Disclaimer: Yuugiou (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters) is the property of Takahashi Kazuki and respective publishers, including Shueisha, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, Toei Animation, 4Kids, and others. I would never claim to own it or attempt to make money off of it- just think of this as a written, free doujinshi and hopefully we'll get along fine ;)

Notes: Lately I've been sucked into reading the Yuugiou GX manga, and while I've been enjoying it, I have some reservations about how it includes relics of the past (the Games of Darkness, and the villain, Toragoedia, who is a survivor of Kul Elna) while so far refusing to include any significant mentions of the past people associated with them. So somehow I ended up writing this as an attempt to reconcile Bakura and Toragoedia's existences. Well. I never thought I'd end up writing out-and-out meta-fic like this!

I've taken up enough space, so if you're unfamiliar with the GX manga I'll simply direct you to the Yugioh Wikia, where you can read the basic details of Toragoedia (type in Tragoedia in order to find him, though) and his past.

Vocabulary: Oyakata-sama here is being used to refer to the headman of a village, and Haha-ue is a respectful term for mother.

Old Ties

Fate did not favor thieves.

Toragoedia has had this knowledge burned and beaten into him from the day of his birth, and he was not foolish enough to ever think otherwise. However on this day, he almost wondered.

Dirty white hair, muddied purple eyes, and the voice of an arrogant brat already far too assured in his own power for little other reason than having been born with a powerful Kaa… Toragoedia did not bother paying attention to the ordinary brats running around his village, but Bakura had caught his attention. He didn't care for the brat, ungrateful little snake that he was, but he could not have ignored him, either.

And he could not ignore him now, either, half-beaten but still determinedly alive body on the streets of the capital. Toragoedia gathered the brat into a quiet corner in order to deal with him. Rather than fight back as he had expected, the boy looked up at him with wide eyes, seemingly in shock. Good. Then he would listen. And if his eyes contained some hint of horror in them, then perhaps he had seen what life was like for a thief who didn't have their village to rely on and found it distasteful. That was all to the good. He needed to be taught.

And Toragoedia would not believe that anything less than pride had led the brat away from the village. His parents might have no concept of disciplining the brat, but it stemmed from indulgence rather than neglect- they would never throw a child out if the mouths became too many to feed, unlike some of their neighbors.

"You were a foolish child before, and it appears you have grown worse. Did you think that untrained magical strength, even with a Kaa as powerful as yours, would allow you to care for yourself effectively?"

Toragoedia couldn't ignore the brat's snarl- it had a feral edge to it. The boy sounded like a dog, broken and bleeding, and all the more vicious for it. Heka rose about them, the bite it dealt Toragoedia clearly calculated. But calculated or not, there was little sanity in it.

"What else should I do, then? Go home?" The brat laughed, the laugh of jackals about to take their pray and of snakes about to lunge. It caught in the back, though, a choke more the sound of the child that he should be. "Maybe I will! Someone should keep the dead company."

Fangs bit at his mind, and Toragoedia watched uncaringly as the boy flinched under the grip he had on his shoulders, growing tighter now. "Kul Elna cannot be taken in by raiders."

"When the raiders are priests, it can! But you've been hiding out in the palace, haven't you? If anyone would know about what priests can do, it's y-" The brat's accusation broke off, and he bit his lip, as if inflicting a new hurt could distract him from the pain in his shoulders.

"Priests, you say? What did they do, Bakura?"

"I-it was a ritual…everyone's bodies for seven gold items…they didn't see me, I don't know, maybe they couldn't…the dark power attacked them before they put it back in the items…I think some of them died, I hope they did…" The words came tumbling out in a messy torrent, like amulets falling from inexpert wrappings.

Toragoedia could make sense enough of them, though. He thought for long enough to release the boy, so that when he lashed out it was in another direction. A dog which had been scurrying about in the alley for scraps fell against his Heka, body split open. Toragoedia did his best to imagine those priests in its place. Akunadin, it must have been, that man who wore the Sennen Eye- and whose blood and bones had it been made from? his mind taunted-, and who, Toragoedia recalled, had killed men ruthlessly before in order to protect the Pharaoh.

Revenge would be had in many directions. The Pharaoh who this crime had been committed for would die along with the man who had performed the rites, as would those bastard priests who had stood by complicity and watched a massacre. This land would suffer…

He felt his Kaa raring for blood, and surprised a moment of sympathy with the brat still watching him with eyes like a wild animal. They both had powerful Kaa, after all, and hated. They weren't so different after all, at least now with such a similar purpose driving them.

"Perhaps you can care for yourself effectively. Do so, and remain distant from the palace for the time being. I will make sure our people's revenge is taken."

There was no trust in Bakura's eyes. He hadn't expected it.

===O===

All Bakura could hear without breaking into the palace was that an astronomer had died and received no tomb. Former friends wondered at that in darkened corners, and the knowledge was stolen away to ears which could make use of it.

Toragoedia hadn't been strong enough. Bakura wasn't surprised. Oyakata-sama had always said that he held back too much. It made him a good spy, but a bad fighter- he couldn't wield the feral magical forces which could cause him to break through the carefully arranged rituals which the priests always had prepared, only more now that they claimed those abominations for sacred relics.

Raw strength was useless in hands which wouldn't steel themselves to come down with force on the seal. That was both Oyakata-sama and Haha-ue, but Bakura liked to think that his mother had said it first.

Bakura had that force, though. He was the only survivor of Kul Elna, and he intended to get his revenge. When the time came to strike, he would bite them all and see their blood before they could prepare themselves against him.

They would all die, and the spirits would have their peace.