Chapter 8
[Disclaimer: We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Us being Bakura13 and Tora-kun, the
authoresses of this fan fiction]
Mokuba looked back at the locked door and turned his gaze back to the front of the house. His panic rose as more of the dangerous-looking fog started slowly crawling and expanding into the room and outside of the house.
"Seto, the shadows are getting bigger!" He cried out, gripping the window tightly. "The door's locked and I can't get out! Please help me! Don't leave me here!"
Seto clenched his fists, not letting himself face the fact that it was next to impossible for him to save his brother if he couldn't have access to the house. Marik had his arms crossed, looking at Keket and Uadjit with his half-lidded gaze while grinding his teeth in a twitchy habit. He, of course, had some, if not most, of the memories of the High Priest back from Ancient Egypt. Seto was the true owner of the millennium rod but Malik had refused to give it to the CEO; thus allowing Marik to acquire the remnants of the priest's experiences. He grimaced, searching through more of the muddled thoughts that lay dormant in his brain.
"Let my little brother go, you old hags." Seto growled.
"Hah, You're also not one to be making demands, boy!" Keket said, snapping the direction of the shadow pike at Seto. "We'll do whatever we please to make the Pharaoh suffer... and if I recall, you were his High Priest, were you not? You both don't look so mighty without your precious valuables and garments, now do you?"
Yami lowered his head slightly, his gaze now burning towards Keket. "Don't go taking your revenge out on my friends, Keket. You as well, Uadjit. If you want to settle your grudge, then settle it with me alone..."
Yugi looked up at his darker off. "But Yami-"
"Stay out of this, Yugi... this isn't your battle." Yami warned, not looking at his aibou. "Settle it with me alone and keep everyone else out of it... do you both understand?"
Keket smiled coolly, gracefully looking back at Uadjit. "How about it..."
Uadjit looked up from gently stroking the head of the One-Eyed Serpent, looking quite pleased with the idea. "Of course, this will be fun... Ever heard of Shadow Games, Pharaoh?"
Yami narrowed his eyes. "What are you two planning... remember what I said- "
"Oh for Orisis' sake, who cares what you said." Keket said smoothly, dropping the pike to the shadowed ground and it disappeared in wisps of darkness. "I'm sure you enjoyed playing Shadow Games back in Egypt... a long time ago... five-thousand years, wasn't it?"
Uadjit nodded. "If my memory serves me correct..."
Keket closed her eyes, bowing her head. "Quite accurate... this Shadow Game will be different... I suppose you could call it a Dark Game... something that suits you perfectly... You may be the King of Games but are you the King of Darkness..."
Yami racked his brain to find out what the 'Goddess of Darkness' was thinking.
"Puzzled?" Keket opened her eyes only halfway, the smirk looking more dangerous as her gaze met with Yami's. "You should be fearing for your life and the lives of the ones who are going to be subjected to this lovely little game...."
Meanwhile, Mokuba was still standing in the window, watching what was going on outside. He turned back towards the door after a moment, keeping close track of the disturbing, almost lethal looking shadows that had been oozing out from under the door slowly.
He still wasn't completely sure what was going on outside, but it terrified him that his brother couldn't come up and get him. The two scary women had stopped him. Both of them made him nervous, yelling and screaming, one with her angular, malevolent features, the other round-faced and dark, petting the snake as if it were her friend. For that much, it probably was.
The two were still sleeping on the floor. Mokuba recognized Chikara, but the other girl was completely unknown to him. They looked a lot alike, enough to be sisters or even twins, but he knew that Chikara didn't have a sister.
The shadows were slithering ever closer, and seemed as if, from lack of mass, they were flattening themselves down onto the ground, reaching towards the girls, and him, with shadowy fingers. He thought about trying to move them, but it wouldn't help, and he knew it. Even if he had tried, by the time he came up with the answer to his own question, the darkness was upon the two.
They stirred as it touched them. Mokuba wondered if it was hurting them, or if they were waking on their own. He didn't think of the actual chances of them waking together naturally, and he definitely didn't know what was actually going on.
Sanura stood up first, brushing locks of purple hair out of her face and offering her hand to her hikari. The dark fog behind them suddenly began to bulge, as if it were still rushing from outside but at a hundred-fold the speed, gushing around them like a flood in slow motion.
Sanura smiled, looking back a bit at the darkness about to fill the room and destroy them all. Chikara took a fleeting look at both the shadow and her yami and then starting towards Mokuba.
He backed up apprehensively, almost tripping himself out the window when he ran into it.
"Seto!" He whimpered, looking over his shoulder and wishing very much that his brother would come and help him. As he did, he could feel the slight rush of air as the darkness surged out of the window from behind him, engulfing him in darkness.
Outside, Kaiba heard his brother again, his eyes darting back up to the window in time to see the flood of shadow literally exploding out of it, not only the window but every other window, breaking glass somehow, pushing the door open. The street was quickly covered in it, all of them standing in the pure lightlessness of it all.
Mokuba was nowhere to be seen, or the two he'd been with. They stood just within sight of one another, the two goddesses, Kaiba, Yami and Yugi, Malik, Marik, and Isis, in a rough circle of dim, ambient light.
Keket smirked, seeming to disappear as it looked like she was fading into the shadows. "Welcome to the beginning of the Dark Game, Pharaoh... quite different from the Shadow Games that you are accustomed with your monsters... Duel Monsters as you call them now..."
"Where are you going?!" Yelled Yami, trying to take a step forward but black shadow tendrils held his ankles back from the 'ground'. "What's going on here?!"
Marik snapped back from searching through the memories to find the shadows crawling up his sides, latching onto his hands and feet. "I don't know what type of a stupid game this is but I tire of it!" He pulled his hands up, trying to get freed but the tendrils wouldn't release their grip.
Uadjit smirked, disappearing into the wisps of shadows as well. "Have fun..."
"Wait!" Yami snarled, but the two were gone.
"Malik-" Isis' cry was cut short from a wave of shadows engulfing her completely, taking her away into the darkness behind her.
Malik's eyes widened and he looked around frantically. "Isis? Where are you, answer me!"
"You stupid idiot, look out behind you-ACK!" Marik grabbed for the black tendril that was wrapped tightly around his neck, trying to pry it off.
"Yami!" Malik stepped forward and fell into an invisible hole, the shadows claiming another victim.
Marik was roughly pulled back into the slow swirling darkness, and then there were three.
"Kaiba, don't move!" Yami warned, looking around at the remaining people. "We don't know what happens here!"
"Big brother! Someone help me, I can't see!" Mokuba's voice cried out, seeming to echo everywhere.
Seto glanced around, trying to pinpoint the location of his younger brother. "Mokuba, hang on! I'll be right there!"
"Kaiba, no!" Yugi said as he helplessly watched the CEO disappear into the shadows.
"Yugi, say there!" Yami said, looking at his hikari. He and Yugi were the only ones remaining.
"Yami!" Yugi cried out, being ensnared by the darkness from above and being pulled away from his yami. "Don't leave me, Yami! Help me!"
"Yugi, NO!" Yami yelled, reaching up for his aibou's hand but finding his aibou getting further away.
"You're sinking into the ground! Don't leave me here, Yami!" Yugi reached down for his yami's hand.
Yami struggled to grasp his aibou's hand but he watched helplessly as his light was being pulled up into the darkness that surrounded everything. "Yugi..." He was powerless to do anything as he slowly sunk into the shadows of the floor, watching the last of his aibou's hand being pulled into the darkness. "Yugi... no..." Yami was up to his neck into the sinking shadows, feeling nothing but cold as he looked up at where his aibou once was. "No... YUGI!"
The Pharaoh sat up in a fairly fashioned bed with dark silk sheets, drenched with a cold sweat down his bare tanned chest as his breathing sounded harsh. "It was a dream... and who was that boy... why was I reaching for him..."
He slid off of the bed, walking over to one of the windows of his room and looked out. He let his crimson eyes adjust to the rising Egyptian sun and there he saw an entire town, as well as the other walls of the palace. The Pharaoh was in Egypt, where he belonged.
His eyes lit over the land spread out before him, all of it his. The day was just getting started for the nearby town, the people in their homes waking slowly to tend to their children and animals and get their first meal of the day, and the shopkeepers beginning to set up for the busy day ahead.
After watching the busyness of it all for a moment, he turned back to his room to get dressed in his more proper clothing, and then walked out, about to go to his throne room and start his own daily routine.
Seth and his attendant, Sanura, were walking down the hallway in the opposite direction. Seth stopped for a moment, bowing reverently, and Yami nodded at him as he passed. Sanura inclined her head, looking at the floor and following her master at a slight distance before they both disappeared around a corner, likely leaving the palace to pick up supplies and otherwise do business in the town.
Yami entered his throne room and sat down, sighing and wondering about his strange dream as he readied himself for the day.
Somewhere else, Yugi snapped back into consciousness, his head throbbing slightly as he stood up, but the pain dispersing quickly. The room he was in was small and sparsely furnished, with what looked like a dirt floor in the dim light. He found an opening in the wall, covered by a kind of cloth covering, and pushed it aside.
He was greeted with the view of a bustling street, people rushing about in all sorts of strange outfits, camels and horses leading carts through the dusty street, and the palace standing high against everything.
There was some sort of half a tent latched onto the front of the small building, and within it there were all kinds of shelves and boxes, a mini store that no one seemed to be attending. From nowhere, it rushed into his head that his grandpa was out, and he should stay and watch the place for him.
'But that's not right,' he thought, sitting down. 'We've lived upstairs... not behind the shop... or was that the strange dream I had...'
Yugi put on less ragged clothes at he felt was familiar for when he worked in his grandpa's shop, running over to the front. He glanced around from behind the wooden table and watched as some townspeople took glances at various booths. Yugi sat a bit impatiently, just letting his mind wander.
'It all feels so weird...' He thought, glancing around from table to table. 'But it somehow feels normal...'
He sat a while longer until a brown-haired girl walked into the store, looking around at the items with her blue eyes. He looked up, thinking that she was very familiar. The teenaged girl looked up at Yugi, flashing him a small smile and went back to browsing.
'... She looks familiar...' Yugi thought as the girl left.
He got up and busied himself with randomly shifting items to be more into view when he heard some more people enter the small bazaar. He saw two more people; looking a tad confused, glance around. One was a tall teenaged boy with brunette air and dark cerulean eyes and the other was a teenaged girl who was almost the other's height; having long dark purple hair, the same-color feline tail and nervous-looking violet eyes. Yugi watched them carefully, finding them leave and sat behind the wooden table again, sighing helplessly. A few moments later, Yugi thought the two had reentered the shop but found them... different.
The tall brunette, dressed in more formal clothing of the Egyptian High Priest, looked down upon the purple-haired girl; who in turn had Egyptian hieroglyphs on her neck, a familiar dark purple feline tail and her eyes shone a tense crimson lavender tint. "Don't touch anything. Wait here."
The girl nodded, shifting uncomfortably in her robes that were less decorative than the High Priest's.
'... Is she a slave...?' Yugi wondered, slightly tilting his head as he watched the two with violet innocent eyes. 'Weren't they just in here?'
"You." Seth's voice barked as he crossed his arms, glowering as Yugi looked vaguely similar to the Pharaoh. "If you value your life, you will strip your gaze from my slave and do what I bid."
Yugi jumped slightly, looking up at the taller boy and the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He felt quite small and bowed his head immediately, feeling like death was staring him in the eye when he met the other's gaze. "I'm sorry..."
"Where is the old man that owns this shop?" Seth asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at the younger boy. "Are you his apprentice?"
Yugi nodded, though not quite knowing what the man was talking about. "My grandfather is out for the moment..."
Seth gave an irritated hiss from his throat, obviously not liking the wait. "Then I shall remain until he returns..."
Both of them heard a few things fall from a table as their gazes turned towards the front of the shop. Seth's eyes shot wide as he saw a tall boy resembling him almost completely, with exception of the lower class clothes.
"What is this? Who dares to mock me?" Seth barked, walking forward.
"What? I'm not mocking you!" The other boy shot back in an analogous voice. "I've always looked like this!"
"As have I!" Growled Seth, clenching a fist. "I am the Pharaoh's most trusted High Priest and I demand to know what's going on right now!"
"I am Seto Kaiba." Seto shot back, pointing at Seth in defiance.
Both of them glared at each other, speaking simultaneously. "You are a fake!"
A crowd had stopped outside of the shop, most of them emitting a horrified gasp and others murmuring to each other. Sanura, the High Priest's newly taken in slave, emitted a beast-like snarl as she narrowed her eyes at what seemed to be a gentler copy of her. Chikara was slightly taken aback at her 'reflection's' behavior but didn't back off, keeping her eyes on the other. Seth flickered his gaze to the first girl he knew then the second, getting more frustrated.
"Guards!" Seth's voice boomed out. "Take these... peasants straight to the Pharaoh at once! The shop keeper's grandson, and the..." He paused, not knowing what to call them. "... The frauds."
"What?!" Seto pulled forward as his arms were twisted behind him. "How dare you!"
"And how dare -you- speak so heatedly towards your superiors! To the palace at once!" Seth snapped.
Yugi was lifted from his seat and dragged over to the gigantic palace that he had been gazing at a little earlier. He looked around in awe as the other two prisoners were in a rage from being forced into capture. Seth pushed open a pair of giant doors that led to a throne room, where the Pharaoh himself was seated.
"Pharaoh, I advise you to see this." Seth said, watching with a burning glare as the prisoners were dragged in and thrown forward, forced to kneel at spear-point.
The Pharaoh, known as Yami, opened his eyes halfway slowly, as if awakening from a small morning doze, and he looked down at the people before him. He swept his gaze gradually across the forms of the prisoners and a small boy that resembled him greatly held his stare. Yugi looked back at the Pharaoh, ignoring the rough nudges from the guards as they told him to keep his eyes down like the ungrateful peasant he was.
"...Y-Yami?" He uttered in a whisper, his eyes captivated by the Pharaoh.
Yami's features turned into a frown as he heard the odd boy say his first name, and he spoke in a smooth low-toned voice. "I am the Pharaoh of Egypt and you do not have permission to refer to me by my first name."
Yugi's eyes lit up in relief as he started to remember something. Before they were all sucked into the shadow realm, it was Yami; from the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi lowered his gaze to the golden puzzle that hung from the Pharaoh's neck. "It's you! It's really you, Yami! I can't believe it!"
Yami started to stand up but was pushed back by the smaller weight of the boy as he was hugged tightly. "... What is the meaning of this?"
"Yami! It's you! We have to get out of here!" Yugi said, looking up at the confused reaction of Yami.
He found himself being pulled away, Yami backing away a bit dazedly. Yugi was held by two of the guards who gripped his arms tightly.
Seth fairly hissed in anger. "This is foolishness... Pharaoh, what should we do with these imposters?"
Yami shook his head slowly, as if to clear it. "Put them in the dungeons for now. There's plenty of room and I need some time to think about this." Seth nodded dutifully and motioned the guards to lead the prisoners out.
"Yami! No, you can't do this!" Yugi whimpered, being dragged out of the throne room as Yami sat down, watching them leave, thinking.
It was a particularly long walk down to the dungeons, and by the time they got there the three prisoners were more sedate than before, Yugi mostly having resigned himself sadly to his fate, although still thinking of what he could do, while Chikara and Seto seethed quietly.
They were thrown into the cells despite the fact that they would have likely walked into them angry but willingly with no other alternatives open. Each sat in his own cell, separated only by waist-high walls that were connected to the ceilings by thick metal bars.
Yugi stood slowly, sore, and looked around. There was nothing in the area, but there were shackles on the wall that he was glad were not being utilized. The cells stretched on seemingly infinitely towards the west wall; there was only one separating him from the east wall, though. To his left, he could see Seto standing and assessing the situation from his point, as well, and although the dim torchlight didn't let him see far, he thought he could see the dim glint of Chikara's violet hair.
He was remembering more each passing moment. He knew who Yami had been before; his darker side. He also remembered Kaiba and Chikara, and mostly understood why they had a double in this place. He remembered bits and pieces about Domino City and his life.
What he couldn't place was why they were here; it looked and felt like ancient Egypt, where Yami was from; everything behaved correctly, everyone acted like this were the true world. Had they somehow reversed time? Or, were they still within the shadow realm?
He looked to the cell on the right. It was about as dark as Chikara's had been to him, because the torch seemed to be somewhere right outside his own. He could barely make out a human form slouched in the corner, head down and looking at something on the wall. His hand chased it, slowly, then closed around it in a careful, gentle fist.
Yugi thought to turn away from the other prisoner, putting his hand on one of the metal bars, and it creaked slightly. Suddenly, a round face snapped up to meet his eyes, the bare light glinting off his eyes startlingly.
Badru crushed the small black beetle he'd caught as he noticed the boy watching him, and discreetly shoved it into the pocket of his faded yellow robes, feeling its last feeble twitches of life against his palm.
"What." He said, not a question, but an accusation.
"Um... Nothing," Yugi said quietly, backing up from the bars. "Do I know you?"
Badru shrugged. "Name's Badru. I don't think I know you, you look like the damned Pharaoh who threw me down here."
Yugi bit his lip a bit, nervously. He couldn't place it. He knew who the guy was.
"Why'd you get thrown down here..? Is it because you have a double in the palace, too?"
"...No," Badru said, then smiled brightly. "It was because I stole some stuff really close to the palace and they thought I was going to try to break in." He dug in his pocket, and tossed something through the bars with a smooth underhand curve. Yugi caught it, amazed that it went between the close-set bars. It was a long, small loaf of bread, and it still felt fresh.
"There you go, they probably won't feed you for a day or two anyway. My pockets are half-full of it, it's delicious. They know me here, they didn't even bother going through my stuff to see if I had more." He pulled something else out of his pocket and crunched it.
"Will you quiet your obnoxious mouth so some of us can think?" Seto said. Yugi flushed a bit, sitting down to ignore them both, and hesitantly tasting the bread he'd been thrown. It did taste pretty good, though it had a flavor that he didn't recognize.
"Will you shut your obnoxious mouth so some of us can think?" Badru repeated, putting on a squeaky tone, aping Kaiba before stuffing something else from his pocket into his mouth.
"...Don't mock me over there! I can hear that!"
Badru was standing by now, leaning against the bars of his cell, as was Kaiba. "That was the -point-!"
"Idiot! Don't make me come over there!"
Yugi closed his eyes somewhat to the two as they bickered, trying to remember as much as he could. Kaiba had been his friend--kind of--and so had Chikara. He knew that this wasn't the 'real' world as he knew it; somehow he knew it was part of the shadow realm. But why were they there?
"You're going to come over here? I'd like to see you try, smart guy."
He tried to remember the last thing he could, before he had woken up, but it was like a black cloak was thrown over it all. He drove his memory backwards, over a jumble of meaningless bits and pieces, and to a few days back.
Very, very slowly, Yugi tuned out the two who continued to argue and worked through each moment. Once he figured out what he'd forgotten, he had a feeling he could solve the strange problems that seemed to be piling up.
[We've had another inspirational idea for this fan fiction, since we spoke about it, and it should prove more interesting. If only we could get more people to read this...]
[Disclaimer: We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Us being Bakura13 and Tora-kun, the
authoresses of this fan fiction]
Mokuba looked back at the locked door and turned his gaze back to the front of the house. His panic rose as more of the dangerous-looking fog started slowly crawling and expanding into the room and outside of the house.
"Seto, the shadows are getting bigger!" He cried out, gripping the window tightly. "The door's locked and I can't get out! Please help me! Don't leave me here!"
Seto clenched his fists, not letting himself face the fact that it was next to impossible for him to save his brother if he couldn't have access to the house. Marik had his arms crossed, looking at Keket and Uadjit with his half-lidded gaze while grinding his teeth in a twitchy habit. He, of course, had some, if not most, of the memories of the High Priest back from Ancient Egypt. Seto was the true owner of the millennium rod but Malik had refused to give it to the CEO; thus allowing Marik to acquire the remnants of the priest's experiences. He grimaced, searching through more of the muddled thoughts that lay dormant in his brain.
"Let my little brother go, you old hags." Seto growled.
"Hah, You're also not one to be making demands, boy!" Keket said, snapping the direction of the shadow pike at Seto. "We'll do whatever we please to make the Pharaoh suffer... and if I recall, you were his High Priest, were you not? You both don't look so mighty without your precious valuables and garments, now do you?"
Yami lowered his head slightly, his gaze now burning towards Keket. "Don't go taking your revenge out on my friends, Keket. You as well, Uadjit. If you want to settle your grudge, then settle it with me alone..."
Yugi looked up at his darker off. "But Yami-"
"Stay out of this, Yugi... this isn't your battle." Yami warned, not looking at his aibou. "Settle it with me alone and keep everyone else out of it... do you both understand?"
Keket smiled coolly, gracefully looking back at Uadjit. "How about it..."
Uadjit looked up from gently stroking the head of the One-Eyed Serpent, looking quite pleased with the idea. "Of course, this will be fun... Ever heard of Shadow Games, Pharaoh?"
Yami narrowed his eyes. "What are you two planning... remember what I said- "
"Oh for Orisis' sake, who cares what you said." Keket said smoothly, dropping the pike to the shadowed ground and it disappeared in wisps of darkness. "I'm sure you enjoyed playing Shadow Games back in Egypt... a long time ago... five-thousand years, wasn't it?"
Uadjit nodded. "If my memory serves me correct..."
Keket closed her eyes, bowing her head. "Quite accurate... this Shadow Game will be different... I suppose you could call it a Dark Game... something that suits you perfectly... You may be the King of Games but are you the King of Darkness..."
Yami racked his brain to find out what the 'Goddess of Darkness' was thinking.
"Puzzled?" Keket opened her eyes only halfway, the smirk looking more dangerous as her gaze met with Yami's. "You should be fearing for your life and the lives of the ones who are going to be subjected to this lovely little game...."
Meanwhile, Mokuba was still standing in the window, watching what was going on outside. He turned back towards the door after a moment, keeping close track of the disturbing, almost lethal looking shadows that had been oozing out from under the door slowly.
He still wasn't completely sure what was going on outside, but it terrified him that his brother couldn't come up and get him. The two scary women had stopped him. Both of them made him nervous, yelling and screaming, one with her angular, malevolent features, the other round-faced and dark, petting the snake as if it were her friend. For that much, it probably was.
The two were still sleeping on the floor. Mokuba recognized Chikara, but the other girl was completely unknown to him. They looked a lot alike, enough to be sisters or even twins, but he knew that Chikara didn't have a sister.
The shadows were slithering ever closer, and seemed as if, from lack of mass, they were flattening themselves down onto the ground, reaching towards the girls, and him, with shadowy fingers. He thought about trying to move them, but it wouldn't help, and he knew it. Even if he had tried, by the time he came up with the answer to his own question, the darkness was upon the two.
They stirred as it touched them. Mokuba wondered if it was hurting them, or if they were waking on their own. He didn't think of the actual chances of them waking together naturally, and he definitely didn't know what was actually going on.
Sanura stood up first, brushing locks of purple hair out of her face and offering her hand to her hikari. The dark fog behind them suddenly began to bulge, as if it were still rushing from outside but at a hundred-fold the speed, gushing around them like a flood in slow motion.
Sanura smiled, looking back a bit at the darkness about to fill the room and destroy them all. Chikara took a fleeting look at both the shadow and her yami and then starting towards Mokuba.
He backed up apprehensively, almost tripping himself out the window when he ran into it.
"Seto!" He whimpered, looking over his shoulder and wishing very much that his brother would come and help him. As he did, he could feel the slight rush of air as the darkness surged out of the window from behind him, engulfing him in darkness.
Outside, Kaiba heard his brother again, his eyes darting back up to the window in time to see the flood of shadow literally exploding out of it, not only the window but every other window, breaking glass somehow, pushing the door open. The street was quickly covered in it, all of them standing in the pure lightlessness of it all.
Mokuba was nowhere to be seen, or the two he'd been with. They stood just within sight of one another, the two goddesses, Kaiba, Yami and Yugi, Malik, Marik, and Isis, in a rough circle of dim, ambient light.
Keket smirked, seeming to disappear as it looked like she was fading into the shadows. "Welcome to the beginning of the Dark Game, Pharaoh... quite different from the Shadow Games that you are accustomed with your monsters... Duel Monsters as you call them now..."
"Where are you going?!" Yelled Yami, trying to take a step forward but black shadow tendrils held his ankles back from the 'ground'. "What's going on here?!"
Marik snapped back from searching through the memories to find the shadows crawling up his sides, latching onto his hands and feet. "I don't know what type of a stupid game this is but I tire of it!" He pulled his hands up, trying to get freed but the tendrils wouldn't release their grip.
Uadjit smirked, disappearing into the wisps of shadows as well. "Have fun..."
"Wait!" Yami snarled, but the two were gone.
"Malik-" Isis' cry was cut short from a wave of shadows engulfing her completely, taking her away into the darkness behind her.
Malik's eyes widened and he looked around frantically. "Isis? Where are you, answer me!"
"You stupid idiot, look out behind you-ACK!" Marik grabbed for the black tendril that was wrapped tightly around his neck, trying to pry it off.
"Yami!" Malik stepped forward and fell into an invisible hole, the shadows claiming another victim.
Marik was roughly pulled back into the slow swirling darkness, and then there were three.
"Kaiba, don't move!" Yami warned, looking around at the remaining people. "We don't know what happens here!"
"Big brother! Someone help me, I can't see!" Mokuba's voice cried out, seeming to echo everywhere.
Seto glanced around, trying to pinpoint the location of his younger brother. "Mokuba, hang on! I'll be right there!"
"Kaiba, no!" Yugi said as he helplessly watched the CEO disappear into the shadows.
"Yugi, say there!" Yami said, looking at his hikari. He and Yugi were the only ones remaining.
"Yami!" Yugi cried out, being ensnared by the darkness from above and being pulled away from his yami. "Don't leave me, Yami! Help me!"
"Yugi, NO!" Yami yelled, reaching up for his aibou's hand but finding his aibou getting further away.
"You're sinking into the ground! Don't leave me here, Yami!" Yugi reached down for his yami's hand.
Yami struggled to grasp his aibou's hand but he watched helplessly as his light was being pulled up into the darkness that surrounded everything. "Yugi..." He was powerless to do anything as he slowly sunk into the shadows of the floor, watching the last of his aibou's hand being pulled into the darkness. "Yugi... no..." Yami was up to his neck into the sinking shadows, feeling nothing but cold as he looked up at where his aibou once was. "No... YUGI!"
The Pharaoh sat up in a fairly fashioned bed with dark silk sheets, drenched with a cold sweat down his bare tanned chest as his breathing sounded harsh. "It was a dream... and who was that boy... why was I reaching for him..."
He slid off of the bed, walking over to one of the windows of his room and looked out. He let his crimson eyes adjust to the rising Egyptian sun and there he saw an entire town, as well as the other walls of the palace. The Pharaoh was in Egypt, where he belonged.
His eyes lit over the land spread out before him, all of it his. The day was just getting started for the nearby town, the people in their homes waking slowly to tend to their children and animals and get their first meal of the day, and the shopkeepers beginning to set up for the busy day ahead.
After watching the busyness of it all for a moment, he turned back to his room to get dressed in his more proper clothing, and then walked out, about to go to his throne room and start his own daily routine.
Seth and his attendant, Sanura, were walking down the hallway in the opposite direction. Seth stopped for a moment, bowing reverently, and Yami nodded at him as he passed. Sanura inclined her head, looking at the floor and following her master at a slight distance before they both disappeared around a corner, likely leaving the palace to pick up supplies and otherwise do business in the town.
Yami entered his throne room and sat down, sighing and wondering about his strange dream as he readied himself for the day.
Somewhere else, Yugi snapped back into consciousness, his head throbbing slightly as he stood up, but the pain dispersing quickly. The room he was in was small and sparsely furnished, with what looked like a dirt floor in the dim light. He found an opening in the wall, covered by a kind of cloth covering, and pushed it aside.
He was greeted with the view of a bustling street, people rushing about in all sorts of strange outfits, camels and horses leading carts through the dusty street, and the palace standing high against everything.
There was some sort of half a tent latched onto the front of the small building, and within it there were all kinds of shelves and boxes, a mini store that no one seemed to be attending. From nowhere, it rushed into his head that his grandpa was out, and he should stay and watch the place for him.
'But that's not right,' he thought, sitting down. 'We've lived upstairs... not behind the shop... or was that the strange dream I had...'
Yugi put on less ragged clothes at he felt was familiar for when he worked in his grandpa's shop, running over to the front. He glanced around from behind the wooden table and watched as some townspeople took glances at various booths. Yugi sat a bit impatiently, just letting his mind wander.
'It all feels so weird...' He thought, glancing around from table to table. 'But it somehow feels normal...'
He sat a while longer until a brown-haired girl walked into the store, looking around at the items with her blue eyes. He looked up, thinking that she was very familiar. The teenaged girl looked up at Yugi, flashing him a small smile and went back to browsing.
'... She looks familiar...' Yugi thought as the girl left.
He got up and busied himself with randomly shifting items to be more into view when he heard some more people enter the small bazaar. He saw two more people; looking a tad confused, glance around. One was a tall teenaged boy with brunette air and dark cerulean eyes and the other was a teenaged girl who was almost the other's height; having long dark purple hair, the same-color feline tail and nervous-looking violet eyes. Yugi watched them carefully, finding them leave and sat behind the wooden table again, sighing helplessly. A few moments later, Yugi thought the two had reentered the shop but found them... different.
The tall brunette, dressed in more formal clothing of the Egyptian High Priest, looked down upon the purple-haired girl; who in turn had Egyptian hieroglyphs on her neck, a familiar dark purple feline tail and her eyes shone a tense crimson lavender tint. "Don't touch anything. Wait here."
The girl nodded, shifting uncomfortably in her robes that were less decorative than the High Priest's.
'... Is she a slave...?' Yugi wondered, slightly tilting his head as he watched the two with violet innocent eyes. 'Weren't they just in here?'
"You." Seth's voice barked as he crossed his arms, glowering as Yugi looked vaguely similar to the Pharaoh. "If you value your life, you will strip your gaze from my slave and do what I bid."
Yugi jumped slightly, looking up at the taller boy and the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He felt quite small and bowed his head immediately, feeling like death was staring him in the eye when he met the other's gaze. "I'm sorry..."
"Where is the old man that owns this shop?" Seth asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at the younger boy. "Are you his apprentice?"
Yugi nodded, though not quite knowing what the man was talking about. "My grandfather is out for the moment..."
Seth gave an irritated hiss from his throat, obviously not liking the wait. "Then I shall remain until he returns..."
Both of them heard a few things fall from a table as their gazes turned towards the front of the shop. Seth's eyes shot wide as he saw a tall boy resembling him almost completely, with exception of the lower class clothes.
"What is this? Who dares to mock me?" Seth barked, walking forward.
"What? I'm not mocking you!" The other boy shot back in an analogous voice. "I've always looked like this!"
"As have I!" Growled Seth, clenching a fist. "I am the Pharaoh's most trusted High Priest and I demand to know what's going on right now!"
"I am Seto Kaiba." Seto shot back, pointing at Seth in defiance.
Both of them glared at each other, speaking simultaneously. "You are a fake!"
A crowd had stopped outside of the shop, most of them emitting a horrified gasp and others murmuring to each other. Sanura, the High Priest's newly taken in slave, emitted a beast-like snarl as she narrowed her eyes at what seemed to be a gentler copy of her. Chikara was slightly taken aback at her 'reflection's' behavior but didn't back off, keeping her eyes on the other. Seth flickered his gaze to the first girl he knew then the second, getting more frustrated.
"Guards!" Seth's voice boomed out. "Take these... peasants straight to the Pharaoh at once! The shop keeper's grandson, and the..." He paused, not knowing what to call them. "... The frauds."
"What?!" Seto pulled forward as his arms were twisted behind him. "How dare you!"
"And how dare -you- speak so heatedly towards your superiors! To the palace at once!" Seth snapped.
Yugi was lifted from his seat and dragged over to the gigantic palace that he had been gazing at a little earlier. He looked around in awe as the other two prisoners were in a rage from being forced into capture. Seth pushed open a pair of giant doors that led to a throne room, where the Pharaoh himself was seated.
"Pharaoh, I advise you to see this." Seth said, watching with a burning glare as the prisoners were dragged in and thrown forward, forced to kneel at spear-point.
The Pharaoh, known as Yami, opened his eyes halfway slowly, as if awakening from a small morning doze, and he looked down at the people before him. He swept his gaze gradually across the forms of the prisoners and a small boy that resembled him greatly held his stare. Yugi looked back at the Pharaoh, ignoring the rough nudges from the guards as they told him to keep his eyes down like the ungrateful peasant he was.
"...Y-Yami?" He uttered in a whisper, his eyes captivated by the Pharaoh.
Yami's features turned into a frown as he heard the odd boy say his first name, and he spoke in a smooth low-toned voice. "I am the Pharaoh of Egypt and you do not have permission to refer to me by my first name."
Yugi's eyes lit up in relief as he started to remember something. Before they were all sucked into the shadow realm, it was Yami; from the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi lowered his gaze to the golden puzzle that hung from the Pharaoh's neck. "It's you! It's really you, Yami! I can't believe it!"
Yami started to stand up but was pushed back by the smaller weight of the boy as he was hugged tightly. "... What is the meaning of this?"
"Yami! It's you! We have to get out of here!" Yugi said, looking up at the confused reaction of Yami.
He found himself being pulled away, Yami backing away a bit dazedly. Yugi was held by two of the guards who gripped his arms tightly.
Seth fairly hissed in anger. "This is foolishness... Pharaoh, what should we do with these imposters?"
Yami shook his head slowly, as if to clear it. "Put them in the dungeons for now. There's plenty of room and I need some time to think about this." Seth nodded dutifully and motioned the guards to lead the prisoners out.
"Yami! No, you can't do this!" Yugi whimpered, being dragged out of the throne room as Yami sat down, watching them leave, thinking.
It was a particularly long walk down to the dungeons, and by the time they got there the three prisoners were more sedate than before, Yugi mostly having resigned himself sadly to his fate, although still thinking of what he could do, while Chikara and Seto seethed quietly.
They were thrown into the cells despite the fact that they would have likely walked into them angry but willingly with no other alternatives open. Each sat in his own cell, separated only by waist-high walls that were connected to the ceilings by thick metal bars.
Yugi stood slowly, sore, and looked around. There was nothing in the area, but there were shackles on the wall that he was glad were not being utilized. The cells stretched on seemingly infinitely towards the west wall; there was only one separating him from the east wall, though. To his left, he could see Seto standing and assessing the situation from his point, as well, and although the dim torchlight didn't let him see far, he thought he could see the dim glint of Chikara's violet hair.
He was remembering more each passing moment. He knew who Yami had been before; his darker side. He also remembered Kaiba and Chikara, and mostly understood why they had a double in this place. He remembered bits and pieces about Domino City and his life.
What he couldn't place was why they were here; it looked and felt like ancient Egypt, where Yami was from; everything behaved correctly, everyone acted like this were the true world. Had they somehow reversed time? Or, were they still within the shadow realm?
He looked to the cell on the right. It was about as dark as Chikara's had been to him, because the torch seemed to be somewhere right outside his own. He could barely make out a human form slouched in the corner, head down and looking at something on the wall. His hand chased it, slowly, then closed around it in a careful, gentle fist.
Yugi thought to turn away from the other prisoner, putting his hand on one of the metal bars, and it creaked slightly. Suddenly, a round face snapped up to meet his eyes, the bare light glinting off his eyes startlingly.
Badru crushed the small black beetle he'd caught as he noticed the boy watching him, and discreetly shoved it into the pocket of his faded yellow robes, feeling its last feeble twitches of life against his palm.
"What." He said, not a question, but an accusation.
"Um... Nothing," Yugi said quietly, backing up from the bars. "Do I know you?"
Badru shrugged. "Name's Badru. I don't think I know you, you look like the damned Pharaoh who threw me down here."
Yugi bit his lip a bit, nervously. He couldn't place it. He knew who the guy was.
"Why'd you get thrown down here..? Is it because you have a double in the palace, too?"
"...No," Badru said, then smiled brightly. "It was because I stole some stuff really close to the palace and they thought I was going to try to break in." He dug in his pocket, and tossed something through the bars with a smooth underhand curve. Yugi caught it, amazed that it went between the close-set bars. It was a long, small loaf of bread, and it still felt fresh.
"There you go, they probably won't feed you for a day or two anyway. My pockets are half-full of it, it's delicious. They know me here, they didn't even bother going through my stuff to see if I had more." He pulled something else out of his pocket and crunched it.
"Will you quiet your obnoxious mouth so some of us can think?" Seto said. Yugi flushed a bit, sitting down to ignore them both, and hesitantly tasting the bread he'd been thrown. It did taste pretty good, though it had a flavor that he didn't recognize.
"Will you shut your obnoxious mouth so some of us can think?" Badru repeated, putting on a squeaky tone, aping Kaiba before stuffing something else from his pocket into his mouth.
"...Don't mock me over there! I can hear that!"
Badru was standing by now, leaning against the bars of his cell, as was Kaiba. "That was the -point-!"
"Idiot! Don't make me come over there!"
Yugi closed his eyes somewhat to the two as they bickered, trying to remember as much as he could. Kaiba had been his friend--kind of--and so had Chikara. He knew that this wasn't the 'real' world as he knew it; somehow he knew it was part of the shadow realm. But why were they there?
"You're going to come over here? I'd like to see you try, smart guy."
He tried to remember the last thing he could, before he had woken up, but it was like a black cloak was thrown over it all. He drove his memory backwards, over a jumble of meaningless bits and pieces, and to a few days back.
Very, very slowly, Yugi tuned out the two who continued to argue and worked through each moment. Once he figured out what he'd forgotten, he had a feeling he could solve the strange problems that seemed to be piling up.
[We've had another inspirational idea for this fan fiction, since we spoke about it, and it should prove more interesting. If only we could get more people to read this...]