Ennead Afterlife: Dark Side, The Pharaoh's Alerted

It had been a long day of ruling and the Pharaoh was looking forward to just spending some time with her brother and friends and playing some games as she headed for her chambers, then, in the evening, as she had been doing for the last couple of years, she could check in on her friends in the living world before bed. Not that she was too worried about them. While Imoto still had the occasional magical issue pop up, her friends had been mostly safe since she had moved on and Yugi had temporarily retired from the competitive Dueling circuit. The only one she was particularly worried about was Kaiba and even that was more because she did not like his odds of maintaining his sanity when he realised she could not be summoned back if he completed the Puzzle again, then because she was afraid someone was going to kill him.

“Sister.” The Pharaoh grinned as her brother joined her in the corridor, “You up for Senet tonight? I'm going to beat you this time.”

“You haven't beaten me ye...” The Pharaoh's gloating was cut off by a sudden feeling of power being ripped out of her, causing a cry of pain as she stumbled and fell to her knees as a bolt of blue energy raced away from her and out of the nearest window.

“Sister!” Atem knelt next to her, looking worried, supporting her. “What just happened?”

“I...I'm not sure...” Her reply did not reassure him but it was honest as she tried to assess what had just happened. “I...I think someone just summoned Obelisk...”

“What?! But only you can do that!” Atem yelped, his face pale.

“Me or Imoto...” She agreed, pushing herself onto her feet. “And possibly one other...I need my mirror.”

“Let me help.” Her brother insisted on having her lean on him, despite the fact she felt okay bar the sudden loss of one of the God Monsters that rested within her soul. The pair headed straight for her bedchambers and the large, enchanted mirror within. The Pharaoh had begged Anubis for this mirror to the living world and she still owed him for allowing her to have it. It was enchanted so she could see, but not interact with her friends in the world of the living. Normally that was enough, but today, as she pressed her palm against it and called up it's magic worry coursed through her, “Show me the one who has summoned Obelisk the Tormentor.”

Kaiba appeared on it's reflective surface, duelling some guy who was clearly using magic at the Ceremonial Duel site where she had fought her final Duel with her sister. She did not entirely understand what was going on, but she could clearly see that Kaiba had dug up all the Puzzle pieces and it looked like his opponent wanted them. Obelisk returned to her when Kaiba's adversary, a man the CEO called Diva, fled the magical duel in favour of chasing Mokuba, but she was too caught up in what was going on to pay attention to anything except the rather satisfying head butt that Mokuba dealt out to Diva, knocking him away from the Puzzle pieces.

“Sister?” Atem asked her as she sat back, allowing the magic to fade as Kaiba jetted off to wherever he was headed next.

“One second, brother.” She murmured, putting her hand against the glass again, “Show me Mutou Yugi.” She specified, wanting to know that her precious little sister was okay. Atem let out a frustrated huff when Yugi appeared in the mirror but the Pharaoh was relieved to see her doing something as mundane as her homework.

“Your vessel is fine, sister.” Atem spoke without thinking and then backed up quickly when the Pharaoh gave him the darkest glare she had ever aimed his way.

“Imoto is much more than just my vessel, Atem. She is half of me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.” The Pharaoh hissed out, furious, “How many times do I have to remind you of that?”

“She's a mortal commoner.” Atem reminded her. “She's not of our caste.”

“Technically she's a noble merchant and Ra's representative on Earth.” The Pharaoh corrected him, as she got up to leave, “And when she finally joins us here, when it's her time, she will be ruling at my side as my other half, as is her right.” Atem scowled, “What?”

“She's not you.” Atem protested, “I accept your right to rule over us since you were Pharaoh, not me, but she's not Egyptian. She doesn't know our ways and customs. You can't expect our people to accept her.”

“What would it take for you to accept her?” The Pharaoh challenged, planning to deal with this when she got back, sick and tired of the constant jibes from her brother about her little sister. Especially after everything Imoto had gone through to protect the world and help her get to the afterlife.

“What did she do? To earn this level of respect and trust from you?” Atem asked.

“I've told you...”

“Told me, but not shown me. Call it up on the mirror. Let me see for myself.”

“I don't have time for this, Atem.” The Pharaoh scowled at him as she headed for the door, “I need to get to the gates. If someone magical is after the Puzzle, I might be needed.”

“You can't go back. You know that, right?” Atem pointed out as he blocked her path, “So what's the rush? Anubis isn't going to let you break through the gates even if your Puzzle gets completed again.”

The Pharaoh stared at him, trying to work out if he was serious or not. “Brother…I need to go…why won’t you see that?”

“I do, I just…” He hesitated then sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I just don’t want you to get stuck on that side of the gates again.”

She paused at that, “Atem…”

“I know…I know I can’t stop you…That I shouldn’t stop you but…” Atem pulled her into a hug, “I can’t lose you. Not again.” She felt him trembling and hugged back, hoping to soothe his worried mind, realising that a lot of his bloody-mindedness over Imoto was him being worried about her trying to go back to the world of the living and getting trapped again.

“You won’t lose me.” The Pharaoh promised, “I just can’t leave Imoto to face this alone if there’s anything I can do to help her. Not when this is over my Puzzle.”

“Pendant.” Atem corrected sullenly as he pulled away, trying not to look like he’d been crying.

“Not anymore brother.” She sighed. “It shattered, remember? It’s a Puzzle now.”

Atem did not answer for a moment or two, then he sighed and moved aside. “Go…but I do want to meet this sister of ours one day. If she’s as amazing as you insist she is, I’m going to love her…”

“Oh you will.” She promised, “And Atem?”

“Yes, sister?” He asked, looking a little worried for her.

“Thank you.” She darted for the door, pausing as she slipped out to promise, “I’ll be back soon.”

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 18

“Might. We might get to see the Princess.” Rarity reminded Rainbow, “She didn’t promise but I do agree with you. There’s six of us, we should be able to handle her nasty little tasks. As long as there’s nothing sticky and gross.” Rarity shuddered in overly dramatic horror at the idea, making the other ponies smile slightly.

“Do you think she can really steal souls?” Fluttershy asked, her whisper of a voice carrying well in the worryingly silent forest.

“Yeah and what was that thing?” Dash demanded, swooping overhead as best she could but finding flying difficult amongst the branches. On occasions she had to come within millimetres of the ground to avoid them and Twilight found herself wishing that Dash would just walk for a little bit, for her own safety.

“M...My dam-sire,” Twilight licked her lips and tried to pull her focus back onto the facts when she caught herself stammering, “Treasure Trove, he used to tell me stories about things he had learned on his many excursions to the part of Saddle Arabia that used to be Equigypt. He told me horror stories about what happened to others who tried to complete my puzzle, some were driven crazy, others saw things, strange creatures of mist and shadows, yet another fell into a coma from which they never woke up...supposedly they thought it was the Princess’s Curse, but I’m wondering if it was the Shadows rather than the Princess. After all ghosts don’t exist.”

“Hold up, you knew all of that and you were still working on it?” Dash looked impressed, “Pretty brave.”

“What are the Shadows anyway, sugar?” Applejack asked, glancing over at the unicorn who seemed to know so much. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Neither have I.” Twilight admitted, disliking the fact and already planning to write down everything so she had some sort of reference for the next time this happened. If it something went wrong again, which she had an odd feeling it would, she wanted to be ready for it. “But my teacher left me a letter and...”

As Twilight explained the contents of the letter, they continued walking, heading further and further into the gloom. It was cold and Twilight had a slight headache as she told them everything that Celestia had told her, figuring that forewarned was forearmed. The silence around them was oppressive too, the weight of it weighing on their minds as they slowly slipped into a rather fearful and wary march.

It was far too quiet for their peace of mind. The Everfree Forest was supposed to be full of creatures, both friendly and less so. That they could not hear anything amongst the trees except for the sound of their own hooves was distressing. There was not even the sound of the wind whistling through the trees to break the sound of their hooves stomping the hard, dry mud on the floor and it was getting to all of them as they entered a copse of gnarled and twisted trees.

“I can’t take it anymore!” Dash was the first to break the silence. Her frustrated cry echoed through the trees and seemed to bounce off of the roof of foliage over their heads, “The quiet is driving me nuts!”

“Easy Rainbow.” Applejack, who had seen this coming from the explosive pegasus sighed, “We’re all gettin’ wound up, but yelling won’ help no pony.”

“It makes me feel better.” Rainbow grumbled, actually landing for the first time since they had entered the forest, surprising Twilight who had begun to doubt that Rainbow actually knew how to use her hooves since she spent so much time up in the air. “And...” Rainbow trailed off as the nearby bushes rustled, causing the first sound that wasn’t caused by them in what felt like hours.

“Hello?” Twilight asked nervously, her voice trembling slightly as the bushes rustled again, “Anypony there?”

A low, threatening growl was the reply as a group of creatures with fur not unlike the stallion who had met them at the entrance and white, almost glowing teeth, stalked towards them out of the bushes. They were canine in shape, at least vaguely and the shadows rolled off of them as they moved forward.

“A...Are those timber wolves?” Rarity asked with a frightened squeak as she backed up, crashing into Fluttershy, who shook her head.

“N...No, th...they’re not...” The pale yellow pegasus pony shook her head, taking a few steps back. “The...they’re different.”

“Whatever they are they ain’ gettin’ past me.” Applejack promised as she got between Fluttershy and the advancing beasts.

“Or me.” Rainbow Dash swore, taking to the air for a second, her wing tips just brushing the canopy before she swooped down and launched herself at the wolves, scattering the pack. One of the shadowy wolves tried to attack Fluttershy but Applejack dove into the fray knocking it aside as Rainbow’s second swoop sent another tumbling back into the underbrush.

Twilight launched an offensive blast of magic, the purple beam striking the nearest one, knocking it away but not seeming to hurt it. The dazed creature crashed into another one, sending them sprawling like dominos. Pinkie Pie could not help herself and started laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

Shockingly the noise seemed to hurt the creatures, all of whom let out a whining noise and cowered, backing up slightly, though the moment she stopped, confused, they started advancing again, snarling louder than before, this gaze firmly fixed on the pink pony who had caused them such discomfort.

“Laughter!” Twilight realised, “It’s an Element of Harmony! The Shadows were beaten by Unity! They’re the same thing!”

“These big scary dogs are frightened by a little laughter?” Dash questioned, wanting to make sure she had heard that right.

“Hey, don’t complain if it works…” Applejack shot back, knocking another canine monstrosity back. The Shadows coating it began to dissipate at the strike, revealing a shaggy silver fur that reminded Twilight of something she had seen earlier.

“If we just need to laugh…” Pinkie actually looked serious for all of about three seconds before she pulled out a huge cannon from Celestia only knew where and fired it, letting loose a mass of streamers and confetti that festooned the trees and wolves alike, Rarity and Rainbow could not help but burst into giggles at the sight of this shadowy silver creature decorated with neon streamers and coated in multi-coloured confetti. The sound of caused the wolves to recoil again, shaking off the confetti but unable to strip themselves of the streamers.

Their attempts caused Fluttershy to let out a soft giggle that sounded embarrassed for the poor wolves and forced the monsters further back again.

With enough of the darkness gone from the creatures, Twilight recognised them as Silver Fang. A beast type duel monster with fourteen hundred attack points. The silver unicorn filly in town had used the creature in her duel earlier. The dark tainted Goddess had to have summoned them to attack the group of ponies traversing the woods.

“If Nightmare Moon can do it…why can’t I?” Twilight asked herself, drawing a card using her magic and becoming amused when it proved to be the Dark Magician, a card she had had in her deck for almost as long as she had played the game. “Alright,” She took a deep breath, knowing that if this did not work, she was going to look like a fool, “Dark Magician,” She called, putting a little of the magic she could pull from the Puzzle into the card, “I summon you, in attack mode!”

There was nothing for a few moments, then a dark swirling vortex appeared which deposited the unicorn stallion on the card in their midst. The unicorn, whose coat was a sandy, creamy gold, was clad in armour of a purple that was not far from being the same shade as Twilight’s coat and clung to his form. His short tail, which was a slightly bluer purple than the armour, poked out from within, while a robe of a different shade of purple went over that. His mane was hidden by a pointy hat of the same purple as the armour and part of which doubled as a face guard and he held a green, metallic staff with his right foreleg, much like the royal guards held their lances in the palace. The stave had an emerald embedded in one end, probably as a focus as his sharp green-blue eyes scanned his surroundings. They rested on Twilight for a moment and widened, before he bowed to her deeply, practically touching the floor with his muzzle.

“Um…hi.” Twilight knew the others were watching her and looked embarrassed as the stallion before her straightened, though he maintained a deferential pose, “Attack the Silver Fang, please?”

The Dark Magician nodded and threw his staff up into the air, catching it between his teeth before slamming it into the two members of the pack who had tried to sneak up behind Pinkie Pie. The pair loosed a pained howl and shattered into a million shards of an oddly brown light which temporarily flash blinded the ponies, causing them to miss the duel monster taking out another three, though Twilight sensed the magic he used to blow one of them away.

When their vision cleared, there was only one Silver Fang left and he had his teeth clamped around the magician’s staff, trying to tug it away from him.

Twilight forced out a peal of laughter and the beast let go, backing off with a howl of pain that vanished into the ether as the Dark Magician blasted it with a pulse of what was clearly Shadow magic. Once it had dissolved completely into the mist on the ground, the stallion turned to look at Twilight. She surprised the male unicorn by bowing back to him with a smile, “Thank you.” She told him softly, “You can go now, if you want.”

The unicorn seemed to take a moment to decide something, then nuzzled her gently but reassuringly, reminding her of her brother, Shining Armour. Then he bowed again and vanished in a swirl of black energy.

There was silence for a moment from the other fillies who had accompanied her, then Rainbow Dash swooped over, landed at her side and looked her in the eye as she told her, “You have to teach me that.”

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 28

“S...Stay away!” Kari stopped mid step at the feminine, frightened yelp, causing Tristan to barrel into her and knock her over. The pair tumbled to the ground, crashing into a tree and ending up in a tangled heap at its base.

“Oh shi...!” A man squawked just before a a bright burst of purple light bounced between the trees. Two men bellowed in pain, and then a girl darted past them, a Duel Monster following her.

Kari recognised the Duel Monster, for all its unusual colouring it looked like a Dark Magician Girl and there was only green variant of that card in circulation.

“Danielle.” Kari called to the player the monster was protecting, wondering what the hell was going on.

The reporter glanced over her shoulder at them, paused, then stopped, her Duel Monster, Maddie, getting between her and them. “I...” She started, frustration obvious as she glanced in the direction she had come from.

“There she is!”

Dani squeaked as a couple of men, these ones dressed much differently from the ones who had tried to grab her on the boat. She recognised them though, or rather their uniforms and she gestured for her Dark Magician Girl to deal with them.

The mooks were prepared, the magician’s attack was sucked into a vortex of wind and disappeared.

Tristan didn’t give them a chance to counter attack, startling Kari by leaving her side and swinging for one of the mooks, taking him out with one powerful punch. Danielle’s Dark Magician Girl blasted the other one, sending him crashing into a tree and making him drop the bleeping object in his hand.

Kari scooped it up, trying to work out what it was. She took two steps back, pacing slightly as she poked and prodded at the touch screen before cussing profusely.

“Kari?” Tristan asked.

“It’s a tracker.” She informed him, showing him the machine, which was clearly tracking Danielle. “I don’t know what the signal’s coming from but...oh...” She turned to Danielle, “The only new thing you’ve got on you is your DimDisk right?”

Dani nodded, taking it off and passing it to Tristan when Kari asked her too. Her suspicions were confirmed when Tristan wandered off and they tracked him down easily only to find he had had to knock out another pair of goons.

“They’re tracking our DimDisks?” Dani scowled, “No wonder I couldn’t lose them.”

“I’m not surprised.” Kari shrugged, “Kaiba’s Duel Disks do the same thing. My boss said it was to ensure that he could find out if any of his players decided to go awol during the tournament or enter any restricted areas.”

“Is it legal?” Dani demanded, angry that she hadn’t known about any of this.

“I assume so.” Kari replied, having wondered that herself and never gotten a straight answer from anyone within the company. “But is this really the time to be asking that?”

“She has a point.” Tristan nodded, “Pass that to me?”

Kari chucked him the tracker and he poked at the screen until he called up the list of Duellists tapped Yugi’s name. The little dot on screen appeared halfway across the island, but not where they had expected it to be. Instead it looked like Yami was heading for the castle.

“Huh.” Tristan showed Kari.

“If Yami’s heading for the castle, we should probably go that way too.” Kari said, thinking aloud, “You don’t have to come with us.” She offered as she looked at Dani, “Since you’re trying to avoid the goons.”

“Oh no, I want to get in the castle.” Dani corrected her, “I just have no intention of ending up as someone’s prisoner again. It wasn’t much fun last time so excuse me if I don’t go for a repeat.”

“Why don’t you stick with us.” Tristan suggested as he started for the castle, Kari in tow. “Though you might want to ditch the DimDisk if you don’t want them following you.”

Dani paused, having not thought of that before now. When she tried to remove her deck from the slot, however, the DimDisk let out a high pitched screech and a metal guard slid up and across to cover the deck, something similar happening to her graveyard, leaving her with only the green Dark Magician Girl available.

“Hey!” Kari yelped when something similar happened to her DimDisk, preventing her from accessing anything that wasn’t in the hand she had already drawn from her deck.

Tristan, who didn’t have a deck and had discarded his DimDisk early into their travels, scowled. “So, just you two? Or everyone?”

“THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL PLAYERS.” Kari hadn’t known the island was rigged with speakers until a voice started booming out of them, “WE CURRENTLY HAVE A HACKING ISSUE. ALL PLAYERS MUST RETURN TO THE CASTLE TO HAVE THIER DIMDISK RESET WITH THE UPDATED SECURITY PROTOCOLS TO ALLOW GAMEPLAY TO CONTINUE.”

“Hacking issue my behind.” Kari frowned, “Unless...” She sighed, “Unless my boss is repaying the favour.”

“What do you mean?” Dani asked, well aware that Kari worked for Kaiba Corp.

“I’ll explain on the way.”