Summary – The Pendant of Pharaoh leads a young man west. He hopes the Water Sage can break the compulsion, but is dismayed when, instead, the mystic tells him he may be the Chosen One – the Hero of legend. Yugi must confront the Three Kindly Lords and the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos to discover the truth. A Mahaad's Magic Box story.

Warnings – AU, slight hints of Puzzleshipping, character death. This story is the third in the Mahaad's Magic Box continuity, although it is not necessary to have read the other two stories (Rebellion, Respect) to follow the action in this story.

Disclaimer – Yu-Gi-Oh! is the work and property of Kazuki Takahashi. I claim no rights at all with my humble story based on his characters, and hope that it serves to show my appreciation for his awesome creativity.

The Remedy

Prologue

Crumbling. His world was crumbling. It was a strangely soundless, silent event. Time wrapped him in a cocoon of a horrifying moment, slowing itself to an inching crawl. The motion, caught by accident from the corner of his eye, at his direct attention became the harbinger of disaster. The building, the one he was walking in front of, was falling. Even as he shook off the paralysis of that realization, he knew he couldn't escape in time. Time tortured him with its teasing slowness, but he knew, caught in the slow motion of tardy time, he couldn't get away before great slabs of concrete and marble completed their tumble with an arrogant, lazy sort of grace to the ground below. The ground upon which he sprinted – or rather tried to – against the trapping tendrils of slowed-down time.

Pain! His world exploded into disjointed spikes of pain.

"YUGI!" Yami's voice seemed so far away. Why was Yami calling to him, anyway? Didn't Yami realize that he was...

Falling. His world rejected him, and he was falling. Blackness reached for him, either rushing up to envelop him, or patiently waiting for his inevitable fall into its embrace – he didn't know. Did it matter? Nothing mattered, as his consciousness flickered, faltered, and went out.

...crumble...

...PAIN...

...fall...

ever falling; slowly; swiftly; did it matter? What waited at the end of the fall was more pain; the smashing of his body into a thousand shards of agony. Would it hurt all at once? Or, would it build into a crescendo of pain? What sort of pain would it be when he splashed, like a human-shaped water balloon, against the ground? Would it be over mercifully – quickly, his blood rushing out in a surging tide, or would his last moments be ones of soul-killing agony as his heart pumped every last drop from his body beat by torturous beat?

Still falling.

Ever falling.

When would he hit? Waiting for death was...

Part One

Chapter One – Enter the Hero

He stretched and yawned. The predawn lightening of the sky woke him. Rising from the nest he'd made of his traveling cloak, he grabbed some of the small branches he had set to one side as he banked his fire last night. He shivered as he used one of the branches to poke the fire awake, adding the rest to fuel it.

"So, where are we off to, today?" he asked aloud, pulling a shining pendant, wrought of gold in the shape of an inverted pyramid, from its hiding place under his shirt. In response, one face of the pyramid glowed.

"West. Always west. Okay, you frustrating thing. You've been nothing but trouble since I got you!" he remonstrated. "You'll just have to wait a little though, while I wash, eat, and get ready for the day." He reached for his pack, pulled out a few things, and walked off through the trees toward where splashing water could be faintly heard.

As he gingerly splashed the cold water on his face, he reflected on the past week. The pendant had been handed down in his family for generations. On the occasion of his twenty-first birthday, just one week ago, it had become his to bear. For all the generations of his family, the Mutou family, the thing had been simply an ornate necklace, content to simply hang about one's neck on a chain, creating grief for no one. Yet, in him, it had instilled a magical sense of overwhelming wanderlust. The wise-woman of his home village had been unable to break the spell, finally suggesting two courses of action. He could either follow it, and figure out what the pyramid pendant wanted, or he could seek out the most powerful magic-weaver in the land, the Water Sage, and see if he could break the wanderlust spell. Since the pendant pulled him to the west, where the Water Sage was rumored to dwell, Yugi still wasn't certain which course he was following.

Returning to his small camp, he ate some totally unsatisfying travel food while he warmed up again next to the fire. As the sun finally poked over the horizon and began to fill the sky with the golden light of true dawn, he kicked out and extinguished his small fire, and gathered his things. Finally, he looked down to the glowing face of the pendant and acknowledged the relentless westward command. He got his bearings from the sun, tucked the thing back into the hiding place behind his shirt, and began to walk.

– – – – –

He thought about taking a break for a midday meal. He'd been hoping to find a village, hamlet, or even a modest hut where he might barter for food and possibly get directions. His pack was getting pretty light in the food department, and he still had no idea how far it might be to where the Water Sage was rumored to live. Everything had seemed a wonderful, grand adventure when he started, but he was weary of sleeping on the cold and bumpy ground; tired of the dry, crumbly, and tasteless travel cakes in his pack; and he sorely missed his family and friends. Tristan had wanted so much to come along, but then broken his ankle the day before Yugi left. Tristan's company would have been an entirely satisfying remedy against the loneliness.

The sky darkened so suddenly it was as if a giant hand had closed around the sun. Yugi looked up, and gasped. The sky, which had been a calm, clear blue only a moment before, was now a writhing mass of indigo clouds. Acid green lightning strobing through the clouds disturbingly illuminated what appeared to be monstrous faces screaming in torment. The powerful gusts of wind likewise carried what sounded like screaming, shouting, and cries for help just below the threshold of hearing.

Chaos Storm!

Yugi had heard of them, but, living as far east as he did, he'd never seen one, much less been trapped in one. His only hope was to escape the notice of one of the tormented cloud-faces, and hope the Chaos Storm blew over him without killing him – or driving him into madness. He sidled slowly to his right, toward a small stand of bushes clustered around the base of a tree, thinking to creep under them before he was spotted.

It was nerve-wracking to move so slowly when every fiber in his body and every instinct in his mind was to run, but he managed it. As he crouched under the bushes, his heartbeat began to slow. He hoped the Chaos Storm would pass over him before he cramped from trying to keep so still, to avoid notice – la, la – just one of the bushes here, nothing to see – move along, now...

"Hello, there!"

Yugi's heart thudded. Someone was speaking to him? Had the Chaos Storm passed, then? Was it someone traveling on the same road, who had weathered the Chaos Storm as he had? He listened carefully. No, the almost-heard screams and cries were still faintly noticeable.

"Shhh!" Yugi whispered urgently. "It's a Chaos Storm!" He shifted as much as he could under his concealing bush, trying to make room. "Hurry, and climb under here before you are seen! If the clouds see you, you will be – will be eaten!" It was too hard to try to describe what happened to those taken by Chaos Storms with any sort of coherent urgency. Not that he really knew, anyway, he'd just heard the rumors.

"I'm touched by your concern, but I'd hardly fit."

Yugi dared to move enough to look up at that. He moaned and tried to will himself to melt into the ground. Peering down at him with rapt interest was a great triangular head. Enormous indigo horns ringed with bands of red curled down alongside that head from the crown of the massive beast. As his gaze took in more of the being looking at him, he realized it was a great dragon. Scales of inky indigo occasionally alternated with thin stripes of a muddy sort of red all along its length. Yugi's frantic gaze took in that it was crouched back on its hindquarters, and the very end of its tail was thrashing, very much like a cat waiting to pounce on a mouse. He moaned, again. This was... This was....

"The Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos," the dragon supplied pleasantly enough. "Nice to meet you."

Yugi moaned again.

"Oh, that is your name? I thought you might have been reacting to the sight of me, as so many mortals do. It's nice to meet you, Guhurnghuh. I do hope I pronounced that correctly?"

"Yu-gi. My name is..." Yugi gulped. "Yugi."

"That is a far more suitable name that Guhurnghuh. Easier to pronounce correctly, too."

"You...? I...? Er...?"

"Articulation does not appear to be one of your strengths, my delicious morsel of a friend. No matter. You will perhaps hone that particular skill before we meet again."

Yugi stared up at the terrifying dragon. It licked its chops at him. He froze.

"While it is very tempting to just devour you now, you haven't seasoned enough for my tastes, yet. Really, all I intend is to introduce myself – this time. I will be seeing you again, very soon, little Yugi!"

The dragon gathered its strength beneath its haunches, brought its wings down in a powerful sweep that knocked Yugi up against the tree and uprooted the bushes he was still trying to hide under, and sprang skyward. The indigo clouds obligingly opened a path to the untainted sky and followed their master, gibbering at Yugi all the while. Between one heartbeat and the next, the sky went back to being clear and beautiful. There was no sight of the Chaos Dragon. If not for the bruised feeling along his back, and the destroyed bushes, Yugi would have thought he dreamt the entire thing.

– – – – –

"You cannot enter."

The pronouncement was given in a flat, no-nonsense sort of voice. Backing it up, in case Yugi didn't care to heed the warning, was the threat of steel. The sword was not pointed at him, as the tip was aimed at the ground, but the bared length of the blade was serious enough – as was the stalwart expression in the eyes of the elven warrior who held it.

"We wish no harm to befall you, but you are not permitted to enter. Strangers are not welcome, especially strangers who trail after a Chaos Storm. Be on your way."

Yugi's shoulders slumped. He'd hoped for a warm meal, soft bed, and conversation – normal conversation, to banish the cold serpent of fear that still coiled tightly around his heart. His strange encounter with the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos had unsettled him deeply. He felt very small and alone, and desperately wanted to feel grounded – connected – to others, again.

"Please... You can see for yourself that I'm harmless. I don't even bear a weapon!" Yugi protested faintly. The tip of the sword quivered, but remained pointing without overt threat at the ground.

"It is the law of our town. Strangers are not welcome." Eyes the color of spring-green leaves met Yugi's beseeching gaze. "It is not my choice," the warrior added faintly.

"Please..."

The blade quivered again, as if the elven swordsman wished his actions could follow a different path. The point lifted from the ground and was now aimed directly at Yugi. The warrior stepped toward Yugi, his every gesture threatening yet graceful.

"You are not permitted to enter!" he growled menacingly, before dropping his voice to a soft, hurried whisper. "Go, to the west of town. There is a glade where royal-berries grow. Eat your fill, and rest, until moonrise. My sister will meet you then."

Yugi blinked, suddenly realizing that the warrior must be under observation to act in so conflicted a manner. He didn't want to endanger anyone. He used a depressed, defeated slump of his shoulders to hide his tiny nod of comprehension to the kind warrior. He made certain to travel back the way he'd come, from the east, dragging his steps and casting longing glances at the quiet, orderly town as he slowly walked from sight. He continued in this way for nearly an hour, even after he entered the concealment of the woods. He didn't want anything bad to happen to the guard who'd offered a glimmer of understanding and hope, despite his duties.

It was nearly two hours later before he found the clearing the elf had told him about. The royal purple of the berries weighing down the low, ground creeping vines was unmistakable. Yugi had read about them, but never tasted them before. He wondered idly if he'd been given false information, that they were good to eat, but, trusting in the sincerity he'd seen in the elven warrior's eyes, Yugi dared to try them.

The berries were warm from the sunlight pouring down from the afternoon sky, but somehow refreshingly cool inside when he bit into them. The flavor, unlike anything he'd tasted before, wound sweet and tart together in an unexpected combination. He noticed that some of the berries were more blue in color, and harder than the ripe purple ones. He picked some of those, thinking they might ripen off the vine and become edible in the next few days. Not only did he not like travel-cakes, much, but they were almost gone. He'd hoped to be able to replenish his travel food in the town that had turned him away.

Hoping that he wouldn't waken to a curious dragon peering down at him, Yugi found a smooth patch of soft grass, curled up in his cloak, and fell asleep.

"Gather the Lords," a voice said.

"Huh? What?" Yugi struggled to sit up. He'd gotten tangled in his cloak. A few bleary blinks later he realized he must have dreamed the command. He was alone.

– – – – –

"Good even-time," a soft voice woke him. Yugi blinked, his mind racing to help him orient himself again. It was night, and silver light flooded the glade. Sitting serenely on the ground several feet away from him was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Her long, light-colored hair gleamed silver in the moonlight. He couldn't make out the color of her eyes in that mystical light, but he was able to read the kindness in them.

"I am Vialla, young traveler. My brother, Celedor, apologizes that he had to bar you from entering the town. He asked me to meet with you here, and to offer you what aid we may." Her voice was gentle.

"I..." Yugi scrambled to his feet, wishing to show his respect for the beautiful elven maid. The pendant slipped from its place of concealment behind his tunic. Each side flashed in turn as it faced west until Yugi brought his hand up to stop its twirling.

"The Pendant of Pharaoh!" Vialla gasped. Her gaze swifted into Yugi's face. Her eyes narrowed slightly and the slightest frown of concentration formed upon her brow. After a long moment, her expression cleared, and she gained her feet in a single motion that defined the word 'grace'. Before Yugi could react, she bowed before him.

"Chosen One, what may I, a lowly maid, do to aid you?"

"Chosen One...?"

"Yes. You are the Chosen One of legend. We have waited for you for so long the details have been lost, even to my long-lived race of people, but we know the Chosen One will accomplish great and wonderful things. I can see why fate has chosen you to fulfill the legend, now that I know to look. Your spirit is bright and strong."

"What am I supposed to do?" Yugi asked.

Her long hair rippled as she shook her head. "None of us knows. The legend is so old that the only details left are the description and name of that pendant, the certainty that the one who wears it is the Chosen One – a hero, and that the Hero's adventure truly begins west of here, where the Water Sage dwells."

"I've been traveling west hoping to find him, so that I can break the hold this pendant has on me." Yugi's hand, despite his words, closed carefully around the pendant.

"I don't think even the Water Sage has that power," Vialla noted softly. Yugi bowed his head in a sort of despair. He missed his family, his friends, his home. He had no illusions about himself – he was no hero!

"I just want to go home."

Vialla nodded. "All of us do. But, I wonder, do any of us truly know where our home is? The home you had, did it not seem as if it were suddenly too small a world for you when you first put on the pendant? You are destined for great things – surely your home is as grand as your destiny." Vialla gave him another of her gently searching gazes. "For now, you are soul-weary and alone. I regret that my brother or I are not permitted to accompany you, and ease the solitude of your path, but we are able to help by providing you with supplies for the next part of your journey."

– – – – –

Author's notes –

Did I mention this was an AU? It's not just a departure from the normal continuity of the show, it's a departure from that universe altogether! I haven't posted anything in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been writing. Hopefully my new story will entertain you.

Next chapter teaser – The Water Sage

Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome. Please feel free to PM if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed.