A/N:  Hey!  What's up everyone?  Nothing much here.  I've decided on doing a Yu-Gi-Oh fiction, but I don't know every detail, so bear with me.  One day I just decided to draw my own yu-gi-oh character with Yugi, and loll and behold there was an idea for a fiction.  And of course it is a romance fiction, sorry no Tèa.  Yugi/ OC and Yami/OC, maybe some M/J if I can fit it in there.  Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer:  I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, or the characters of the game or anime.  I only own the plot line and my characters.  Mainly Alex, Amunet and Neit.  J

Lost Relic or Lost Love?

            Alex was a normal sixteen-year-old girl, although that is how most stories start out.  Except that this is not like most stories, and Alex is not like most girls.  Instead of growing up in a family with brothers or sisters, Alex grew up in a family of two, consisting of only her and her mother.  Ever since she was young all she knew was how to live on her wits, and never trust anyone except her mother.  'Sooner or later they will leave you,' her mother always used to say, 'There is no use in starting friendships.'  Even with her mother's saying burning in the back of her mind, she tried to find friends in school.  But to no avail.  Everyone saw her differently, and called her names.  She couldn't find anyone.

            She eventually gave up on her search for a friend and stayed to herself.  She kept up in school, and tried to make something of herself . . . even if she didn't have anyone behind her.  She made it all the way through grammar school, middle school and is now in her second year in high school.  One of the only things that kept her going was reminding herself that next year is her second to last year and then in her senior year she would finally be free from the rest of the other students.

One day she was walking home from high school and two other girls from school followed her, taunted her.  "Hey Lucy, look who it is"

            "Oh, if it isn't little Miss 'I don't need anyone else but my mommy'."

            Alex continued walking, ignoring the girls behind her.  "Hey, stop and turn to us when were talking to you," one of the girls pushed at her back.  Alex turned toward her, "Oops, my bad.  We were talking about you, not to you."  Both girls started laughing at her.  "Buzz off, cheerleaders," Alex said coldly as she turned back around and started walking again.  "At least we wear something different each day.  I mean blue cargo pants with a black tube top under that ragged denim vest.  The clothes don't even go with your hair."

"And speaking of your hair.  Come on, brown hair with streaks of black, and the tips of your hair black.  I mean, please, find something else.  At least we have style!" they yelled at her back trying to catch up to her.

            "Yeah, if you call those sluty looks stylish," Alex said.

            "Hey what did you say?"  One girl knocked her into a chain link fence.  Alex kept her mouth shut and just stared at the other girl through her mahogany eyes.  "I think that you should just keep your mouth shut," the girl said leaning on the fence to the side of Alex.

            "Sounds like you should take your own advice," Alex said to her.  Alex has hit on the side of her face and she fell to the ground.  "Don't ever cross us again.  Be glad that it just turned winter break, because if we saw you at school tomorrow, you would be hurting even more."  The two girls walked off leaving Alex on the ground.  Alex wiped some spit off her lip; she was built tough enough so that she wouldn't bleed on the first hit.  "Stupid blonds," Alex mumbled as she got up.  She felt something under her hand and looked down at it.  It was a card, "Huh, this must be one of those Duel monster cards that they're talking about at school.  Pretty nice."  She stared at the card, "Silverfang, nice looking wolf."  She picked up the card, looked around and didn't see anyone around.  She shrugged her shoulders and pocketed the card.

***

            Alex opened her front door and walked in.  "Alex that you?"

            "Yeah mom, it's me.  Sorry I'm late, I kind of ran into trouble," she walked into the kitchen where her mother had just started on dinner.  "What kind of trouble this time?"

            "Oh, you know, the normal dumb blond type of trouble."

            "Again?"

            "Yup," she walked over to her mom and stuck her finger in the semi-warm pot of sauce and popped it in her mouth.  "Alex, I just finished that!"

            "Hey, my fingers are clean," she smiled at her mother and walked into the next room.  "Have you decided on what you want for Christmas yet, Alex?"

            "Not really," Alex felt something poking her side and took out the card she picked up earlier, "But, now that I think of it, I would like to start to collect Duel Monster cards."

            "What are those?"

            "They're a card game.  I found a card earlier today, it looks pretty interesting."

            "Alright.  I'll look into it," her mother continued with her cooking as Alex watched the television.  Alex's mother never had any problem with supporting her and her daughter, but they never moved from their two-room apartment.  Ever since Alex's father left, her mother never really trusted anyone other then her daughter, making their bond unbreakable.  After dinner Alex went to her bedroom and started playing Mortal Combat against the computer.

            The few days left before Christmas passed by quickly and before she knew it Alex woke up as the sun rose through her window and shone on her face.  She jumped out of her bed and ran into the den toward the tree.  Her mother was already sitting by the side of the tree, "Merry Christmas!"  Alex's eyes started to glow and ran over to hug her mother.  "Here is your gift, mom," Alex handed her mother a medium sized box and her mother started opening it immediately.  She took out a white teddy bear with angle wings and a gold halo.  "It's so cute!  Thank you!"

            Alex smiled and started to open her gift by the tree.  She opened the pretty big sized box and found two smaller boxes inside.  She opened one and found a starter dueling deck with a few booster packs.  "Thank you mom!"

            "That isn't all, Alex.  Open the other box."  She picked up the other box and opened it up.  She moved the tissue paper from around the piece of what looked like gold.  Inside the nest of tissue paper there was a medium sized bracelet of gold, "Wow.  Mom, what is this?"

            "It was my father's.  Since he didn't have any sons, he gave this to me.  He says it's been in our family for quite a while."  Alex looked at it closely.  It had a large eye in the middle with four dots surrounding it.  "It looks Egyptian," Alex clasped the bracelet on her left wrist.  "It is so cool, thanks mom," she gave her mom another hug and decided to go and start to set up her first deck.

***

            The more weeks that went by the more skill Alex obtained in the game of Duel Monsters.  Soon enough she was the top player at her school, and then after a short duel in her city, she was proclaimed the top duelist in her county.  It was so weird to Alex to duel at times.  Sometimes she feels as if someone else is there, behind her, guiding her arm.  Then as soon as she thinks of it, she dismisses it.  She never thought about it as much these days, until one day after school.

            It was another Valentines Day that passed Alex by without a single card or smile from her classmates.  Some of the other duelists would look up at her and maybe nod their head at her, which was more then Alex would ever expect from anyone at her school.

            She walked home alone, as usual.  As she passed through the parking lot she saw one of the girls that usually bugged her sitting on the bumper of a car with her boyfriend.  She snorted at the two, as the boy started to lean over a whisper things into the girl's ear.  Soon enough Alex could hear a small yell from the girl a few feet behind her.  She turned around and saw the young boy standing over the girl on the ground.  "Hey, get away from her!"  Alex ran toward the two.

            "This isn't any of your business."

            "It doesn't matter.  You should know better then to treat a girl, any girl, like that."

            "Don't even," he raised his fist at her, but she stopped his hand before it hit her face.  She twisted his hand so that he was almost on his knees.  "No, you shouldn't have even started."  She let go of his hand and he crawled toward his car and drove off.

            Alex looked down at the girl on the ground, "Why did you do that?"

            "You know," Alex said reaching out her hand to the girl, "I don't really know."  The girl looked at Alex's hand and got up by herself.  "Well, I didn't need your help.  Now if you don't mind I have to go home."  Alex watched as she walked the opposite way, "You're Welcome," she said sarcastically and walked home.

             At home, Alex threw down her bag and went into the kitchen, "Hey mom, I'm home!"  No one answered in the apartment.  "Mom?"  Alex walked around the apartment, looking into each room.  Alex's mother usually came home before she would, but if she was going to stay late she would leave a note.  But no such note was anywhere to be seen.

            After a complete search of the apartment she entered the den to call on the portable phone, but found something she didn't expect.  There was a man in a dark cloak sitting on the loveseat.  "Hello," he stood up and held out his hand toward Alex, "Alex isn't it?"

            "Who are you?" Alex asked still keeping the same amount of space between her and the strange man.  The man let out a small chuckle and put down his hand, "Um, let's just say that I'm a very big fan of yours."

            "Look, I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but I want you gone."

            "All I want is a duel, Alex."

            "A duel?" Alex narrowed her eyes at the man, "That's it?"

            "For a cost that is."

            "And what cost is that?"

            "The bracelet on your wrist," he pointed to her left arm where there was the bracelet that her mother gave her only a few months earlier.  "No way, my mother gave this to me, and I'm not going to give it to you."

            "Alright, then maybe we will just bet your mother."

            "What?"

            "Since you decided not to bet the bracelet then we will bet your mother."

            "Wait, I never said that!"

            "Too late . . . Let's Duel!"

            "When I win, I get my mother back, right?"

            "A little sure of ourselves aren't we?"

            "Just answer-"

            "Yes, you will get her back.  We both start with one thousand life points, agreed?"

            "Agreed, let's duel."  They set up a small area and the man gave her a dueling disk.  "What is this?"

            "It is what we are dueling with.  Now I'll go first."

            "Whatever happened to Ladies first?" 

            * A/N:  I don't know the complete rules of duel monsters myself; I'm still trying to learn, so I'm just going off the television show, K?  Thanks! *

He threw out his disk to reveal his first card.  "I call the Man-Eating Treasure Chest 1600/ 1000 in attack mode!"

"Very nice.  Sixteen hundred attack points."

"And it ends my turn."

"All right then," Alex drew her first cards, 'Let's see what I got here.'  She looks in her hand and saw three monsters and two magic cards staring back at her.  "I play Sorcerer of the Doomed 1450/1200 in attack mode, with one magic card face down."

"Now, it's my turn," the man drew a card and a smirk formed on his face.  "I play Witty Phantom 1400/1300 in attack mode with one card face down."

'I don't like the look of this,' Alex watched his smirk grow.  "And I attack with Man-Eating Treasure Chest against your Sorcerer of the Doomed."

"Not so fast!" Alex turned over her magic card, "The magic card I had was Book of the Secret Arts which raises my Sorcerer's attack and defense by three hundred.  1750/1500 Meaning that your Treasure Chest is destroyed."  The man's points went down to eight hundred and fifty.

"Well, I better get into gear," his smirk still didn't come off his face, and it worried Alex.  'Be careful, Alex,' something kept telling her in the back of her mind, 'There is more to risk here then in any tournament you have been to.'  Alex nodded to herself and drew another card.  She looked at the new card, 'Dark Hole.  Might be useful, I can use it now to get rid of that face down card, but I don't want to waste it.'  "I call the Trap Master and I use the flip effect to destroy that trap card connected to your Witty Phantom."

The duel continued hard into the night.  Each one playing their hardest, until each only had a hundred life points each.  "So what is your next move?" Alex asked the man.  He drew his card and looked over at her play on the field.  Mystical Elf 800/2000 in Defense mode and Wall of Illusion  1000/1850.  He looked at his weak monster in defense mode, Souls of the Forgotten 900/200.  Then a smile grew on his face as he picked a card from his hand, "I play this monster card in attack mode and take out your defense monster."

"No way!  Not the Summoned Skull!"

"Your last defense is gone, and the next turn is your last.  Since you already used your Dark Hole the last turn, you have nothing to use to beat me.  Give up."

"I never back away from a fight."  Alex picked up another magic card and laid it down.  "I play Yami the magic card."

"That won't save you, girl."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you count wrong?"  Alex looked at the card, and then saw that she did.  It was the wrong card, she played the wrong card.  And she couldn't recall it.  "Your time is now!"  The man brought back his disk and threw it back out.  "Summoned Skull, finish her Wall of Illusion!"

"NO!"

It was over.  There was nothing more that she could do.  She fell to her knees and stared at the ground.  "I lost . . . I can't believe I lost . . ."

"This time you lost more then just a duel, Alex."

"Please . . . Don't take her, she's all I have . . . No, please . . ." Tears were starting to come down her cheeks as she looked up at the man.  "You knew the risks.  This time you've lost everything that you love."  And with that he dissapeard.  'You should have given me the bracelet,' Alex fell the rest of the way to the ground and curled into a ball and could do nothing but cry for her lost loved one.

A/N: How'd I do?  Good . . . Bad?  R/r please.  First Yu-Gi-Oh fic and first chapter.  I hope I didn't screw up the duel too badly.  Sorry if I did.  REVIEW!!!! Thanks! J