November 9th: - 2160 Words
“Do you understand any of this?” Joey asked, frustration seeping through as he ran a hand through his hair and glowered at the notes he was reading.
Atem gave him a bemused look, having wondered if Joey understood the texts they’d been going through, “Enough.” The Pharaoh replied, “But it doesn’t help that none of these notes seem to be in any sort of order.”
Joey snorted, “I know what you mean,” The blonde said, “Hermione would be banging her head against the wall right now.”
Atem smirked at the mental image of Hermione tutting and proceeding to organise all the notes floating around flawlessly. The look didn’t last long, as the magnitude of the job at hand sank back in, especially now he knew that Joey didn’t get any of this.
“We really need her right now.” He groaned, feeling like he wanted to bang his head against a wall (and it would probably be more productive) only to pale slightly when his magic activated of its own accord and Hermione appeared in front of them, looking very very confused.
“What did you do?!” Joey demanded of the Pharaoh, who looked just as shocked as Hermione.
“I…uhhh… don’t know…”
“Yami Atem Mutou!” Hermione growled at the Pharaoh, stalking over with an irritated look on her face, “What did you do?! Where are we?!”
“I think I called you here.” Atem said, refusing to back away from the teenager, no matter how intimidating she looked, “We’re in the Monster World…”
“The Monster World?” Hermione’s eyes widened as she looked around quickly. “How did you summon me? What are you doing here?”
“A Dark Magician kidnapped Yugi and Harry.” Joey answered her as Atem’s face darkened, “We’ve been trying to go through his notes and work out what his plans are but we’re not having much luck.”
“Medan’s organisational skills make Joey’s look competent.” Atem nodded.
“Hey!”
“So you called me here to help you organise this mess?” Hermione looked ill amused as she considered the sheer mess that was the study.
“Ummm… sorry?” Atem asked.
Hermione glowered at the Pharaoh and was about to speak when Atem shot to his feet with a panicked expression on his face, knocking over the chair he’d been sat on and shooting out the door.
“Yami!” Joey caught up with his friend in the corridor and grabbed the Pharaoh’s arm, stopping his friend in his tracks, attempting to ignore the glare that Atem was sending his way. “Atem, what’s wrong?”
“Yugi!” Atem looked pale as he tried to pull his arm out of Joey’s grasp, a move that failed, as Joey was much stronger, physically, than the Pharaoh. “He’s…”
“You can sense him?” Joey asked, surprised considering Atem hadn’t been able to sense anything bar the fact that his link partners were alive since they’d arrived here.
“Yes… no…” Atem shuddered as Yugi’s fear coursed through him and the hikari’s light dimmed, fading further and further away with each passing moment.
“Yami what is it?” Hermione asked, rushing to her friend’s side as Joey let go of the Pharaoh’s arm.
Atem took a deep breath as Yugi’s fear and desperation suddenly receded and Atem stopped sensing his hikari’s emotions again, the light regaining strength as the Pharaoh calmed himself down.
“Emotional echo.” Atem said finally, shaking slightly, “Yugi was…” He shook his head. He’d never sensed that much fear from his hikari before, not even when Yugi had been fighting Voldemort within his Soul Room…
“Easy Atem.” Joey murmured, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder, watching the Pharaoh attempt to hide his emotions.
“We should get back to work.” Atem said, faking calm.
“Is he ok?” Hermione asked, biting her lower lip.
“I…” Atem was about to reassure Hermione when Yugi’s light went out, leaving the Pharaoh reeling.
No… Yugi couldn’t be…
Atem’s mind darted down the link, trying to reach the unreachable and his body toppled backwards.
“Yami!” Joey caught his friend as the Pharaoh collapsed. “Tobias, call Mahado! Yami just collapsed. I think it’s something to do with Yugi.” Joey shook his friend slightly. “Yami.” The Pharaoh was awake, or appeared to be, his eyes were open, but there was no response. “Atem.” Joey shook him again, “Come on pal.”
Tobias didn’t need to call Mahado. The Dark Magician appeared at Atem’s side, giving Hermione a shocked look before taking his partner from Joey, scooping up the Pharaoh, whose eyes showed no signs of any sort of emotions, and carrying him into his own study, where a sofa bed, installed by Mana, who had taken the idea from the one that had rested in Kari’s office, rested just inside the door.
Setting the Pharaoh down carefully, Mahado looked at the other two. “What happened? I sensed him collapse.”
“He freaked out in Medan’s study, said there was something wrong with Yugi.” Joey told him, concerned that Atem had shown no signs of snapping out of it yet. “I thought whatever it was was over when Atem seemed to snap out of it. Then…” Joey gestured towards the Pharaoh’s limp form.
“If Medan’s…” Mahado’s balled his hands into fists, his knuckles turning white as anger coursed through the Dark Magician.
Atem shuddered and blinked, sitting up slowly, drawing his knees up to his chest and lowering his head as he did so.
“Atem?” Hermione asked, concerned when the Pharaoh didn’t move.
The Pharaoh muttered something in Egyptian that caused Mahado to rest his hands on Atem’s shoulders and murmur something back in the same language, the tone sounding reassuring.
Hermione knew the written language, she’d learnt it from Kari over the course of the first couple of years of Hogwarts, but she didn’t know enough of the spoken language to catch more then a couple of words as the pair conversed in the Ancient language for a couple of minutes, then the Pharaoh uncurled himself, looking considerably calmer then he had upon his flight from Medan’s study as he looked at the others. “I apologise, Joey, Hermione.” He said, giving them both a nod, “Yugi’s light went out for a few moments and I feared…”
Joey waved it off, well aware what Yugi’s light going out could have meant. Just the thought of it extinguishing for even a short moment of time made Joey shudder. “It’s back now?”
“Yes.” Atem nodded, noting the relief on his friends faces, “Its back. We should get back to work.”
“I have one question before you do.” Mahado said, turning to look at Hermione, confused. “How did you get here?”
“Blame him.” Hermione pointed at the Pharaoh, remembering how irritated she had been about being dragged into the Monster World without warning. “I was on a bus. I vanished off of a bus. Can you imagine how much people are going to be freaking out?”
“I said I was sorry!” Atem protested.
“I’d better tell Aylth and Mana you’re here.” Mahado said, trying not facepalm, imagining the reactions of the two in question if someone tried to hide the fact that Hermione was here.
“We already know.” Everyone winced at Mana’s tone as they turned to look through the doorway, where Aylth and Mana stood, looking unhappy to say the least.
“Mana, Aylth, hi.” Hermione smiled at the pair, who smiled back at her before glowering at Mahado.
“And you brought our Duellist here, why?” Aylth growled, “Not that we’re not happy to see her…”
“It’s not my fault.” Mahado protested.
Atem looked amused as he got to his feet, “It’s mine. I accidently called her here. We need her help with Medan’s notes.”
The two female Spellcasters turned their glowers on the Pharaoh, who had to fight not to run away. What was it with women and managing to look really scary without being physically imposing? Tea had always been a master of the trick too.
“Don’t kill him.” Hermione’s exasperated mental tone caused Aylth to turn to her with a concerned look. “It’s not his fault he’s still working out what he can and can’t do.”
But…
“If they need my help, I’ll help. But someone should tell my parents where I’ve gone.” Hermione sighed heavily.
Mana and Aylth looked at each other, nodded, making the guys nervous, then Mana spoke. “We’d like a word with you before you start helping the guys, alright?”
Hermione nodded and followed her monsters out.
Joey let out a nervous chuckle. “So how does it feel to have escaped the chopping block?” He asked Atem, who just chuckled, glad of the reprieve, and exited the room, heading back towards Medan’s room, righting the chair he’d knocked over before settling down again to continue going through the notes.
Joey had followed him in and was about to start going through the incomprehensible notes again when Hermione stalked down the corridor, into the study and slapped Atem round the back of the head, causing the Pharaoh to jump a mile.
“What was that for?” He demanded, glowering, as Joey re-entered the room, trying to hide his amusement at Hermione’s actions.
“Several things.” The witch glowered right back, having got over the fact that her friend was an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh years ago, long before he’d had his memories back, and not in the mood to play nice, “Including the fight in the throne room, the fact you haven’t been sleeping properly and the fact that you haven’t noticed that you haven’t needed to eat even though you’ve been here nearly a full day.”
“Easy, Mione.” Joey said, defending Atem, uncomfortably aware, now Hermione had brought it up, that he hadn’t been eating or anything along those lines except sleeping either, “He’s had a lot on his mind.”
She turned and stalked over to Joey, “You’re no better.” She said, poking the blonde in the chest, “You’re just as bad as he is. You haven’t eaten or drank anything the whole time you’ve been here and you only slept seven hours between you. You should be dead on your feet! Or at least have a splitting headache...”
“Hermione...” Atem started, about to say something in an attempt to calm her down.
“Mahado should take the pair of you back.”
Atem scowled. “We’re not going anywhere.” He growled at her.
“Your bodies aren’t acting like human ones.” Hermione shot back, staring him down, “How much longer will it be before you’re too much like a Duel Monster to go home?”
That struck a nerve.
Joey pushed himself carefully away from the desk he’d been sat at and considered himself properly. He hadn’t eaten since long before he’d gotten here, as Medan’s arrival had thrown any meal plans they’d had out of the window, and hadn’t drank anything in about the same amount of time. Nor had he needed to use the loo once during the last twenty two hours. He had slept, but only for a few hours, and even that hadn’t been until he’d already been awake for far longer then he would have been in the human world.
Hermione was right. Worryingly their bodies weren’t acting anything like normal.
“I’m not leaving without Yugi and Harry.” Atem said stubbornly.
“Atem...”
“No, Hermione.” Atem growled, “I’m not leaving without them.”
“Not even for a few hours?”
“No.”
“Maybe we should trade off then.” Hermione sighed, looking at Joey, “I’ll take a few hours, you take a few hours. Maybe that way we’ll last a little longer.”
“You have to come through the Shadow Realm to get here.” Joey said warily, “I’m not sure it’s any safer.”
“Yugi and Harry will be going through the same thing.” Atem pointed out. “And they’re not going to get the chance to ‘trade off’ in order to prevent it.”
Atem had a point, though Hermione didn’t want to admit it and that didn’t mean that she had to let Atem turn himself into a Duel Monster, “And what happens if we find them, but you’ve pushed yourself to the point where you’ve changed?” Hermione asked, “Yugi’s not going to want to leave if you can’t.”
“I’m not leaving.”
It was like talking to a brick wall. Worse. At least the brick wall didn’t repeat the same thing over and over again.
“Fine. Don’t.” Hermione threw up her hands, exasperated, “At least tell me what you want me to do then get out so I don’t have to watch you slowly turn into whatever your Ka beast is.”
Joey, who was still thinking about what Hermione had said, watched as an irritated Pharaoh told her exactly what they were looking for and then got shooed out of the room by a just as irritable Hermione.
“And you.” Hermione scowled at him, when she saw he wasn’t moving. “If you’re not going to be reasonable and head back to our world for a few hours, get out. Aylth and I can handle this.” She pointed out the door as the Millennium Witch entered, looking confused.
Joey left.
Atem gave him a bemused look, having wondered if Joey understood the texts they’d been going through, “Enough.” The Pharaoh replied, “But it doesn’t help that none of these notes seem to be in any sort of order.”
Joey snorted, “I know what you mean,” The blonde said, “Hermione would be banging her head against the wall right now.”
Atem smirked at the mental image of Hermione tutting and proceeding to organise all the notes floating around flawlessly. The look didn’t last long, as the magnitude of the job at hand sank back in, especially now he knew that Joey didn’t get any of this.
“We really need her right now.” He groaned, feeling like he wanted to bang his head against a wall (and it would probably be more productive) only to pale slightly when his magic activated of its own accord and Hermione appeared in front of them, looking very very confused.
“What did you do?!” Joey demanded of the Pharaoh, who looked just as shocked as Hermione.
“I…uhhh… don’t know…”
“Yami Atem Mutou!” Hermione growled at the Pharaoh, stalking over with an irritated look on her face, “What did you do?! Where are we?!”
“I think I called you here.” Atem said, refusing to back away from the teenager, no matter how intimidating she looked, “We’re in the Monster World…”
“The Monster World?” Hermione’s eyes widened as she looked around quickly. “How did you summon me? What are you doing here?”
“A Dark Magician kidnapped Yugi and Harry.” Joey answered her as Atem’s face darkened, “We’ve been trying to go through his notes and work out what his plans are but we’re not having much luck.”
“Medan’s organisational skills make Joey’s look competent.” Atem nodded.
“Hey!”
“So you called me here to help you organise this mess?” Hermione looked ill amused as she considered the sheer mess that was the study.
“Ummm… sorry?” Atem asked.
Hermione glowered at the Pharaoh and was about to speak when Atem shot to his feet with a panicked expression on his face, knocking over the chair he’d been sat on and shooting out the door.
“Yami!” Joey caught up with his friend in the corridor and grabbed the Pharaoh’s arm, stopping his friend in his tracks, attempting to ignore the glare that Atem was sending his way. “Atem, what’s wrong?”
“Yugi!” Atem looked pale as he tried to pull his arm out of Joey’s grasp, a move that failed, as Joey was much stronger, physically, than the Pharaoh. “He’s…”
“You can sense him?” Joey asked, surprised considering Atem hadn’t been able to sense anything bar the fact that his link partners were alive since they’d arrived here.
“Yes… no…” Atem shuddered as Yugi’s fear coursed through him and the hikari’s light dimmed, fading further and further away with each passing moment.
“Yami what is it?” Hermione asked, rushing to her friend’s side as Joey let go of the Pharaoh’s arm.
Atem took a deep breath as Yugi’s fear and desperation suddenly receded and Atem stopped sensing his hikari’s emotions again, the light regaining strength as the Pharaoh calmed himself down.
“Emotional echo.” Atem said finally, shaking slightly, “Yugi was…” He shook his head. He’d never sensed that much fear from his hikari before, not even when Yugi had been fighting Voldemort within his Soul Room…
“Easy Atem.” Joey murmured, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder, watching the Pharaoh attempt to hide his emotions.
“We should get back to work.” Atem said, faking calm.
“Is he ok?” Hermione asked, biting her lower lip.
“I…” Atem was about to reassure Hermione when Yugi’s light went out, leaving the Pharaoh reeling.
No… Yugi couldn’t be…
Atem’s mind darted down the link, trying to reach the unreachable and his body toppled backwards.
“Yami!” Joey caught his friend as the Pharaoh collapsed. “Tobias, call Mahado! Yami just collapsed. I think it’s something to do with Yugi.” Joey shook his friend slightly. “Yami.” The Pharaoh was awake, or appeared to be, his eyes were open, but there was no response. “Atem.” Joey shook him again, “Come on pal.”
Tobias didn’t need to call Mahado. The Dark Magician appeared at Atem’s side, giving Hermione a shocked look before taking his partner from Joey, scooping up the Pharaoh, whose eyes showed no signs of any sort of emotions, and carrying him into his own study, where a sofa bed, installed by Mana, who had taken the idea from the one that had rested in Kari’s office, rested just inside the door.
Setting the Pharaoh down carefully, Mahado looked at the other two. “What happened? I sensed him collapse.”
“He freaked out in Medan’s study, said there was something wrong with Yugi.” Joey told him, concerned that Atem had shown no signs of snapping out of it yet. “I thought whatever it was was over when Atem seemed to snap out of it. Then…” Joey gestured towards the Pharaoh’s limp form.
“If Medan’s…” Mahado’s balled his hands into fists, his knuckles turning white as anger coursed through the Dark Magician.
Atem shuddered and blinked, sitting up slowly, drawing his knees up to his chest and lowering his head as he did so.
“Atem?” Hermione asked, concerned when the Pharaoh didn’t move.
The Pharaoh muttered something in Egyptian that caused Mahado to rest his hands on Atem’s shoulders and murmur something back in the same language, the tone sounding reassuring.
Hermione knew the written language, she’d learnt it from Kari over the course of the first couple of years of Hogwarts, but she didn’t know enough of the spoken language to catch more then a couple of words as the pair conversed in the Ancient language for a couple of minutes, then the Pharaoh uncurled himself, looking considerably calmer then he had upon his flight from Medan’s study as he looked at the others. “I apologise, Joey, Hermione.” He said, giving them both a nod, “Yugi’s light went out for a few moments and I feared…”
Joey waved it off, well aware what Yugi’s light going out could have meant. Just the thought of it extinguishing for even a short moment of time made Joey shudder. “It’s back now?”
“Yes.” Atem nodded, noting the relief on his friends faces, “Its back. We should get back to work.”
“I have one question before you do.” Mahado said, turning to look at Hermione, confused. “How did you get here?”
“Blame him.” Hermione pointed at the Pharaoh, remembering how irritated she had been about being dragged into the Monster World without warning. “I was on a bus. I vanished off of a bus. Can you imagine how much people are going to be freaking out?”
“I said I was sorry!” Atem protested.
“I’d better tell Aylth and Mana you’re here.” Mahado said, trying not facepalm, imagining the reactions of the two in question if someone tried to hide the fact that Hermione was here.
“We already know.” Everyone winced at Mana’s tone as they turned to look through the doorway, where Aylth and Mana stood, looking unhappy to say the least.
“Mana, Aylth, hi.” Hermione smiled at the pair, who smiled back at her before glowering at Mahado.
“And you brought our Duellist here, why?” Aylth growled, “Not that we’re not happy to see her…”
“It’s not my fault.” Mahado protested.
Atem looked amused as he got to his feet, “It’s mine. I accidently called her here. We need her help with Medan’s notes.”
The two female Spellcasters turned their glowers on the Pharaoh, who had to fight not to run away. What was it with women and managing to look really scary without being physically imposing? Tea had always been a master of the trick too.
“Don’t kill him.” Hermione’s exasperated mental tone caused Aylth to turn to her with a concerned look. “It’s not his fault he’s still working out what he can and can’t do.”
But…
“If they need my help, I’ll help. But someone should tell my parents where I’ve gone.” Hermione sighed heavily.
Mana and Aylth looked at each other, nodded, making the guys nervous, then Mana spoke. “We’d like a word with you before you start helping the guys, alright?”
Hermione nodded and followed her monsters out.
Joey let out a nervous chuckle. “So how does it feel to have escaped the chopping block?” He asked Atem, who just chuckled, glad of the reprieve, and exited the room, heading back towards Medan’s room, righting the chair he’d knocked over before settling down again to continue going through the notes.
Joey had followed him in and was about to start going through the incomprehensible notes again when Hermione stalked down the corridor, into the study and slapped Atem round the back of the head, causing the Pharaoh to jump a mile.
“What was that for?” He demanded, glowering, as Joey re-entered the room, trying to hide his amusement at Hermione’s actions.
“Several things.” The witch glowered right back, having got over the fact that her friend was an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh years ago, long before he’d had his memories back, and not in the mood to play nice, “Including the fight in the throne room, the fact you haven’t been sleeping properly and the fact that you haven’t noticed that you haven’t needed to eat even though you’ve been here nearly a full day.”
“Easy, Mione.” Joey said, defending Atem, uncomfortably aware, now Hermione had brought it up, that he hadn’t been eating or anything along those lines except sleeping either, “He’s had a lot on his mind.”
She turned and stalked over to Joey, “You’re no better.” She said, poking the blonde in the chest, “You’re just as bad as he is. You haven’t eaten or drank anything the whole time you’ve been here and you only slept seven hours between you. You should be dead on your feet! Or at least have a splitting headache...”
“Hermione...” Atem started, about to say something in an attempt to calm her down.
“Mahado should take the pair of you back.”
Atem scowled. “We’re not going anywhere.” He growled at her.
“Your bodies aren’t acting like human ones.” Hermione shot back, staring him down, “How much longer will it be before you’re too much like a Duel Monster to go home?”
That struck a nerve.
Joey pushed himself carefully away from the desk he’d been sat at and considered himself properly. He hadn’t eaten since long before he’d gotten here, as Medan’s arrival had thrown any meal plans they’d had out of the window, and hadn’t drank anything in about the same amount of time. Nor had he needed to use the loo once during the last twenty two hours. He had slept, but only for a few hours, and even that hadn’t been until he’d already been awake for far longer then he would have been in the human world.
Hermione was right. Worryingly their bodies weren’t acting anything like normal.
“I’m not leaving without Yugi and Harry.” Atem said stubbornly.
“Atem...”
“No, Hermione.” Atem growled, “I’m not leaving without them.”
“Not even for a few hours?”
“No.”
“Maybe we should trade off then.” Hermione sighed, looking at Joey, “I’ll take a few hours, you take a few hours. Maybe that way we’ll last a little longer.”
“You have to come through the Shadow Realm to get here.” Joey said warily, “I’m not sure it’s any safer.”
“Yugi and Harry will be going through the same thing.” Atem pointed out. “And they’re not going to get the chance to ‘trade off’ in order to prevent it.”
Atem had a point, though Hermione didn’t want to admit it and that didn’t mean that she had to let Atem turn himself into a Duel Monster, “And what happens if we find them, but you’ve pushed yourself to the point where you’ve changed?” Hermione asked, “Yugi’s not going to want to leave if you can’t.”
“I’m not leaving.”
It was like talking to a brick wall. Worse. At least the brick wall didn’t repeat the same thing over and over again.
“Fine. Don’t.” Hermione threw up her hands, exasperated, “At least tell me what you want me to do then get out so I don’t have to watch you slowly turn into whatever your Ka beast is.”
Joey, who was still thinking about what Hermione had said, watched as an irritated Pharaoh told her exactly what they were looking for and then got shooed out of the room by a just as irritable Hermione.
“And you.” Hermione scowled at him, when she saw he wasn’t moving. “If you’re not going to be reasonable and head back to our world for a few hours, get out. Aylth and I can handle this.” She pointed out the door as the Millennium Witch entered, looking confused.
Joey left.