'My king, our king we have truly missed you,' whispered the dark voices that echoed throughout the dark stone room.
He, the chained man upon the gate, paid no heed to the sweet nothings and fickle seductions blown into his ears as he hung upon the cage gate, keeping the shadows under control and eagerly waiting for his Aibou to return.
'Why do you not even listen to us anymore my liege?' the shadows continued, 'I recall a time when we had such fun. When we played Shadow Games-'
'Speak not of those evil games. To save the world we sealed them away for good.' This was one thing that Atemu had to stand for. He and his friends went through endless pains to achieve that one almost impossible goal. It would be worse then the end if the Shadows were to be played again.
The darkness crept closer towards him. 'Sealed for good you say?' they whispered.
At this odd sentence he lifted his head slightly and strained his ears to not miss a word, 'What do you mean?' he demanded.
'Something as dark as the Shadow Games are guaranteed to return, you know this. You can feel it my king. So maybe it would benefit you to be nicer to usss' they spoke as they stroked the side of his face.
'Touch me not!' he commanded and the shadows flinched away. 'The millennium items are sealed away; there is no way that could happen, so speak not more of it.'
For a period of time there was silence throughout the cavern before the shadows spoke again.
'Poor pitiful king that was chained to a gate for the sole purpose of keeping his loyal servants in his cage. For all your sight it has probably happened already' they tainted coldly.
Atemu's head stubbornly turned to the side to symbolize he was no longer paying attention, but deep inside himself his mind churned with these dark thoughts and contradictions to his logic as the shadows continued their sweet nothings into his ears.
The glowing boy had been walking around the dark room for ages; there was simply no end to the space. No matter how far or how long he travelled away from the purple door it never disappeared into the distance. Nor could he walk around behind the door either, which was most curious; considering there were no walls.
Finally he just sat down in front it in a huff.
'Stupid door,' he said pouting at not being able to satisfy his boredom. He had already memorised all the names and pictures of the cards near the old ruined desk, with no further memory flashes, and now found himself with absolutely nothing to do.
The purple door in front of him tinged a darker shade of violet for a few seconds and changed back to a flickering purple. Curiously he leant forward, looking closer at the unsure colours, leaning in so that his nose almost touched its surface.
'Argh, fine!' he yelled exasperatedly to himself. 'I'll go visit Atemu.'
Standing up he wrenched the door open and walked briskly across the hallway, slowing down as he went till he completely stopped in front of Atemu's massive eyed stone door. Hesitantly he reached out, opened it slowly and stared in at the wholesome darkness that was inside. Swallowing the lump stuck in his throat, he tip-toed as quietly as he could, into the room.
Not looking down at his feet he kept his head locked upwards, afraid that if he looked anywhere else he would lose his small piece of confidence.
As he snuck further in he swore he could hear whispering. He strained his ears to make out what was being said.
'Don't you find it amusing that we have come back though? I thought you were meant to be resting my liege. Or should I not mention the fact that your back and that your precious Aibou doesn't' remember a flick of his past-'
Suddenly his foot plummeted deep into something wet and he cried in surprise before falling on his bottom on the previous hard piece of stone he had just recently stood upon; His foot firmly stuck within the heavy liquid like mass that felt 'alive' somehow.
"Aibou?" sounded a deep baritone voice from the dark. He looked up and squinted to see Atemu still on the gate but this time the Egyptian was on the other side of a large expanse of swirling dark; A moat of darkness.
'I swear there used to be a small ditch here' he thought sarcastically to himself.
"Is that you Aibou?" called Atemu again.
"Yes it is me Atemu; sorry I took so long to get here" he said scratching the back of his head a bit nervously at the almost desperate tone of Atemu.
"Shadows bring him to me" the other ordered.
He yelped as the black around his foot gripped his entire leg; yanking harshly the dark tendrils whipped him in front their Egyptian master, so his head was level with the others neck, his arms hanging downwards. It was a fearful realisation that he was now completely unable to walk or even run away.
He was making his way through dark cloud, though the progress was agonisingly slow; only cold endless views of clouds se in every direction, as if taunting his efforts of travel with no visual achievements. Oddly his foot ground against a different kind surface, but he bent over and dug into the frozen clouds to reveal the sun, shining brightly up at him. There was also an outline of a man slightly younger than him also looking upon it. Details were hazy and constantly shifting but he made out that the other man also had tri-coloured but he was glowing white with large white feathered wings and had an air of innocence around this being. He tried to reach out for the familiar man but all too suddenly the image shattered to reveal complete darkness and an enormous golden eye itched. Ominously the eye opened and stares into his soul threatingly. A blue dragon head stretched in from the side and opened his mouth into a wide sadistic grin at him before a small golden ring zoomed into view and cut off its head; the whole image dimmed black as the golden eye closed.
Atemu felt himself being pulled back to consciousness and eventually he opened his crimson eyes to stare at the flat cement ceiling above him. He idly noticed a cream texture that was otherwise quite boring so he turned his head towards the right and noticed another cream wall with a large open window that revealed the oppressive dark sky. The image fuelled his thoughts about the dream he just had, clearly remembering every detail and wishing he could see more of that man.
"Aibou…." He uttered, "What are you?"
"Atemu?"
He turned his head lazily to the other side and stared fixedly at Joey who had bandages around his head, but radiated happiness in good health. Atemu widened his crimson eyes and smile in joy and leapt out of his bed to hug the surprised other energetically, if still a bit tiredly.
"Oi 'Tem I should be the one glomping you!" Joey exclaimed in good humour patting Atemu's back as the two hugged the life out of each other. "Welcome back to HQ." Joey took an emotional sniff and the blondes eyes practically popped out of his head as he quickly reeled back pinching his nose.
"Woah, Never thought I'd say this, but you need a shower 'Tem! Badly!'
Atemu lifted his arm and took a whiff; catching a full blow of his own BO and having his face scrunch up into vain distaste.
"How long was I out?"
"3 weeks"
"3 weeks?! By sun, what disease or injury did I have that held me for 3 weeks!" he exclaimed.
"Uhh, I really don't know, the doctor didn't say much to me" explained Joey tapping his chin with his forefinger characteristically.
Atemu sighed, fixing his hair absentmindedly. "I'll ask him later then. But for now I feel like I will die if I don't take a shower now"
Joey's eyes looked at him puppy-like for a second, "Kay. Catch ya later then 'Tem" He said waving before heading to the door of the ward. "Oh, one more thing 'Tem" Joey said in a serious tone, not turning around to make eye contact with him. "They wish to see you." The blond headed out of the ward and quickly closed the door to leave Atemu in silence once again.
For a long while he stood there in pure shock, the silence rolling over him and messed with a tangle of his own thoughts that screeched loudly inside his head.
'Is this about the key?' was the one thought that solely managed to strike the rims of his skull while he stripped from his scratchy hospital clothes. With a troubled face he then walking over to the adjacent showering room to aggressively cleanse his every pore and then go see them; the council.
The Egyptian strained his arms against the chains and leaned forward to touch his forehead against his aibou's. He could literally feel the light, so soothing, as it calmed his dark torn mind and led it away from his thoughts. He needed it so badly.
"I missed you Aibou. I'm glad that you are alright from whatever happened to you before."
There was some silence as his Aibou fidgeted.
"You know about my past, about my memories. Don't you?" the other said.
The question surprised him slightly but he quickly recovered.
"Yes." He finally replied.
Gripping his golden puzzle reassuringly, Atemu had finally reached the council room, where the leaders of HQ were waiting for him. He had not visited or seen any of the leaders for 8 years now, excluding his Grandfather Solomon who was one of the council members whom he saw frequently. With the fact that his grandfather was there to help if anything serious went wrong, he felt reassured. Atemu knocked confidently on the door and entered shortly after.
Inside were exactly 15 different people who were all at least 40, as per HQ's rule. They all looked up from the top of the table they were previously observing to stare with a wide range of different looks at Atemu.
"Greetings Council members" addressed Atemu with an air of confidence.
"Atemu my boy!" exclaimed a familiar voice from the crowd.
Atemu smiled as a short man pushed his way to Atemu and shook his hand vigorously. His Grandpa may have been one of the oldest council members, but he was definitely the friendliest and most energetic out of the rest of the graveyard bunch.
"So the rumours were true! You did complete the millennium puzzle. Well done my boy." Randomly exclaimed Solomon in awe eying the golden pyramid chained around Atemu's neck.
A spiky black haired man coughed and Solomon looked at the other members before the back of his neck flushed red and embarrassedly scratched the back of his head whilst nervously laughing. Atemu tensed his body as all of the council turned to him again.
The black haired man began talking, "Atemu, about four weeks ago you were trusted to transport the 'object' from safe haven back to HQ." His expression darkened to a glare, "but you failed. You let yourself be attacked and had it stolen." Atemu wisely kept his mouth clamped shut when the man paused. "Most curious is that you and your entire group somehow miraculously survived. By all logical means you should have died Atemu. Tell us what happened that night."
The other council members pressed their faces closer towards Atemu so that they would not miss a word to satiate their curiosity. It was a request for his story it was an order.
Under their gazes Atemu nervously fixed his blonde bangs loosely behind his ear while he quickly collected his thoughts. "Well"
"Well?" the glowing boy said with rigid attention. "Please Atemu. I need to know my past."
The shadows seemed to tighten their grip even tighter around his legs with the request that hung in the air.
"Don't lower yourself to tiresome explanations my liege, the light should just be placid in your presence. He does not need to know his past."
Said 'Aibou' looked in shock at the shadows. "That's not true!" he said. "I like Atemu but I still need to know!"
"Give him lengthy talks at a later date my king. You do not need this boy, you have us."
"I command all of you to shut up," Snapped Atemu. "Aibou. I will tell you about your past" The younger man smiled up at Atemu, "but you must stay here by me. I feel as though terrible things would happen again if your presence was absent." His blindfolded head lifted slightly, as if desperately trying to see him. "I need you Aibou."
"No!" shrieked the shadows in anger. "We have always served you loyally! You cannot prefer this scum!" the tendrils clenched the smaller man painfully and caused him to cry out in pain.
"Release him!" Atemu shouted and the shadows instantly froze their violent thrashings and their charge was dropped harshly onto the cold floor on the opposite side of the moat. Tears were streaking down his glowing face and he was hyperventilating in pure fear.
"Aibou?" The Egyptian said desperately. "Aibou answer me!" the man cried a bit more desperately his head twisting around blindly listening for further sounds. "Come back here. The shadows won't bother you."
The smaller man just shook his head violently and stumbled to his feet to start running away from the king and his terrible shadows. His feet pounding the stone floor as he dashed away as fast as he could.
"Aibou! Come back!" The shadow tendrils unfroze and swiftly whipped after the terrified teen that looked back in wide horror as they quickly approached. In his panic he stumbled and fell to the floor as dark ropes advanced upon him.
"NO!" he screamed at the top of his lungs with a bright flash of light that luminated the entire room. In the split seconds that the tips of black disappeared and the rest of the dark mass was stunned, he got up running and ran through the stone door before slamming it shut behind him. He finally collapsed in the empty hallway with his back firmly pressed against Atemu's door. Bringing up his knees to his face he cried out his little heart, blue light streaks tinting his light morbidly. He could hear Atemu desperately calling for him, but he couldn't care less. He just continued to cry, his body barely glowing at all.
To the council he had recounted the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, to their stunned expressions.
"Horse Shit!" finally exclaimed a furious fat man. "Do you think we came down in the last shower of rain boy?! There is no way that you can't remember a thing! Just admit it! You killed them all! Just tell us how you bloody did the gruesome deed!"
Half the council members voiced agreement; others voiced disagreement reasoned with trust to Atemu and the rest stayed completely out of it.
"Obviously we were fools to trust you Atemu! We couldn't trust you with the 'object' and we shouldn't trust you with the millennium puzzle!" shouted the particularly shrill fat man.
"Wait. You can't! I need it!!" Atemu protested hastily, but the fat man was already about to wrench it off him when suddenly a golden eye appeared upon Atemu's forehead and the puzzle became black with a few blue streaks dashing around it.
Quick as a flash the sick feeling was back. He grabbed his throat as nausea hit him in tsunamis, the room was completely tuned out as he coughed and gagged, unable to breathe.
"Atemu!" he could hear distantly from that familiar voice again.
A glob of pure black rose slowly from Atemu's mouth and in finality fell like an obese droplet to the floor. Returning to normal Atemu gasped in sweet oxygen and coughed up a few last bits of the substance on the floor.
Solomon helped his grandson to his feet before he collapsed while the other people in the room stared in with wide eyes in stunned confusion.
'I'm so tired,' Atemu thought. 'But at least I didn't faint this time.'
"Atemu" said Solomon.
Through half-lidded eyes Atemu looked to his grandfather who looked at him in ill-hidden false humour.
"Your neck is dirty my boy. Let me clean it up" grabbing a handkerchief out of his pocket his aged shaking hands wiped at a spot on Atemu's neck before stopping.
"Solomon, that's not dirt" said one of the council women that was absent from the group investigating the large blob on the floor.
"What are you guys talking about?" finally stated Atemu grouchily, flipping out his hand mirror. He stared in horror at the large black splotch that stretched over his Adams apple to about the size of a large coin.
He stared at the blackened skin through the mirror. "G-grandpa… W-what is that?"
Yea you guessed it. This was a filler chapter, which im SO bad at writing! I hit a huge plot bump but its all back on track now. Yay!
Reason for late update: My Grandma died of terminal pancreas cancer and I had to attend her funeral. I swear… that thing couldn't have been her. There was nothing in that at all… I miss her