November 5th: - 1887 Words
“Are you alright my Pharaoh?” Mana asked as she stepped onto the balcony of the throne room where Atem was leaning against the railings, looking out over the city just past the palace walls.
Atem jumped, though he covered it well, turning to face her with a rueful smile and a small nod. “Good evening, Mana.”
That wasn’t an answer, the Dark Magician Girl noted as she nodded back and joined him at the railings. Joey had returned a couple of hours ago, having been successful and, when Tobias had mentioned that Joey had been falling asleep on the way back to the palace, he had been shown to a set of guest rooms.
Atem too, had been shown to some rooms, but it looked like the Pharaoh was unable to sleep. Not that Mana could blame him.
Atem leant against the railings again and gestured to the grounds below them, where a group of Warrior type monsters were practising, “Is it always this busy this late at night?” He asked, remembering his own palace and the way practice would stop but the guard would double at night.
“Night and day don’t have the same meaning to us as they do to you, my Pharaoh.” Mana chuckled, causing Atem to give her an amused glance, “We tend to stay awake for days at a time. We don’t require sleep as much as humans do.”
Atem nodded understandingly, having wondered about that having seen the same magicians flitting around the palace for the last few hours tirelessly, while he, while unable to sleep, had slowly worn down over the day.
“You should sleep.” Mana advised, having come down to the throne room when an Apprentice Magician had informed her that the Dark Pharaoh was wandering the corridors. She had left her sleeping daughter in Aylth’s care, and followed the trail of concerned Duel Monsters until she’d found him.
She couldn’t blame him for being here. Sleep had never come easily to her friend when there were matters of great importance going on and this balcony wasn’t that different to the balcony he’d often retreated to in the palace in Egypt.
Atem just snorted at her, amused. “Still looking out for me?” He asked, giving the girl who had once been a very close friend of his a smile.
“Someone has to. You and Mahado are two of a kind.” Mana pouted, glad to have a chance to tease the Pharaoh, knowing that, while it didn’t ease Atem’s concerns completely, it did help the man’s mood. “Yugi’s no better. You’ve taught him some bad habits.”
Yami’s chuckle was a little bitter, “Perhaps.”
Silence fell as the Pharaoh slipped back into his thoughts and Mana let his mind wander. Even when they’d been children and Mahado, who’d been a few years older, had been assigned to Atem’s protection, Atem had often sought out time alone with his thoughts, especially when something major had happened at the palace. It had been part of the reason that he hadn’t moved into the much bigger quarters of his father when he’d ended up on the throne.
Noise from the gates snapped Atem out of his thoughts as Dark Knights and other, more powerful Dark monsters swarmed towards the gap in the high wall that surrounded the palace, protecting it’s occupants from land based danger.
“Stay here.” Mana half asked, half ordered the Pharaoh without thinking, before rushing out the room and heading down and out, only to be met on the way to the gate by Subhan who was looking pretty angry.
“There’s a Vanity’s Fiend at the gates. He’s demanding an audience with Mahado and the Pharaoh.” There was more to this story, Mana could tell. A Fiend turning up and demanding an audience wasn’t actually as unusual as some people would think. The Spellcasters and the Fiends were forever butting heads over magical areas, so that wouldn’t be what was making Subhan, who was normally quite placid, angry.
“Go on.” Mana urged when the blue Dark Magician hesitated.
“He was sent by Medan.” Mana’s eyes widened at that, then she gained an irritable frown.
“I see.” She growled. “Escort him to the throne room. I’ll get Mahado and we’ll speak with him there.”
“Yes, my Lady.” Subhan shot back outside and Mana darted back upstairs, towards the rooms she shared with Mahado. She didn’t need to go far, a Witch’s Apprentice had already informed Mahado that there was someone at the gates who wished to speak with him and had already started heading down.
“I told Subhan to bring him to the throne room. Atem’s already there.” Mana told her significant other. Mahado gave her a surprised look but nodded, having been unaware that his human partner had been walking around the palace.
“You can’t be too concerned about his strength if you’re willing to have him inside the palace.” Mahado commented as they strode through the corridors, pausing outside the throne room as Mahado spoke again. “Is it him?”
“No.” Mana shook her head. “He’s sent a messenger. A Fiend monster. You’re stronger than him.”
Mahado nodded and entered the room, swiftly moving to Atem’s side and informing the King of what was going on. Atem nodded swiftly, his concern swiftly changing to a much darker mood, and, before they could do or say anything else, Subhan entered the room with the Fiend in tow.
“My Lords.” The Fiend sounded smug, as if he thought he held the upper hand, bowing to Mahado and Atem, “My Lady.” He bowed to Mana.
“Quit your false pleasantries, Fiend.” Mahado snapped, levelling his staff at the dark Fiend, “What is it your master wants?”
“I wouldn’t attack.” The fiend chuckled, pulling two objects out of thin air, the sight of which made Atem hiss and the air around him darken as rage coursed through him, “After all you might damage these.”
“Aren’t those…?” Mana trailed off as the fiend opened the deck holster that had, hours before, rested on Yugi’s belt and took the cards out, shuffling through them, looking amused.
“Put Yugi’s deck down.” Atem snarled, furious.
“Medan sent me with these.” The Fiend let Yugi’s deck scatter all over the floor, causing Atem to take a step forward, ready to send the Fiend to the Shadow Realm for his infraction, only for Mana to grab his arm when the fiend went to open Harry’s deck box, “To make his point.”
“What does he want?” Mahado demanded, watching as the fiend flicked through Harry’s cards without care, extracting one and considering it carefully.
“Medan is coming to the palace. He’ll be here in just over twenty four hours. He expects you to surrender and leave the palace and the Kingdom to him.”
“Never.” Mahado snarled.
“It wouldn’t be advisable for me to go back with that answer.” The Fiend, who still hadn’t given his name, snorted, looking more and more amused by the second, “After all, Medan told me that he’d kill the Pharaoh of Light and the Prince if you were unreasonable.”
Mana had to let go of Atem’s arm when his magic reacted to his rage by burning those it touched. “Pharaoh, no!” She yelped as the magic lashed out, knocking the fiend, who dropped Harry’s deck which scattered on the floor as well, into one of the huge double doors, causing it to slam shut.
Before anyone could move, Atem had swept across the room, grabbed the Fiend by the collar and demanded, “Where are they?”
The Fiend’s yellow eyes glowed.
Atem went flying, hitting the floor hard and, by the time he had struggled to his feet, Mahado had already moved between the injured Pharaoh and the Fiend.
“So you want Medan to kill your friends?” The Fiend asked of Atem, who growled, low and dangerous, but didn’t attack again. “I suggest that you be ready to surrender by the time Medan gets here.” He looked at Mahado.
“I have a message for you to send back to your Master.” Mahado snarled, pointing his staff at the Fiend, who suddenly looked rather nervous, having assumed that Mahado wouldn’t risk attacking him. “If anything happens to either of those humans, I will make the rest of his existence so painful that he’ll wish to be sent to the graveyard. If he wants my Kingdom then he should fight me face to face, not endanger others in his quest for power.”
With that Mahado loosed a Dark Magic Attack that disintegrated the fiend.
Atem gave his partner an amused, if irritated look, “I doubt he can give anyone any messages now.”
“He’ll be back.” Mahado waved it off, forcing the anger away. “Duel Monsters here don’t die. If we’re destroyed, we just Resummon. He’ll be back and reporting to Medan within twelve hours. If anything I should have let him go and gotten someone to follow him.”
Atem growled, nodding, rotating the shoulder that had hit the floor and wincing slightly. Mahado felt the pain through the link he shared with his Duellist and let out a long sigh. “Mana, would you see if Princess Pikeru’s still around. I know she and Curran weren’t supposed to be heading home until tomorrow morning but everything has been so crazy around here…”
“I’ll find out.” Mana nodded, well aware that Pikeru’s effect involved life point recovery, before rushing out of the room.
“I apologise, Mahado.” Atem said slowly, as he finally calmed down completely and started to pick up the cards that had been strewn across the room, separating the cards into two piles, and slipping them into their cases as he did so. “I should have had more control.”
“It was understandable, Pharaoh.” Mahado said, helping him, not as knowledgeable about the decks as Atem, but more than able to work it out which monsters belonged to which Duellist, “If anything you’ve been rather calm during this whole ordeal.”
“Heh.” Atem looked amused. “I’ve done a good job hiding my concern then.”
“From the others, yes. From Mana and me, not so much. We know you far too well.” Mahado said, as Atem considered a pair of spell cards and put them into their respective deck holders.
“Even after all this time?” Atem asked, still feeling guilty that Mahado had done what he had done in his attempts to stop Bakura.
“Even after all this time.” Mahado nodded, all too aware of Atem’s feelings on the matter. “We were, after all, your best friends back in Egypt.”
“And I’m grateful to have you at my side now.” Atem nodded, giving his old friend and protector a small smile, trying not to wonder if Mahado felt that Atem had tried to replace the pair of them with his friends in the modern age. “Mahado I… I wanted to apologise for not knowing you or what you’d done for me before… I… I should have recognised you.”
Mahado snorted, “How? You couldn’t have known? You had almost no memories of Egypt. You couldn’t have known who I was, or the role I filled. It isn’t your fault.”
Atem opened his mouth to say something else as he slipped the last card into Yugi’s deck holster, but Mana and Pikeru entered the room and the conversation was put on hold until a later date.
Atem jumped, though he covered it well, turning to face her with a rueful smile and a small nod. “Good evening, Mana.”
That wasn’t an answer, the Dark Magician Girl noted as she nodded back and joined him at the railings. Joey had returned a couple of hours ago, having been successful and, when Tobias had mentioned that Joey had been falling asleep on the way back to the palace, he had been shown to a set of guest rooms.
Atem too, had been shown to some rooms, but it looked like the Pharaoh was unable to sleep. Not that Mana could blame him.
Atem leant against the railings again and gestured to the grounds below them, where a group of Warrior type monsters were practising, “Is it always this busy this late at night?” He asked, remembering his own palace and the way practice would stop but the guard would double at night.
“Night and day don’t have the same meaning to us as they do to you, my Pharaoh.” Mana chuckled, causing Atem to give her an amused glance, “We tend to stay awake for days at a time. We don’t require sleep as much as humans do.”
Atem nodded understandingly, having wondered about that having seen the same magicians flitting around the palace for the last few hours tirelessly, while he, while unable to sleep, had slowly worn down over the day.
“You should sleep.” Mana advised, having come down to the throne room when an Apprentice Magician had informed her that the Dark Pharaoh was wandering the corridors. She had left her sleeping daughter in Aylth’s care, and followed the trail of concerned Duel Monsters until she’d found him.
She couldn’t blame him for being here. Sleep had never come easily to her friend when there were matters of great importance going on and this balcony wasn’t that different to the balcony he’d often retreated to in the palace in Egypt.
Atem just snorted at her, amused. “Still looking out for me?” He asked, giving the girl who had once been a very close friend of his a smile.
“Someone has to. You and Mahado are two of a kind.” Mana pouted, glad to have a chance to tease the Pharaoh, knowing that, while it didn’t ease Atem’s concerns completely, it did help the man’s mood. “Yugi’s no better. You’ve taught him some bad habits.”
Yami’s chuckle was a little bitter, “Perhaps.”
Silence fell as the Pharaoh slipped back into his thoughts and Mana let his mind wander. Even when they’d been children and Mahado, who’d been a few years older, had been assigned to Atem’s protection, Atem had often sought out time alone with his thoughts, especially when something major had happened at the palace. It had been part of the reason that he hadn’t moved into the much bigger quarters of his father when he’d ended up on the throne.
Noise from the gates snapped Atem out of his thoughts as Dark Knights and other, more powerful Dark monsters swarmed towards the gap in the high wall that surrounded the palace, protecting it’s occupants from land based danger.
“Stay here.” Mana half asked, half ordered the Pharaoh without thinking, before rushing out the room and heading down and out, only to be met on the way to the gate by Subhan who was looking pretty angry.
“There’s a Vanity’s Fiend at the gates. He’s demanding an audience with Mahado and the Pharaoh.” There was more to this story, Mana could tell. A Fiend turning up and demanding an audience wasn’t actually as unusual as some people would think. The Spellcasters and the Fiends were forever butting heads over magical areas, so that wouldn’t be what was making Subhan, who was normally quite placid, angry.
“Go on.” Mana urged when the blue Dark Magician hesitated.
“He was sent by Medan.” Mana’s eyes widened at that, then she gained an irritable frown.
“I see.” She growled. “Escort him to the throne room. I’ll get Mahado and we’ll speak with him there.”
“Yes, my Lady.” Subhan shot back outside and Mana darted back upstairs, towards the rooms she shared with Mahado. She didn’t need to go far, a Witch’s Apprentice had already informed Mahado that there was someone at the gates who wished to speak with him and had already started heading down.
“I told Subhan to bring him to the throne room. Atem’s already there.” Mana told her significant other. Mahado gave her a surprised look but nodded, having been unaware that his human partner had been walking around the palace.
“You can’t be too concerned about his strength if you’re willing to have him inside the palace.” Mahado commented as they strode through the corridors, pausing outside the throne room as Mahado spoke again. “Is it him?”
“No.” Mana shook her head. “He’s sent a messenger. A Fiend monster. You’re stronger than him.”
Mahado nodded and entered the room, swiftly moving to Atem’s side and informing the King of what was going on. Atem nodded swiftly, his concern swiftly changing to a much darker mood, and, before they could do or say anything else, Subhan entered the room with the Fiend in tow.
“My Lords.” The Fiend sounded smug, as if he thought he held the upper hand, bowing to Mahado and Atem, “My Lady.” He bowed to Mana.
“Quit your false pleasantries, Fiend.” Mahado snapped, levelling his staff at the dark Fiend, “What is it your master wants?”
“I wouldn’t attack.” The fiend chuckled, pulling two objects out of thin air, the sight of which made Atem hiss and the air around him darken as rage coursed through him, “After all you might damage these.”
“Aren’t those…?” Mana trailed off as the fiend opened the deck holster that had, hours before, rested on Yugi’s belt and took the cards out, shuffling through them, looking amused.
“Put Yugi’s deck down.” Atem snarled, furious.
“Medan sent me with these.” The Fiend let Yugi’s deck scatter all over the floor, causing Atem to take a step forward, ready to send the Fiend to the Shadow Realm for his infraction, only for Mana to grab his arm when the fiend went to open Harry’s deck box, “To make his point.”
“What does he want?” Mahado demanded, watching as the fiend flicked through Harry’s cards without care, extracting one and considering it carefully.
“Medan is coming to the palace. He’ll be here in just over twenty four hours. He expects you to surrender and leave the palace and the Kingdom to him.”
“Never.” Mahado snarled.
“It wouldn’t be advisable for me to go back with that answer.” The Fiend, who still hadn’t given his name, snorted, looking more and more amused by the second, “After all, Medan told me that he’d kill the Pharaoh of Light and the Prince if you were unreasonable.”
Mana had to let go of Atem’s arm when his magic reacted to his rage by burning those it touched. “Pharaoh, no!” She yelped as the magic lashed out, knocking the fiend, who dropped Harry’s deck which scattered on the floor as well, into one of the huge double doors, causing it to slam shut.
Before anyone could move, Atem had swept across the room, grabbed the Fiend by the collar and demanded, “Where are they?”
The Fiend’s yellow eyes glowed.
Atem went flying, hitting the floor hard and, by the time he had struggled to his feet, Mahado had already moved between the injured Pharaoh and the Fiend.
“So you want Medan to kill your friends?” The Fiend asked of Atem, who growled, low and dangerous, but didn’t attack again. “I suggest that you be ready to surrender by the time Medan gets here.” He looked at Mahado.
“I have a message for you to send back to your Master.” Mahado snarled, pointing his staff at the Fiend, who suddenly looked rather nervous, having assumed that Mahado wouldn’t risk attacking him. “If anything happens to either of those humans, I will make the rest of his existence so painful that he’ll wish to be sent to the graveyard. If he wants my Kingdom then he should fight me face to face, not endanger others in his quest for power.”
With that Mahado loosed a Dark Magic Attack that disintegrated the fiend.
Atem gave his partner an amused, if irritated look, “I doubt he can give anyone any messages now.”
“He’ll be back.” Mahado waved it off, forcing the anger away. “Duel Monsters here don’t die. If we’re destroyed, we just Resummon. He’ll be back and reporting to Medan within twelve hours. If anything I should have let him go and gotten someone to follow him.”
Atem growled, nodding, rotating the shoulder that had hit the floor and wincing slightly. Mahado felt the pain through the link he shared with his Duellist and let out a long sigh. “Mana, would you see if Princess Pikeru’s still around. I know she and Curran weren’t supposed to be heading home until tomorrow morning but everything has been so crazy around here…”
“I’ll find out.” Mana nodded, well aware that Pikeru’s effect involved life point recovery, before rushing out of the room.
“I apologise, Mahado.” Atem said slowly, as he finally calmed down completely and started to pick up the cards that had been strewn across the room, separating the cards into two piles, and slipping them into their cases as he did so. “I should have had more control.”
“It was understandable, Pharaoh.” Mahado said, helping him, not as knowledgeable about the decks as Atem, but more than able to work it out which monsters belonged to which Duellist, “If anything you’ve been rather calm during this whole ordeal.”
“Heh.” Atem looked amused. “I’ve done a good job hiding my concern then.”
“From the others, yes. From Mana and me, not so much. We know you far too well.” Mahado said, as Atem considered a pair of spell cards and put them into their respective deck holders.
“Even after all this time?” Atem asked, still feeling guilty that Mahado had done what he had done in his attempts to stop Bakura.
“Even after all this time.” Mahado nodded, all too aware of Atem’s feelings on the matter. “We were, after all, your best friends back in Egypt.”
“And I’m grateful to have you at my side now.” Atem nodded, giving his old friend and protector a small smile, trying not to wonder if Mahado felt that Atem had tried to replace the pair of them with his friends in the modern age. “Mahado I… I wanted to apologise for not knowing you or what you’d done for me before… I… I should have recognised you.”
Mahado snorted, “How? You couldn’t have known? You had almost no memories of Egypt. You couldn’t have known who I was, or the role I filled. It isn’t your fault.”
Atem opened his mouth to say something else as he slipped the last card into Yugi’s deck holster, but Mana and Pikeru entered the room and the conversation was put on hold until a later date.