"Where… Am I?"

A voice groggy, filled with a sleepy fog, yet somehow so delicate and gentle. Atem's eyes snapped open, meeting in contact with the boy in an awkward silence.

"Hello..? Where- Is this thing working?" The boy fiddled with the box on his neck, choking loudly in response to touching it.

Before Atem could speak, the boy grabbed his mouth, the mask he wore sliding off of his face and bouncing onto the side of the leather sleeping platform, and gagged. Atem jumped up, not sure what to do.

The boy sat himself up, his streams of golden fringe bouncing down the sides of his cheeks. His pale skin, whiter than Atem had ever seen, was glistening in clear sweat; the Pharaoh could tell that the bizarre black clothing he was adjourned in was drenched in sweat as well.

He gave Atem a glance, his giant violet eyes looking him up and down in utter silence.

As suddenly as he had woken up, the person loudly retched, his body heaving as he tried to stabilize himself on the bed.

Atem, concerned, asked; "Oh my.. Are.. You alright?"

They didn't respond, snatching the mask from besides them, wiping their mouth of any vomit using a cloth inside one of his pockets and heavily breathing into the mask.

Atem kept prying; "Who are you? Where did you come from? What is that… Weird jewelry you are wearing?"

The boy took the mask off, twisting the two cylinders that laid in the front of his mouth and popping them off, replacing them with new cylinders he had in his strange, never-seen-before portable storage container. Atem watched, fascinated.

The boy took a few more breaths in the mask before slipping it on. With weak eyes, he finally responded.

"My.. Name is Yugi. This is.. Isn't… jewellery. its a mask to help me breathe."

"You can't breathe? I've never seen such a contraption."

"Well.. I can but the air carries toxins I can't inhale and-" The person stopped as soon as he saw Atem's confused face,"I.. The gods.. haven't blessed me with a good healthy body, I guess."

He shrugged.

Atem squinted. The person's voice almost sounded sarcastic when he spoke about the gods, a completely stupid thing to do considering he was in the presence of their messenger.

"You fell out of the sky. " Atem crossed his arms, nudging the box he sat on backwards as to be a safe distance from the mystery person. "In a beam of holy light. Where did you come from, within the sky? Who sent you?"

"I… Uh.." 'Yugi' looked at Atem intensely, focusing on his lips; was he reading his expression? "The.. Uh.. God's. The gods sent me here."

"See, I thought so." Atem laughed, "You cannot just fall out of the sky the way you did without being at least a little blessed."

"May I ask a question?"

Yugi sat up, Atem gave a small nod to indicate for him to go ahead.

"Which dynasty is this? I-."

Yugi suddenly went quiet. He snapped the mask off again and covered his mouth with his hand, Atem quickly pulled over the little empty pot that sat besides the bed for decoration and handed it to Yugi. He buried his face into it, coughing and choking loudly.

Atem turned away.

"It is the 18th dynasty." Atem answered, making sure to be fully turned away from the vomiting boy. "How do you not know?"

"I-"

The person's voice quivered. Atem let the person finish. He really didn't seem to be in a good condition.

"If you are lying about being godsent you will be executed."

"No-no… no!!" Yugi forced himself up away from the pot and dug into his strapped-on container and pulled out a small, golden object. Atem took it into his hands, staring at it, his jaw dropped.

A rusty, golden brown. Splotches of old blood coating the smooth metal surfaces, little rivers of the blood filtering through the little engraved indents.

"The.. Millennium Pendant?"

Atem clasped it into his palms, rolling it around.

"I can feel its energy radiating from it… This is the real thing!" Atem gasped, "But.. It is right here!"

Confused, the Pharaoh took off his pendant and laid them next to each other. As if by magic, the two reacted, letting out an extreme beam of light. Yugi shielded his eyes, continuing to speak while looking away.

"See.? The Millennium Pu- I mean.. The Millennium Pendant's are reacting!"

"You have to be godsent.." Atem's voice lowered into an almost fearful quiver as he handed Yugi his pendant, "This item links you to the gods, it is proof that you're a part of them."

"I know." Yugi smiled, he put the rope around his neck and let the pendant dangle down against his chest. It would probably be a good idea to keep this on in case he ran into trouble - even though it was heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

The door to the room knocked. Atem jumped out of his skin, letting out a loud and embarrassingly girlish yelp that made Yugi snicker behind his back, and walked to the door, unlatching its heavy wooden beam and letting the door creak open.

"My lord, I am sorry to bother you, but it is time for your meal."

"Already?" Atem huffed, crossing his arms again. "Yugi. I've still got questions to ask. Come, eat with me."

"Ohoho, did your injured mystery person finally wake up?"

Atem nodded, letting the door fully swing upen so the old man could see him, "He woke up moments ago. I would like him to accompany me to my meal."

"I am not allowed to argue." Siamun sighed, giving Yugi a glance and raising his eyebrows. He whispered into Atem's ear, "This girl, she is dressed so weirdly."

Atem laughed, "Yugi is a male, not female."

"Really? With those eyes?" Siamun looked the boy up and down again before shrugging, "I must run, you have a large freshly caught meal to eat, I have a training session with the new priests to oversee."

"Of course."

Atem gestured Yugi over with his hand. Yugi glanced away, he had such a commanding presence, it made his heart flutter. The two walked side by side down the endless corridor. Yugi looked up at the ceiling, taller than he had seen in a while, with delicate engravings of the pictorial hieroglyphics spanning across the hand-carved sandstone walls. Each footstep echoed loudly across the domed ceilings, making the boy slightly agitated. Certain sounds always infuriated him.

Atem looked at the floor, noticing the leg of Yugi that had commanded so much of Atem's focus before. Coated in a thick metal, it made a clicking noise whenever the knee bent. Each part of the leg was separated into different layers, the top area of the thigh including an engraving of a symbol Atem couldn't recognise. Each step Yugi put on the leg seemed heavy, a slightly lopsided stagger forwards that would have been completely disrespectful if he had not been godsent.

Atem looked away, would it be rude to ask?

"Good afternoon, My lord, and company!"

Four servants, three male and one female, said in complete unison. Atem gave them an approving nod before seating himself at the lengthy table. Yugi was ordered to sit opposite.

Atem gave a big grin.

Finally, a day where his table felt a little fuller.

"Why are you here?" Atem said. Straight to the point, Yugi liked that. Servants came by, placing food onto the table, dish by dish. Just looking at the meat made the traveler's stomach turn. "You are one who communes with the gods. You must have fallen here for a dire reason."

"I am here to warn you." Yugi looked determinedly into Atem's eyes, "Warn you of a war that is coming to your land."

"A war?" Atem scoffed. He scooped up a piece of meat with his hand and chewed into it heartily. Yugi looked away. "This land holds no grudges with others, who would we have war with?"

"A revolutionary opposition group from a place called 'Kul Elna'"

Yugi could barely remember the mission he was given in the first place. He sat up straight and kept speaking, "Against a famous thief of sorts. During this war, you will-"

"A thief! Like the one who desecrated my father's tomb!" Atem stood up from his seat. "Right? Right?"

"I.. Can I finish?" Yugi held back from snapping. Atem sat back down and nodded, it was like talking to a child. "They plan on stealing your Millennium items. During this fight, you will die."

Atem's excitement faded.

His face dropped.

His hands fell to his sides.

"..die?"

The King's voice became small, like a mouse. Any confidence in his form shrank, diminished into tiny useless sparks.

"We need to act quickly." Yugi hit the table with his fist, "You need to be kept alive at all costs!"

"I…" Atem started at a speck on the ground. "This cannot be real. You might just be an intruder who.. No.. That pendant - it was real.. It.."

Atem looked up at Yugi again, his Ruby red eyes filling with clear tears, "I don't want to die!"

"That's why I'm here. To stop that from happening."

"But…"

Yugi glared at Atem, he rolled his eyes and stood up, staggering over and sitting next to the Pharaoh, gently placing an arm around his shoulder.

"I promise, I will not let anyone die under my watch."

The boy's voice was soft, quiet. Atem closed his eyes and slowly wiped them with the back of his palm.

"You should eat." Yugi rubbed Atem's shoulder comfortingly a few times before letting go and returning to his seat, "It's important to eat regularly."

"You can eat this food too." Atem mumbled, taking some of the food over to himself before pushing the rest nearer to Yugi.

He shook his head so hard that it made him dizzy, "No-no! You eat! I.. Don't eat near people."

"Why?"

"Uh.." Yugi stared at the king, eating food as carefree as ever. No words could explain why eating near another human was a bad idea, no words that the other would understand anyway. "Don't worry about it."

There was the sound of people chatting, laughing, living, right outside these walls of death and silence. The sound of people so naïve to the world that they can be free. One of the many revealing openings in the wall let Yugi see the town around them, little muddy huts with people packed inside, people trading their grains for fabrics, a dry farm with barely any crop, a sweltering sun so bad that he was surprised everyone didn't have skin cancer.

Or maybe they did, but with the state of everything, they didn't know it.

"What are your defenses for this palace?"

Yugi finally spoke again, fiddling with the straps on his mask, which he had taken off in favor of letting his face cool down.

"Defenses?" Atem gulped down some fruit and dragged a container of what looked like wine over, "We have the Priests high court, as well as a proud military division, although one of the more equipped quarters is fighting a nearby territory who keeps trying to steal our precious land."

"Sh.. Shouldn't you be helping with that?"

"We have our best commander on it. I was told not to risk anything, we just lost one Pharaoh, we do not need to lose another. Especially when I still do not have any.."

The Pharaoh stopped talking. He looked down at the floor and scratched the back of his hand with his nails.

"We're only fighting a village… the main enemy is one man…" Yugi muttered to himself, picking at the skin on his hand while doing so, "I doubt we'll need a full army.. I could utilize a quarter but I wasn't taught on how to-"

Yugi's words faded into quiet nonsense, a garbled language Atem could barely hear.

Cautious, Atem finally spoke back up, interrupting Yugi's process, "We could call an audience with the court. My court usually helps me decide plans of action."

"Oh. Is that a thing I can do?" Yugi stopped picking at his hands.

"Of course it is." Atem scoffed, "Let me get Siamun."

Atem stood up, ordering Yugi to stay seated. Yugi did so, watching as the King walked confidently out of the room before yelling with a booming voice.

"SIAMUN! GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Yugi could hear the rushing of footsteps, before the stubby old man from beforehand ran over and stood infront of Atem, out of breath.

"I…. Y.. Yes sir…" Siamun gasped for breath, Atem stomped his foot on the ground impatiently.

"You took too long."

"I… Sorry sir… So sorry.."

"We need to get a high court assembly for today."

Siamun gave Atem a strange look before returning to his straight face as soon as he noticed Atem's glaring eyes, "Of course, my lord. I shall call them to assemble right away."

"Good."

Atem huffed, turning around and casually walking towards Yugi. The boy looked away, wiping away an extra bead of sweat that fell across one of the many scars on his face.

"Siamun will call an audience with the court, we must head to the audience hall."

"Uh.. sure.."

The traveler stood up, suddenly dropping to the ground with a loud SNAP!

"A.. Are you okay?"

Yugi looked down at his leg, the metal covered leg snapped unnaturally to one side, making Atem wince. Yugi glanced at his leg, letting out a loud, annoyed groan as he tried his best to hop onto his other leg while the metal one was still snapped to one side.

"It's fine." Yugi sat back down onto his seat and grabbed the leg, fingers prying at the metal edges.

"I did not want to ask, for fear that it may be rude." Atem knelt down, looking intensely at the leg, "But your.. Leg jewelry is very strange. Whomst made it?"

"Oh. It's not jewelry." Yugi shrugged. He muttered something along the lines of it being 'okay to talk about it', and then continued. "Its a prosthetic."

"A pro….prof….pros.."

"It's a replacement leg." Yugi took the prosthetic and pulled it back into place with a loud crack.

"Why would you want that?"

"I'm missing my leg." Yugi detached the metal prosthetic to readjust it.

"Why? How..? How could anyone be missing a leg.."

Atem stared at the obviously missing leg, semi-disturbed at the sight, he looked up at Yugi's face. His eyes focused heavily on the ground now, the boy drew in a sharp breath and squeezed those large purple eyes shut.

"I… Lost it…" Was that a tear he wiped away quickly from his face? Yugi reattached the fixed leg and bent it a few times to make sure it was working okay, "We.. We need to go to that assembly you ordered….right? Let's go."

Standing up, Yugi started stumbling to the exit of the dining room. Atem quickly followed behind, sure that the boy didn't know the way.

"How do you lose a whole leg? By the gods, I've never seen anything so-"

"Can we please shut up about my fucking leg?!" Yugi yelled so loud that the echo made Atem's ears hurt.

"Fu…ck.. Ing? I have never heard that word before." Atem mumbled. Yugi gave Atem a terrible look, causing the king to fall silent immediately.

"Uh.. This way." Atem cautiously stepped in front of Yugi. This boy, he DARES to look at the Pharaoh in such a manner? Atem clenched his fist, this person must be awfully confident in himself to shout at the almighty Pharaoh, godsent or not.

The audience hall was grander than Yugi could have imagined. Tall walls lead to a domed ceiling; shiny reflective stone on the ground allowed Yugi to see his own scruffy face below. On the walls, endless inscriptions of hieroglyphics spanned the area, probably detailing the richest 'history' the Egyptians had. In the centre of the end of the hall, right where Atem and Yugi stood, was a grand throne. It stood tall, prouder than everything else in the room, and held its own natural sunny spotlight. Yugi took a step forward. The room was surprisingly not that awful.

Atem slumped down into his throne and picked at his nails.

"You should sit up straight, in a throne like that." Yugi remarked, casually putting his hands to his sides.

"It is uncomfortable." Atem sighed loudly, like a spoiled child, "And you dare remark on how I, the almighty Pharaoh sho- Oh, hello Mahad, Mana. Welcome."

Yugi turned around, shuffling backwards in caution as two people entered the room. A small, peppy-seeming girl with scruffy brown hair and a big grin, and a taller, more serious man holding a broken stick.

"Hello, my lord. "

"Hi 'Tem!" The girl, who Yugi deemed to be Mana, rushed over to Atem and scuffed his hair. Atem chuckled and pointed at the stick.

"You broke another staff?"

"You brought another stranger into the Palace?" Mana snapped back, pointing at Yugi, "Siamun said so."

"Yes, well, I'll explain it all in a moment. Go find your place out by the hall."

"Of course!" Mahad, the man, gave a shirt bow and grabbed Mana by the ear, dragging her to the main hall and sitting on the ground with her. "You're so disrespectful."

"Me and Atem are buddies though…"

"That doesn't mean that-"

Yugi didn't bother to listen to the rest. He stood close to the wall, not being told where to stand by the 'almighty Pharaoh' made him slightly confused and concerned, though he didn't show it. The traveler dug into his pocket and took a small, black book out, flicking through and checking and speed-reading the bookmarked page, before tucking it away.

"Hello, my lord."

"Hello, your greatness."

"Good afternoon, My king."

One by one, people came and sat by Mana and Mahad on the floor. Thinking he was supposed to do the same, Yugi followed behind. However, Atem snapped his fingers commandingly at Yugi, gesturing to his side with his head. Siamun stood next to Atem on the other side, it was clear he was supposed to be there.

"Priests of the court. And.. Mana."

Atem boomed, making sure to wave at Mana after he said her name. She waved back.

"This fair man brings great warning that has concerned me about the wellbeing of my people. Speak, Yugi."

Atem tapped his throne with his hand impatiently, suddenly throwing Yugi to the spotlight.

"Oh, so we're just going right into this-? Okay-uh.."

Yugi fumbled with his words. The court of six (plus Mana and Siamun, making eight) stared at him with an intense judgment.

"Ahem.. Sorry." Yugi chuckled awkwardly, before standing up straight and finally talking clearly.

"On the 18th birthday of the Pharaoh in the 18th Dynasty, a war between his kingdom and the rural village of Kul Elna will break out. A great, dastardly thief from the village shall come and slay the Pharaoh, stealing all of the Millennium items the priests hold and causing the agricultural and ecological empire the Pharaoh built to collapse, all in one day. "

The court gasped in a shocked unison. Atem seemed taken aback, Yugi realized he hadn't given Atem many details either.

The King was distraught to know that he was destined to die premature, now he knows that it happened on his birthday. Yugi looked away, he didn't want to see another teary face.

"What do we do about this?" The only female in the court, a pretty lady with thin eyes and silky hair, asked, clearly concerned.

"We have until the Pharaoh turns 18 to prepare. We need genuine weaponry, none of your... uh.. magical nonsense, and a large stash of food, water and material."

"About that.." Atem added, interrupting Yugi. "Uh… we do not have much food or water or material at the moment."

Yugi fell silent. He looked at Atem and slowly waited for him to continue.

"Actually.. Our people have no food at all."

The traveler found himself pulling at his hair anxiously.

This whole thing was going to be harder than he had initially thought.