listened to the sound of their receding footsteps and labored breathing due to the heavy load they were taking with them, he found himself praying that the men finished whatever business they had out here in the middle of nowhere and return as soon as possible.

Soon, any sounds the men he had transported here were making disappeared completely, and the driver was left in near total darkness and complete silence. The experience nearly made his blood run cold.

The sound that then a minute later broke that silence did make his blood run cold.

Screams.

It started with just one, but then they multiplied. A cacophony of cries that signaled fear, or pain, or likely both.

The driver stayed glued to his seat, hands gripping the steering wheel, white as a sheet. For a second he thought perhaps he was imagining them. As they ascended in pitch and volume, he knew he wasn't. Yet, he couldn't move.

Yet, when the noise began to dim, it shook him into action. His heart skipping beats, he smacked the gear into drive and slammed on the accelerator while turning the car back onto the road. He was pressed back up against his seat and the tires were screeching under him.

As he picked up speed, the sounds of agony began to slowly grow more distant. He had no idea which direction he was going in, and he didn't care. All he wanted was to get as far away from the likely condemned men who he had likely brought out here to their deaths, and whatever nightmare currently had them in thrall.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Apep.

The word registered with no one else in the group aside from Ishizu, who stiffened at the sound of it.

Silence reigned momentarily, before Joey deadpanned, "Um… Is that supposed to mean something to us?"

Marik didn't answer. He glanced at his sister, who was looking pale.

"This was supposed to be a fanciful tale," she managed.

Marik still didn't say anything.

"Guys, what is going on?" pressed Yugi.

Marik and Ishizu were looking at each other nervously, not sure how to proceed, when the silence was further pierced by an angry growl from Kaiba.

"I don't have time for this."

Marik raised a hand. "Fine, fine. I will tell you."

He took a deep breath. "As you all know, the three Egyptian Gods are Ra, Slifer and Obelisk. I'm not one hundred percent sure about this, but they likely existed in the Duel Monsters Spirit World, a different plane of existence than ours from which the ancient Egyptians were able use Millennium Items to summon monsters to fight for them."

"Right, like we saw happen in the Memory World," put in Joey.

Marik nodded, before allowing Ishizu to continue the story. "The Gods, of course, were a special case, and only the Pharaoh of Egypt was ever able to summon and control them. This exclusive authority led to many at the time believing the Gods themselves ordained the Pharaoh as their representative and an intermediary of sorts on Earth between humans and the divine. They truly believed that the three Gods, and Ra in particular as the most powerful, were responsible for the creation, preservation and eventual destruction of the mortal world.

"As such, the entire ancient Egyptian religion and mythology was constructed around these foundational beliefs. I use the word mythology because while we do know that Ra, Slifer and Obelisk did exist in this alternate dimension and that the Pharaohs were able to summon them, we do not know for a fact that the other stories about them in the faith were true."

"I'm sorry, but being in the Tomb Keeper family descended all the way from the time of the Pharaohs, weren't you raised in this belief system?" pointed out Yugi.

Marik gave a wry smile. "Yes, Yugi, I was… and don't you remember that I despised that fact so much that my hatred manifested into a separate personality who was a murderous psychopath that would have plunged the world into eternal darkness had not you and Atem defeated him?"

Yugi mumbled something unintelligible, clearly embarrassed by this oversight.

"Yes, we are the direct descendants of the very first Tomb Keepers who guarded Atem's resting place, and all generations since then have been raised in the same ancient Egyptian religion. It is, however, not an uncommon thing for children of certain kinds of parents to not exactly be enamored with the faith of their ancestors. As you all well know, our father was an… evil man," said Ishizu quietly.

"Look, this trip down memory lane might be fun for some of you, but I want to know what this "Apep" thing is and what the hell it has to do with my brother," snarled Kaiba.

Marik raised his hands defensively. "Yes, we are getting to that. I just needed to understand that you all understand the distinction about what we know about Duel Monster Spirits and how the ancient Egyptians used to summon them to do battle, and the prevalent religion around the time that centered on Ra, Slifer and Obelisk, that is now more or less non-existent outside of small circles like our family."

"Ok, we can understand that," agreed Mai. "So what comes next?"

Marik took another breath. "The creation story of the ancient Egyptian faith states that at the beginning of time, Ra was the only God. No one really knows if he later created Slifer and Obelisk, or they just came into existence. Either way, around the time he created our world, the rest of the universe was a chaotic mess. For what he did, Ra was regarded as the bringer of light and the upholder of Ma'at, which is the ancient Egyptian concept of balance, order and harmony.

"So given that Ra represented these concepts, as with most faiths, ancient Egyptian believed that there existed another entity represented the opposite of them: Isfet, or as we know it… Chaos."

He allowed what he had just said to sink in to the group of listeners.

"This was… Apep," Pegasus spoke up with realization.

Marik nodded. "Yes, indeed. The mythological story goes that Apep, as the Lord of Chaos, heavily resented the order that Ra was bringing to existence with his creation of our world and the life that inhabited it. Therefore, the two would constantly battle for the fate of existence. The ancient Egyptians believed that every night, Apep would encircle the world to fight Ra, and this was what blocked out the light of the sun. Eventually, possibly with help from the other Gods, Ra was able to defeat and seal him away in another dimension."

"Wait, so how is it that you know that Apep is what this tablet is speaking of?" gestured Yugi.

"Well, part of the legend went that some of Ra's worshippers tried to go and confront Apep with their master. All but the strongest-willed were driven mad by even looking on his form. That is… exactly what the story tells happened to Seto's army."

The room went silent once again.

"So, you mean to tell me that another Egyptian God existed this whole time and you guys knew about this?" Mai said slowly, with a hint of incredulity to her tone.

"Did you not listen to a word we just said?" gasped Ishizu in exasperation. "Apep had no link to anything we knew of that happened in the time of the Pharaohs Aknamkanon and Atem. The other Gods existed as Duel Monster Spirits the Pharaoh could summon and control. We know this because some of you literally saw it happen. We had as much reason to believe Apep was real as the notion that dead Pharaohs really did need the treasures they were buried with in the afterlife."

"I also acknowledge that yes, this tablet mentioning the name Apep was right here in the Shrine of the Millennium Stone," muttered Marik. "If I had been the Tomb Keeper I should have been, well, then I likely would have taken the time to study everything in the chamber to find anything that could help Atem find his memories. Yet I spent the majority of my life rejecting my duty and roots due to what I suffered at the hands of my father, so the knowledge inscribed on these walls was lost permanently after the Ceremonial Battle… until Kaiba here excavated it."

He inclined his head toward the CEO with those last words, who simply tightened his face into a grimace.

No one spoke. They all realized that it was unbelievable that information like this could have been existing under the Ishtars' noses the whole time without them knowing, yet the reason for this was incredibly tragic and not really either of their fault. Marik was driven mad by his father's abuse, and subsequently Ishizu had spent most of her life trying to bring her brother back from the darkness, not studying niche hieroglyphics in a room out in the middle of the desert.

Yugi decided to press on. "All right, we understand who or what this Apep is then… What does the tablet say happened next?"

Ishizu looked at it for a minute, and then shook her head. "Not much more. As Marik said earlier, after the emergence of what we assume was Apep, Seto's army fell apart. Most were driven to madness, some killed themselves as a result, while the few remaining simply fled and refused to speak of what they saw. Seto was apparently left facing the creature by himself."

"And what exactly did this alternate version of Kaiba-boy here do in that situation?" inquired Pegasus.

Ishizu shut her eyes, before opening them and sighing, "It doesn't say."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. As I said, literally no one else was there to recount what took place. As for Seto himself… he never returned. Scouts were sent out a few days later, and at the site of the confrontation, they found nothing of either their Pharaoh, or the creature that we're assuming is Apep."

The group took a beat after this to process what they had just heard.

"I wonder if he sealed this… Apep in the Millennium Rod the way Atem did Zorc in the Ring," wondered Yugi.

Marik shook his head. "Unlikely, and quite frankly, impossible, for two reasons. For one, I actually possessed and used the Millennium Rod for quite a while, if you remember. When Zorc existed in the Ring he eventually corrupted its holder, manifesting as the dark side of Ryou Bakura. Similarly, if there was something living in the Rod, I would know."

"What's the other reason?" came the reply.

"Well, Zorc was said to have been borne from the darkness of the hearts of men, from what I recall. Apep, at least according to legend, was a much older and more powerful force. He was supposed to literally be the universal manifestation of Isfet or Chaos. He existed long before the first mortal life forms existed, let alone when humans were even around to have dark thoughts. A primordial force from an age, if it was even real, that we know close to nothing about.

"It took everything Atem had to seal Zorc within the Ring, as he literally had to sacrifice himself in the process. No, no Millennium Item or even any prison of man's creation could hope to hold something like Apep. The only place Seto could have managed to trap Apep was back in the dimension that Ra had supposedly banished him to."

"The one that the group of bandits, whom I am now assuming were cultists of his, used the Quantum Cube to summon him from," conjectured Pegasus.

Marik simply nodded at this.

"That has to have been what happened," growled Kaiba, finally speaking up after having simply listened to most of what Marik and Ishizu had narrated.

Everyone turned to look at him, still a little surprised that Kaiba opining like this on supernatural matters. In recent times he had become a lot more… open-minded about these things, but it was still jarring to those of them who had been around him during Duelist Kingdom and Battle City.

"Look, I'm not going to pretend that I have perfectly rational explanations for all of the… bizarre things that seem to happen when I'm around you people. But when I was in that place with all of you, I saw this other version of me. I don't know how or why, but we're evidently connected somehow, in the same way the two Yugis were, since I'm pretty sure I don't have an identical twin that also somehow traveled to that place."

This level of candor was causing the surprise from earlier amongst some of the listeners grow into outright amazement, yet they held back their reactions and let him continue.

"When I spoke to whatever was controlling my brother, it said that I consigned it to a cold, dark oblivion for thousands of years. To me, that sounds more or less like what you're saying the other version of me sent this freak to. An alternate dimension that was specifically meant to be an unbreakable prison? That's pretty on the money to the description I heard."

"Kaiba," breathed Joey. "Hearing this from you is so weird… I gotta ask, why is it so easy for you to talk about the other you like this, given how you used to be about these kinds of things?"

Kaiba didn't answer with words, not right away anyway. He grabbed something off his belt, and held it up for Joey to see.

The others leaned in too, and then realized what it was.

It was his deck. On the front of it was the most iconic Duel Monsters card ever printed, instantly recognizable to anyone even vaguely familiar with the game.

It was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"He looked more or less exactly like me," said Kaiba quietly. "More importantly, they obeyed him."

That was explanation enough for Joey, and seemingly everyone else around them too.

"So, are we making the further assumption that it's Apep somehow controlling Mokuba?" asked Yugi.

"It seems safe to say," came the reply from his rival. "I used the Quantum Cube to try and open a portal to another dimension. Clearly, I succeeded, but it wasn't the dimension I intended. The Cube is also what this tablet says was used to allow Apep to enter our world."

He said the name with a level of distaste that was mostly reserved for toddlers who were speaking about leafy vegetables.

Yugi nodded. "Yes, and if Seto did indeed somehow manage to banish him back to the dimensional prison he came from, it makes complete sense that Apep blames you, his reincarnation, for the same thing. It's probably why he's going to such lengths to torment you by possessing Mokuba."

Kaiba's fist tightened and his face contorted.

"He's going to pay for that, whatever the hell he is or where he came from."

Joey looked alarmed. "Kaiba, I'm not usually the cautious one here, but do you maybe wanna hold your horses? This is still all based on a fair bit of guesswork, and he clearly wants you back there for some reason. Is it the smartest thing to just walk back into his-…"

"Waiting here isn't going to achieve anything either," came the angry reply. "Besides, it's my brother on the line here, Wheeler. I never asked you to get involved, so if you don't-…"

"Well, you didn't ask me either, but I am going to be involved too, Kaiba," interjected Marik.

Everyone turned to look at him.

The Tomb Keeper had a grim look on his face. "If it is indeed Apep that has managed to somehow escape and possess Mokuba, and I think we have enough reasons to assume it is, then I am coming with you, Kaiba."

"I don't need you to-…"

"The fact that this could have happened is my failure, for as the heir to the Tomb Keepers I would have tracked down the Quantum Cube if I knew the threat it might have posed… and I would have if I had fulfilled my duty by actually serving the Nameless Pharaoh and trying to help him get his memories back."

He seemed firm on this.

Kaiba didn't say anything in response. He knew, despite his ego, he needed all the help he could get… and the Ishtars clearly knew way more about this situation than any of the others did.

"We will come as well, brother," Ishizu agreed, gesturing to Odion as well, who bowed his head. "As I said, we Tomb Keepers serve not just the Nameless Pharaoh and the Pharaohship itself. This is our battle too."

"Well, good thing my plane has the extra room," crowed Pegasus cheerily. "Oh, don't look so surprised, Kaiba-boy. I always was and am going to help you see this through. I owe this to both your brother and you after the nasty business that was Duelist Kingdom."

Mai spoke up as well, in a soft but firm tone. "If you're going back to Domino, I'm coming."

Joey looked at her in surprise. "Mai…?"

"I did wrong by all of you collectively when I was working for Dartz. Sure, I apologized, but this is going to be one of the ways I make it right."

Kaiba raised his eyebrows, but once again, given his distinct lack of resources, he wasn't going to turn down help when his brother's safety was concerned.

Finally, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Yugi smiling up at him.

"I know you don't like to use the word "friends", Kaiba, but you have to know Joey and I are in this with you."

Kaiba didn't reply, but nodded as Yugi removed the hand.

Joey groaned. "Jesus Christ, Yuge, I know we go way back but when it comes to signing me up for these crazy adventures… Ah what the hell, I knew what I signed up for when we helped rich boy here steal a damn plane. Just tell me you have a plan."

"I don't, not yet," admitted Kaiba. "But I still have time."

"You have time, and you have us," agreed Marik. "We'll come up with something. I do agree we should get moving if we want to get back to Japan in time though."

He looked at Ishizu. "I think we should probably scan the rest of the tablets quickly to see if there's anything of value left to learn here. I doubt it, since it seems like they avoided naming Apep on purpose. But still-…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the room went dark. Given it was a windowless warehouse, it was almost completely pitch black.

"An electric failure, most likely," called Ishizu. "We have backup generators, they will likely kick in soon."

The group waited. She was wrong. They didn't.

"Something's not right," whispered Mai.

Their eyes were adjusting to the darkness very slowly, but no one could see the grimace on Kaiba's face.

"We're not alone."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The story is well and truly moving from here! The second half of this chapter was very easy to write because it finally feels like I am getting into the meat of the plot after a fair amount of buildup.

I think with more information being revealed about the villain, some of you may now see how this story is in some ways the spiritual successor to Nightrise, but fits much more with the overall theme of the original YuGiOh series.

GearfriedtheSynchro: I could never not include the Ishtars in a story like this! Marik in particular is going to play an interesting role. You're right, the thought of a villain using Kaiba's vast resources is quite scary, and in many ways makes you thankful that Kaiba never stayed in that role himself. The character work is half the point of the story, there are going to be some epic duels coming up but more than anything I wanted to ensure that all the significant characters get their stories resolved and the ending they deserve.

ChroniclerDL: I'm glad you like the Mai storyline! She was such an important character through the first 75% of the series, I always found it sad how she never showed up again towards the end.

Reaver72: That Joey-Mai talk was a long time coming. The way the show left their relationship was a tragedy. Joey passing out during their duel and losing his soul while lying in Mai's arms, and then never meeting again… Yeah, no way was I going to leave that unaddressed.

Thank you so much for the reviews, all three of you. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.