Cursed Millennium Necklace (Part 1)

DIMENSION: ANIME (The One that Pays to Save the Day)

*It's been a little while since we switched to the anime, so a brief summary so far. Masika was a card that had a cat friend in the Ties of Friendship (the card only existed in the anime.) She left the game arena but shared a soul with Anzu. Mai is marrying Skeezy, so Joey tried to free her from his grasp. Skeezy suspected things and is sending him and Mai to save Téa. Téa was kidnapped, but Atem couldn't help because Yuugi wasn't near her. He casted himself as some kind of sacrifice, along with Masika, to use the monsters again. Also, Kaiba had been visited by the goddesses years ago, but forgot. He and Serenity share moments, trying to figure out the connection they felt to each other. Serenity remembered, and took off.*

YUGI

Yugi woke up to a room. A familiar room he had not seen in ages. Young. Innocent. It now had some other things inside of it too, like his new games. "Huh?" Last time that happened without the Millennium Puzzle, it was Shadi using the Millennium Key to check his mind in Duelist Kingdom. Shadi was gone now too. ///Yugi: Why am I here?/// Why could he possibly be there?

Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe he was dreaming of the past. Sure, that was possible. ///Yugi: So wake up and dream about something else./// It wasn't working, and it didn't feel like a dream. He recognized that feeling. ///Yugi: It's impossible. It's absolutely impossible, it can't be./// It couldn't.

Yet, Yugi grabbed the familiar door. "The sooner I see this is a dream, the sooner my mind will let me wake up." When he opened it, he saw the familiar pharaoh's door. ///Yugi: Just a dream, it has to be.///

Then, he heard the creaking sound of the door opening. Out of the shadows, Atem was there. "Yugi?"

"This has to be a dream," Yugi said. "This has to be."

"You've grown," Atem said. " . . . what happened?"

What happened? "I'm dreaming is what's happening," Yugi said, "because this can't be real. You moved on."

"I was supposed to." Atem looked confused. "We dueled. I lost. Then, I was right back here."

"What? No, you've been gone for years!" Yugi said. He looked at himself. He still looked the same. "It's been some time. You found peace. What happened?" Atem didn't look like he knew any better than Yugi. "This can't be."

"As many times as you say it," Atem said, a sad dissonance within his voice, "it must be. I have not been allowed to leave."

"But you did. I know you did. You were gone, you weren't here, at all." Yugi lived, he went on with his own life. There was no one else inside of him anymore.

"Then I must have found peace, but it's been interrupted." Atem looked around himself. "This looks like the puzzle, Yugi. Yet, it doesn't feel the same."

"That's because it can't be, all the millennium items fell into a huge pit, trapped in a crumbled up-" Yugi stopped. He wasn't making Atem feel any better. He had lost his memories of being in the afterlife and he was brought back there. Nothing ever happened without a reason. "Sorry. I thought it was over. It was supposed to be over." Yugi learned to go on without him. He even proved it by dueling Atem! So why?

"There must be something bigger than us," Atem said. "Affecting destiny once again. I know you can carry on without me, Yugi."

"Then why? Why are you here again?"

-----------------------------------------

Domino City Museum

Atem opened his eyes in a gasp. He realized he was standing straight up in something. A . . . coffin. No. "A tomb." He looked outward and saw Ishizu Ishtar along with Marik and Odion.

They each bent down toward him, while Ishizu started the greeting.

"Welcome, Pharaoh," Ishizu said to him. "On this day, you were ordained to be given life."

Life? Atem stepped out of the open tomb. He had regal egyptian clothes on, no doubt from them. "What is happening? The last thing I remembered was being beaten by Yugi, going through a door to the afterlife, and then I woke up once again with Yugi."

"Temporary," Ishizu said. "You now have your own body."

He touched his chest and his hands. "Why?" None of it made sense.

"No one knows," Marik answered. "My sister hasn't had the millennium necklace since it was banished, but she kept seeing one future. This future."

"No one gives a second life body," Atem said. What would ever call for such an extravagant thing?

"We believe there is to be a battle that will need you as your own self to fight it," Marik said. "That's our guess. We sadly don't have any more facts." He gestured to a suitcase Odion was holding. "Here are more modern day clothes for you. We can help care for you until we know what is going on."

No. "I need Yugi's number." He would have a number, he was much older now. Looking at his hands, Atem could see that he too seemed older than before.

"We have acquired that." Marik gave him a phone. "This is yours now, Pharoah. We tried to put any of your allies in the past for you, to give you your best chance of finding out what is going on."

All they knew was that he would be back, but nothing else. Yes, he would have to dig for answers. He clicked on Yugi's name on the phone. "Yugi?"

"Click the phone icon on the next screen," Ishizu told him.

He clicked on the icon and held the phone up to his ear again. Nothing.

"Try texting him," Marik suggested. "He might not answer if he doesn't recognize the number."

Text what? Atem gave it back to him. ///Atem: If only I could reach Yugi. I don't want to stay with the Ishtar's, I want Yugi.///

///Yugi: Pharaoh Atem?///

///Atem: Yugi, we still have a connection? I am alive and in the Domino museum./// What a strange phrase he had to say. ///Atem: I was given my own life back.///

Oh! He sounded shocked. ///Yugi: But? Uh? That's . . . not a thing?///

///Atem: I've never known it to be. The Ishtars have been prepared for me./// They didn't seem to know anything else though, and he would be much comfortable being near Yugi. ///Atem: Will you help me find out what's going on?///

///Yugi: Yeah, I'll be right there.///