Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. (Boring disclaimer; gomen..)
A/N: This is a little oneshot I wanted to post for Ryo and Thief King Bakura's birthdays on September 2nd, but I didn't get around to it. So happy belated birthday, Ryo and Bakura! Hope you enjoy! -SS
Prelude to a Return?
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In the darkness, he waits.
Hundreds of feet underground, where not even the slightest bit of light can reach, he smirks with confidence just as he did in life.
So what is this considered? he sometimes muses. You can't really define it as 'life', now, can you? And if it were death, I would most likely be face-to-face with that damn Pharaoh by now.
An eternity trapped with the Pharaoh…He'd shudder, if he still had a body with which to perform the action.
Facing forever lost in the seemingly endless dark, there isn't much to do but think. Remember. And he does.
He sometimes remembers the past. It's been so long, but not a day has gone by in 3,000 years that he hasn't thought about it (at least, he's pretty sure not a day has gone by; he has no way of measuring time anymore). He remembers death. Hatred, the wish for revenge, the rise and fall of power. His own power, and others'.
But more than anything else, he remembers blood.
The blood of his family and friends-few though they were-as they were brutally slaughtered. The blood on the faces of his sisters, right before they met their violent end. He clearly remembers their screams.
The blood of his hikari, Ryo, when the darker side of the two hurt him. Unlike the other memories, this one makes him smirk again. He used to get so much pleasure out of watching the boy's face contort in pain; seeing confusion and terror on his face when confronted with concepts and forces he couldn't possibly understand.
The smirk fades as the next memory hits him. He recalls his own blood, trickling down his face as he was defeated by the Pharaoh. Again.
He scowls and turns his mind to something-anything-else.
Sometimes he seethes, unable to stop himself from thinking bitterly, It should have been me.
I should have been the one admitted to the afterlife. Me, not that damn Pharaoh. Never mind that technically he's not dead. He continues to silently rant.
All that time, I was only trying to get revenge for my family. My friends. Didn't you get all hot and bothered, all "It's Time To Duel" when someone threatened your friends?! And yet you twist it all around. You turn me into the villain. Everything I did-it was all for revenge. For them. All for my hatred of you and your cursed father.
Sure, I am the evil one. Never mind that it was your father who started it all! Did I butcher everyone you knew and cared about-for nothing more than power?! No! (Not for lack of trying, but still.)
But go on, forget all of that. Don't let me stop you. Go on considering yourself righteous!
Because I know better.
It's not enough. Those last four words. It can never be enough. But it's all that he can take even a little comfort from.
He sighs and mentally changes the subject again. It's been a while since then, he thinks. Almost…a decade, hn? Little Yugi Mutou and his friends must be all grown up by now.
Something occurs to him, and he starts to snicker. They think I'm gone forever, don't they? They think that they're home free. That the Millennium Items are lost. That I'm finished.
The snicker morphs into a full-blown laugh, echoing, bouncing up and down the dark underground abyss in which the Millennium Ring now resides.
Eventually, the mad cackle fades so that he can think. Oh, are they in for a surprise.
I'll return. Even if it takes another 3,000 years, I will be back. And when I get back, the world will be shrouded in darkness.
Just wait, you little worms. The King of Thieves doesn't disappear that easily….
A final laugh echoes throughout the cavern.
H-heh heh heh….
………………………………………
The archeologist above ground shivers.
Sweat drips down the back of his neck; every hair on his body is standing straight up, and his skin is even paler than usual.
That laugh….. It was a sound that he'd thought-hoped, really-he would never hear again.
He strains his ears, praying that he was wrong.
The darkness yields only silence.
"Hey, Ryo! C'mon and help me pack up; we were supposed to meet Yugi and Anzu ages ago!"
The pale young man shakes his head to clear it up and responds, "Coming, Honda!"
It must have been my imagination, he thinks. It couldn't have been…him….
……………………………………………
That's what you think.
H-heh heh heh……..!
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The End….?