I forgot to mention I own nothing related to or involved in the Yugioh series. I am writing for the sole purpose of writing and for my writing to be enjoyed by those who read it.
Tea stretched her leg muscles trying to find a balance. Everything was out of whack now, Tristan was gone, Joey might as well be a loner since he refuses to speak to us anymore, and when he did it was barely a sentence. Yugi and The Pharaoh were trying to figure something out, a clue, anything, and were coming up empty again and again. For now, Tea focused on her dancing. She had saved up just enough money to attend Starz Dance Academy once a week, and so here she was trying to focus her crazy mind on dance. In the beginning, there had been at least twenty dancers, but now we barely held at six and were in constant danger of losing another dancer to the number of the Taken. Miss Kelsey, our dance instructed, was clapping her hands and calling us to attention.
"Girls! Girls! We will be having a new student join us today. She's extremely wealthy, so be nice to her." She began, but Melissa, a dancer, interrupted her.
"You never let anyone in after registration, you always told us it made someone more privileged when dancing isn't about money."
"Well, after all those Taken I barely survive on the tuition I get from your parents, so if you'd just excuse my selfishness." Miss Kelsey replied sarcastically. "She comes from Egypt, and her name is Rek, she should be her soon." Right on cue a tall, lithe, teen, black haired girl ran into the room, dropping into a quick curtsy in front of Miss Kelsey before joining the remaining dancers in a line. "Girls this is Rek."
"Hey." The Egyptian smiled. She had bright green eyes and long black hair that was quickly falling out of its bun. She was wearing brown workout pants and a thin pale orange T-shirt with some words in her native language written across. Something was familiar about her...
"I know you!" She suddenly exclaimed. "I saw you yesterday.
"Oh yeah!" Rek smiled brightly. "You were with the double spirit."
"Yugi." She corrected.
"Yes him."
"What are you doing here?" Tea demanded confused. Rek looked thoughtful, and then frowned.
"That would take a considerable amount of time, and at present I wish to dance. Is that not why we are here?" Rek replied, and Miss Kelsey began the practice, throwing us into lunges, pirouettes, and so many complicated moves that the French name always escaped Tea's mind. Rek moved through the moves with a glamorous air, and she always knew how to make the move as elegant as possible. In that first practice, Rek proved that it wasn't just money that had gotten her into the Academy, and I was also obvious her dancing was on par with the greatest dancers of any generation. The girl was barely exerting herself by the time class was over, had won over the teacher's undeniable acceptance, and the respect of every dancer in the class.
"Class is over, I expect more from you Jeanie! Your stances were deplorable at best and Annabel, the solo I let you perform is worse than Shakespeare as a child, his poetry was flawless, and your moves makes your song worthless at best." As Miss Kelsey continued berating her class Tea waited in anticipation to hear how she would be degraded. "And Tea, your dance didn't make me want to cry." Tea cheered silently, this was the closest she had come to a compliment from the best, and strictest, dance teacher left in Domino. "Rek! You were...exceptional. Class, this is the type of commitment I demand in your dance! Make it come alive, make it seem effortless, left the dance flood through you! Into your very veins! This is the type of dance I expect from you, class! You are, well the last, of my best dancers! You have just been shown up by a newbie dancer, and I expected better of you. Rek, you are the greatest student to ever enter my studio, and I am humbled by your presence."
"Thank you Madam Drair." Rek replied with a self conscious smile as she dropped into another curtsy of gratitude.
"See, class? Rek shows me courtesy her first class here, and all you, my supposed 'best', only say 'Miss Kelsey'. I think you all need to learn a few lessons from this wise Egyptian." And with that, Miss Kelsey, ahem Madam Drair, stalked out the door with her graceful dancer's walk.
"Thanks a lot, Rek." One of Tea's fellow dance students sneered. "She was worse before, now we got to worry about her and a sudden interest in manners. I bet we'll end up curtsying to her too now. Thanks, Rek, what a dumb name."
"I was named proudly, and I am not ashamed of my birth name. As for my manners, I would prefer to be overly polite than a disgrace to my family." Rek replied, picking up a bright yellow bag that she had set by a far wall before practice had begun. "If you will excuse me," She said, nodding her head in her fellow dancers direction. "Tea." She nodded again, and headed for the wide double doors that led to the outside world.
"Wait!" Tea called, wanting to catch up with the Egyptian. Rek stopped and stood patiently as the brunette approached.
"Yes?" Rek asked with a smile.
"How did you know about Yugi's-" Rek suddenly pushed Tea to the side as Jeanie exited the building and suddenly disappeared right before she put her left foot down on the pavement. "What?" Tea's exclaimed, looking around trying to find Miss Kelsey's favorite dancer and daughter. She was gone.
Taken.
"How did you?" Tea trailed off, looking at the Egyptian as she looked around the duo carefully. Tea looked at the new girl with fresh eyes. Rek had known to move her just in time, or else she would've been taken instead. "How did you...?" Tea asked again, shocked at the disappearance of a friend and comrade in the dance.
"There's no time right now, run!" Rek replied, grabbing Tea's hand and pulling her away from the dance studio with a vengeance. Rek started running, and Tea immediately started running too. Why, she wasn't sure, but she knew she could trust the girl running before her. As Rek led the way, Tea watched shocked as people suddenly disappeared right where she had been a moment earlier. The girl was psychic or something, and as the duo ran Rek kept making them dodge places where she knew someone would disappear. If someone touched the ground where Rek had dodged, they were suddenly Taken. Rek mad them keep running, and running, and running, until they were out of the city limits and running toward a gated home. Rek immediately jammed her finger into the call button, and like that the gates opened and Rek shoved Tea in. "Kuriboh! The barriers, hurry!" She yelled to someone, and a slight chirp was her only reply. The gates were slammed shut, and a bright green light enveloped the gated house before dimming and disappearing into nothing. Rek was leaning on her knees gasping for breath and Tea was panting on her knees from pure exhaustion.
"Rek! What have you done?" A voice demanded, and a teen a bit older than Rek's fifteen ran toward the girls'. Dressed in jeans and a hoodie he looked like a normal Domino teen, but Tea could tell from his appearance he wasn't of the Domino population. He had dark brown eyes and light brown hair, and well defined tan, and Tea could just tell he kept himself in shape. Tea tore herself away from him as Rek began speaking.
"Sen, don't be angry." Rek snapped. "This is Tea, she was with the double spirit." Rek introduced.
"Then why didn't you just bring this double spirit?" Sen demanded.
"It was not part of his destiny! You know I can sense these things, Sen, and his destiny was not of this quest, his is of another, you know I understand a person's destiny better than Mama! And you know I am not incompetent!"
"She is a simple young child, Rek!"
"And weren't we not, Sen?" Rek demanded hotly. Her brother, Sen, took a calming breath and looked toward the non Egyptian.
"Hello, welcome to our home. I hope Rek wasn't too impulsive. She enjoys getting her way." He told Tea, narrowing his eyes in his sister's direction. "I am Wenen, my sister as she has already said is Rek."
"I thought you were Sen." Tea said confused. Wenen smiled charmingly at his sister.
"'Sen' is brother in our tongue. Is that not correct, Senet?"
"I prefer Rek, Sen." She muttered in response to her brother's taunting.
"As I Wenen." Wenen replied in a voice only brothers can produce in response to irritating siblings. "But I go by Wen these days. Please, come inside...?"
"Tea." The brunette replied quickly, trying to hide a smile at the siblings taunts. For a single child, she had always wanted to fight with someone but they were always fun to watch.
"Tea, welcome to our home." Wen smiled, and gestured for her to follow him.
"Whatever you do, don't get shocked and scream at what you find inside. Some of our pets are a little..." Rek just trailed off with a shrug. Wen twirled on his sister in surprise.
"You have not told her of our duty?" He demanded.
"I wasn't sure if she needed to know, Sen! It is not my place to tell, it is yours!" Rek replied hotly.
"I believe that is my sole occupation." An older voice chuckled, and the trio whirled around to find a man in his mid twenties looking at them with mirth. Dressed in a loose black suit he took the group in with quick assessing brown eyes.
"Tea, correct?" The girl nodded. "I am Tepey Saew, and these are my children Rek Saew and Wenen Saew. We and my wife are the guardians of the battle monsters, the creatures now commonly called 'Duel Monsters'." A shriek pierced the air and suddenly Paladin of White Dragon was streaking toward the group. Tea let out a scream, but was immediately hushed. The creature landed quickly with a thud right in front of Mr. Saew. "Paladin, what of the borders? Has he breached them?" Mr. Saew asked right of the bat. The man on the white dragon's back hopped off and bowed low before Rek's father.
"He hasn't breached the grounds yet, sir. The barrier is still holding strong, and his beams cannot penetrate them yet. We are sending off some of dragons to check the whole grounds, but your three hundred acre land is hard to patrol completely, and the forest creatures are being uncooperative."
"Have you checked with the Witch of Black Forest?"
"She is in a meditative state trying to see the futures to come."
"And what of Succubus Knight?"
"Off doing what she does best." The Paladin Knight muttered.
"Off the grounds?" Mr. Saew asked alarmed.
"No sir, she still resides on this land." All three Saew's breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness for that. Please try your best, Paladin, we must return to the house to explain all our homeland protects to Tea here."
"Course sir." Paladin saluted, mounted his dragon, and rode off.
"What was that?" Tea exploded.
"That was Paladin and his White Dragon." Rek giggled. "I told you to not be surprised by what you saw."
"Tea." Mr. Saew's voice commanded, and I turned toward him. "We are the guardians of Battle Monsters, the protector of Duel Monsters. We have existed since the first Battle Monsters were played in ancient Egypt." Tea gasped in shock and looked at Rek, a teen looking about fifteen but was actually over a thousand years old. "The Egyptian gods and Our Pharaoh knew the monsters could be deadly in wicked hands, so protectors were chosen. The Protectors chosen were My wife, my daughter, my son, and myself, and given immortality and the final authority over all Battle Monsters. We have existed since the beginning."
"But the duel monsters were trapped in stones! How'd you survive if there weren't any?" Tea asked shocked.
"Three were never sealed, three that never made it into Duel Monster Cards. These three were left to guard over their sleeping siblings, and wait until each monster was reawakened. It was our job to protect them, and to protect the people who sought to use them. If these seekers were not right for the monsters, we led them away, if they were right we brought them to the stones. Only one was right, one Maximilian Pegasus. The Duel Monsters were created form him, and from that we have had our control over monsters quadrupled since then. It is our job to protect every Duel Monster, and since we began we have completed this task diligently."
"But what's going on now? Why is everyone disappearing?" Tea asked, pulling the story to the 21st century.
"Well, that is why we moved our home here to Domino. We had known of magic and spirits in this town since it began, but when an unseemly amount of people went disappearing we knew something was up. With some help from our resident hacker we were able to come up with a few theories, but to almost anyone on the outside they will seem quite unusual."
"I'm not just anybody." Tea replied crossing her arms, waiting.
"It seems the source comes from the internet itself." Wen piped in.
"From the internet?" Tea gasped, a whole past adventure flooding her mind. A virtual realm, the internet, and one boy who started it all. "Noah."