Chapter 6

Abidos

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

I was in a strange room, the construction and decoration of which I was…not personally familiar with, yet knew the identity of.

And I was lying on the floor, a few feet away from a strange white-haired woman who was unconscious. A folded piece of paper was in her hand, just in my reach, with a single symbol on it: a cartouche, bearing my name.

I reached out my hand to take it and immediately noticed something else that was off about this moment in time: all I was wearing was my hair, which was unnaturally long. It left me feeling relieved that this woman was unconscious.

Speaking of which…

In a sudden burst of energy, I snatched the note from her hand, sat up and opened the note.

It read, not in hieroglyphics and yet I could still read it:

"Abidos, I am the woman lying before you. My name is Kisara, and through an extremely complicated spell, I am your second mother."

My mind hiccupped to a stop. What? I had to take several deep breaths before I could continue reading.

"I brought you back to life because the universe needs you, as well as another who is already informed. It is clear that you have a great many questions; I would if I had woken up suddenly with fourteen years worth of hair growth and not much else by way of clothing. I apologize for that, by the way, but it was all I could do to get you grown far enough to be useful."

Fourteen years? What?

"A full explanation will have to wait until I'm conscious, but I believe you can use the communications on the wall to call for clothes. The people here are enough used to my having powers to where they've learned not to be shocked by what they find in this room: my work room, by the way."

I glanced at the walls. Finally, I spotted a patch of metal that didn't match the rest of the wall nearest what was probably the door.

"The clothes you receive will be some of my brother's. They won't be what you're used to, and they'll be marginally too big, but they will do. When I wake up, I shall arrange for your haircut. And I'm sorry, but the main reason your haircut is waiting for my consciousness is because my husband – your second father – has requested that I take pictures of what you look like post-spell. I can promise you that these pictures will never surface to the public."

I lifted a lock of my hair and studied it ruefully. This will probably be funny a few months from now.

"You will definitely be hungry, and the servants have been instructed to, just for today, bring food to whomever calls for clothing. It'll be simple fare, as an attempt to help you adjust better, and more than you should eat all at once, because I really have to eat when I wake up – great works of magic require that the body receive a great deal of sustenance afterwards. See you when I wake up, and save some of the coffee for me!"

Just reading mention of food made my stomach growl. Carefully, I got to my feet – my first attempts at walking were staggered – and made it to the wall. Pushing the button, I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Um…I require some clothes."

After a few minutes, the door opened – not far, just a few inches – and a bundle of folded clothes came sliding in on the floor. "I'll bring in your meal tray when you're ready, sir," a strange voice – all I could make out was that it was male – told me.

While strange, I did rather like that "sir."

Again with that unusual blend of knowledge, I knew what all these clothes were, and I managed to get them all on properly. They looked rather like what I saw that boy Jaden wearing, though without the red jacket. As the note said they would be, the clothes were a little loose, but it was better than sitting around bare. "I'm ready."

The door opened again, and the man came in with a tray. He didn't bother staying, and he didn't truly react to either the lady on the floor or my…unusual hairdo; he just set the tray down, said "Here you are, sir," and left again.

"Simple," evidently, meant bread, some kind of soup, and water, with a pot of something hot that apparently was the coffee waiting for Kisara to wake up for it.

I was probably about half-done – I didn't recognize what was in the soup, but it wasn't bad – when she woke up at last. "Ow…" She rubbed her head. "I really should have worked that spell already lying down. It would have saved me some hurt." Then she turned to look at me with blue eyes. "You must be Abidos. I'm happy to finally meet you."

"I would say the same," I replied, pushing a slice of bread over to her, "except I'm not sure what's going on. Um…am I supposed to call you 'Mother'?"

She accepted the offer with a laugh. "That's only required if we're in public together. What happens in private is entirely your choice. As to what's going on…can I eat before I explain? I could ignore what my body needs while I explain, but it's not considered good practice."

I thought about it. And decided that as badly as I wanted to know, letting her finish was still a good idea. I nodded and scooted backwards on the floor, letting her have the tray and watching her eating as if she hadn't seen food in days.

Kisara

After a few minutes, I slowed down and took the time to study my son carefully. Since I was completely without my powers, I had to be more observant.

The clothes hung loosely off his still-skinny frame, but I felt I'd done well choosing to use Max's clothes, because Abidos' skin was dark enough to where he had to wear something pretty light for it to work out. His large blue eyes were studying me as intently as I was studying him. And then, of course, there was that unfortunate extra-long dark brown hair.

Finally, I told him about Maximar and the Wolfshadow curse. I also told him about how I'd seen who could help break the curse, and that I'd be sending him into Duel Academy as a transfer student since the year had already started. "What I'm still not sure I understand is why my sight told me that you were, and I quote, a legendary duelist who was living a lie and didn't find out until after death."

He lowered his head, looking somewhere between ashamed and sheepish. "I won every duel I went into, but that was just my servants letting me win. It was Jaden Yuki who helped me see that, only recently." Then his head snapped up again. "Will I see Jaden again?"

"Probably not: he's got his own things to do. Your partner is a girl." Should I tell him about Verity? …Eventually. Not right now, though; he's still got to accept what has happened to him.

I straightened up and helped him to his feet. Then I rummaged around in a drawer until I came up with a camera. "Okay, let's get this picture over with so that I can call a hairstylist for you. Smile!"

He fussed a bit with his hair, getting a lock of it hanging down over one shoulder, and then he grinned at me. The grin was a little forced, but I didn't blame him.

When the picture was safely stored in computer memory banks, I called a hairstylist – technically Seto's, and the man was given enough money to where he wouldn't ask any questions about why he was cutting hair that was nearly long enough to sweep the floor.

Abidos chose a style that was apparently identical to the look he'd had thousands of years ago as a pharaoh. Understandable: he needed some attempt to return to something resembling normal for him.

"You will need to meet your relatives and learn what your cover story is before we let you leave the building, so you'll end up being a transfer student into Duel Academy."

"I see."

I sighed. "This would be easier if I had my powers."

He turned and stared at me. "You don't have powers anymore?"

I shook my head. "Bringing you to life has knocked my powers out. I won't be able to do anything for…" I trailed off. "You know…I should have Max take a look at my energy readings and figure out how long they'll be gone."

Abidos

"Don't worry about it, sis."

I stared at my new uncle. His black skin, long hair and red eyes made him look like an evil spirit, but he was actually a rather nice man. Seto Kaiba was also in the room, holding my sister in his lap, and Mokuba was staring at me as if not sure what to make of me.

I wasn't sure what to think myself. Here I was, in a completely different time, as a teenager with a father, mother, sister and two uncles!

"The good news is, your powers aren't gone for good, and they won't even take all that long to come back!"

"How are you defining 'all that long,' Max?"

"That's the bad news: they won't be back for about…six months."

She closed her eyes as if expecting a headache. "Well…I can't say that I'm surprised."

"I'm sorry." It was all I could think to say. It was my fault that her powers were gone, after all.

She smiled at me. "Did I say that I blamed you?" She turned towards the others in the room and asked, "Did anyone hear me blame him for my powers being gone?"

Every adult shook their head with a smile on his face.

Kisara stood up, glided over to me, and set her hand on my shoulder. "I already accepted the risk of my powers fading for the sake of saving the universe. You just have to help make sure that my sacrifice wasn't in vain."

No pressure then.

I started, glancing past her at Max.

He was smirking, and he'd just rolled his eyes.

It hadn't occurred to me that it was even possible to be sarcastic with mental communication.

"Well…all right."

This is going to be a long ordeal.