"If every prophecy ever made in all of history came to pass, the world would have been destroyed a hundred times over by now... There would be nothing left for you to save... And since the world remains...it is clear that some prophecies...were never meant to come true..."

Those words seemed to seep from memory, echoing in the wind as it blew through the unruly hair of a man in his early to mid-twenties as he stood alone on a tiny shoreline. 'Those words set me free from my fate,' he mused as the cool ocean waves washed over his bare feet. Despite the peaceful calm, an air of forlorn solitude seemed to hang around him like a shroud. The breeze carried away his sigh as he sat down in the sand. His gaze turned to the northwest without conscious thought. In that direction lay everything he cared about, and it was because he cared for it that he remained on this tiny island, in a voluntary exile.

'I may live...but I will not allow the dark forces to exploit that fact to harm innocent people... I miss you...Aibou...' The man closed his eyes, easily bringing to mind memories and images of everything and everyone he missed. It had been a long time since he had seen or spoken to them. As the warmth of the sun spilled over his deep tan skin, the man dozed off, his reminiscences mingling with dreams. Eventually a particularly strong gust of wind blew a ripe coconut out of a palm tree growing less than a meter away.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!" The man sat up in the sand, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the coconut smacked him right between the eyes. "Stupid coconuts," he muttered. It was not the first time he'd had one land on him.

Although it was not his native language, the man spoke in Japanese out of habit. He'd first learned the language almost six years ago, when he'd found himself in Japan. Learning Japanese had actually been somewhat unintentional on his part. He'd simply picked it up while borrowing knowledge of the language from a native speaker. His accent was so similar to that of the boy he'd picked up the language from that anyone who listened to them both might assume it was the same person speaking.

The man picked up the offending coconut and tossed it into the waves. "Good riddance," he mumbled. Brushing sand off his arms and legs, he got to his feet and walked along the shore to his house.

The house was more like a small hut, only twelve by seven and a half meters. On the outside, the walls looked like plain beige stone. On the inside were four rooms, all sparsely furnished with the basic necessities and only a little extra here and there. The front room had a small table, couch and an armchair, along with a small TV in the corner that almost never picked up anything good. Currently the TV was showing what looked like an incredibly static filled version of the weather channel. Standing against the right-hand wall from the entrance, a small bookshelf held a mix of paperbacks and hardcovers, some magazines and comics, a handful of old newspapers, and two framed photographs.

One photograph was polished and professional, depicting roughly a dozen people posing like wacky tourists against a vividly clear blue horizon. Thrusting into the sky like jagged teeth, the famous Great Pyramids were visible in the distance behind them. The other was a grainy picture from a photo booth showing the young man and another, slightly younger man. Both men had similar spiky hair, though the younger man was identifiable as Japanese by his lighter skin tone and the shape of his eyes. Both were grinning like fools for the camera, leaning towards each other in a one armed hug. Though it looked crude and simple in comparison to the group photo, the man considered the snapshot to be infinitely more valuable.

Beside the bookshelf, a door was set into the wall. It looked like it might hide a closet if not for the large eye symbol carved into it. On the opposite wall, a partly open door on the left revealed a bedroom, with the edge of an unmade bed just visible. A doorway in the wall directly across from the front door led to a small kitchen with counters all along one side. A cluster of dirty dishes sat on the counter in between a microwave and the sink. Sitting in the kitchen corner was a small table that could seat two, and a pantry, deep freeze, refrigerator, and electric stove all lined the wall opposite the counters. The small rooms and simple furnishings were a stark contrast for someone who had once lived in a lush palace as a Pharaoh of Egypt, even if it had been over three thousand years ago.

Atem paid no attention to the fuzzy man on the TV, babbling something about a storm system moving somewhere between the Hawaiian Islands and the Bonin Islands. He headed back to the kitchen. Long ago, there had been many servants that would bring him food when it was time to eat. Here, in this modern day kitchen, there was no one else to hear his stomach grumble. If he was hungry, he had to fix himself something to eat. Atem reached in the pantry for a cup of instant ramen, keeping well away from the stove. It may get bland after a while, but at least he could cook the noodles without destroying the kitchen.

As the microwave hummed, he glanced at a calendar on the wall. A red star marked a date that was two days off. Supply day, the one day each month he saw another living person. "Wonder who'll visit this time...? Last time it was Ishizu who brought my monthly food stocks," he mumbled with a slightly bitter tone.

The shrill beep of the microwave interrupted Atem's thoughts. Grabbing a fork, he carried the steaming Styrofoam cup to a chair on the porch, idly wondering what his old friend was doing. 'If Yugi were here he'd probably complain about the lack of burger restaurants,' he thought with a small chuckle. Then his smile faded a little. 'I've got to stop that...I'll probably never see him again... I need to accept it...if I go around him or anyone else... I'm just a magnet for trouble.' "Ow!" He held the hot ramen away as a burning sensation spilled across his tongue.

"When am I going to learn to let that cool before eating...?" he mumbled as he let the stiff breeze chill his dinner. "This is the fifth time I've burned myself..." He blew on the noodles before trying to eat them again, gaze drifting toward the northwest. Atem knew that if he could travel that direction, and travel far enough, he would reach Domino City. And there he could find Yugi. It had been nearly seven months since they had last seen each other, but sometimes it felt like lifetimes ago. And other times it felt as if it had only been yesterday.

The time was seven months before the present day. The place was the shrine hidden in the depths of Kul Elna. After spending nearly half a decade sharing Yugi's body, Atem had his memory back. And he was finally separated from Yugi. All they had left to do was finish the ceremonial duel, the duel that would send Atem to the afterlife, and destroy the dark magic of the Millennium Items forever. It was Atem's turn, and he had just finished summoning all three of the Egyptian God Monsters to the field.

Anzu turned away from the duel. It wasn't that she couldn't watch, but something had caught her attention. She thought she could hear a strange whistling noise that no one else seemed to notice. Curious, she took a couple steps toward the stairway that led to the surface. She never had time to warn the others. In an instant, the low whistle became a roaring howl, as wind and sand exploded into the room.

"What's going on!" Yugi cried out, shielding his face with his hands and duel disk.

"I don't know!" Atem yelled back. He was also shielding his eyes from the stinging assault in the air.

"Where'd this mess come from?" Jounouchi exclaimed.

"It's a sandstorm!" Malik cried out.

"How are we supposed to duel like this!" Yugi asked. His voice was hard to hear over the raging wind.

"I can't even see my hand in front of my face!" Atem called back.

The narrow stairway acted like a wind tunnel, causing the storm to blow faster as it raged both above and below ground. Sand and dust flew through the air, causing stinging eyes and coughing fits. It worked its way into cloth, hair, and every other available crevice. It even worked its way into the metallic seams of the duel disks. The computer circuitry had never been designed for use during a desert storm. With each dust particle and sand grain, the duel disks began to overheat.

Atem kept his face tucked into the crook of his elbow, shielding his eyes from the worst of the storm. All thoughts of finishing the ceremonial duel had vanished from his mind. His main worry was if Yugi and the others were alright. "Ow," he mumbled as he felt something on his arm growing hot, burning him. He shook his arm as a reflex, trying to knock the heat source away, but it was stuck. "Wha- The duel disk?" It was hard to tell over the noise of the wind, but Atem thought he could hear a strange hum coming from the machine, like an overworked fan. 'What's going on?' he wondered.

"Yugi!" he called out into the storm, "Is your duel disk making strange noises?"

A sound that might have been a cough was carried away by the wind. "What?" Yugi managed to call back.

"I said IS YOUR DUEL- GAH!"

At that moment, electrical malfunctions caused sparks to shoot out from the duel disk. Atem clawed at the fastener that held the machine on his arm. His instinct was to get the thing as far away from him as he could, ceremonial duel be damned. He managed to fling it away seconds before the heat and electricity caused the duel disk to explode. No more than twenty seconds later, an echoing explosion and a cry told him that the same thing had happened to Yugi's duel disk. Now cards joined the sand and wind maelstrom. An involuntary hiss of pain forced itself through Atem's clenched teeth as one of the cards struck his cheek, leaving a long paper cut that burned as the sand assaulted it. Then the wind died down a bit, its roar muffled.

"What happened?" asked Honda as he rubbed grit from his eyes.

"The storm is not over," Rishid's voice told them, "But this should help." Rishid was standing in front of the doorway, holding his cloak against the stone wall. His improvised curtain kept some of the wind and much of the sand confined to the stairwell. The wind that did get through wasn't enough to blind them.

"Yugi!" Atem ran across the duel platform. Yugi was sitting on his knees, the wreckage of his duel disk near by. His expression winced in pain as he held his left arm. His jacket sleeve had burned away, and his forearm had a shiny burn, as well as a couple gashes, all from the heat and explosion of his duel disk.

A hot throbbing pain caused Atem to wince. Glancing down at his own arm, he saw shiny white burns, pale and blistering against his own skin. For once, he was a little regretful that he preferred to drape his jacket across his shoulders. Then he glanced back at Yugi's arm and decided the jacket would have offered little protection from the heat even if he had been wearing it properly. He tried not to imagine what would have happened if he hadn't managed to get his duel disk off before it exploded. He laid a hand on Yugi's shoulder to get his attention.

"Are you alright, Aibou?"

"I think so," Yugi said through clenched teeth.

"Pharaoh! Yugi!" Ishizu came up to them. "What happened?"

"Good question," muttered Yugi, opening one eye to see what was going on.

"Something caused the duel disks to malfunction," Atem told them both. "But I don't know what."