Little time travel AU idea I couldn't leave alone. It probably won't be much more than this to be honest. Edit: The Batteryshipping is remaining platonic as of chapter 3.

Heart of Magic's next update is in the works, but since it's the holiday season it might be a little slower. (Me, being slow with updates? What a shocker.)

Unbeta'd, my mistakes need to reset.

When Jounouchi wakes up, he doesn't know what to do with himself. He's dreaming, he has to be, there's no way that damn machine worked as the world collapsed around them. He's not trapped in his dad's apartment again and he's not some schoolboy who's never considered adding anything but monster cards to his deck.

He's a seasoned tournament vet, master of a finely tuned deck with cards that don't even exist yet. He's begrudgingly helping Kaiba beta test an upgrade to the Duel Disk that can be used in motion, getting dragged down to the labs by Mokuba before he can get into a fight with Kaiba again to look at this new machine he's invented, hey why's the building shaking?

He finds the device in his pocket, about the same size as a standard deck. It still has Kaiba's ash coated fingerprints on it from where he'd forced it into Jounouchi's hands and begged him - fucking begged him - to just go because he wouldn't leave without Mokuba even though Mokuba was already...

Zorc was defeated. He was supposed to be long gone, destroyed. But he'd re-erupted from nothing and swallowed their city whole in what felt like both forever and only a few moments.

Maybe some tiny piece of the Thief King had lingered, corrupted Zorc the same way that had been done to him. Some tiny shred of a person that had somehow survived sixteen years of hell as an orphan on the streets of ancient Egypt then three thousand years trapped in the darkness. Jounouchi had seen one of the pits of Kul Elna that the Ishtars discovered once. He'd nearly puked at the jumble of twisted limbs and shattered skulls and some of them had clearly belonged to babies and this was the Thief King's entire family and the ones who died here were lucky, because the others had all become gold. All except one who witnessed everything.

The Thief King was gone even before the Ceremonial Duel, his soul either trapped in nothingness or in the peaceful afterlife and he prayed to every god he'd ever heard of that it was the latter, because at least if he was there he might not ever want to come back. Besides, the gods had seriously dropped the ball with him - surely there was some kinda 'we fucked up, have a comfy spot on this cloud as an apology' policy or something.

Without that tether, that leash that granted him a link to the concept of human minds and not just their hearts, Zorc was completely mindless as he reformed. He was an elephant crushing ants in the grass as he walked, he was the crushing tide of an endless tsunami. He wasn't a foe to outsmart, he was a force of nature and Domino didn't stand a chance. Maybe Zorc wasn't even aware that he'd reformed, and wouldn't that just be the kicker?

He steps over a few shattered bottles to check the calendar, careful not to disturb his snoring father and it's a little disturbing how easy it is to go back to old habits. He'd been living with Yugi for the last few years, they had an apartment together in Domino. Hopefully resetting had erased the timeline he came from, because he didn't want to think about Yugi trying to find him in the chaos.

If he remembers correctly, it's the day that Bakura first transferred to their school. Meaning everyone has survived Death T, Hirutani, Ushio...

He's friends with Yugi and he bites the inside of his cheek to keep from crying at relief, because he doesn't think he could go through seeing Yugi all alone again, for Yugi to be beaten for him or be anything less than happy to see him. He's friends with Anzu and he's still friends with Honda. He's met Atem, but then again he's not really Atem yet. He's still 'the other Yugi'. He's about to meet Bakura, and the damn Thief King. Kaiba's comatose but he'll wake up eventually and Mokuba is alive. A little more murderous than any brat his age should be, but alive. Maybe they'll be able to stop him from being stolen by Pegasus this time.

Jounouchi never makes it to school. He meets Bakura on the way there and of course he's not Bakura, wierd-but-nice Bakura who really needs to learn to talk to his friends when he's in trouble (although if they're not listening, how can he?), he's the Thief King.

Jounouchi might be a decent fighter now and Bakura was never built to brawl but the Thief King has a knife and doesn't give a shit about giving his opponents a fair shot. Jounouchi slumps against the alley wall grasping at his side where the blade sliced into his back and tries to glare at the enraged spirit. Key word tries; he can barely see straight.

Or maybe the spirit's not angry, maybe he's fucking hysterical with fear because at least he was himself in nothingness and now he's hopelessly entangled with Zorc again, trapped within the gold made of his people and why did you do this to me?!

The device isn't broken and the world blurs and darkens as he flicks the switch and the Thief King lunges with the blade once more.

When Jounouchi wakes up, he bolts from his bed and out the door in a blink. He doesn't want to hurt Bakura (or hell, even the Thief King) and if he wants a chance to explain what's happening or why he came back, to even apologize for sending the Thief King back into hell he's got to survive a little longer this time.

The Thief King kills him a few more times, a little slower and a little less frenzied with each reset, before he doesn't even bother sliding the knife into him, just pressing the blade under his chin now that he's cornered Jounouchi behind some book store. He's given up, any genuine blood lust giving way to a haunting emptiness, Jounouchi can see it in his eyes. He gulps, the metal cold against his throat.

"Are you gonna listen to me now, or is the seventh time the charm for this whole song and dance routine?"

The blade clatters as it hits the ground and he slumps against Jounouchi and he takes that as a yes. He's not sure how aware Zorc is right now but he hopes the creature is still dormant as he puts his arms around the Thief King's now trembling shoulders and tries to forget that this is probably the first gentle touch he's had for millennia, maybe even ever.