Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Stranger of the Duel ❯ The Eternity Seekers ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh. So there.

Thoughts Yami Yugi's thoughts

Note: This chapter is based on the leader of the group who kidnapped Cali. Phew, sorry, I couldn't really think of a good way to word that… K, so it's basically an informative chapter. ^_^

The Eternity Seekers

The Pharaoh and Calliope all on one lucky clue! The thin, tanned man thought, dark brown eyes clouded with thought. He stretched his back, leaning on his dark oak throne. This was Talon, the leader of an exclusive cult. He led his followers to believe they were all in for the rewards, when in reality he would be the only one to benefit.

"Talon, we've brought her here," the largest man, the last one Cali remembered seeing, said as he entered the room.

"Don't you think I know that?" Talon snapped.

"I only wanted to make sure-"

"Enough! Your incompetence bores me."

"But Talon, we got Calliope!"

"What about the Pharaoh? You left him!"

"We did not have the resources to capture him as well, Talon."

"My patience wears thin. I will have the Pharaoh in three nights time, or you will be disposed of, Oten."

"Yes, Talon."

"Now, go!"

We had only been after the Pharaoh, and he gave her away. Heh, how could he know we're watching his every move, listening to every word? Calliope, Calliope, Calliope. If only I could remember her importance. It seems the Pharaoh cannot, and neither can she. Who is she? All I know is that she has great significance.

Talon racked his brains, but came up with nothing. No one knew exactly who Calliope was, or anything about her, really. Yami Yugi only knew it was his duty to protect her, as he could not in the past, but he was already very confused by her actions. Yugi was completely befuddled; he was just a callow youth, almost unknowledgeable of the past.

Of course she doesn't know. Oten made sure of that. Talon remembered long ago, how Oten, his head follower, had had the honor of that particular mission. He was the one who had erased her memory and collected enough of her life force in the only way possible, back in the darkest chambers of the Temple of Neith.

Oten returned.

"What are you doing here? I sent you to get the Pharaoh!"

"Talon, it is midnight."

"So?"

"The Ritual!"

I almost forgot…I shouldn't have made this crap up…it is nothing but a hindrance.

"Yes, yes, I'll be there on time, but I'll allow you and five others to skip it tonight."

"Skip the Ritual?" Oten said, raising an eyebrow.

"How many more Rituals do you think there will be if we do not do this? We have been waiting too long! Waiting, waiting, endlessly waiting!"

"We had to wait for them to be reborn, Talon."

"I know, I know. I am restless."

"I must ask, Talon… how much more do we have?"

"How much more of what?"

"You know."

"Enough. We have preserved it well. After all, it is only you and I using it."

"I sometimes wonder what we would do without the others."

"The others…they're only the descendants of our original followers, Oten."

"I know, but what would have happened if we had not assigned, you know, partners?"

"There would be NO others! We would do this alone, and FAIL! Do you not understand?" Talon shouted.

"No, I understand, Talon. I was merely wondering."

"Stop wondering and get the Pharaoh."

"Yes, Talon."

Oten left with five of the `others.' The others were descendants of the original followers of Talon's cult. They were mainly used for grunt work, and manual labor. Notice how the others are the ones doing the actual kidnapping; Oten just speaks.

I'll go through the Ritual quickly tonight, and then visit Calliope. I can remember some things, but not anything important. I remember…I remember how she refused me that night, under the garden dome, overlooking the great Nile. Priestess virginity…Damn you, Calliope! Damn you! I remember that clearly. How I had wanted her power so much. Now I can't even remember. Three thousand years, of course I can't remember.

Talon got up to look at a mirror. And yet, I still look as I did in my youth. The son of a corrupted, power hungry priest… What do you think made me this way? I learned very quickly what I wanted and how I was to get it. I don't think I was much more than an aged adolescent then. No, not yet out of my teens. How powerful I was. Now look at me, waiting, forever waiting…At least I am not so old, and wrinkled, and I feel energetic, full of youth. I'm glad I haven't aged at all.

He put on a feathered headdress, and painted his tan face with black lines. He walked quickly to the exit of his dank stone chamber, black robes flowing behind him.

He entered a small, round room, gently lit one of the torches on the walls, and disappeared behind a tapestry to wait for the others. They came almost ceremoniously, one by one, each holding a candle. They each lit one torch and extinguished the long white candle, placing it in a gold platter. The women sat on alternate cushions on the floor, and the men filled the cushions between them.

Then Talon came in, as soon as all were seated. He kneeled towards a candle-lit altar. There was a gold sculpted icon in the middle. It had been worn over the many hundreds of years, so the actual shape was hard to determine now. Of course, Talon and Oten knew what it was, just the others didn't know. It was a person-shaped lump of gold, all gildings and detailed engravings smoothed over, covered in candle wax.

"Demons rise and shift back again; awaken your master and closest of kin. O, god against Osiris and all, accept our chant and deliver us from such ersatz peace of corruption." Talon said, half-talking, half-chanting. The others began their part.

"Set, Set, deliver! Give what we have been promised!" They repeated this over and over again, while Talon sat silently. He always zoned out during this part, thinking about his plans and how he was to fulfill them.

They think they'll have the lives as we do… Ha, we told them Set had rewarded us with our long lives. They don't know we have simply been drinking the potion I had made so long ago…but Calliope's life force is running out. We must finish our strategy before it is gone. Now that they all have been reborn, I can really gain this eternal life.

Talon suddenly had a memory of times long ago. It was after Calliope had rejected him and his love. I didn't want her love; I wanted the power I already knew she held. He had followed her through the white flowered trees (imported from Babylon), into a moonlit clearing. She sat on a rock, fiddling with her hair to wait, while Talon hid in the tall reeds. Across the clearing, a man emerged. Talon gasped as he saw who it was. His archrival, the High Priest. Both the same age, and exceptionally wise for their age, the two had competed for the position of High Priest. Guess who won. Seto glanced over to the reeds and smirked. He knows I'm here. With that, Talon crept away, with a fleeting look at the secretive couple, now holding hands. Now he has the power and I don't.

Talon snapped out of his memory as the others shouted their last chant. The High Priest! If all the others have been reborn, why not him as well? He continued.

"You have given us the prize of our lasting life; choose and reward the best deserved."

Then all the others filed out of there, leaving Talon alone in the room. He quickly removed his headdress and wiped the paint off his face. Then, he took a secret shortcut to the dungeons.

Cali had been sitting in a clammy, dripping cell for hours. It was about two in the morning. Who are these people? And why is everyone suddenly calling me Calliope? My name is Callia! NOT Calliope! What do they want with me? She saw Talon approach. He was handsome, and strangely familiar, but Cali was sure she'd never seen him before in her life.

"Ah, Calliope."

"That's not my name!"

"Forgive me, Callia Scizoran, so sorry."

Cali simply grumbled.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here."

"Of course I have! I've been kidnapped by some weirdly dressed people who think I'm someone else!"

"Oh, but you are someone else…"

"No, I'm me!"

"and Calliope."

"Who is this Calliope, exactly?"

"Now, now, no reason to get all excited. First, don't you want to know about me?"

"Not rea-, well, yeah."

"My name is Talon."

Talon, Talon, Talon…the name rung in her head, almost activating her memories. They had been guarded well.

"You're not much older than me."

"You're right and wrong. I am so much older, and yet the same age."

"What?"

"I'll explain later."

"Explain now."

"You're in no position to be in command."

"Fine. Who are you?"

"I am the leader of a fake cult."

"A fake cult?"

"Yes, I just need the followers to do my work for me."

"What kind of work?"

"Mostly just kidnapping people."

"Why do you need to kidnap people?"

"Now that everyone has been reborn, I can gain what I have been after for three thousand years."

"Care to explain?"

"First I'll explain Calliope. You are her reincarnation."

"What? I can't be anyone's reincarnation!"

"Well, you are. Live with it. She was a young woman who had traveled from Greece to Egypt, my home, to escape her tyrannical father. She became a priestess, a sworn virgin. Ironically, after journeying so far, she began to miss her father terribly. She fell in love with my enemy, the High Priest."

"Why would the High Priest be your enemy?"

"I was also a high ranking priest. We were neck and neck for that honorable promotion, and he won."

"What happened to you?" Talon…priest…Neith… Neith? Nobody mentioned Neith!

"I'll get to that later. In any case, I began a search for eternal life."

"Eternal life?"

"After the High Priest died, I would still be alive, and would have been able to take his position forever!"

"So why have you kidnapped me? You obviously have achieved your goal."

"No, I didn't. I needed to absorb the life force of someone with great power and complete the spell to have eternal life. It was a very difficult process, and a dangerous one, so of course I had someone else do it for me."

"Do what?"

"Well, I needed to kill someone without actually killing, and in the process extract their life force. This life force, completed with a spell, would give me this immortality."

"How can you kill without killing? You are so full of riddles."

"The punishment for a priestess to have sex was death."

"What does that have to do with…what? No, not…"

"I was already angry with the High Priest; why not kill two birds with one stone? Literally. The Priest was so distraught over her death, he was easy to get rid of."

"Wait…you…with Calliope?"

"Not me, one of my followers."

Cali thought about this, trying as hard as possible to remember what she was hoping wasn't there. Oten.

"What was his name?"

"Oten."

Cali gasped. How did I know that?

"So by raping her, you didn't actually kill her, but you knew she would be killed…"

"Oh, no, Oten didn't rape her. After forcing her to agree, he was actually quite gentle. She wasn't allowed to die then, otherwise it would be pointless. It did cause her a little pain to have her life force removed, though."

"I still don't understand why you kidnapped me."

"The life force extraction was interrupted, quite rudely, in fact. I never got to finish. I've been living off Calliope's life force for 3000 years, and I want more."

"Why are you waiting, if you're so convinced that I'm Calliope?"

"All people of importance and all who were there must be present to gain access to the unfinished spell. I've had to wait so long for all of you to be reborn. Since you all died at about the same time, you were born again at the same time, too. I hadn't known you would wait so long, though."

"Who else do you need?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Ah, but we are very close to grabbing another. That rude interloper, the Pharaoh."

Cali thought about this, not in her memories, but from what she knew now. Yami Yugi!

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Eh… sorry this chapter is kind of bad…. I haven't really decided why Calliope has all this power yet. If you have any ideas, please comment or email me or something.