Chapter 6: - Wings
The sun was rising westward, according to the compass, but that just showed how reliable 'muggle' devices were in a magical realm. Or... just maybe, how completely strange this magical realm was.
Weren't these ancient magicians meant to live and die by the sun, or did someone just decide they wanted the sun to rise the wrong way?
Or maybe it was a trick, or a trap... or a game? Or maybe it was just the craziness of the creation of any world that meant something had to be wrong, just to show this was not the real world.
"The sun's rising in the wrong direction." Solomon said, looking around, standing, with Ombre, outside the cave they'd decided to stop in last night… or what passed for a night here, after Yugi had slipped into unconsciousness not long after their arrival on this floating island.
There had been talk, for a while, of continuing on, taking the scroll that had appeared when they'd decided to let Yugi rest, and completing the task on their own, but since they had no idea if they COULD complete the task without Yugi and the armour, or whether, if they left Yugi and whoever was looking after him behind, they'd move on without them, they had left the scroll untouched and depending on Yugi's condition when he woke up, they would decide what move to make next.
"We're on an island that's floating above the clouds, in a game world with rules that appear to change depending on the area we're in, and you're complaining about the sun rising the wrong way?" Joey asked, yawning as he stretched and, having pulled himself out of his sleeping bag far earlier then anyone would expect of the young man, who was almost as bad as Yami when it came to mornings, exited the cave and started raiding his backpack for something edible or drinkable.
"It just seems... wrong. It's something a modern man would do, not the man who was supposed to have built this." Ombre frowned, "In ancient times, entire ways of life revolved around the sun, the entire day was timed by it, so there is no way that someone from around the time of Alexander the Great would be able to mess up what side the sun rose from accidentally."
"Perhaps they were bored." Joey offered.
"Bored!" Ombre glowered at him. Joey didn't feel like responding though, he'd managed to find a chocolate bar that hadn't been eaten by the wolves, since it had been wrapped in a pair of socks and buried underneath the cooking equipment and the school books, though why he had packed his school books to go on holiday with him was beyond him. Too much time with Hermione perhaps… or Kari…
"Morning Yami." Solomon offered as Yami leant heavily on the edge of the cave entrance, wanting to get out of the darkness of the interior of the cave, but not willing to go much farther until Yugi awoke.
"Morning Grandpa, morning guys." Yami offered back, not really awake but unable to sleep much later, worry keeping his mind active long after his body had crashed out. One of the disadvantages of having access to your soul room was that your mind often ended up there when there was something keeping your mind active.
"How's Yugi?"
"Still out." Yami scowled, "He's been out like a light since he collapsed."
"If he doesn't wake up soon, we're going to have to do something."
"I don't want to wake him."
"You might have to." Joey pointed out.
"You try getting the mental equivalent of a boot to the head and you see how you like it." Yami replied, still scowling, remembering the few mornings that he had NOT wanted to get out of bed and it had taken the mental equivalent of a bucket of water to wake him up, and which had normally resulted in Yugi chucking something at him. Yami's eyes flickered to the interior of the cave, "Hey…"
"I'm up…" Yugi's drowsy voice replied.
"Chocolate." Joey waved the bar at Yami, "Think it'll help Yuge?"
"I think we should share it if it's the only food we've got." Yugi said, stepping out of the cave and into the incredibly bright sunlight, blinking a few times to try to get used to it, trying to straighten himself out. Sorry guys, how long was I out?"
"Long enough to give Yami a heart attack…again." Joey snorted. "How you feeling?"
"I'm ok."
"Yugi…"
"What?"
"That's not an answer."
"You didn't give me one."
"Well I have it in hours, but I bet Yami could tell you how many seconds."
"Please tell me you slept." Yugi glowered at his dark.
"I got some sleep." Yami shrugged.
"Am I the last one awake?" Serenity's voice floated out of the cave, then, "Yugi, back in bed till I've checked you over." She snapped.
"She's as bad as Madam Pomfrey." Ombre snorted as Yugi quickly headed back inside.
"Healer in training." Yami snorted. "They have to be terrifying or their patients would never listen to them."
"So what's the plan?" Joey asked.
"Share the chocolate." Yugi called out, making Yami smile slightly. "Did you complete the task already?"
"We haven't even looked at the scroll yet." Ombre replied.
"Guys! What if we've missed the task?"
"It can't start until we've read the scroll, surely." Serenity pitched in, "If it has to be fair, I mean. It's not a fair test if we don't know the riddle."
"But you had the… yow… riddle."
Joey and Ombre exchanged looks, 'yow' was not a good thing to hear when someone was in the middle of a medical examination, or as close to one as they could get out here.
"We decided that since it was you the armour went to, we would wait for you to wake up, before we made any decisions." Solomon said, standing just to one side of the cave entrance.
Yami sensed Yugi's irritation and felt the young man clamp it down. "Where is… never mind."
"Yugi, wait…"
"When light is extinguished the true test begins, for a creature of darkness it brings," Yugi had already started reading, causing the others to rush in, piling into the cavern to listen properly, "But only the righteous and peaceful shall pass and receive the endowment of wings." Yugi frowned, "That only sounds like half the riddle…"
"So where's the other half?" Joey asked, looking around.
"I don't know."
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The sun had risen just a few hours ago, but Seto Kaiba had been up for longer then most people would consider sane.
Mokuba had insisted on coming into work with him, and was currently curled up on the soft leather sofa that rested to one side of his office, having started doing something on his laptop and fallen asleep a couple of hours ago.
Since there was little Mokuba could do to assist him in what he was currently doing, Seto hadn't woken him, just moved the laptop onto the table and actually used his Trench Coat of Doom © for something other then intimidation, putting it over his brother to keep him warm.
He was waiting on some information from the museums on Mr Muto… Solomon… Seto didn't know what to call the man that was their Clan Head and had said that they could call him Grandpa. Mokuba was still testing it out, but it didn't feel natural coming from Seto, especially since he was unaware of exactly how Solomon really felt about having him in his family… Mr Muto's assistants and colleagues on any digs that they had information on, since Mr Muto had been on a dig when the whole lot of them had gone missing, apparently.
Meanwhile, he was working on a design brief for the latest in the newest series of Monster World games. The first had been a game called Spirit Hearts, a virtual reality game released long before they had gone to Hogwarts, the first one that the company had worked on after Kari had joined them, the one that had gone so horribly wrong. He'd learnt his lesson then, and had not lowered the safeties, on the game world that the games all took place within, since.
The phone rang and before Seto could answer it, Mokuba had woken up, his hand automatically going to his mobile before Mokuba's brain caught up with his body, causing him to put the mobile phone down and look over to the desk where Seto had answered the phone on his desk and was snapping out a bunch of questions and answers.
Mokuba watched as Seto steadily shredded a piece of paper into pieces so tiny it would probably take the cleaner a hundred years to find them all, as he mentioned a pyramid and barriers and told whoever was on the phone that he would be there in a few hours, before putting the phone down.
"Seto?"
"They think they've found something."
"A pyramid?" Mokuba asked, "In India?"
"A Pyramid with protective barriers around it, stopping people from going in."
"If our team can't get in…"
"The Muggles on the team can't get in, they can't even see it, they've been walking around it wondering where the others have gone."
"Muggle repellent charms?"
"Looks like it."
"Why a pyramid? Surely it's obvious enough that someone magical is going to notice a pyramid being thousands of miles from Egypt." Mokuba frowned.
"How else would you get the attention of a former archaeologist?"
"But if they could interfere with transport, why kidnap Solo…Grandpa?"
"Because Yugi would do anything if his grandfather was in danger." Seto scowled, trying not to think of…
"Like in Duellist Kingdom." Mokuba murmured, remembering how Pegasus had taken Yugi's grandfather, held him prisoner and defeated Seto all too easily.
"Exactly." Seto growled, hating every reminder of his failure to protect his brother.
"So we're going to India?"
"No."
"Huh?"
"You're not coming."
"You can't leave me behind."
"I'm not taking you into danger."
"How do you know that they're not waiting for you to leave me alone so they can grab me?"
Seto opened his mouth to speak, but Mokuba was already talking again.
"I can defend myself, Seto, leaving me behind isn't a good idea. Remember, bodyguards can be bribed." Mokuba grinned slightly, pulling the winning argument out of his hat, "And do you really want to ask Noa to watch over me?"
"Fine, but you're to stay at my side at all times."
"I promise."
"And if I tell you to retreat, you leave. Got it?"
"On dragon back if I have to."
"Give a moment to reorganise my schedule, then you can go and pack."
"I already have a bag packed." Mokuba grinned, pulling out a carry-all from behind the sofa he was led on, "Are we taking the Blue Eyes White Jet?"
"It's too conspicuous." Seto shook his head, unsure whether to be amused or irritated by his brother's confidence in his ability to manipulate him.
"True but there's less chance of it being hijacked."
"Not if I pilot the private jet."
"Seto, all our private jets have the Kaiba Corp logo on." Mokuba said, trying not to facepalm.
"Still less obvious then a giant white dragon."
"Whatever you think is best." Mokuba sighed, convinced that whoever had kidnapped Yugi and the others would expect Kaiba Corp to get involved, since they were implicated and not particularly fond of the idea of being kidnapped… again.
Seto considered for a moment, as he quickly totalled up how many appointments he could blow off for no reason and how many he would have to reschedule, and slipped Yami's Dark Magician card into his deck box for when he found the group, then dialled a number that he knew far too well. "This is Seto Kaiba. Yes, I'm aware of how early it is. Prep BlueEyes 01 for take off. Yes, now. No, this is not a prank call." Seto glowered at his brother, who was giggling in the background. "Hello?" Seto had to fight really hard to avoid smashing the phone. "He put the phone down on me."
Mokuba was torn between concern for the poor bloke who had answered the phone and a fit of unstoppable giggles at the expression on Seto's face.
Seto didn't even bother to toy with the idea of phoning again, he just picked up a list of numbers, grabbed his bag and briefcase and left, Mokuba close behind.
"It is rather early, Seto." Mokuba offered.
Seto was already on his mobile, and Mokuba followed quietly behind, remembering, far too late, that they hadn't had breakfast yet. Well, he supposed that he could send someone out while they were waiting for the jet to be prepped…
"Note to self." Mokuba thought as he followed Seto into the limo, "Phone everyone… later." He had a funny feeling that he'd get his head bitten off if he phoned anyone at this time of the morning, especially considering the different time zones. It wasn't like he didn't have time, it would take hours for the jet to be ready to fly, and then they'd have to get permission for their flight path…
Seto loved flying, but the paperwork was a nightmare.
"Seto, can we get some breakfast once you've ripped the guy's head off?" Mokuba poked his brother, who glanced at him for a moment, nodded and carried on his conversation. He had Hogwarts to thank for that, before they'd gone, Seto could easily go a whole day without eating and unfortunately, he used to forget that the people around him couldn't.
Mokuba's phone rang, and within a bar and a half of his, by now, easily recognisable ringtone, he had answered it. "Harry? It's six am here, it has to be ten in… go to bed. You'll be useless tomorrow if you don't sleep. Actually, I'm glad you phoned, we might have a lead… I'll give you the short version and give you more info once you've had some sleep…"
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"Were there two scrolls?" Yugi asked, standing up, finally and looking at the others.
"No."
"Then there has to be something we're missing." Yugi frowned.
"Perhaps you're reading it wrong." Solomon said, the caught Yugi's look, "Not that you had a bad teacher, but…"
"Here." Yugi handed it over, and Solomon took it outside to read.
"You ok, Yuge?" Joey asked as Yugi hesitated at the doorway.
"If I'm out that long again, you have to go on without me."
"No." Yami's tone was firm and slightly angry.
"We may have missed a clue because you waited for me, if we make it through the task, it can't happen again."
"You expect us to leave you behind?" Now Joey was irritated.
"Not expect, want, but don't expect." Yugi sighed.
"Yugi, would you leave us behind?" Serenity asked quietly, making all the young men wheel around to look at her.
"Never." Yugi's tone was just as firm as Yami's had been a moment ago. "I'd never walk out on my friends."
"Then perhaps you should only ask of us what you, yourself, are willing to do?"
"But…"
"We're not going to leave you behind, no matter how exhausted or injured you are." Joey growled at him.
"I won't let you sacrifice yourself for your family." Ombre said, giving him a look that made him cringe back. "I lost my hikari that way; I'm not losing a brother."
"Sorry Ombre." Yugi smiled apologetically, but sadly. "Sorry." He apologised to Yami, Joey and Serenity.
"Honestly Yuge, you should know us better then that by now." Joey waved it off, though the irritation was still there. "Leave you behind…" He shook his head and exited the cave, followed by his sister, and moments later popped his head back in. "Gramps says your translation was screwy."
"What?" Yugi yelped, exiting quickly and examining the scroll. "The letters aren't glowing…"
"Glowing?"
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "Green."
"So what do this say?"
"The trial of light and shadow." Solomon read, as Joey took his customary place behind and to the right of Yugi and Yami stood next to Solomon, "It says, once a day the unbreakable stone appears in the Valley of Light, to achieve the impossible fight with a power that's greater then physical might."
"Two riddles?"
"No," Yugi got it, "One interconnecting riddle, hidden on the same paper, watch." Yugi took it inside and the writing changed, glowing green with the riddle he had read out earlier.
"I get it." Yami nodded, "It's the trial of light AND shadow, so you can only read the light part in the sun and the shadow part in a cave or in shadows."
"We'd better find the Valley of Light as soon as possible." Yugi said, thinking. "Or we'll have to wait for tomorrow."
"I'll look." Joey started reaching for his capsules.
"We'll look together." Yugi said, shaking his head slightly.
"Alright, lead the way."
They headed in the opposite direction to the way they had come, having seen no valleys while trying to find somewhere to take shelter from the sun, towards the mountain range, successfully finding the only valley for miles and climbing down into the crevice carefully.
"You think this is it?" Serenity asked.
"We'll know in an hour or so." Ombre replied, looking towards the sky and working out the time.
"So we just wait?"
"Guess so."
"Anyone up for a game of Duel Monsters?"
"Joey!"
"What?"
"I'm in."
"Yami!"
"We haven't got anything better to do till midday." Yami said, easily flipping open his deck box and shuffling the cards, "Besides, it's won't take me and Mahado long to beat Joey." Yami drew, expecting to draw his Dark Magician card, only to find he'd drawn Sangan.
Joey sniggered and Ombre looked amused.
"That's odd…" Yami tried it again, this time drawing The Tricky.
"I think you've irritated him." Yugi frowned, taking the deck from Yami and looking through. "You did put him in, right?"
"Of course." Yami snatched it back, searching, before cussing in several languages and looking around.
"Don't tell me you lost his card." Yugi groaned.
Yami examined his deck bag, "It's ripped."
"He could be anywhere."
"What do we do?"
"I can't ask when you had the card last, because we haven't checked our decks since the Portkey broke." Yugi said, checking his thoroughly. "Mine's fine."
"Mine too." Joey said, checking quickly.
"And mine." Ombre and Solomon nodded.
"Mine was in my bag, but its okay." Serenity said.
"So it's just Mahado's card that's missing…"
Solomon frowned, the card had been his originally, then Yugi's and then Yami's and he was rather protective of that card, but was there time to look for it?
"I'll go. We have an hour right?" Joey asked, reaching for his Baby Dragon capsule.
Yami hesitated, torn between looking and staying with Yugi.
"I'll be okay, I'll buy you time to look, if it comes to that." Yugi nodded, "But you'll only be able to search the island. There was no door backwards."
"If the card got lost at any point, I would have thought it would be when we were running from the wolves, or fighting the worms…" Ombre frowned.
Yami groaned.
"Well, here's a plus side. You won't have to worry about Bakura anymore, because Mahado's gonna kill you." Joey snorted.
"Mahado wouldn't kill Yami." Yugi said patiently and with a small smile.
"Na, I'm sure he could delegate. Besides he pulls the 'disappointed' stunt with you guys." Joey snorted.
"I don't think losing his card justifies just a 'disappointed'." Yami looked towards the sky.
"Go." Yugi urged.
"We'll be back in time." Joey nodded, "Capsule launch."
Baby Dragon appeared, and the pair climbed on.
"Good luck." Yugi nodded.
The pair took off.
"Which card has Yami lost?" Serenity asked.
"The Dark Magician, our Dark Magician, Mahado." Yugi explained. "Losing that card is like…" Yugi paused trying to work out a suitable substitute.
"Me losing Fae's card?"
"Fae?"
"Ancient Fairy Dragon."
"Pretty much." Ombre nodded, not sure how to explain everything else behind the card's importance.
"Our deck used to be based around it." Yugi sighed, thinking of before Yami had gained his own body.
"Our deck?" Serenity frowned.
"I'll explain later, I promise." Yugi replied quickly. "When we're not stuck in some crazy game."
Ombre refrained from mentioning that they were always involved in a crazy game of some shape form or description, be it villains, Kaiba or Dumbledore, they all counted as games.
"Alright," Serenity nodded, "I'll explain about Fae and you can explain what you meant by 'our deck'."
"Deal." Yugi agreed, "Now to get out of here…"
Serenity squeaked as the sun blinded her as it came down, lighting up the entire valley.
"I thought you said we had an hour!" Yugi yelped.
"In theory, yes, but you weren't conscious when we had the 'the sun is rising in the wrong direction' conversation." Ombre scowled, "Shouldn't we find that 'unbreakable' stone?"
They looked around. "There." Solomon pointed towards a huge stone obelisk.
They walked up to the stone, examining it.
"What did the riddle say?"
"To achieve the impossible fight with a power that's greater then physical might." Yugi repeated, "Since the rock's unbreakable and we're trying to achieve the impossible, I'm guessing we have to break it."
"What power is greater then physical might?" Ombre wondered aloud.
"Friendship?" Serenity offered.
Yugi cracked up.
"What?"
"That was a very Tea response." Yugi giggled.
"So what do you suggest?"
"Fire capsule." Yugi called, spotting something on the cliff face, sending out his Sunset Magician.
"Yugi, wait…" Serenity yelped.
"Duel Armour activate."
Yugi fused with Sunset Magician, and pulled Serenity and his Grandfather out of the way. Ombre, who had spotted the attack coming, and hadn't been dazzled by the light show of the fusion, dove in the opposite direction, rolling behind a rock.
"A Prisman?" Yugi frowned, it certainly counted as a creature of light, but was far weaker then any monster they had fought so far.
It glowed brightly and Yugi flew upwards, distracting the Prisman and narrowly avoiding the bright beam.
"Prisman's made of glass." Solomon was saying to Serenity, "So it can focus the sun's rays to use as an energy beam, and up here, the blast is much more powerful."
"Yugi needs help." Serenity murmured as Yugi acted as live bait to distract the monster, getting a couple of blasts in, blasts that by all rights should have destroyed the creature, but did little more then blast it backwards. "Ancient Fairy…" She loaded her capsule and stood up, attracting the Prisman's attention.
Which, of course, drew Ombre into the fight, sending out her Criosphinx, as Serenity called Ancient Fairy Dragon out.
Yugi stood between their monsters and the glass monster.
"Guys, focus on the stone, I'll handle the Prisman." Yugi said, glancing at the two girls.
"But Yugi…"
The Prisman glowed again, preparing to fire.
"Guys!" Yugi dodged and Fae narrowly escaped, but Criosphinx's shoulder was burnt as it escaped the beam, which struck the rock squarely in the middle. Ombre cried out in pain, but it was Yugi who noticed the hole in the middle of the rock. This wasn't going to be easy…
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Joey looked up as Yami swore and shot out of the cave. "Yami?" He asked, following.
"Yugi."
"It's started already?" Joey growled, looking around and trying to tell the time by the sun, as Ombre and Yami could, failing miserably, "I thought we had time."
Yami didn't stop to reply, already heading towards the crevice. Joey growled and followed, catching up easily, and sending out his Baby Dragon to assist them in getting down just in time to see Ancient Fairy Dragon roar and fly upwards, one of her wings smoking.
"Serenity…"
Ancient Fairy Dragon shot an incredibly bright whitish blue beam of light down into the crevice as Baby Dragon took off, blinding the pair of boys, for a moment.
Something screamed, though the cry certainly wasn't human, and as Yami and Joey finally got their sight back, they dove forward in time to see a glowing pile of rocks and the last remnants of an exploding Duel Monster.
"Guys!" Joey shouted down, distracting Yugi for a half second longer then he could afford as something in black armour appeared in the deepening shadows, as the sun passed overhead, and leapt at Yugi.
Yami hadn't stopped to shout though, and his Dark Magician blasted the warrior back.
"Take him down!" Yami snarled.
The Dark Magician went to attack.
The attack struck Yugi's wings instead, sending the young man sprawling.
"Yugi!"
"Ow." Yugi was being helped to his feet by Serenity as the Dark Magician backed off and Yami and Joey reached the bottom of the gorge. The young man, still in his Sunset Magician armour, turned to look at and bow to the monster, who returned the bow.
The glowing rocks became a glowing treasure chest, a purple one with a silver eye of Horus on and opened without being touched.
"Only the righteous and peaceful shall pass, remember?" Yugi asked Yami, wincing and dismissing his armour.
"Sorry." They recalled their monsters as Yugi took a moment to sit down before handing out what had been in the treasure chest. Sets of angelic wings that strapped to their arms. Serenity giggled as she flapped her arms and lifted about a foot from the ground.
"Weee." She giggled as she flew upward for a moment and then dove sharply, spinning in mid air and landing next to the guys with a grin, holding the necklace Yugi had asked her to guard. "Looks like we passed; look." She held it up for the others to look. Another segment had turned red.
"Well played my young friends." They wheeled around, Yami and Joey instinctively getting at the front of the group.
Yugi pushed his way to the front, "You're the one who helped me in the last task."
"I am." The man stood in front of them nodded, his golden helmet decorated ornately. He was clothed in the manner of a warrior of Ancient Rome.
"Who are you?" Yami demanded.
"My name is of no consequence Pharaoh; I mean no harm to you or your heir. I oversee these trials, congratulations on passing level two."
"What can you tell us about the remaining three tasks?" Ombre asked, giving him an odd look.
"Only that the most difficult tasks lie ahead. You would do well to stick together."
"What should happen, if we fail?" Yugi asked, though Yami heard the hesitation in his voice on the word 'we', and it wasn't hard to work out that Yugi had wanted to say 'I'.
"You will be trapped here, until the next warrior comes."
"And if we pass?" Yami asked, sending reassurance down the link.
"Your heir will have proven himself truly worthy to be king and the power that he deserves will be his." The man vanished into the shadows that had built up further down the canyon, fading completely.
"But I don't want any more power." Yugi said with a confused sigh.
"Someone has to win it, I suppose." Joey shrugged as Ombre scowled and looked the way the man had gone, she had memories of him in the Orb, she was sure of it.
A glowing door formed up above them, in the sky.
"Time to move on?" Solomon hazarded.
"Yugi?" Serenity asked, noting how tired he seemed.
"I'm ok." Yugi nodded, smiling, "Thanks anyway."
"We'll go through the doorway," Solomon said, "And then it might be a good idea for Yugi to get a boost from Mystical Elf, if that's okay with you Serenity." Solomon ignored the exasperated look from his Grandson and looked at the apprentice healer, who nodded.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want the door to close on us." Joey half joked.
"Shall we then?" Yugi asked, flapping his arms and taking off.
"Wait for us." Joey grinned and shot up into the air, chasing his friend.
Yami was the last to take off, scowling into the darkness and wondered why the man appeared to want Yugi to gain the power invested in the game.
"Oi, Yams." Joey called, "You coming or what?"
Yami took off, determined to get Joey for the nickname, and they laughed and chased each other through the portal and into the next task.
Weren't these ancient magicians meant to live and die by the sun, or did someone just decide they wanted the sun to rise the wrong way?
Or maybe it was a trick, or a trap... or a game? Or maybe it was just the craziness of the creation of any world that meant something had to be wrong, just to show this was not the real world.
"The sun's rising in the wrong direction." Solomon said, looking around, standing, with Ombre, outside the cave they'd decided to stop in last night… or what passed for a night here, after Yugi had slipped into unconsciousness not long after their arrival on this floating island.
There had been talk, for a while, of continuing on, taking the scroll that had appeared when they'd decided to let Yugi rest, and completing the task on their own, but since they had no idea if they COULD complete the task without Yugi and the armour, or whether, if they left Yugi and whoever was looking after him behind, they'd move on without them, they had left the scroll untouched and depending on Yugi's condition when he woke up, they would decide what move to make next.
"We're on an island that's floating above the clouds, in a game world with rules that appear to change depending on the area we're in, and you're complaining about the sun rising the wrong way?" Joey asked, yawning as he stretched and, having pulled himself out of his sleeping bag far earlier then anyone would expect of the young man, who was almost as bad as Yami when it came to mornings, exited the cave and started raiding his backpack for something edible or drinkable.
"It just seems... wrong. It's something a modern man would do, not the man who was supposed to have built this." Ombre frowned, "In ancient times, entire ways of life revolved around the sun, the entire day was timed by it, so there is no way that someone from around the time of Alexander the Great would be able to mess up what side the sun rose from accidentally."
"Perhaps they were bored." Joey offered.
"Bored!" Ombre glowered at him. Joey didn't feel like responding though, he'd managed to find a chocolate bar that hadn't been eaten by the wolves, since it had been wrapped in a pair of socks and buried underneath the cooking equipment and the school books, though why he had packed his school books to go on holiday with him was beyond him. Too much time with Hermione perhaps… or Kari…
"Morning Yami." Solomon offered as Yami leant heavily on the edge of the cave entrance, wanting to get out of the darkness of the interior of the cave, but not willing to go much farther until Yugi awoke.
"Morning Grandpa, morning guys." Yami offered back, not really awake but unable to sleep much later, worry keeping his mind active long after his body had crashed out. One of the disadvantages of having access to your soul room was that your mind often ended up there when there was something keeping your mind active.
"How's Yugi?"
"Still out." Yami scowled, "He's been out like a light since he collapsed."
"If he doesn't wake up soon, we're going to have to do something."
"I don't want to wake him."
"You might have to." Joey pointed out.
"You try getting the mental equivalent of a boot to the head and you see how you like it." Yami replied, still scowling, remembering the few mornings that he had NOT wanted to get out of bed and it had taken the mental equivalent of a bucket of water to wake him up, and which had normally resulted in Yugi chucking something at him. Yami's eyes flickered to the interior of the cave, "Hey…"
"I'm up…" Yugi's drowsy voice replied.
"Chocolate." Joey waved the bar at Yami, "Think it'll help Yuge?"
"I think we should share it if it's the only food we've got." Yugi said, stepping out of the cave and into the incredibly bright sunlight, blinking a few times to try to get used to it, trying to straighten himself out. Sorry guys, how long was I out?"
"Long enough to give Yami a heart attack…again." Joey snorted. "How you feeling?"
"I'm ok."
"Yugi…"
"What?"
"That's not an answer."
"You didn't give me one."
"Well I have it in hours, but I bet Yami could tell you how many seconds."
"Please tell me you slept." Yugi glowered at his dark.
"I got some sleep." Yami shrugged.
"Am I the last one awake?" Serenity's voice floated out of the cave, then, "Yugi, back in bed till I've checked you over." She snapped.
"She's as bad as Madam Pomfrey." Ombre snorted as Yugi quickly headed back inside.
"Healer in training." Yami snorted. "They have to be terrifying or their patients would never listen to them."
"So what's the plan?" Joey asked.
"Share the chocolate." Yugi called out, making Yami smile slightly. "Did you complete the task already?"
"We haven't even looked at the scroll yet." Ombre replied.
"Guys! What if we've missed the task?"
"It can't start until we've read the scroll, surely." Serenity pitched in, "If it has to be fair, I mean. It's not a fair test if we don't know the riddle."
"But you had the… yow… riddle."
Joey and Ombre exchanged looks, 'yow' was not a good thing to hear when someone was in the middle of a medical examination, or as close to one as they could get out here.
"We decided that since it was you the armour went to, we would wait for you to wake up, before we made any decisions." Solomon said, standing just to one side of the cave entrance.
Yami sensed Yugi's irritation and felt the young man clamp it down. "Where is… never mind."
"Yugi, wait…"
"When light is extinguished the true test begins, for a creature of darkness it brings," Yugi had already started reading, causing the others to rush in, piling into the cavern to listen properly, "But only the righteous and peaceful shall pass and receive the endowment of wings." Yugi frowned, "That only sounds like half the riddle…"
"So where's the other half?" Joey asked, looking around.
"I don't know."
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The sun had risen just a few hours ago, but Seto Kaiba had been up for longer then most people would consider sane.
Mokuba had insisted on coming into work with him, and was currently curled up on the soft leather sofa that rested to one side of his office, having started doing something on his laptop and fallen asleep a couple of hours ago.
Since there was little Mokuba could do to assist him in what he was currently doing, Seto hadn't woken him, just moved the laptop onto the table and actually used his Trench Coat of Doom © for something other then intimidation, putting it over his brother to keep him warm.
He was waiting on some information from the museums on Mr Muto… Solomon… Seto didn't know what to call the man that was their Clan Head and had said that they could call him Grandpa. Mokuba was still testing it out, but it didn't feel natural coming from Seto, especially since he was unaware of exactly how Solomon really felt about having him in his family… Mr Muto's assistants and colleagues on any digs that they had information on, since Mr Muto had been on a dig when the whole lot of them had gone missing, apparently.
Meanwhile, he was working on a design brief for the latest in the newest series of Monster World games. The first had been a game called Spirit Hearts, a virtual reality game released long before they had gone to Hogwarts, the first one that the company had worked on after Kari had joined them, the one that had gone so horribly wrong. He'd learnt his lesson then, and had not lowered the safeties, on the game world that the games all took place within, since.
The phone rang and before Seto could answer it, Mokuba had woken up, his hand automatically going to his mobile before Mokuba's brain caught up with his body, causing him to put the mobile phone down and look over to the desk where Seto had answered the phone on his desk and was snapping out a bunch of questions and answers.
Mokuba watched as Seto steadily shredded a piece of paper into pieces so tiny it would probably take the cleaner a hundred years to find them all, as he mentioned a pyramid and barriers and told whoever was on the phone that he would be there in a few hours, before putting the phone down.
"Seto?"
"They think they've found something."
"A pyramid?" Mokuba asked, "In India?"
"A Pyramid with protective barriers around it, stopping people from going in."
"If our team can't get in…"
"The Muggles on the team can't get in, they can't even see it, they've been walking around it wondering where the others have gone."
"Muggle repellent charms?"
"Looks like it."
"Why a pyramid? Surely it's obvious enough that someone magical is going to notice a pyramid being thousands of miles from Egypt." Mokuba frowned.
"How else would you get the attention of a former archaeologist?"
"But if they could interfere with transport, why kidnap Solo…Grandpa?"
"Because Yugi would do anything if his grandfather was in danger." Seto scowled, trying not to think of…
"Like in Duellist Kingdom." Mokuba murmured, remembering how Pegasus had taken Yugi's grandfather, held him prisoner and defeated Seto all too easily.
"Exactly." Seto growled, hating every reminder of his failure to protect his brother.
"So we're going to India?"
"No."
"Huh?"
"You're not coming."
"You can't leave me behind."
"I'm not taking you into danger."
"How do you know that they're not waiting for you to leave me alone so they can grab me?"
Seto opened his mouth to speak, but Mokuba was already talking again.
"I can defend myself, Seto, leaving me behind isn't a good idea. Remember, bodyguards can be bribed." Mokuba grinned slightly, pulling the winning argument out of his hat, "And do you really want to ask Noa to watch over me?"
"Fine, but you're to stay at my side at all times."
"I promise."
"And if I tell you to retreat, you leave. Got it?"
"On dragon back if I have to."
"Give a moment to reorganise my schedule, then you can go and pack."
"I already have a bag packed." Mokuba grinned, pulling out a carry-all from behind the sofa he was led on, "Are we taking the Blue Eyes White Jet?"
"It's too conspicuous." Seto shook his head, unsure whether to be amused or irritated by his brother's confidence in his ability to manipulate him.
"True but there's less chance of it being hijacked."
"Not if I pilot the private jet."
"Seto, all our private jets have the Kaiba Corp logo on." Mokuba said, trying not to facepalm.
"Still less obvious then a giant white dragon."
"Whatever you think is best." Mokuba sighed, convinced that whoever had kidnapped Yugi and the others would expect Kaiba Corp to get involved, since they were implicated and not particularly fond of the idea of being kidnapped… again.
Seto considered for a moment, as he quickly totalled up how many appointments he could blow off for no reason and how many he would have to reschedule, and slipped Yami's Dark Magician card into his deck box for when he found the group, then dialled a number that he knew far too well. "This is Seto Kaiba. Yes, I'm aware of how early it is. Prep BlueEyes 01 for take off. Yes, now. No, this is not a prank call." Seto glowered at his brother, who was giggling in the background. "Hello?" Seto had to fight really hard to avoid smashing the phone. "He put the phone down on me."
Mokuba was torn between concern for the poor bloke who had answered the phone and a fit of unstoppable giggles at the expression on Seto's face.
Seto didn't even bother to toy with the idea of phoning again, he just picked up a list of numbers, grabbed his bag and briefcase and left, Mokuba close behind.
"It is rather early, Seto." Mokuba offered.
Seto was already on his mobile, and Mokuba followed quietly behind, remembering, far too late, that they hadn't had breakfast yet. Well, he supposed that he could send someone out while they were waiting for the jet to be prepped…
"Note to self." Mokuba thought as he followed Seto into the limo, "Phone everyone… later." He had a funny feeling that he'd get his head bitten off if he phoned anyone at this time of the morning, especially considering the different time zones. It wasn't like he didn't have time, it would take hours for the jet to be ready to fly, and then they'd have to get permission for their flight path…
Seto loved flying, but the paperwork was a nightmare.
"Seto, can we get some breakfast once you've ripped the guy's head off?" Mokuba poked his brother, who glanced at him for a moment, nodded and carried on his conversation. He had Hogwarts to thank for that, before they'd gone, Seto could easily go a whole day without eating and unfortunately, he used to forget that the people around him couldn't.
Mokuba's phone rang, and within a bar and a half of his, by now, easily recognisable ringtone, he had answered it. "Harry? It's six am here, it has to be ten in… go to bed. You'll be useless tomorrow if you don't sleep. Actually, I'm glad you phoned, we might have a lead… I'll give you the short version and give you more info once you've had some sleep…"
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"Were there two scrolls?" Yugi asked, standing up, finally and looking at the others.
"No."
"Then there has to be something we're missing." Yugi frowned.
"Perhaps you're reading it wrong." Solomon said, the caught Yugi's look, "Not that you had a bad teacher, but…"
"Here." Yugi handed it over, and Solomon took it outside to read.
"You ok, Yuge?" Joey asked as Yugi hesitated at the doorway.
"If I'm out that long again, you have to go on without me."
"No." Yami's tone was firm and slightly angry.
"We may have missed a clue because you waited for me, if we make it through the task, it can't happen again."
"You expect us to leave you behind?" Now Joey was irritated.
"Not expect, want, but don't expect." Yugi sighed.
"Yugi, would you leave us behind?" Serenity asked quietly, making all the young men wheel around to look at her.
"Never." Yugi's tone was just as firm as Yami's had been a moment ago. "I'd never walk out on my friends."
"Then perhaps you should only ask of us what you, yourself, are willing to do?"
"But…"
"We're not going to leave you behind, no matter how exhausted or injured you are." Joey growled at him.
"I won't let you sacrifice yourself for your family." Ombre said, giving him a look that made him cringe back. "I lost my hikari that way; I'm not losing a brother."
"Sorry Ombre." Yugi smiled apologetically, but sadly. "Sorry." He apologised to Yami, Joey and Serenity.
"Honestly Yuge, you should know us better then that by now." Joey waved it off, though the irritation was still there. "Leave you behind…" He shook his head and exited the cave, followed by his sister, and moments later popped his head back in. "Gramps says your translation was screwy."
"What?" Yugi yelped, exiting quickly and examining the scroll. "The letters aren't glowing…"
"Glowing?"
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "Green."
"So what do this say?"
"The trial of light and shadow." Solomon read, as Joey took his customary place behind and to the right of Yugi and Yami stood next to Solomon, "It says, once a day the unbreakable stone appears in the Valley of Light, to achieve the impossible fight with a power that's greater then physical might."
"Two riddles?"
"No," Yugi got it, "One interconnecting riddle, hidden on the same paper, watch." Yugi took it inside and the writing changed, glowing green with the riddle he had read out earlier.
"I get it." Yami nodded, "It's the trial of light AND shadow, so you can only read the light part in the sun and the shadow part in a cave or in shadows."
"We'd better find the Valley of Light as soon as possible." Yugi said, thinking. "Or we'll have to wait for tomorrow."
"I'll look." Joey started reaching for his capsules.
"We'll look together." Yugi said, shaking his head slightly.
"Alright, lead the way."
They headed in the opposite direction to the way they had come, having seen no valleys while trying to find somewhere to take shelter from the sun, towards the mountain range, successfully finding the only valley for miles and climbing down into the crevice carefully.
"You think this is it?" Serenity asked.
"We'll know in an hour or so." Ombre replied, looking towards the sky and working out the time.
"So we just wait?"
"Guess so."
"Anyone up for a game of Duel Monsters?"
"Joey!"
"What?"
"I'm in."
"Yami!"
"We haven't got anything better to do till midday." Yami said, easily flipping open his deck box and shuffling the cards, "Besides, it's won't take me and Mahado long to beat Joey." Yami drew, expecting to draw his Dark Magician card, only to find he'd drawn Sangan.
Joey sniggered and Ombre looked amused.
"That's odd…" Yami tried it again, this time drawing The Tricky.
"I think you've irritated him." Yugi frowned, taking the deck from Yami and looking through. "You did put him in, right?"
"Of course." Yami snatched it back, searching, before cussing in several languages and looking around.
"Don't tell me you lost his card." Yugi groaned.
Yami examined his deck bag, "It's ripped."
"He could be anywhere."
"What do we do?"
"I can't ask when you had the card last, because we haven't checked our decks since the Portkey broke." Yugi said, checking his thoroughly. "Mine's fine."
"Mine too." Joey said, checking quickly.
"And mine." Ombre and Solomon nodded.
"Mine was in my bag, but its okay." Serenity said.
"So it's just Mahado's card that's missing…"
Solomon frowned, the card had been his originally, then Yugi's and then Yami's and he was rather protective of that card, but was there time to look for it?
"I'll go. We have an hour right?" Joey asked, reaching for his Baby Dragon capsule.
Yami hesitated, torn between looking and staying with Yugi.
"I'll be okay, I'll buy you time to look, if it comes to that." Yugi nodded, "But you'll only be able to search the island. There was no door backwards."
"If the card got lost at any point, I would have thought it would be when we were running from the wolves, or fighting the worms…" Ombre frowned.
Yami groaned.
"Well, here's a plus side. You won't have to worry about Bakura anymore, because Mahado's gonna kill you." Joey snorted.
"Mahado wouldn't kill Yami." Yugi said patiently and with a small smile.
"Na, I'm sure he could delegate. Besides he pulls the 'disappointed' stunt with you guys." Joey snorted.
"I don't think losing his card justifies just a 'disappointed'." Yami looked towards the sky.
"Go." Yugi urged.
"We'll be back in time." Joey nodded, "Capsule launch."
Baby Dragon appeared, and the pair climbed on.
"Good luck." Yugi nodded.
The pair took off.
"Which card has Yami lost?" Serenity asked.
"The Dark Magician, our Dark Magician, Mahado." Yugi explained. "Losing that card is like…" Yugi paused trying to work out a suitable substitute.
"Me losing Fae's card?"
"Fae?"
"Ancient Fairy Dragon."
"Pretty much." Ombre nodded, not sure how to explain everything else behind the card's importance.
"Our deck used to be based around it." Yugi sighed, thinking of before Yami had gained his own body.
"Our deck?" Serenity frowned.
"I'll explain later, I promise." Yugi replied quickly. "When we're not stuck in some crazy game."
Ombre refrained from mentioning that they were always involved in a crazy game of some shape form or description, be it villains, Kaiba or Dumbledore, they all counted as games.
"Alright," Serenity nodded, "I'll explain about Fae and you can explain what you meant by 'our deck'."
"Deal." Yugi agreed, "Now to get out of here…"
Serenity squeaked as the sun blinded her as it came down, lighting up the entire valley.
"I thought you said we had an hour!" Yugi yelped.
"In theory, yes, but you weren't conscious when we had the 'the sun is rising in the wrong direction' conversation." Ombre scowled, "Shouldn't we find that 'unbreakable' stone?"
They looked around. "There." Solomon pointed towards a huge stone obelisk.
They walked up to the stone, examining it.
"What did the riddle say?"
"To achieve the impossible fight with a power that's greater then physical might." Yugi repeated, "Since the rock's unbreakable and we're trying to achieve the impossible, I'm guessing we have to break it."
"What power is greater then physical might?" Ombre wondered aloud.
"Friendship?" Serenity offered.
Yugi cracked up.
"What?"
"That was a very Tea response." Yugi giggled.
"So what do you suggest?"
"Fire capsule." Yugi called, spotting something on the cliff face, sending out his Sunset Magician.
"Yugi, wait…" Serenity yelped.
"Duel Armour activate."
Yugi fused with Sunset Magician, and pulled Serenity and his Grandfather out of the way. Ombre, who had spotted the attack coming, and hadn't been dazzled by the light show of the fusion, dove in the opposite direction, rolling behind a rock.
"A Prisman?" Yugi frowned, it certainly counted as a creature of light, but was far weaker then any monster they had fought so far.
It glowed brightly and Yugi flew upwards, distracting the Prisman and narrowly avoiding the bright beam.
"Prisman's made of glass." Solomon was saying to Serenity, "So it can focus the sun's rays to use as an energy beam, and up here, the blast is much more powerful."
"Yugi needs help." Serenity murmured as Yugi acted as live bait to distract the monster, getting a couple of blasts in, blasts that by all rights should have destroyed the creature, but did little more then blast it backwards. "Ancient Fairy…" She loaded her capsule and stood up, attracting the Prisman's attention.
Which, of course, drew Ombre into the fight, sending out her Criosphinx, as Serenity called Ancient Fairy Dragon out.
Yugi stood between their monsters and the glass monster.
"Guys, focus on the stone, I'll handle the Prisman." Yugi said, glancing at the two girls.
"But Yugi…"
The Prisman glowed again, preparing to fire.
"Guys!" Yugi dodged and Fae narrowly escaped, but Criosphinx's shoulder was burnt as it escaped the beam, which struck the rock squarely in the middle. Ombre cried out in pain, but it was Yugi who noticed the hole in the middle of the rock. This wasn't going to be easy…
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Joey looked up as Yami swore and shot out of the cave. "Yami?" He asked, following.
"Yugi."
"It's started already?" Joey growled, looking around and trying to tell the time by the sun, as Ombre and Yami could, failing miserably, "I thought we had time."
Yami didn't stop to reply, already heading towards the crevice. Joey growled and followed, catching up easily, and sending out his Baby Dragon to assist them in getting down just in time to see Ancient Fairy Dragon roar and fly upwards, one of her wings smoking.
"Serenity…"
Ancient Fairy Dragon shot an incredibly bright whitish blue beam of light down into the crevice as Baby Dragon took off, blinding the pair of boys, for a moment.
Something screamed, though the cry certainly wasn't human, and as Yami and Joey finally got their sight back, they dove forward in time to see a glowing pile of rocks and the last remnants of an exploding Duel Monster.
"Guys!" Joey shouted down, distracting Yugi for a half second longer then he could afford as something in black armour appeared in the deepening shadows, as the sun passed overhead, and leapt at Yugi.
Yami hadn't stopped to shout though, and his Dark Magician blasted the warrior back.
"Take him down!" Yami snarled.
The Dark Magician went to attack.
The attack struck Yugi's wings instead, sending the young man sprawling.
"Yugi!"
"Ow." Yugi was being helped to his feet by Serenity as the Dark Magician backed off and Yami and Joey reached the bottom of the gorge. The young man, still in his Sunset Magician armour, turned to look at and bow to the monster, who returned the bow.
The glowing rocks became a glowing treasure chest, a purple one with a silver eye of Horus on and opened without being touched.
"Only the righteous and peaceful shall pass, remember?" Yugi asked Yami, wincing and dismissing his armour.
"Sorry." They recalled their monsters as Yugi took a moment to sit down before handing out what had been in the treasure chest. Sets of angelic wings that strapped to their arms. Serenity giggled as she flapped her arms and lifted about a foot from the ground.
"Weee." She giggled as she flew upward for a moment and then dove sharply, spinning in mid air and landing next to the guys with a grin, holding the necklace Yugi had asked her to guard. "Looks like we passed; look." She held it up for the others to look. Another segment had turned red.
"Well played my young friends." They wheeled around, Yami and Joey instinctively getting at the front of the group.
Yugi pushed his way to the front, "You're the one who helped me in the last task."
"I am." The man stood in front of them nodded, his golden helmet decorated ornately. He was clothed in the manner of a warrior of Ancient Rome.
"Who are you?" Yami demanded.
"My name is of no consequence Pharaoh; I mean no harm to you or your heir. I oversee these trials, congratulations on passing level two."
"What can you tell us about the remaining three tasks?" Ombre asked, giving him an odd look.
"Only that the most difficult tasks lie ahead. You would do well to stick together."
"What should happen, if we fail?" Yugi asked, though Yami heard the hesitation in his voice on the word 'we', and it wasn't hard to work out that Yugi had wanted to say 'I'.
"You will be trapped here, until the next warrior comes."
"And if we pass?" Yami asked, sending reassurance down the link.
"Your heir will have proven himself truly worthy to be king and the power that he deserves will be his." The man vanished into the shadows that had built up further down the canyon, fading completely.
"But I don't want any more power." Yugi said with a confused sigh.
"Someone has to win it, I suppose." Joey shrugged as Ombre scowled and looked the way the man had gone, she had memories of him in the Orb, she was sure of it.
A glowing door formed up above them, in the sky.
"Time to move on?" Solomon hazarded.
"Yugi?" Serenity asked, noting how tired he seemed.
"I'm ok." Yugi nodded, smiling, "Thanks anyway."
"We'll go through the doorway," Solomon said, "And then it might be a good idea for Yugi to get a boost from Mystical Elf, if that's okay with you Serenity." Solomon ignored the exasperated look from his Grandson and looked at the apprentice healer, who nodded.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want the door to close on us." Joey half joked.
"Shall we then?" Yugi asked, flapping his arms and taking off.
"Wait for us." Joey grinned and shot up into the air, chasing his friend.
Yami was the last to take off, scowling into the darkness and wondered why the man appeared to want Yugi to gain the power invested in the game.
"Oi, Yams." Joey called, "You coming or what?"
Yami took off, determined to get Joey for the nickname, and they laughed and chased each other through the portal and into the next task.