Maximillion J. Pegasus was a man known eminently for his incredible confidence and energy. Friends would say that he was unstoppably sanguine; that his attitude always pushed him forward in his endeavors. Be it researching the most microscopic atomic particles to drawing the cuddliest of Duel Monsters for his new sets of cards, Pegasus put his heart into what he loved and stopped at nothing- nothing- until he had satisfied his goals.

It was unlike Pegasus to leave anything untied or unfinished; and, one of his lifelong goals had not been realized. He had been married young; married to a woman his age, married to the woman of his dreams. He'd had everything planned: to become a famous painter, to become a parent with his wife, to live comfortably in the countryside.

However, this was not to be: disease had gripped Cecelia Pegasus and quickly had taken her life. Pegasus had had his dreams violently ripped out of his clutches, just as everything had been going so right. Desperate, he had researched the Ancient Egyptians' myths regarding the afterlife, searching for a clue that could perhaps reverse the effects of death. He had flown to Egypt and obtained an artifact- the Millennium Eye- that offered a momentary reunion, but ultimately, all of his attempts to resurrect Cecelia using the Eye had failed.

…But his thinking had quite recently changed. Had he been wrong…? Something in the deepest recesses of his heart longed to return to Egypt; to use his resources to extract the tablet that had supposedly been destroyed. Perhaps if he was not to use technology or sorcery to revive his beloved wife, at least owning the Eye again would remind him of the love that he had for her: that he had been willing to go to such lengths to see her again… not a reminder of his eventual failure, but a reminder of his eternal determination.

Unable to properly explain it to himself, he nonetheless picked up the telephone. Thirty minutes later, he had confirmed the availability of his private jet and archaeological team to travel to the Egyptian village of Kul Elna.

Pegasus was smart enough to know what could come from dabbling with the powers of the Millennium Items; he had, of course, seen it firsthand already. He'd found that even his immensely intelligent mind had been overwhelmed by their abilities; he wasn't a violent or harmful man by nature, but his innate happiness and kindness had been suppressed when he was influenced by the Eye years ago. He knew very well the mythology that hovered over their creation.

He also knew what happened when the items were brought together. There was a tablet in Kul Elna; a stone carved thousands of years ago, that, when the Items were placed into it, opened the door to the afterlife. It had been set in place for the Great Pharaoh, Atem, to leave the depths of the Millennium Puzzle and go forth to Heaven after banishing the dark god, Zorc, to Hell- and, these events had all taken place. Months ago, Yugi Mutou had stood before this tablet, and placed the seven Items into it, and the door had opened, and Atem had departed; finally. It was what was right.

Excavation had taken long and tedious hours of work for even the most specialized of archaeologists hired by Industrial Illusions. But, soon enough, Pegasus found himself traveling through the tunnels of the dug-out old temple; lights had been strung along the walls by his team, leading the pathway right to the demolished room where the temple and door were. Indeed, everything was here, still- surrounded by rubble, and the doors were cracked and broken- but there were the Items, scattered around the room.

Pegasus spotted the Eye immediately. He swallowed hard and picked it up tenderly, as if greeting an old friend- it was heavy and cool in his hand. He was glad to have it back; he was lonely and it certainly comforted him. He was glad that he had come here to get it. Maybe it wouldn't bring back Cecelia, but having the Eye was honestly the next best thing.

Pegasus looked around the room, at the other glittering Items lying scattered around the floor. The tablet had served another purpose: to summon the horrible soul of Zorc. The previous owner of the Eye- the man named Akhenaden- had stood in this same spot, and placed all of the Items into the stone slab here, and Zorc had been summoned to the village-

No, Atem had destroyed Zorc. Zorc was gone, and that's why Yugi Mutou was able to successfully use it to open the door to the afterlife, not summon anything evil.

Pegasus swallowed hard. He had to keep the Eye. He needed it. …but, Atem had defeated Zorc in Bakura's game world. Atem had banished Bakura's soul from the Millennium Ring in real life, and defeated Zorc in Bakura's game world. …if Zorc was defeated in Bakura's game world, he was actually defeated. …right…?

Well, Pegasus thought to himself, let's not take any risks. The Items should be separated, protected… should Zorc still linger in the stone slab, at all. Really. This was a good move. This way, he could have the Eye just like he wanted- needed- and the stone slab was unrelated to anything. Pegasus knew just the few people who were trustworthy enough to hang onto the other Items.

"Croquet?" Pegasus asked pleasantly, exiting this room and approaching the men who were standing just nearby. "Will you set my plane for a new destination? I think that I need to take a quick swing to Domino City, Japan."

Chapter One

As told from the perspective of Mokuba Kaiba-

If you turn Yakou Tenma upside-down, his head kind of looks like an old lady's saggy titties.

I studied the picture bemusedly until I reached the staircase that led to the first floor. I was the vice-president of a multi-billion-dollar corporation, and I was now on a mission that had, quite recently, been made of the very utmost importance.

Once down the staircase, I entered the first room to the left. "Okay," I sighed.

"Tenma! Exotic; I like it. Thank you," my brother panted eagerly, wiping sweat from his forehead and taking the picture from me. "This isn't a bad picture of him, you know. You can barely see the shit-encrusted ass hole in the middle of his forehead."

I chuckled as Seto removed the thumb tack from the enormous punching bag that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room and pinned the photo to it. Well, I really did have an important job: I was extremely glad to see that Seto had found healthier ways to channel his anger, opposed to the somewhat-more-unhealthy horrific theme parks that he'd used to build. Seto had taken up boxing in the last little while, and to keep him motivated, I'd been printing pictures of …well, frankly, our most hated rivals. Even now, crumpled and torn pieces of paper containing the faces of Pegasus, Ziegfried von Schroder, Saruwatari, Joey Wheeler, Yugi and Gozaburo littered the ground. He had just gotten done beating up the Saruwatari picture.

Seto slid the boxing glove back onto his hand once he was sure that Yakou Tenma's picture was firmly fastened. He swung his arm back and began to pummel the punching bag. His fists hit the picture so hard that every impact made me wince. He was extremely strong: he had a naturally thin and tall build, but the new habit of exercising had clearly been putting him into better shape. He had gained muscle weight… replaced with this his older habits of forgetting to eat and sleep.

"Seto, will you teach me how to box?" I asked hopefully, having to raise my voice slightly so that he could hear me over the racket that he was making. He looked fantastic… I wanted to look in good-shape like that, too.

He shook his bangs out of his eyes and looked over at me. "Okay," he said quickly and breathlessly, before adding, "Another time, though. I haven't quite gotten over the whole Wicked-Avatar deal; leave me, for the time being."

"Thank you!" I replied happily, and he nodded and breathed, "I suppose I'll tell you your first lesson, now. Channel your hatred into your fists. Tell your opponent that he's a damn cheater who can't control the power of the god cards anyway because he's a pussy who was raised by the king of all pussies."

"Don't you have a more universal method? That won't work as well on, say, Alister," I asked, chuckling.

Seto's eyes glistened. "Ohh, that's a good idea. Bring his picture down here tomorrow, will you?"

"Okay," I chuckled, and left him to his business. I was surprised that he had the energy to exercise, today: it had been a long week. Seto and I had just returned from America- a few nights ago, twenty thousand pairs of eyes watched as a single orb rose into the sky and then burst into twenty thousand drops of light. I had been standing, cross-armed and proud, in a suite lined with glass; an observatory tower that stood in the middle of the park. KaibaCorp had just opened its second theme park- this Kaiba Land, in Tampa, Florida, in the United States. That night had been the first night that the park was open to the public- and, the spectacular fireworks show was the perfect ending to the day.

As we had watched the ending ceremonies, I had looked up at the man standing next to me: my brother, Seto. He had a fixed, focused stare out the window, overlooking the embodiment of our dream: to open theme parks like this all over the world that children could attend. We knew firsthand how important things like that actually were to children who had no families… the happiness caused by one day that lasted much, much longer than that.

I smiled up at him. Maybe his mouth was set stoically straight as he stood, perfectly still and tall, but I knew that this façade was not actually real: he was happy. In fact, I would have bet that his heart was glowing. My brother was a powerful, intelligent man. He had a cold demeanor that pretty effectively hid the warm heart that I knew rested within him.

The show was soon over, and the manager of this park came to the tower where we were standing to bid us goodbye. We were returning home tonight; it was a long flight home. "Thank you very much for hosting us here," I told the portly man, in the most polite English that I knew.

The man had chuckled at me. Surely my accent was thick, but I knew that my grammar was good! …no, it was probably that I was …well, twelve. I was used to this. People didn't take me seriously yet… maybe they might once I reached five and a half feet. Either way, Seto looked down at me for a moment and then said, in a much clearer, sharper tone, "I trust that you will uphold all of the regulations that I have set for you?"

"I most certainly will, Mr. Kaiba, and I'm looking forward to doing it!" the man had replied jovially, extending his hand to shake Seto's. I thought for a moment. I was unfamiliar with the word 'certainly,' but got the jist of it from his happy tone. Seto had nodded approvingly and looked down at me and said, "Come on."

I'd followed Seto down to the helicopter pad where we would be taken back to the airport to fly home. I was so happy to see that these parks were successful. Seto and I had been dreaming of moments like these for years and years- long ago, he had said, as a 9-year-old, "Mokuba… this isn't how it's going to be for us. I don't want you to worry… so, I'll be your father now. One day, I am going to get us out of this place, and we will have a good life and I will raise you. I promise."

He'd kept this promise. We'd been through so unbelievably much- living through a horrendous adoptive family, suffering under horrendous rivals who were after our company… hell, our very souls- but, he'd kept this promise.

…Was yesterday Saturday? As I climbed the stairs back to my bedroom, I realized that I had forgotten that I was actually guilty of doing something terrible. ...really terrible. Figuring now would be an okay time to admit my crime because Seto was probably too tired to chase me, I walked back down the stairs and practiced my best adorable smile and made my eyes as enormous as possible. I ruffled my hair a little bit so that it fell in layered curls, and then said, "Um, Seto?" hesitantly.

Breathless (the picture was already extremely crumpled and torn), he looked over his shoulder at me. I continued, "It's good for our company to make money, right?"

One eyebrow raised. "Well, so, see, since it's good for our company to make money, I sold, um, a bunch of day-passes for the main arena to Joey and Yugi. They've …um, been in our arena, like… um, the entire week."

His eyes bulged, but I had already started sprinting back up the stairs, to avoid the venom that the freaking scary spitting cobra that I'd just created was going to shoot at my very vulnerable little inner organs. I'd saved myself; now, I felt slightly bad for the poor punching bag…

As told from the perspective of Joey Wheeler-

It was a lovely Sunday. The sun was shining. The grass was lush and green. It was June of 1998. The air was hot but actually pretty pleasant. I was in the large, flowery courtyard in the midst of the towering KaibaCorp building downtown. It was a great day…

…for a fight with my best friend.

"Damn you!" I shouted at Tristan Taylor, who was trying to get out of my strongest-ever vice-grip headlock. "You look at my sister one more time and I swear you're gonna wake up dead tomorrow!"

"Joey, stop!" my sister, Serenity, begged. She was standing near where Tristan and I were tussling. Little Serenity, with her pretty, long red hair and innocent hazel eyes, was the light of my life. I existed to protect her, and that's exactly what I was doing right now. "Serenity, you got no idea what this guy's capable of. He's a damn pervert, that's what he is."

"Oh yeah?" Tristan gasped, tugging at my arm. "Look who's talking, Sir Jacks-a-Lot!"

"Why I oughtta-" I growled angrily- Serenity, despite herself, giggled. "It's okay, Joey. Really. I can handle it. I promise!"

I frowned at her and let Tristan go. Gasping, he stood up and brushed dust off of his leather jacket. He coughed and said, "Damnit, Joey, let her make her own decisions for once. I'm not gonna kill her!"

"No. I'm gonna kill you, yeh bastard." I said.

Tristan leapt on me again. We punched and kicked and flailed angrily. Serenity was shrieking at us to stop fighting. Then, I heard Téa's voice go, "oh, no… not again."

Tristan and I paused and looked up to see Yugi and Téa approaching us. We had all arranged to meet at the KaibaCorp building to play some holographic card games. Mokuba Kaiba gave us permission to use the dueling arena as soon as the building opened. It was now 9:00 in the morning. "Sup, guys," I said, from being tangled around Tristan.

"What are they fighting about, now?" Téa asked. "Which one has the smellier socks?"

I stood up. "Forget it," I said, looking back over at Tristan. His hair, normally gelled and spiked, was hopelessly messed up. His narrowed greenish eyes were glaring at me. I flipped him off and walked over to Yugi and slapped him on the back. "'Sup, buddy," I said.

"I'm doing well, Joey," he said, raising an eyebrow at me. "But, um, is everything okay?"

"Sure," I said, with a shrug. Tristan came over to where we were and greeted Yugi and Téa, too.

"Good," Yugi said and sighed. "Are you guys ready to go play cards?"

"Yeah!" I said, excited.

Card games were the top hobby of my group of friends. Yugi was the greatest duelist in the world! Yugi… little and puny and had about the weirdest hairstyle I've ever seen, but I adored him. His friendship made me strong.

We had all been through a lot lately. Not long ago, we had all gone to Egypt, because we needed to put the soul of Atem, the pharaoh, to rest. It was a bittersweet moment… but, now, things were the way they should be. The Millennium Items were buried under mounds of rubble. Zorc was gone. Atem was at peace. It was hard to get used to not having him around, but we were all managing. Life was good: we were seventeen (well… I was seventeen. Yugi and Tristan had already turned eighteen, Téa's eighteenth birthday was only a month and a half or so away, and Serenity was newly sixteen), approaching the end of high school, and living our dreams.

We entered the KaibaCorp building… we'd been playing card games here every day this week, because Yugi had gotten a reservation. We were the first ones in here, in the morning, like this. "Hello?" Yugi asked an employee who was dusting a statue of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (there were quite a few of them all over the place). He turned around. "Oh, Yugi. You have a reservation, don't you? Is today the last day that you are playing here?"

"Yeah," he said. "Thanks!"

Atem might have gone away to the afterlife, but we never stopped doing the thing that brought him to us: playing games. Duel Monsters was more than a hobby, to us. I'd say that pulling down girls' skirts at school to check out their underwear was a hobby; Duel Monsters was more like a way of life. We'd bonded with our monsters and through that, bonded with our friends. Call them what you will: card games were beautiful, beautiful things.