CHAPTER I: The Seed of Evil

The ceremonial duel.

It was supposed to be a ceremony to disarm the 'sword' from the Pharaoh's soul in order for him to finally enter the afterlife.

After Atem lost the ceremonial duel to Yugi, he stood at the entrance of the Temple of the Underworld. His friends are already in tears as he was bracing himself to finally step to the world beyond. After the battle, Yugi was still prostrated on the ground in tears while holding his cards.

Atem glanced at them one last time, then shouted:

"My name is Atem!"

His voice had reached and resounded in front of the Door of the Afterlife – it's panels slowly opened, shaking the whole temple, and the whole island as its panels slide open.

The tremors grew stronger. It started panic among Teá, Tristan, Joey, Duke, Kaiba, Mokuba, Ishizu, Malik, and Yugi's grandfather. Teá's knees wasn't able to withstand the shaking and so she fell on the ground. Yugi wasn't stunned one bit.

Instead, Yugi pointed out to the others a stone slab that was rising in front of the Door of the Afterlife. Hieroglyphic images were written on it. So was disbelief on the Pharaoh's face.

"What the heck is this this time? An extension of occultism?" Kaiba blurted with irritation.

Solomon Muto read the text and wondered what it meant:

"The resurrection of the evil
is overcome yet not
The gods will not rest
until the seed of evil is vanquished"

Malik and Ishizu read the text. The others asked them what it might mean.

"We were never told about this, nor was this passed on to us clan of tomb keepers," Malik said. "Sister, what could this be?"

Ishizu tried to ponder deeply for a moment. She then looked at the Pharaoh.

Did we fail with something along the way? The Pharaoh thought to himself. I don't think so. Now that I've recovered my memories, I now know that that was the only way to defeat Zorc. What evil was left undefeated?

Ishizu finally spoke. "Pharaoh, please try to remember. Was there a key left or another entity that is preventing you to finally be put to rest?"

Remember? My memories?

"Back then, Pharaoh, how did you seal yourself and Zorc in the Millenium Puzzle?" she continued.

Atem was about to answer the question he thought knew, but he suddenly fell silent in shock, as if the words suddenly left his mouth – or that the words were actually never there in the first place.

His friends and the others were waiting for his response, but all he could do is desperately hold his head in one hand while anxiously looking for answers, and attempted to scavenge his memories.

Yet, he found none.

In the midst of the Pharaoh's anxiety, Yugi held Atem's shoulder. "Pharaoh," he called.

Yugi's voice calmed him down a bit.

Yugi's grandfather, Solomon Muto, came near Atem. "Pharaoh, could it be that your memories are incomplete?" Grandpa said. Everyone in the temple was baffled. They thought that everything was over when the Pharaoh finally learned his name and got back all of his memories.

"Grandpa, as much as I've done everything I can with everyone's help to defeat Zorc and finally get hold of my memories again, but perhaps you are right," Atem replied wearily.

His memories truly were incomplete.

At the Egypt International Airport, Yugi and the others were set to fly back to Domino City in the Kaiba Corporation's personal airplane.

"Pharaoh, please put your mind to ease My sister and I will not rest until we find the answers behind that stone tablet," Malik said.

"This is our duty as the keepers of your tomb. We'll contact you as soon as we find something," Ishizu said.

"Thank you, Ishizu, Malik," the Pharaoh said who is now, or temporarily back in Yugi's body. The Millennium Items were taken back by Yugi for the time being – at least until it was needed again to open the Doors of the Afterlife.

Tristan, Joey, and Teá felt a bit bad for the Pharaoh for not being able to return and complete his mission. Yugi too, but with a bit of ease because Atem was able to stay with them a bit longer.

The Kaiba Corporation airplane was now flying more than 20,000 feet above sea level. While the others were dead tired and asleep from all that had happened inside the Memory Tablet, Yugi took a last glimpse of Egypt from above.

Deep in his soul, he felt the Pharaoh's anguish: a mix of the misery of failure and doubt. Yugi silently prayed that he could do something to ease Atem's pain – even just a little bit.

"A-Atem?" Yugi called him from his soul awkwardly. He was still not used to calling him with his real name.

"Yes, Yugi?" the Pharaoh answered weakly.

Yugi wasn't sure what to say to lift his other self's spirit up, but he still tried a futile attempt to cheer him up. "Switch with me right now. I wanted you to see the kingdom you used to rule from the skies."

The Pharaoh's consciousness surfaced. From the window's seat, his eyes widened with the sight of Egypt behind the clouds from a hundred miles.

"Pharaoh, this is probably the first time you've seen your homeland from this distance. I wanted to show you how beautiful the world is from up here," Yugi said.

I wanted to show you how beautiful the world is from up here. Those words rang in Yami Yugi's ears. Somehow, the words resounded in his soul, but it did not in his memory. He was, however, sure that someone had already said those words to him before. It sounded nostalgic, like it was lovingly said to him a long, long time ago.

"Don't worry, Yami, I'll get you back to this place in due time. I'll stick with you to the very end." For a moment, Yugi's words put Yami's mind at ease and he answered Yugi with a smile coupled with reassurance.

The long summer break was over and classes in Domino High school are back. The second year's rooms were bustling with students again.

After the first period, Yugi and the gang did the usual routine of gathering in Joey's desk while the others students were taking a break somewhere else. Joey was successful in hiding his duel disk from the teacher again and avoid confiscation.

As soon as the teacher left, he immediately pulled out his deck to check out his cards. Tristan was telling off Joey again for going too much about his cards. Duke would back him up. Kaiba was in his desk silently reading a book, when he suddenly slammed it close to call Wheeler a loser again. Joey gets annoyed at him and challenges him to a duel and Kaiba would just simply decline by pressing further how much of a deadbeat Joey is. Teá and Yugi would just laugh.

The second year's room slid open and there was Serenity wearing the Domino High School girl's uniform. She took the exams to Joey's high school with her mother's permission and went back to schooling, now as a freshman in senior high school student. Her sweet smile calmed Joey down and Tristan and Duke immediately threw themselves near her. She decides to take a bow first to Seto Kaiba who just looked at her at the corner of his eyes while still holding his book open. It was a typical day for the gang.

Teá then turned to Yugi. "Yugi, how's Atem doing?"

The others, from their ruckus, settled down to ask Yugi the same thing. Yugi held the Millennium Puzzle with both hands. "Well, my other self still feels a bit down about the stone tablet that showed up in the temple."

Joey, Tea, Tristan, Duke, and Serenity silently sympathized with Atem. Full of energy, Joey stood up, "Don't worry Yugi. Tell Atem that everything's gonna be okay. We'll definitely find the answer to that stone tablet."

Tristan jokingly sneering at him. "You don't even know what the tablet's texts even meant yet, Joey." Joey just narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly, a loud screech was heard in the school. It hurt the ears of everyone on the grounds.

From the window, a Duel Monster appeared from above. It was a One-Eyed Shield Dragon.

Yugi and the others were startled. "Is someone dueling at this hour? But it's still school hours," Tristan said.

"But that's not allowed in school, right?" said Duke.

They confirmed that it wasn't a monster manifesting from Kaiba Corp's solid vision technology when it let out another loud screech which shattered the school's windows. It was a good thing that Yugi and his friends were far from the window. Kaiba stood to his feet and pulled out his cellphone to make a call to his company personnel about what happened.

The dragon then flew up. The Pharaoh inside Yugi was alarmed with the sudden appearance of a monster as well. Yugi immediately ran after it by rushing to the rooftop. Kaiba, Teá, Serenity, Tristan, and Duke followed him.

While running up the stairwell, Atem switched with Yugi's consciousness and surfaced his. The Pharaoh hastily reached the rooftop.

There, he found a girl, her long, blond, curly hair that has its ends coiled to a curl was being blown by the slightly strong wind from the rooftop. She stood on the edge of the rooftop, her back turned. She was wearing the school's uniform and was looking in the direction where the Duel Monster appeared.

In her left arm was a duel disk and in her right were three Duel Monsters cards – and a gold armlet with an embossed image of the Eye of Horus, similar to the Millennium Puzzle and all other millennium items. She stood therein all glory.

When the girl noticed that someone had come on the rooftop, she turned and saw the Pharaoh. She then fixed her sharp and cold emerald-colored eyes on Atem. His eyes also looked bewildered as to why a woman was here and the somewhat millennium item she possesses. Hers showed slight mystic as well when she saw the Pharaoh.

On a split second, her gaze changed from numinous to rage.

Just as soon as Joey and the others finally caught up, the woman laid a monster card on her duel disk with the hand were the Egyptian armlet was worn on and summoned forth Maiden of the Moonlight. Yugi's friends wondered who the woman standing at the rooftop corner was.

The woman pointed at the Pharaoh and gave the command to the summoned monster. "Maiden of the Moonlight, attack."

The Maiden of the Moonlight drew out a moon-shaped orb from her slim hands and charged to where Yami Yugi and the others were standing, ready to make an all-out assault.

[To be continued]