An indicator of my mood...set in Enneadverse

Spoiler for the Pharaoh's name in the Ennead series

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Yugi couldn’t do it.

The deck she had used to send Oneesan, no, Sakhmet away was tainted. She could not bring herself to disassemble it, but at the same time she could not bring herself to use it either. The cards held too painful a memory to touch. However building a new deck, or rather, rebuilding her deck from the cards that her older twin had not taken through the gates to the Afterlife was proving too painful to do as well.

Her deck, the deck she had built with her other soul, had sung in her senses. The cards’ hearts reaching out to theirs and responding to them. These cards felt blank. Lifeless. Like the pieces of cardboard people who just did not understand the connection had always told her they were.

Even the Dark Magician card that her Grandfather had gotten her to replace the purple one, Mahad, who had gone on with Oneesan was little more than ink on card. That hurt the most. Her Dark Magician, the purple Dark Magician, had always felt alive and special to her. Even before she had borrowed her grandfather’s deck and used him for the first time, whenever she had been allowed to touch him, she had been able to feel his heart.

But he had not been hers. He had been Sakhmet’s and he had joined her in the afterlife. Yugi did not begrudge him that. He deserved his rest just as much as the former Pharaoh did but…

She just couldn’t do it. She could not build herself a deck out of any card that she couldn’t sense and trust.

And right now, that meant she could not build any deck at all.

She was beginning to wonder if it was her. That now she had completed her duties as the Vessel of the Pharaoh, that she would never be able to sense the cards like she had before. Or if, with Sakhmet’s departure, everything special about her was gone. Including her ability to feel the hearts of her cards.

Just pulling out the box of spares hurt. Where once she had rejoiced every time they had built their deck together, now seeing the rows of cards, worth thousands of Yen in money and so much more in time spent with her older twin, made her want to weep.

And she just could not do it. She could not handle the rejection of the cards on top of the loss of her duelling partner.

The box was put away for another attempt another day.

Thoughts of Medan from Reaper of the Cards at some unknown point.

Medan hadn’t liked his former Deck Owner, if fact he hadn’t been sorry when, after losing to Yugi, who at the time had been little more to a lot of Duel Monsters then the ‘Pharaoh’s vessel’, Arkana had been driven insane by Marik, in fact he’d given Mana some of his own power in order to help her defeat his former master, but having had a taste of the powers of the graveyard, he had found that he wanted more and Mahado’s two year vanishing act had given him the perfect opportunity to find out more.

When Mahado, the so called ‘Lord of the Dark Kingdom’, had returned, it had been with much fanfare and celebration, which had only increased among the masses when he and Kisara had announced that the war between them was over.

Oh there were malcontents. Those who had enjoyed the constant battles and the way they could get away with a lot more under the pretence of war, were furious that after thousands of years of battle, Mahado and Kisara had just called a halt to it, just because some humans had gotten into another Shadow War, but generally most were sick of the battles and welcomed the peace.

Of course without the war to distract him, and with the upcoming Shadow War threatening the man who he had sworn to serve beyond death, Mahado had started focusing on his Kingdom, training his guards, strengthening defensive spells and increasing the shields around his own palace, knowing that the Pharaoh was likely to draw from his people and that the Light Prince wasn’t exactly going to ignore them either.

Once Mahado had stopped focusing on the battles and more on those people within his palace, those who could help the Dark Pharaoh or the Light Prince, like Soraya, Medan’s Apprentice, whose card had been in Yugi’s deck for months by that point, it had only been a matter of time before the Lord of the Dark Kingdom found out what Medan was up to.

Within weeks, even with Medan being extremely careful, Mahado had found out about Medan’s research into the powers of the Reaper of the Cards, and the pair of them had fought, Dark Magician verses Dark Magician, in the courtyard of the Dark Palace in the fiercest battle that had been seen since Kisara and Mahado had battled just after what was known to those who had been there as ‘the Castle Duel’.

Medan hadn’t known before then how much stronger Mahado was. The ‘first Dark Magician’ had powers that Medan could never imagine. His own abilities were mere shadows of those that the Purple Dark Magician used against him, and as impressive as the battle looked to those on the outside, both he and Mahado knew that in the end, it would be Mahado who won.

And they were right, even with a last minute attempt at using Thousand Knives, Medan had lost the battle.

Only after judgement had been passed and exile decreed, had he found out who had betrayed him to the Lord of the Dark Kingdom.

Not one of the ever so nosy spellcasters who had no hope of ever matching the power he wielded.

Not one of the Blue Dark Magicians who followed the rules and laws of their ‘Lord’ to the letter.

Not even Mana, Mahado’s apprentice, the ‘first Dark Magician Girl’.

No, it had been Soraya, his own Apprentice. The Red Dark Magician Girl had betrayed her Master’s secret to the Lord of the Dark Kingdom and once he’d fallen in battle, she hadn’t followed her Master, nor had she followed Mahado, which, even as he would have been annoyed, he would have understood, after all, after such a demonstration of power, he would understand her seeking a stronger Master, no, she had pledged her loyalty to ‘Prince Yugi’ and only to ‘Prince Yugi’ and in doing so, thrown away everything.

The end of the war was just an excuse after that.

Exiled from the Kingdom of the Dark Element, Medan had gathered those who believed that Mahado and Mana had grown weak, those who believed that the limitations on what could and couldn’t be learnt were ridiculous, those who had been exiled, those who were sick of the same people being in charge after so long an absence...

Those who followed his banner no longer numbered a few and more than half of them were willing to go to any lengths to avoid another Shadow War, refusing to bow to humans ever again.

And it was from this half of his group that he was pulling together a team.

While they waged guerrilla warfare against those of the palace, there was a way to weaken those who had chosen to put their chips in with the humans in a way that would be irreversible.

And the best part was, it had been Mana who had, unknowingly, given Medan the idea.

When I thought rewriting Reshef of Destruction so it makes more sense was a good idea...

They had agreed to meet at Clock Tower Fountain an hour before they had to be at the train station to be on the Kaiba Corp sponsored train that was picking up Duellists for his Tournament at Kaiba Corp Japan, three hours from here, the Duel Express, since Domino was the last stop it was going to make before it reached the theme park and they didn’t want to miss it, but no one was surprised when Yugi was running a little late.

They didn’t start worrying until the clock ticked on past the quarter of an hour mark and still there was no sign of the King of Games.

“Where is he?” Joey growled, concerned and irritated at the same time, as he glowered in the direction Yugi would have to come from the shop, “I know he had to open up the shop but…”

Tea flipped open her mobile phone. She’d already tried the shop twice, and no one had answered, but she rang again, hoping that either Mr Muto would have a lull in the customers long enough to answer, or Yugi would grab it on his way out of the door.

Tristan, who was sat at the edge of the fountain, watched as Tea paced up and down, listing to the phone ring continuously. She glowered at it as the mobile cut off again, with a ‘no reply’ message, shrugging at the two teenage boys who were watching her intently.

“That’s it.” Joey growled, heading for the side road that led to the shop, “I’m gunna  go get him.”

“He might already be on his way.” Tea offered hopefully, following quickly, wishing she’d put saner shoes on. The heels she was wearing weren’t suitable for running in. She’d kind of hoped she wouldn’t need to.

“Maybe.” Tristan caught up with them easily, “But it’s better to be safe then sorry.” They turned the corner that led to the alley behind the shop, only for Joey to swear, start sprinting down the alley and dart in the back entrance to the flat above the shop. “Damn…” Tristan growled, noting the broken window. “There must have been a break in.”

Tea dashed in, running up the stairs, heading straight for Yugi’s room, which looked like it had been ripped apart, where Joey was reassuring a rather distressed looking King of Games.

“Yugi?” Tea asked, stepping over the wreaked Duel Disk and around the school books that had been knocked off the desk. “What happened?”

“Someone broke in last night, took the Puzzle.” Yugi whispered, rubbing his neck and wincing. When Yugi moved his hand, they could see the bruising where the robber had tried to choke him. “Couldn’t stop them.”

“Shit…” Tristan swore, having reached the room as Tea had asked. “They take anything else?”

Yugi shook his head but the pursing of his lips told them something else was wrong.

“What?” Joey asked, warily.

“The God Cards…” Yugi croaked and started coughing. He pointed towards the desk.

Joey moved over to look, confusion taking over from anger as he picked up Slipher. “Is this real…”

“Stone.” Yugi croaked, nodding.

“How?” Tea gasped, moving over to have a look.

“Dunno.” The King of Games wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of more then one word answers, understandably. “Probably linked.”

“But they couldn’t use the Puzzle unless…” Tea turned to look at Yugi, “You didn’t lose to him, did you?”

“Didn’t challenge, just attacked.” Yugi shook his head. The gang didn’t need to be reminded that the Puzzle went up for grabs if Yugi died. “Grandpa scared him off.”

“Where is Mr Muto?” Tristan asked.

“Down in the shop, we were late opening and the queue built up.” Yugi coughed again, trying to get his deck together. Joey gave him a hand as Tea headed downstairs to talk to Solomon and Tristan hovered in the doorway.

“So what do we do?” Joey asked finally, once Yugi had a forty card deck built and in a deck box, slipping the stone gods into a second, both of which he attached to his belt, only then examining the extent of the damage to the Duel Disk.