Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Of Gods And Men ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Of Gods and Men

A Yu-Gi-Oh!/Stargate: SG-1 Crossover

Written By RogueMoon

Chapter Four

…o…

~Then~

Akunadin, High Priest of Ra and Brother of the Pharaoh, watched himself get up from bed and don a dark robe. This was the perhaps the millionth time he had done this. It wasn't really him that rose from bed, but rather a man that looked exactly like him. The man wore Akunadin like a coat, yet the mortal could watch through the man's eyes and it was hard to believe that they were not the same person.

When the dreams first began, almost two years ago, Akunadin passed it off as a side effect of stress. His duties getting to him. Yet the dreams continued, and became clearer with each instance until he watched the being that wore him get up every single night; the priest could no longer pass it off as a dream. The being was a demon of some sort, but the ideas that filtered from it to the priest promised the sweet reward that came from absolute power; Akunadin could not resist. The demon whispered the secrets of creation to him and promised to fulfill his greatest desires, if only he would let the demon live within him.

The other man left Akunadin's sleeping chambers through the secret passage that led to the stables. The chambers and passage had originally been built to house the Royal Messengers. When Akunumknon had taken the throne, he gave them to his brother. His reasons for doing so were his own, and the priest wasn't about to question the decision, as it benefited him most wonderfully. The man who wore the priest also appreciated the decision.

The demon went to the stables and took up a fast horse, riding as quickly as he could push the beast to the place of his meeting. This night the man was conferring with the self-proclaimed Thief King. He was going to offer the man a great gift, in return for his support against Ra and the other Gods.

Zork Necrophalis laughed to himself as he rode into the night. His plans, though delayed, were finally coming to a head.

…o…

~Now~

"Do you know why the Sphinx was built?" Ryou asked out of nowhere, as he and the others rode up the path to the site of the great statue. "It was done to honor the man who overthrew the false gods that stole the world from Ra," the boy continued without waiting for an answer, "At least that's the best explanation I've ever come across. Khafre's face was supposedly etched onto the body of a lion to symbolize his power when he led the army to overthrow the false ones. His followers built the monument out of the limestone left over from building his tomb, the second of the three great pyramids of Egypt."

Daniel tilted his head, "I've never heard that before. Where did you pick up that one?"

The British boy shrugged, "Some drunk at a bar in Cairo a few months back…"

"Ryou-kun! Shadi is not just some drunk!" Yugi cut in, giving his friend a glare.

"He was some drunk that night. I don't know what possessed him to challenge me to that contest. The man cannot hold his liquor for the life of him."

Marik shook his head, "I think he was trying to prove a point."

"What? That you shouldn't drink if you can't handle more than two bourbons?"

"That you shouldn't push people so far you'll get in over your head," Yugi rolled his eyes. "You know, like you've been doing recently. What is that about anyway? What's gotten into these last couple days?"

Ryou didn't answer and continued to look out the window. His attention seeming focused on the land that rolled past. After a few minutes of silence he spoke again, "You could see the Great Temple at Giza from Kurueruna. The sky was so clear at night and the land so flat you could see for miles. On the eastern horizon, at the exact point the sun greeted the land every morning, you could see the lights of the Great Temple shining like a star. Father would…" The boy shut up, focusing once more on the world that passed the window of the bus, his memories of the present mixing a little too much with those of the past.

In the distant past, Ba-khu-ra's father would wake him extra early just so they could watch the sun rise together. The older being wasn't really sure when he joined with his host in that life, but he shared the memories none the less. So his host's father had become his father. It was one of the reasons he didn't fully accept Ryou's father. His other reasons were based more on Ryou's own repressed emotions that had been shared with him over the years.

Ryou's father was currently at the main dig in Giza. The boy found had out when he went to phone his father at his hotel, and let him know that he wasn't going to available for a couple days; if anything important came up, he should call the Ishtars. The hotel was in America. His father had left on his trip to Egypt two weeks before. The man hadn't even thought to tell his son that his contact information had changed; that the two would have been close enough for one or the other to visit.

It hadn't been like that at the start. But when Ryou's mother and sister died, his father changed. Small things at first that the boy attributed to their shared loss. But it was always the little things that grew bigger. As he matured, he and his father grew apart.

Ryou closed his eyes as the pain ran through him again; the pain that came with the realization that his father hadn't given him a thought… and hadn't been doing so for a very long time. The albino always ignored it before, passing it off as an 'occasional thing' as children often do in those situations. But in the back of his mind, Ba-khu-ra took note of each and every time. And finally decided not to let his landlord pass it off. The internal debate that arose forced Ryou to acknowledge the truth, something he desperately didn't want to do. Each excuse he came up with was shot down before it could take flight. Even now, the boy was still reeling from it.

Yugi watched the emotions warring on his friend's face, trying to figure out what was so wrong. If he could figure it out, he might be able to make it better.

"So, Mr. Motou," Daniel started, trying to make small talk. "Do you know any good stories about the Sphinx?"

"Just the usual: it's supposedly the face of Khafre; it was built to guard the tombs; it was once a living creature that turned to stone when its riddle was solved… and of course, my personal favorite, aliens built it!" Jii-chan joked to try and lighten the mood.

Ryou smirked at the last one, for obvious reasons. Yugi hoped that meant his friend was just thinking about something a little too much, and nothing else was wrong. The short boy grinned and turned his attention to the others, "I like the riddle one myself."

Marik shook his head, "That's just because you're a puzzle freak."

"Of course! I'd love to know what the riddle was… I bet I could figure it out…"

"The King of Games solving a riddle, big whoop!" Ryou joined in as Ba-khu-ra couldn't resist making fun of the pharaoh if given the opportunity. "It would be far more impressive if you could get Mazaki to stop talking about friendship long enough for the rest of us to get our sanity back."

"This coming from the man who wanted friends so badly he had to blackmail them to play with him," Yugi returned as Yami took the tomb robber's bait.

"At least I had friends before my fourteenth birthday."

"Coma victims don't count as friends, or are you referring to your collection of lead figures? Because imaginary ones don't count either."

"Those weren't imaginary, or do you not recall your little stint on the gameboard?"

"Which time? The one where me and my friends kicked the crap out of your Dark Master, or the time when… Wait, that's how they all went. The group of friends used their combined power to kick the crap out of the big, bad, ugly guy who had no friends. Maybe you should listen to those friendship speeches, you might learn something."

"Like what? How to slowly drive someone insane? Sorry, already know how. What say we get a new lecture on the subject of torture, hmm?"

"I thought you liked the subject of torture no matter what form it took…kuso!" Yugi cut himself off realizing he had just refered to Anzu's talking as 'torture'.

Ryou threw his hands in the air, forgetting his pain for the moment, "Victory is mine! Ryou: 473, Yugi: 472. The tie is broken! …what?" The last was directed at SG-1. The four were giving him and Yugi the strangest looks.

"Nothing," Jack laughed as he shook his head and looked outside. "Nothing at all."

The bus rambled on towards Giza.

…o…

General George Hammond stood at the base of the ramp, soldiers on alert around him as the Gate's event horizon formed. The strange explosion of what looked like water flew towards those gathered there and then collapsed upon itself. The effect never ceased to amaze the C.O. of StarGate Command.

When the wormhole stabilized, the soldiers edged forward in anticipation, just in case defensive action was needed. Hopefully it wouldn't, since the GDO code sent through was one they had given to the Tok'ra. However, it was always better to err on the side of caution, as with any military organization, especially when dealing with off-world activations.

Three people stepped out of the event horizon, the liquid surface pulling back to reveal their forms. Jacob Carter/Selmak was easily recognized by Hammond, ordering the SF's to stand down as the visitors walked down the ramp. Of the other two, Hammond had only met one: a young man who had helped in the medical facilities before when the Tok'ra first shared their poison with the Tau'ri.

Jacob gave his friend the traditional hug and introduced his companions, "I believe you already know Shalmet/Khaker." The man stepped forward and shook the General's hand, as he had been taught to upon his first few visits. "He came along to go over a few things with Dr. Frasier," Jacob explained before introducing the third member of the group. "And this lovely young woman is Tept/Mnevis."

The woman smiled ruefully, as she took Hammonds hand in her own, "We were told you needed some information on a young Pharaoh who ruled quite some time ago."

Hammond nodded in surprise, "Indeed we do. I didn't expect an answer this soon. And I was under the impression you were, well… Not a woman. No offense intended."

Mnevis laughed, "None taken. I wasn't, the last time Selmak saw me. But considering that he used to take female hosts almost exclusively, I find it quite funny that our positions are reversed."

"And has been pointing that out almost continuously since we saw each other again," Selmak answered in feigned annoyance that he had most likely picked up from his current host. "Now if we could please go somewhere and sit down? I know Jacob is hungry, Khaker needs to get in touch with Dr. Frasier, and I'm sure we don't need to be standing in front of the Chappa'ai to discuss the history of Atemu."

Hammond smiled and led the way out, letting Shalmet/Khaker make his way to the medical facilities, while the others went to the briefing room. The General had one of the lower ranking airmen run to the mess hall/commissary for their lunch; Mnevis' story began after Jacob got his hands on some pizza.

"It has been a long time since I met Atemu," the Tok'ra began. "And I only met him that one time. Before my service to Ra, I served as a spy within Hathor's ranks. I oversaw her Jaffa warriors and was her top informant when it came to 'predicting' what her enemies were doing. At the time, I had an Unas as a host. I preferred them because I didn't feel as though I was violating the privacy of someone's soul. The ones used then were not much more intelligent than a common cat, and I wouldn't take a host against their will…

"When we met, Atemu was not yet Pharaoh of Egypt. He was still only the Prince. As most Tauri, he had been raised to worship Ra and was loyal to a point of being blind when it came to the Goa'uld's faults. He despised Hathor and had an extreme dislike for most other Goa'uld in general. Yet he loved Ra…"

Mnevis paused and took a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing, "The boy was part of an experiment Ra was doing for no reason I or the other Tok'ra could think of. There weren't many of us then, you see. We weren't even named Tok'ra at that point. I am, in fact, the last of the very first brood of Egeria's rebel children. I have the genetic memory of the Goa'uld, but find everything they did distasteful and appalling. I was birthed before she made the decision to cut us off from the genetic memory, but not before she decided to change us all for the better. There weren't a large number of us, and thus, our intelligence network was not as extensive as it is now.

"The point is that Atemu was part of an experiment that lasted only fifteen years. Ra tired of it after that, I suppose…

"The basic principles of all experiments require a control. A piece to compare all the other pieces, altered with whatever variables, to. Atemu was the control.

"His symbiote was placed within the host only an hour after the boy was born. Ra wanted the host completely uninfluenced. The symbiote was equally uninfluenced. Hathor birthed the brood of thirty-three without any trace of the Goa'uld genetic memory. They were cared for in what you know as sensory deprivation chambers, led only by instinct until they were mature enough to take a host.

"As the control, Atemu was the first to be given a host. His host was the son of Ra's Tau'ri underlord, Akunumkanon, Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Supreme System Lord preferred Tau'ri underlings to oversee his holdings. Ra let the boy be raised by his mortal parents until such time as Ra wished to reveal to him the truth.

"Just after Atemu's fifteenth birthday, Ra altered the experiment, and Atemu was no longer the control. He became a variable in a very different game of manipulation. Ra had decided that he wanted to study something else, and made Atemu part of it. His reasoning was never revealed to me.

"What I do know, is that at the same time he altered the experiment, he unearthed seven treacherous items that held incredible power, that, until that point, he had been unable to access. For whatever reason, he thought he would now be able to, and gave the items to Atemu's family. These items I know even less about, save that they were a failed attempt at treachery from the Asgard.

"From that point on, Ra took a very personal interest in Atemu's life. He constantly called the boy to his side to assist in all sorts of mundane tasks. And to compete against his political enemies in nonviolent combat. The boy was a genius when it came to games, puzzles, riddles and other things that required mental strategy. He was so good, in fact, that he was nearly undefeated and the Tau'ri of Egypt gave him the title 'Suten-nu-heba.' The King of Games.

"That is how I came to meet him. He was twenty-four, not yet Pharaoh, as Akunumknon still lived. The most surprising thing about him was that he did not appear to be twenty-four. His host body looked no more than ten years of age, a side effect of blending while the host was an infant, I suppose. His body didn't appear to be old, but no child could defeat so many opponents that quickly and efficiently.

"Ra was having something of a party to flaunt his power and put Heru'ur in his place. He challenged any of his underlords to beat Atemu in any game of strategy or wit that they could come up with. Many of the younger System Lords took up the challenge, going against the boy in a few games of Jackals and Hounds, as that was the Supreme System Lord's favorite board game. Ra ignored Heru'ur the entire time, never once including him the discussions that went on that night. It seems that he, as Ra's son, he had tried to take over lands belonging to a rival lord and had been unsuccessful. The problem being that he had done it in Ra's name but without Ra's permission.

"Heru'ur became angry and challenged Atemu to a game, which was, of course, what Ra wanted. He wanted Heru'ur to learn a lesson in strategy, and the embarrassment of learning it from someone without any true power would hopefully drive that lesson home.

"This is where I came in. Heru'ur challenged Atemu to a variation of Jackals and Hounds that involved Jaffa warriors as the pieces. Normally in the game, if a player's piece took a spot already occupied, that player would claim his opponent's piece automatically. In this version, however, the Jaffa would fight to the death. The victor taking the spot and their opponent's head. The lead Jackal and Hound would be Atemu and Heru'ur respectively.

"At the time, breeding Goa'uld larvae wasn't as important as it is now. The sacrifice of one or twenty to a mere game was nothing. Hathor summoned me and my personal squad to be Atemu's pieces on a board made by drawing lines on the floor. Heru'ur had his own personal squad of Horus Guard, while I led a squad of Jackal Guard.

"My warriors were outclassed when it came to training. Horus Guards were the best at the time, and would still be if Ra were still around to enforce the training methods…"

Mnevis paused as she remembered that day, "It was the most amazing game I've ever seen played. If Heru'ur had been half the strategist that boy was, he wouldn't have lost his attempted coup.

"To win the game, a player must take out his opponents' lead piece. In a straight out fist fight, Atemu wouldn't have lasted past the first blow. Not against Horus Guard. Atemu knew this and upped the stakes of the game just before it started. He said that he would concede defeat if any of Heru'ur's pieces came within three squares of him. The Jaffa never came close and the game was over in five turns. Heru'ur was unconscious on the floor and about to take a killing blow from my best warrior when Atemu called him off, saying that 'they need not kill the lead to win, only capture it.'

Mnevis looked Hammond in the eyes, "If Atemu had lived to serve Ra, I firmly believe you would still be under the System Lords' rule."

…o…

Shadi met the group as they left the bus a half mile out from the Sphinx. At the moment, the only vehicles allowed past that point were government issued ones for the various digs going on all over the plateau. Daniel couldn't help the huge grin that dominated his face, "Catherine will be happy now."

"She certainly will," Jack agreed as he surveyed the area for any possible dangers, more out of habit than real worry. "She's been after us to come here for a while now."

Samantha's smile was as big as Daniel's, "Of course she wants us to visit. This is where it all began…"

"Where what all began?" Sugoroku asked, after saying hello to Shadi.

Jackson turned to face him as he waved at the Sphinx, "A mutual friend of ours practically grew up here. Her father was an archeologist that headed up the main dig during the late twenties. It's because of her father's work that all of us met, so… this is where it all began."

"I see. May I ask who her father was? I may know the man."

"Professor Langford."

Jii-chan thought for a bit, "No, I don't believe I've ever known a Professor Langford. But I have heard of him. He was from America, correct?"

"Yeah, he was," Daniel replied as he turned his attention back to the plateau, taking in awe-inspiring sight. Even with all the places he had been and all the things he had seen, this was still able to take his breath away. A dream come true, so to speak.

Shadi cleared his throat and brought the attention of the group to himself, "For those who do not know me, I am Shadi. I will be your tour guide today. Normally I get paid to do this, but you are lucky that you will not have to do so. Yugi has requested my services and so I will give you the full, standard tour, for free." Yugi's smile was a mile long as he looked up at the man. The Egyptian looked skyward and muttered a prayer to the gods for his suffering. A man had to eat, after all, and doing a well-paying tour for free was going to severely cut his income for the week. "After that, if your feet are not too sore from walking, I am willing to take you to the main dig site and even acquire passes into Khafre's pyramid should you so desire. Follow me." The stoic man turned and started up the road, his pace fast enough to make the others have to jog until they found the rhythm and could keep up without trying to run.

The standard tour was just that: standard. Shadi went over the legends that were commonly accepted as having some basis in fact and pointed out the different changes that had been done to the statue and pyramids over the years. He let everyone get a close look at the dream tablet placed at the end of the temple that stood between the Sphinx's paws. They were led around the three temples that practically surrounded the monument, Shadi going over the different ideas archeologists, both past and present, had about them and a few hours later the group found themselves lounging at the main dig in front of Khafre's pyramid.

Shadi had gone off to talk with the dig leader and see if he could get the passes he had talked about, leaving the group to chat amongst themselves. Yugi, normally talkative enough for everyone, was strangely quiet as he looked over the ruins of funerary temple that preceded the pyramid. Yami's memories of what it should look like causing a feeling of loss at the sight. What was now though of as the funerary temple, had once been the grand entrance to the Great Temple. The same temple that once sat upon the pyramid, its lights shining to heaven no matter what time of day or night it was.

In the center of the temple was a courtyard left open to the sun. It had once housed the 'door to heaven'. The Chappa'ai. The StarGate. But that, too, was gone. From the looks of things, it had probably been destroyed whenever Ra had decided to leave Earth. Yami never had the chance to go through it, although he had seen it activated once. He could have sworn he had been looking into the deepest pool of water, the very pool that life itself had been born from.

The Sphinx hadn't been around then; he really hadn't seen it before. The statue was an amazing feat of architecture, and whoever had created it should've been proud. But it still didn't make the loss of his personal heritage any less painful.

Idly, the ancient one wondered if the underground complex was still intact. The only way to access that, aside from digging eighty feet down, was through the ring transporter that used to lie within the corridor that ran adjacent to the pyramid's ground entrance, but lay near the south eastern corner of the monument. The pyramid itself held a ring transporter within its upper corridor to take a person inside the Great Temple. With the temple gone, Yami had no doubt that the transporter was also gone.

On a whim, the boy decided to see if the ring transporter was still around. He really didn't think so, because he believed that had it been, it would have been found already. But it was an excuse to explore the remains of the temple. "I'm going to walk around for a bit," he said to the others, walking off before anyone could protest.

Ryou and Marik shared a look and a shrug and then ran after their friend, followed up by Daniel, who just couldn't resist an excuse to wander around. Playing chaperone was fine with him. Sugoroku shook his head and went off to find Shadi so he could warn the man about the four children running loose. That left the remaining members of SG-1 in relative privacy to discuss whatever caught their fancy.

"So, Teal'c," Jack smiled. "What was it the snake-heads said the other day? You never did tell us."

"Indeed? My apologies O'Neill, I believed that I had. RyouBakura asked YugiMotou if he had seen 'it' yet. YugiMotou replied that he hadn't and called RyouBakura a fool, to which RyouBakura responded by calling him an 'ass'."

Jack blinked, "They exchanged insults?"

"Yes."

Carter chuckled at that, "It figures they would. Most Goa'uld can't stand each other."

Jack wasn't going to let the subject drop, "The Ryou kid called Yugi an 'ass'?"

"Indeed, O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "Although his accent was different than what I have heard; so it is possible he said something else. Yet, I am unsure of what he said if that were so."

"What word did he use?"

"Mikta."

"So, mikta mean ass…"

"Yes."

"Cool. I got me a new insult," O'Neill grinned.

Carter shook her head at his childishness, "Actually sir, it's not that new. Remember that bounty hunter, Aris Boch? Officially, the System Lords consider you 'a pain in the miktah'."

"Oh yeah… They do, don't they?"

The conversation would have continued had the collective screams of the dig workers not reached them.

…o…

Yugi led the others unerringly to the corridor that once housed the ring platform. If Daniel asked about it, he would just say he chose it because of how close it was to the Pyramid. Fortunately, the American didn't ask. Instead, he studied the ruins of the area with avid curiosity.

Ryou ended up being the one to question the boy. Since it had been established that Daniel knew some Japanese, but no Ancient Egyptian, the albino chose the older of the two to speak in, "::So what is so important over here that you had to come see?::"

Yugi shrugged, taking the hint and replying back in the same language, "::When the Great Temple was here, and this building was whole, there was an entrance to the underground complex in this area.::"

"::What underground complex?::"

"::Lord Ra did not keep everything in the Temple. A lot of the higher level priests, the ones that were God-touched, and the Jaffa warriors stationed permanently in Egypt, lived in the complex below the Temple site. I visited it once, when Lord Ra decided that I should receive more hands-on experience in my godly heritage. That was just before father died and I became Pharaoh. My training was put on hold until I could quell the rebellion of the Thief King and Akunadin's subsequent betrayal…::" Yugi's voice trailed off as he spotted something strange in the ruins of the floor. Digging up the remains of a broken tile, he uncovered a gold bracelet with a strange blue jewel that seemed to shine from within.

"What's that?" Ryou asked, the kelpto in him appraising it on the spot and going over his mental list of possible buyers. He had no real intention of selling it, but old habits die hard.

Yugi shook his head, "I don't know. It looks like a bracelet."

Daniel and Marik joined the other two, the former recognizing the device, while he mentally reviewed the conversation he had just overheard, memorizing it so he could report it back to SGC. The latter did what most people do upon seeing something that pretty. He reached over and touched it, his fingers brushing ever so slightly across the jewel.

The gem flared a bright blue and the ground around the four shifted as five metal rings, each a foot thick, rose up and engulfed them in light. The scream of one of the diggers was heard just as they disappeared.

…o…

End Chapter Four

For those of you who are also reading 'The Fourth God', I just want it put on the record that I'm working on it. I have the bulk of it written, but am having a little trouble with the intro and conclusion. Sometimes writers block hits me hard, and unless inspiration whacks me upside the head with a baseball bat, I'm probably not going to have the next chapter of that out anytime soon.

But I hope this chapter makes up for that somewhat and I hope you all enjoy it.