A/N: Um. Kind of random. Couple of lines borrowed from my friend Liz (Element Girls) with her permission; Bakura copyright Kazuki Takahashi, not me, alas. :P Other thanks to Liz for letting me talk through it and helping me with some ideas. 13th story! That's very exciting to me. :D
-o-
There had to be a better way to end this.
He plotted out the game because he was the Game Master, and though his host had worked for countless hours on the model, it was only because of him. Yet somehow, before the final battle, he was still the one who ended up on his knees before the God of the Shadows.
And that was wrong.
He knew that he would never stand on the same level as God, though he had raged and boasted of defeating God on the Battle ship when he faced down Ra, but the humiliation of kneeling at the feet of the High Priest of Shadows was not the proper finale to his masterpiece of a scenario. Not even a proper middle, and definitely not a proper beginning.
He would not be brought so low.
So he pondered long into the night, driving his host's body to exhaustion though he himself did not need to sleep, plotting a better ending to his story. He scowled at a thousand new scenarios, all of them guaranteeing his success—in the same way that the Monster World RPG with Yugi and his friends had guaranteed success. He was the master and he would win—except when faced with the heroes, the good guys, the champions of the light. Against that damn Pharaoh and his followers, his RPG had no chance of success.
Solution? No RPG.
No final battle, no Millennium World. Catch them off their guard. Don't give them what they expect.
Thwart the darkness to thwart the light.
And best of all, no one would know what he was planning. His pitiful little host could see nothing of his thoughts, and the god who wanted him to plan this had left him to his own devices. He'd play a different game, win or lose, make them think it was over, and start again.
And those children could spout whatever drivel they wanted. The heroes always win, Bakura! The light will overcome the darkness! Good will conquer evil!
Oh, but you have such a limited view of the universe, Yugi. "Good" and "evil"—they all depend on your perspective. He couldn't help but smirk at their determined expressions, so expectant of a grand battle for the world. Tell me why you're so intent on dividing us into groups? You know we're all the same.
Oh did that make him mad. Fury twisted the child's face, and then the spirit's as he rose to confront the challenge. The King of Games. Heh. He might have been the king, but Bakura was the master.
Smirking, he stood before the torrent of denial, letting the words flow around him in an amusing rush of futility. And when they stopped, he merely shrugged.
So what if I'm an ace and you're a heart, Pharaoh? You can't play a card game without all the suits anyway. Why don't we try shuffling the deck a little more and just playing a game of cards?