Chapter Four: In the Ocean Blue
Téa awoke late in the night. She slowly turned and looked over at Pele, who was still sleeping peacefully. Outside, the full moon sparkled over the ocean, giving the beach an ethereal beauty. Strangely, however, a little bit off into the ocean, a stream of steam was rising up into the starry night sky.
She knew what that was.
She slowly swung her feet off the side of her bed and snapped her fingers, transforming her pajamas into her muumuu. Quietly, Téa tiptoed across the room and slid the patio door open. She stepped outside and walked up to the very edge of the ocean where the waves rolled up against the sand. She pointed her fingers at herself and murmured,
Like a creature of the ocean blue
Let me breathe underwater like one of them, too.
Pink sparks shot out of her fingers and right into her, creating an aura around her made of soft, pink light. She slowly waded into the water and, when she got in deeply enough, she dove inside.
Téa gazed in awe at the beauty around her; it was such a foreign place that it almost looked like she'd jumped right into another world. As she swam, she took quite a bit of time to look around at the spiky, waving coral and the multi-colored fishes whose scales sparkled from the light of the moon shining down through the water.
Finally, she came across the person she was looking for. Yugi Muto was lying on a force field bed which he'd conjured up over the sandy ocean floor, sleeping peacefully. His body was glowing with a mixture of the fiery red light along with a blue aura which, Téa assumed, was allowing him to breathe. His body was still emitting lots of steam, and the water around him was particularly warm.
Téa gently called out to him, "Yugi?"
Yugi stirred a little, but he didn't awaken from his slumber.
"Yugi?" She pointed a finger and sent out a little pink spark which tapped him on the shoulder.
Yugi slowly opened his eyes. He blinked in confusion for a few moments as his eyes scanned the watery blue environment, and then remembered that he was sleeping in the ocean for the night. He sat up and gazed at Téa in shock. "Téa? What are you doing down here?" he asked.
"I…I was just a little worried, that's all."
Yugi smiled gently at her. "Téa, there's no need to worry about me." He started ticking off his fingers. "I've cast a spell which lets me breathe underwater, I'm certainly a formidable opponent for any sea creature that comes along, and," he smiled, "I've got somebody who can stay up all night and watch over me in case evil appears."
The Millennium Puzzle glowed with golden light, and the Pharaoh took over for Yugi. "Everything will be all right, Téa," he smiled at her. "You go back to your room and get some rest."
Téa knew that was a cue for her to leave, but she couldn't bring herself to get up and walk away. She looked down at the sandy ocean floor and simply stared at it for a little while, knowing that the Pharaoh was watching her with slight confusion.
After a bit, he stood up and asked, "Téa, what's wrong?"
"It's…" She bit her lip. Finally, she looked up and replied, "I don't think I should go."
"Why is that?"
"Well…it always seems like whenever you and Yugi are the ones targeted by evil beings…something happens which seriously makes me think that I'm going to lose you two…first there was Duelist Kingdom when we almost lost you to the shadow realm…then when you and Spencer switched bodies, if your body had been destroyed…I don't know, maybe you might have taken over for Spencer and we would only have seen you when we were under attack again…and now a goddess might come after you for stealing powers from her which she wanted…" She looked down at the ground. "If she comes after you, then I want to be there so that I can help protect you and make sure what I fear the most won't come true…"
Pharaoh smiled gently at her. "Téa, thank you for your concern." He created a force field around his hand and rubbed it gently against her face. Only a slight bit of the heat came through the field, giving her a warm, tingling sensation. "Tell you what: How about if the two of us come out of this ocean and simply sit and watch for anything that could approach?" He looked up at the wavy image of the moon which shone on top of the water. "It's a beautiful night, so it could be quite enjoyable."
"Okay," Téa nodded. Pharaoh snapped his force field bed away and the two slowly started walking out of the water.
Suddenly, however, the two heard a strange, crackling sound from behind them. The two looked and saw, to their shock, an entire wall of frozen solid ice moving towards them.
Pharaoh and Téa quickly soared up and out of the water. They looked down in horror to see that the entirety of the ocean that they could see had been frozen into a solid ice mass, with the goddess Poliahu floating above it, her arms straight out from her sides and a white glow coming from her outline.
Poliahu looked up and down at the Pharaoh's flaming red and blue outline and sneered, "Well, well, well-looks like the little human boy can use Pele's powers after all." She formed an orb of ice in her hands. "But the question is, will he be able to actually fight with them?"
Pharaoh glared at her with the intensity of his fiery aura increasing. Téa had to move away from him a little so that she wouldn't get burned by the heat.
"Quickly, Téa, go wake up the others," Pharaoh told her. "We must make sure that this goddess never gets what she's come for."
Téa hesitated for a moment, but finally soared down onto the sandy beach and dashed back towards the hotel, ready to get the others up for a fight.