Legacy of Shadows

5 years after Yu-Gi-Oh GX
37 miles outside Giza, Egypt

The sandstorms raged for a full week, cutting off all travel within the region. Newscasters around the world reported on it, though it held little significance. The sandstorm was nothing compared to what would soon be happening, merely a result of an angry Mother Nature letting off some excess energy. The newscasters were right though, in a way. There was something of great importance happening in the desert. They just had no idea how important. It was not their fault of course. The only person who might have had some understanding was a long way from Egypt…

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Metropolitan Theatre of Performing Arts, New York City.

He was standing behind the last row, as he always did. It wasn’t that he didn’t have tickets for the performance. Indeed, the stub sticking out of jacket pocket would have allowed him to sit in the middle of the front row, prime seating for the ballet. But he still couldn’t bring himself to sit there. His presence would not go unnoticed by her, and there had still not been enough time to let the past rest. Yet she knew he would be there, as the ticket in his pocket bore witness to.

Yugi Motou was reasonable sure that Tea knew he was there. Even after all these long years he still wore the same basic outfit, black leather jacket with black slacks, and the vest with it’s many straps. Amongst the tuxedoes and evening gowns that were the standard affair at such performances he stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. It wasn’t that he couldn’t have worn a tuxedo if he wished; with all of the money he had won at the various tournaments he could have afford the finest materials and cuts. Instead the majority of the money sat in several banks, quietly accruing interest save for the small amounts he would occasionally withdraw to pay for hotels or air fares to the next tournament.

Tea was equably distinguishable from the other dancers, her delicate Asian features clearly noticeable amongst the stark Caucasian faces. She moved with a gracefulness that belied description, flowing across the stage as if she were made of water rather then clumsy flesh and bone. Yugi stood there unblinking for the entire performance, and was perhaps one of the more enthusiastic applauders. Despite this he was still one of the first to exit the performance hall, moving through the crowd with some speed.

He could hear the whispered comments as he moved, but he paid them no heed. A few criticized his choice of dress, but most were for the deck that sat on his belt. Even at the ballet he carried it with him, a result of the many adventures of his youth. It just felt natural to have it hanging there, and he felt naked without it. It had been many years since he had dueled with the Pharaoh at his side, but even now the deck retained a small vestige of its old power. Sadly the heyday of Duel Monsters had since passed, though the game still remained popular. It was just no longer considered to be an entertaining sport such as the way baseball was, and so it drew comment from those who a decade ago had spent their evenings gossiping about him and his fellows. He had cared nothing for them then, and he ignored them now. He stepped through the doors into street, and was swallowed up by the rain.

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Tea raced through the lobby, dancing amongst the patrons of the theatre with the same grace she had displayed on stage. Some tittered at her, guessing correctly that she was chasing after the oddly dressed young man from before. Some noticed the plain yellow band on her left hand and tittered more loudly, since a scandal in the way the starlet ran. It would not make the pages of the tabloids the way Hollywood relationships do, but there would still be plenty of gossip about it the next day.

Unfortunately by the time she made it to the doors Yugi was already gone.

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Kaiba Corp. Duel Dome, NYC

“Go Elemental Hero Flame Neos!” Jaden Yuki barked. The hologram moved as commanded, smashing its shining fist through an equally large image of some bizarre horned creature. The horned creature let out a simulated roar before shattering into trillions of glittering pixels. The figure of Elemental Hero Flame Neos leapt back to Jaden’s side as numbers clicked down next to his opponent. The numbers reached zero, and the holographic display vanished as the audience roared its approval.

“A striking blow, and Jaden Yuki wins it for Team Spirit!” The announcer screamed into his microphone, provoking another roar from the crowd. Jaden turned to face them, flashing them the V for victory.

“About damn time, too,” Chazz Princeton remarked.

Alexis elbowed him in the ribs for his comment. “Hey, don’t mock my fiancée.”

“Does he have to show off like that every damn time though? His showboating is going to cost us one of these days,” Chazz replied. He noticed the hovering image of a winged Kuriboh, which was giving him a raspberry. Chazz scowled back at it, and pointed up at the black and white dragon hovering over his shoulder. Winged Kuriboh let out a squeak and ducked behind Jaden.

“You know, if you keep teasing it the crowd is only going to think that you want them to cheer louder,” Alexis scolded him. Chazz looked up at his spirit ally, and the dragon merely shrugged back. “And don’t ask your dragon either, he knows I’m right and agrees with me.”

The two watched as the announcer handed Jaden the trophy, a large statue of a three headed Blue Eyes White Dragon. Jaden held it up to the crowd, who screamed.

“So what’s next?” Chazz asked. Part of him was annoyed at Jaden’s antics, but even he enjoyed the limelight. Besides, he had made the cover of Duel Monthly last week, and the editors had called him earlier about doing an inside piece for them about Team Spirit. Granted, he was going to have to leave out the bit about their decks being manipulated by spiritual incarnations of some of their cards, but they did enough training and metagaming that he should be able to work up and article or too.

Alexis shrugged. “I don’t know, we’ll have to ask Cyrus. I seriously hope it’s another team tournament though. Some of the organizers seem to be wising up that setting things up for last round showdowns between us is getting predictable. People want to see some fresh blood against us.”

“So what does that have to do with whether it’s a team tournament or individual matches?” Chazz asked.

“Well, as a team it doesn’t matter. There’s what, maybe three other teams globally in our skill range?” Alexis asked rhetorically. Chazz nodded anyway. “None of them though have their cards working for them, at least as far as we know. But if the sponsors can make it look like we’ll be challenged by someone other then ourselves they can hype the match even more. People don’t want to see you and Jaden go at it every single time, you know.”

“Why not? Without a spirit ally it’s almost impossible to compete with us,” Chazz pointed out. “Not that I wouldn’t mind a challenge, but how can any one expect to compete with us when we have our cards fighting for us before we even play them?”

“I guess because that’s the only way we regular folks will play against the likes of you,” Alexis replied, scowling at the reminder that she didn’t have a spirit companion. She still didn’t know why, and that sort of bugged her. “People would rather believe that you and Jaden merely have uncanny luck when it comes to drawing cards then believe that your decks are rearranging themselves to fit what ever situation comes up.”

“But how can they possibly continue to believe that? It doesn’t make any sense!” Chazz protested. The two duelists began to make their way out of the arena as Jaden began to take his final bows. Even then they knew it was going to be at least another five minutes before he would catch up with them.

“Neither does having a living card guiding the action and flow of your deck, but I don’t see you complaining about that,” Alexis chided as they headed down the hallway leading to their prep room. Not every group of duelists had gotten one, making their personal room just another sign of the popularity Team Spirit had earned through its many victories.

“You know what I wish?” Chazz asked. He opened the door to the room, which was empty save for all the lavish furniture that occupied it. The coach had been upholstered in black leather, as had the matching chairs. The small table in the middle of the seats dated back to the reign of Louis the XIV. All of it had been donated from the Princeton family to ensure that their youngest son relaxed in style in between matches.

“Not really, but I’m sure you are going to tell me anyway,” Alexis answered as she collapsed into one of the chairs. Her final match had been over an hour ago, but there wasn’t a television in the room or a place to sit to watch the finals, so she had ended up standing. Being on her feet for over an hour had made the buxom blonde rather tired.

“I wish that Zane would come back from training and set up a team of his own. I’m sure that he could find duelists capable of giving us a challenge. As it is, I’m getting rather bored,” Chazz replied.

“Well, hopefully something new will come along soon,” Alexis replied hopefully.

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There had been a limo waiting for him when he exited the theatre, the real reason behind Yugi’s instantaneous disappearance. He had been hoping it would be empty, but his hopes were dashed when he found Seto Kaiba waiting in the back seat. They sat in silence as the limo drove them back to the Kaiba Corporation compound. Before they were even halfway there the silence became unbearable for Yugi.

“What do you want Kaiba?”

“Why do you do it Yugi? Why go every night and then say nothing to her?” Kaiba asked instead of answering.

“Have you never been in love Kaiba? No, from the look on your face I already know the answer,” Yugi said dismissively

“And when am I supposed to find the time?” Kaiba replied with a chuckle. “At those insufferable balls I attend, where old hags try to force their air headed daughters upon me, careless of everything save my fortune? You know me better then that Yugi. I’ve had too many people come after me to share my life with just anyone.”

“Possibly, though I think that is not the entire reason,” Yugi replied. How much to tell of what he had learned of the past? He had shared much with the others, but there had been conversations with the pharaoh that he had never shared, ones concerning destiny and the fate of the souls of the ones how had first fought Zorc more then five thousand years ago. “But anyway, you do not know what I feel and how it makes me think.”

“Perhaps, but that does not mean I can not make a guess. I think that you’re afraid to know the truth. Whether it was you she had feelings for, or whether it was the pharaoh. Why it was that she married Joey instead of you. You ask yourself these questions every time you walk into that theatre, but you run every time the answers try to give themselves to you.”

Yugi scowled at Kaiba. Unfortunately Kaiba’s guess was closer to the truth then Yugi was willing to admit. “You didn’t come with the limo tonight just to discuss my feelings Kaiba. I know you better then that,” he instead accused.

Kaiba held up his hands to quell Yugi’s temper. “You are right, there is another reason I came tonight. You remember those tests we conducted on the Millennium items?”

Yugi nodded. It had been shortly after the Pharaoh had departed for the afterworld. Several Kaiba Corp. scientists had made their way back down to the tomb and studied the items, though they had been warned to do so passively, and not disturb them in any way. “That was close to ten years ago. You said they hadn’t been able to tell much, other then that the items gave off a peculiar sort of radiation.”

“That is correct, and no, to answer your question we haven’t discovered anything new about them energy they are putting out,” Kaiba replied. “However, you may not know that there has been a large sand storm hovering over the area for close to a week now.” Kaiba opened the briefcase that had been sitting next to him and passed Yugi several reams of paper, covered in read outs and images. “I’ve had a Kaiba Corp. satellite tasked with monitoring the region around the tomb ever since the final battle. I thought that would be the best way to keep the Pharaoh’s final resting place safe. If anyone did wander too close, and there have been a few such occasions, a team was dispatched to guide them away from the tomb, by any means necessary.”

Yugi nodded in understanding. It had been one of their greatest fears since they had laid the Pharaoh to rest. It was important that the Millennium items remain safely hidden from the world, as well that their friend’s peace be left undisturbed. “You don’t think the storm is natural, do you.” It was more of a statement then a question.

“No, I’m afraid not.” Kaiba leaned over and pointed to a complicated looking graph. “This is a readout of the energy being put out by the storm. The red line indicates thermal, while the black line is the estimated kinetic energy used by the storm.” There was a large gap between the two lines, with the red line hugging the bottom of the graph, while the black was soaring near the top. “That purple line in the middle of them is giving off the same readings as the items. This storm is putting out that same amount of radiation. Here.” Kaiba passed over another sheet, this one a graph with a blue line running about a third of the way up the page and a red one nearly ninety percent of the way up. “This is a graph comparing the energy output of the items, the blue line, and the storm, the red one. As you can see the storm is putting out nearly three times as much energy as the items do.”

“Do you know what is causing the storm?” Yugi asked.

Kaiba shook his head. “No, we don’t. And that more then anything scares me.”

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36 miles outside Giza, Egypt


Zane Truesdale stood in the heart of the sand storm, letting rage all around him. He knew as much about its origins as Kaiba did, and come here to investigate. He knew what lay beneath the sands in the desolate section of desert, just as he knew about the Kaiba Corp. satellite that orbited overhead. He had taken special care to equip himself with clothes and devices that would mask him from its prying eye. He had originally set out to find the tomb as a place for training and meditation, hoping that coming to the birthplace of dueling would improve his game to the level of Jaden Yuki’s.

Now though, radar equipped goggles allowed him to peer through the stinging sands, while his GPS coordinates were displayed in shining green numbers on the lenses. He was close, at least if the information he had gotten from Pegasus had been correct. He stopped as he noticed movement in front of him. It looked as if some massive serpent was uncoiling before him. Despite the protection offered the by the sound dampeners he wore, he could hear the beast’s howl clearly. It was an anguished shriek, though it became surprisingly cheerful near the end. He stood there, willing his body motionless in the face of whatever was to come. Was it some defense left behind by the Kaiba Corporation that he hadn’t been warned of?

The shadow loomed closer as it raced through the sands towards him. Before he could turn to flee it was upon him, wrapping itself around him, and Zane knew he was doomed. What ever it was had him trapped, and he doubted that there was a human consciousness behind it. The world went dark as the radar showed nothing but a wall of darkness. Zane unthinkingly tore the goggles off, then scrambled to replace them before he realized that he was completely sheltered from the storm outside. He lowered them again, and approached the wall formed by what ever had trapped him. He knocked against it, and a metallic ringing answered him.

The wall shifted, allowing a shower of loose sand to cascade down into the area he was occupying. He looked up to find the offending gap, but instead found himself staring into a familiar pair of glowing red eyes. For the first time in five years, Zane Truesdale smiled.

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The first recorded instance of a monster coming to life came from Greenville, Ohio. Two brothers had been dueling in their backyard, preparing for an upcoming weekend tournament, when the younger of the two summoned a Hyozanryu. Expecting a hologram, the brothers were suitably surprised when the all too real dragon instead crushed their neighbor’s shed. The neighbor, hearing the destruction of his property, rushed out side and promptly called the police upon seeing the wreckage. The boys immediately halted the duel, only to be even more surprised when the dragon, instead of vanishing in a cloud of pixels, instead fell asleep. The boys were then left to explain to a pair of rather confused police officers how they had managed to defy the laws of physics. The dragon merely ignored the police officers, intent on its nap.

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Deep beneath the flowing desert sands lay a dark tomb, home to seven powerful artifacts. They had been laid to rest there so that the world would be safe from the dangers they had been forged to guard against. Five thousand years had passed since the first time they had been called upon, while a mere decade had passed since the second. Now they glimmered in the darkness, though there was no light for them to reflect. They coursed instead with a new power, one more ancient and terrifying then one they had been built to guard against. The gold they had been forged off began to fade as their light was leeched out of them, and one by one the seven Millennium Items crumbled away to nothingness. Blackened light filled their resting place, for the shadows were stirring once more, and this time they sought domination off all four of the realms.