CHAPTER II: The Forgotten Servant
"Hi there! Who are you?"
A small voice has awakened her slumbering soul.
She slowly opened her cold, emerald eyes. It was met by a girl's beam and bright, emerald eyes and blonde curly hair that shined like the sun. She looked very much like her, only that this girl carried the radiance of summer with her weak body.
She squinted a little, as if she was blinded by the luminosity of her cheerfulness. The sight was probably too bright for someone who had seen nothing but darkness for a very long time. In contrast to the girl, the woman believes she looked like someone who had lived in the shadows for the longest time. Her icy gaze says it all.
She sat up and saw the girl better. Her sharp eyes saw a frail little girl looking straight up at her. The girl's glowing delight highly contradicted with her fragile and feeble appearance. While her new found companion had cold eyes, hers were brimming with much much light for being overjoyed with the woman who just woke up.
"My name is Aya!" the delicate girl happily said.
The woman who just woke up just looked at her in wonder.
"Were you the real owner of the bracelet Daddy gave me from Egypt?" she enthusiastically asked. "I've always felt something mystical with this bracelet ever since Daddy gave it to me. You're probably the mystery that spells everything out."
She woman just nodded hesitantly. She was still in a daze after waking up.
"You know, I've had this bracelet for a while now. Yet, this is the first time we met. This is probably a sign that I'm about to leave," Aya happily said. Her enthusiasm declined a bit, however.
The woman was stunned.
"It won't be long now. I can feel my life slowly slipping away day after day." Aya's tone was starting to become serious. "But I'm happy that I was able to meet you, even though this is the first time we spoke!"
She continued to silently listen to Aya.
"I have always kept this bracelet with me. This is very important since this is from Daddy. And to think you had been living here with me, I think this bracelet really is special." Aya was brimming with light in her smile again. "Even during the times when my body was in pain, I held on to it. I held on to the belief that it was special. That you are special."
The woman's cold eyes became sad. She held Aya's hand in hers. A teardrop escaped from her eye. She started to speak. "I wish I could do something for you…"
She smiled wider now and her face brightened even more because the woman has finally started talking to her. Aya's tears started to well up as she spoke while keeping up her smile.
"You know what? I don't really wanna leave yet. I've been bedridden almost my entire life and I still wanna do a lot of things. I want to become a normal high school girl, have friends, go to places, and maybe, fall in love…"
She told of these things with much wonder. "But I think it's too late for those now…"
"Me too. I still have a lot of things I need to do. A thousand-year mission that I have to finish," the woman said as she embraced Aya tenderly. "I feel that you have a truly pure and kind soul."
"I don't think I've lived long and well enough, but I can feel something in you," Aya said, parting herself from the woman's arms to look into her eyes. "I can feel that you have a really strong soul. Now that I'm dying, I can feel all of the determination you have for something you must do."
"I really feel nostalgic when I'm with you. It's like I can trust you with anything. Like you're a part of me, for some reason," Aya continued. The woman's eyes widened.
"I'm going to entrust my body to you," Aya said to the woman. "Please live my life in my place and finish what you have to with my body as your instrument."
The woman was overwhelmed at Aya's words.
"From now on, you will now be me. You are now Aya," the girl said with her bright smile as the two of them were slowly enveloped with blinding light, their hands still connected.
...
A week ago in Domino City Hospital, The body of the 16-year-old Aya Iyaze was reported to have lost her pulse and had breathed her last. It was about to be declared dead by the attending doctor, when her finger suddenly twitched. Her pulse returned which caught the hospital in both shock and amazement. The nurses were thrown in slight panic and ran around to check her vital signs. Her heartbeat and warmth have returned and her flushed cheeks, for the first time in a while, is gaining a pinkish color.
The body's cold, emerald-colored eyes slowly opened. That moment, as the hospital room lights were pointed at her, she saw light for the first time after being asleep in the shadows for countless of centuries.
The Pharaoh, Joey, Teá, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, and Kaiba were stunned at the Duel Monster that was charging towards them. Joey and Tristan panicked.
As the woman with an armlet that had an embossed Eye of Horus commanded the summoned Maiden of the Moonlight, the Duel Monster charged to attack to the direction of Yami Yugi and the others. What they thought was an attack directed to the Pharaoh and the others was actually aimed at the One-Eyed Shield Dragon that hovered right behind them.
The One-Eyed Shield Dragon was instantly destroyed by the Maiden of the Moonlight's attack. This left the Pharaoh and the others speechless.
"Yugi, explain what's happening here," Kaiba demanded. The Pharaoh didn't know the answer either.
The Pharaoh's and the woman's cold, green eyes met. The Pharaoh was wondered
Suddenly, a swarm of wormholes have appeared out of the blue which released a hoard of Mystic Clowns. Could this be the evil that the stone tablet was referring to? Is this what we have failed to defeat? The Pharaoh though to himself.
The clowns charged to attack everyone on the top floor of the school building.
The woman hastily pulled a card from the deck loaded in her duel disk and summoned it on her monster zone. Maiden of Macabre manifested and appeared in front of her. She then stretched her hand and gave the command to the Duel Monster.
"Maiden of Macabre, attack all of the mystic clowns!"
Maiden of Macabre then swung her large, sharp sickle to slice the monsters that have appeared, causing a splash damage to all the Mystic Clowns on the area that were charging at the Pharaoh and his friends. The Mystic Clowns vanished.
A sigh of relief from Joey and the others followed by What the heck was that?
The woman put down her duel disk, stepped down from the edge of the rooftop, and took steps towards the Pharaoh and the others. It was then that they were surprised with the armlet she has on her right wrist. A millennium item? They wondered.
At every step she took, her cold, sharp eyes were pinned at nothing but on the Pharaoh. Atem was still wondering who the woman is. As she walked, the Pharaoh spoke. "Thank you for defending us from the monsters. Who are you? Why do you possess what seems like a millennium item?"
She said nothing while continually took steps to the Pharaoh and fixed her eager gaze at him. Atem was all the more perplexed.
She then stood in front of the Pharaoh and immediately fell to her knees to bow to him, her left foot forward in respect to the king while keeping her head as low as she can.
"Great Pharaoh, my king and my god. I am overjoyed to once again see you after thousands of years," the woman said. Atem and the others were shocked at her declaration.
"Have we seen her in the Pharaoh's world of memories before?" asked Joey.
"Hmm… I don't really remember," Tea said.
"Maybe she's with the enemy?" Joey remarked.
"No way! A girl as pretty as her can't be the enemy!" Tristan remarked. "How 'bout you, Atem. Do you remember her?"
The woman suddenly stood up in shock after hearing the Pharaoh's name. "Pharaoh, you've already remembered your name?!"
"Yes, together with all of my memories," the Pharaoh replied.
"But why is the Door to the Darkness still open? It has also been more agitated recently and has sent more dark monsters in this world?" said the woman.
Atem then remembered the words in the stone tablet:
The resurrection of the evil is overcome yet not.
The gods will not rest until the seed of evil is vanquished.
Yugi spoke with the Pharaoh's spirit. "Could this be what the stone slab was referring to, Pharaoh?" Atem did not doubt its possibility.
"How could that be?" interrupted Kaiba. "I thought you've already defeated Zorc, Yugi? Woman, explain this."
"Priest Seto?" Aya said in wonder, her cold, piercing eyes brightened in amazement for only a moment, only to realize that it is not possibly him. "I see, so The Evil Lord Zorc has been defeated,"
The Pharaoh did not take his eyes off at her. Not even for a bit. He was struggling to remember who she might be. "I have so many question as to who you are and to the bracelet you are wearing, Miss. Please enlighten us," Atem said.
There was a pause in anticipation of her answer.
"Atem…. My King…" she softly and hesitantly spoke his name.
When her lips spoke of his name, Atem could feel the resounding reverence and love she had for it. It not only rang in his ears but to the very core of his soul.
Her voice. The way she said it. It was all nostalgic. It was all awfully too familiar.
He longed to be called by his name by this woman again, hoping to remember something about her, and so he stared at her lips again. His heart thumped a little. A familiar throbbing of his chest.
He looked deeper into her cold eyes that looked at him affectionately in attempt to search for answers.
These eyes that were searching her inmost being were the very eyes she truly did revere thousands of years ago, up until now. But the way she is looking at him now, her gazes were full of sadness as she was beholding the Pharaoh.
She then looked away because she can no longer hold back the tears that were trying to escape her eyes.
The Pharaoh noticed it, but said nothing. He can only be mystified. Still, deep in his soul, he can feel familiar warmth towards this woman person. Nostalgia was wafting from her.
"I can feel that you were a comrade during my days in Egypt. I know I can trust you. Please tell me your name," Atem said.
Hesitantly, she looked back at the Pharaoh. "My King, I am not someone worthy to be remembered by you."
Atem's heart broke.
He doesn't seem to know why, but how could she say this despite the look she has in her eyes for the Pharaoh?
"Please, you are worthy to be called by your name."
The woman replied. "Very well. Please call me Aya."
[To be continued]