Thought of this and decided to write it down. I don't think it actually has an discontinuities with the canon. If you see anything, tell me but I think it all works out. Well, I wasn't actually sure on the ages so I just did what I thought would work out about right. I admit though, they're probably too mature for being that young, but just ignore that part :) Never done a Thief-King story, let alone any Bakura story or a Kisara story. I've only done one Joey story and the rest have been Kaiba stories. So hopefully it goes well. One-shot. Zero pairings. Please enjoy and comment and whatnot. Thanks -ajzeta
Summary:
OneShot Set in Ancient Egypt: Bakura's twin sister Kisara was always different. And she was always abused by her parents because of it. The 2 were always close, but as Kisara's powers begin revealing themselves, the twins grow apart, and Bakura turns to thievery to cope. Thief King Bakura's childhood before and up to Kul Elna. No pairings. Semi-graphic descriptions of death.
His twin sister had always been a little different from everyone else. Firstly, the poor family could hardly afford one child, let alone a second. It wasn't uncommon for babies to be left abandoned. And being a girl born of pale white skin didn't help her case, especially having a strong, male twin that could work and wouldn't be a complete outcast. But rather than entirely abandon the girl and leave her for dead, their parents, being thieves and illegal merchants, decided the girl may be of use later on. If times got tough, they could always sell her away and could surely get a fair price considering how unique she was.
Bakura was 3 and was coming back from playing with some of the other village boys. It was midday and he decided to go into town and steal an apple for himself. It's something he had done all his life. He didn't see anything wrong with it. It was just how poor boys survived. He easily acquired the apple and tossed it in his hand as he walked home to the small abode his family lived in. He smiled mischievously at his prize; it was so red and perfect, not a single bruise, and practically oozed with flavor and blatantly displayed its juiciness. Of course he had taken the prime pick of the apples that any of the vendors on the street were selling. He wouldn't settle for less when it was so easy to take the best. His friends simply settled for what they could get. They weren't as skilled as he was. Already he had gained a reputation as the best thief among the children; of course unknown to the merchants in the village. But it was well known amongst the other criminals in Kul Elna that he was a type of prodigy in the art of stealing.
He tossed his prize up in the air and watched the sun glimmer off of it. He smiled and decided this apple was simply too good to eat at home. He must find a proper place for dining on this delicacy. He knew of a small cave alongside a stream which led to the Nile. There was greenery around it and the plants were lush compared to the rest of the desert. It was cool and moist in the cave, and he decided he would enjoy his finding there. It was a place he thought of fondly. He and his twin sister, Kisara, often played there and sought refuge from the heat of midday in that cave. It wasn't uncommon for them to hide in that cave and close their eyes and pretend they were in the royal palace. Sometimes they would play in the stream and pretend they were giants and that the stream was the mighty Nile; nothing could hurt them.
Bakura had to cross some dunes and rocks to reach this sanctuary. But once he did he found something was terribly wrong. Behind the noise of the babbling stream, and the desert heat he heard sobbing. He slowly and carefully made his way into the cave and saw Kisara bawling into her knees. He slowly walked over to her and tapped her shoulder. She wiped away a few tears and looked up at her brother and the perfect apple he was holding out to her. Bakura noticed the black eye that now graced her face and the bruises on her arms and cheek. He frowned, but wasn't surprised. This wasn't uncommon. Kisara used to cry at home. But when she cried too much in front of their parents while she was being punished, the punishment would only grow worse. Now she would run away to cry to herself.
"Thank you." She sniffled and put her hand on top of the apple but didn't grab it hard enough for Bakura to be able to let go. She smiled weakly at him. "We'll share it."
Bakura was 4. He still wasn't old enough to work, but his parents had realized his potential as a thief, so now instead of stealing himself apples, he thieved coins and money to bring back to his parents. Kisara was too noticeable to be a good thief. She couldn't even go into town without being pushed to the ground and threatened to be stoned. So she was mostly left to gather water and take care of the few animals the family had. But her main purpose was as a punching bag on bad days. Now Bakura always stopped by the cave with something for Kisara in case she was there. She was only there on some days. But it was always worth it when she was. He hated the idea of her crying alone.
He carried his loot in the clothes he wore, but held a banana in his hand to bring to Kisara. He arrived at the cave and felt a pit growing in his stomach when he heard her crying. He walked through the cave towards her and before he arrived next to her she looked up at him with the tears rolling down her scratched cheeks. "I'm sick of crying Bakura! It does nothing! I hate our parents. I hate my life!" Her eyes started lighting up blue and more tears spilled through her angry eyes. Bakura took a step back seeing her eyes glowing. Her eyes instantly dimmed and she looked incredibly sad and broken, but the tears stopped flowing. "Please Bakura. Don't leave me too." She closed her eyes and her head fell toward the ground. "You're the only one who doesn't treat me like an outcast. Please don't run from me like everyone else." Bakura instantly ran over to her side and dropped to his knees to hug her.
"I'll never run from you. I promise."
Bakura was 6. Kisara didn't cry anymore. She didn't go to the cave anymore. She just put on a strong face and dealt with what was given to her. She didn't smile much either though. Bakura continued to excel in his trade. Other local kids had nicknamed him Thief King Bakura after stealing robes, gold, and jewels fitting for a king. On several occasions, Kisara's anger had displayed itself to Bakura and he saw her eyes glow bright blue. It became clear to him that his sister was anything but normal. At first he was a little wary of her, but he reminded himself of his promise to her, and reasoned that there was nothing to fear; after all, her eyes just glowed, and that was hardly threatening. And it didn't happen often, only when she was incredibly angry. But as he saw more of her anger and potential power, he found himself stealing more and more, staying in town longer and thieving more than he needed.
It was a rush. It was addicting. Just that he could do it made him want to. Every item he stole, every risk he took gave him excitement; he felt powerful. It was something that gave him power and kept him feeling alive. The more valuable the items, the better guarded they were, the more risky the steal; the better. Stealing required all his concentration; he didn't and couldn't think of anything else while he was thieving. It became a coping mechanism to escape from reality.
"You've been spending a lot of time in town." Bakura wiped the white hair out of him face and felt the sun's heat hitting his face again. He dropped his hair back in front of him. "I wish I was able to go to town." Kisara's bare feet kicked at the sand they sat in. "The next time I go to town… I'll probably be being sold."
"I'm not going to let that happen to you."
"And what can you do to stop it? You're just a little kid."
"I'm not sure how, but I will. I won't let anything happen to you."
"You won't let anything happen to me? You always let things happen to me Bakura! While you're out in town I'm stuck here being beaten!"
"I can't do anything about that! You know that. Like you said, I'm just a kid."
"It wouldn't be the first time you made me a promise you couldn't keep!" She began stomping away from her twin and Bakura turned and rose to his feet.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You promised me you'd never run away from me." She had her eyes closed and head down. But she turned towards Bakura and opened her eyes wide with glowing cyan shining out. "But you have Bakura! You avoid me! You ignore me! You've shunned me just like everybody else!" A wind started blowing and puck up surrounding Kisara and making her hair blow everywhere. Light started erupting from behind her and an image of wings of light formed behind her. Bakura stuttered backwards and fell. He had never seen anything like this. The wind puck up the sand and he became lost in it. He closed his eyes and covered his face to block off the sand from blinding him. The wind slowly died down and he felt Kisara's small arms around him. "Bakura. I'm so sorry." Her arms released him and he slowly opened his eyes to see her shaking and staring at her palms. She looked utterly shocked and more surprised than he did. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what this is, what's wrong with me." She shook her head vigorously from side to side. "I'm a monster and I've hurt you." Bakura couldn't stop himself from shaking; the power he had just seen was incredible. He couldn't believe it. He sat in the sand shaking and just staring at Kisara.
It was a few months after the incident. After spending a week in town, Bakura made sure he returned home to Kisara. He couldn't deny now his fear of his twin, but he couldn't let her down. No matter how scary she was, she was his sister.
Still, he resented the long walks through desert to reach their home. And when he was there he didn't much enjoy it. First he had to face the guilt of seeing Kisara covered in bruises, then he had to hand over most of his valuable acquisitions to his parents: the very ones who were giving Kisara those scratches and bruises. Then he had to work and didn't have much freedom. Then, going back to town he had to face the guilt of leaving Kisara again for the entire long and dry walk. And it was always somewhat scary walking back. It was too hot during the day so he always travelled at night. Being as young as he was, he still feared the dark, the unknown. In the village everything was busy and always lit. But at night he didn't know.
Suddenly he was pulled from his train of thought when he saw a bright light shining ahead of him where his house was. He dropped everything he was carrying and started sprinting toward it. The house came into vision as he ran over a sand dune and he saw the light coming out from all of it. Suddenly a light burst through the roof and a massive, shining white dragon emerged and roared. It flew high into the sky and breathed white fire into the house. The house lit up and then the dragon slowly disappeared into light and dissipated back into the house. It was shockingly quiet and Bakura sprinted toward the house after a moment's pause. He panted as he slowly poked his head into the entrance and only saw a faint cyan glow from around a corner. He slowly walked around the house to the source and saw Kisara standing in the middle of the room glowing. She turned towards him with huge blue beams of eyes that slowly dimmed. She was shaking uncontrollably but Bakura wasn't. Glowing blue tears started falling from Kisara's eyes and hitting the floor, creating a shimmering, glowing pool at her feet. "I… I killed them." She could hardly speak through her shaking and crying. "I… I killed them, Bakura. I killed them. I l…let that weird power flow th…through me… And I became something… I'm a monster." The tears continued falling as she watched Bakura with wide, watchful eyes. Her long, wavy white hair still blew slightly and Bakura could feel the sand moving around his bare feet.
His sister; she just became a dragon! She killed their parents! There weren't even remains, they were just vaporized! She could just kill anyone she wanted, just like that! She had this insane power. She became something only heard of in legend; just by letting that power flow through her! He didn't know what to do. He just wanted to forget it had ever happened. He wanted to go back to when they sat in the cave and he brought her fruit from the market. He didn't want his sister to be this glowing dragon thing whenever she got angry! He couldn't deal with this all so fast: that his parents were dead, that his sister killed them, that his sister was a dragon! He needed to run. He needed to go steal. He needed something. He just needed some time in his head. He just needed to run.
He slowly backed away from Kisara as she shook in fear. And he turned away and started running out into the desert. He didn't know if she called anything out to him, he just needed to run. He just needed to get out of there. He felt the harsh sand pushing at his feet and slowing him down, but he just kept running. He kept running until his head hurt and he became so dizzy that he fell to the ground. Then he staggered to his feet and continued away each time he fell in the sand until he found himself approaching Kul Elna. He shook his aching head and held it low as he stood up slowly and slinked into the village. There, he found an alley way at the back of a small farm area. He crawled through a fence and into the animal lot, where he allowed himself to collapse into a pile of hay and lightly fall asleep. He let himself fall into the comforting darkness. Never again did he want to see that bright of a light. All he wanted was the dark. All he wanted was the night and the realm of shadows.
Now he lived in the village. He stole for a living without his parents anymore. He still stole more than he needed to. And his friends still called him Thief King. He never told anyone what happened to his family. He never really talked to anyone. And no one would have cared either way; a lot of children abandoned home or stayed as street children in Kul Elna. Many children had been abandoned there too. Many children roamed the streets there after being orphaned, though under different circumstances than Bakura. He managed to distract himself from everything. His thievery became incredible and he felt a strange connection with all the other outcasts and criminals in the town.
It was night time, and he was planning out how he would steal some silk from a merchant that kept his items particularly well-guarded. He had never stolen from that merchant before, and it became his obsession recently. He stared into the night sky through the hay thinking of ways to infiltrate the man's products when suddenly he heard muffled commotion. At first he decided to ignore it: probably just a scuffle between drunks in the street. But the noise became a little louder and soon he saw flaming arrows shooting above his head. He turned around to look and used the hay to climb to the roof of the nearby building.
He gasped as he saw an army coming from the north. Flaming arrows shot through the air, hitting everything in sight. He turned around to look at the south end of the village and saw flames spreading across the back end. It all happened so fast, no one had time to react or think or figure out what was happening. The flames were spreading everywhere and soon the screams joined in. He climbed down from the roof and into the alley way leading to his hay stack and peered around the corner to the chaos. He saw as the pharaoh's army swept in on horses and grabbed a mother and her child. They took the child and sent a flaming arrow through his heart and he collapsed as his mother screamed in terror. Another horseman came by with his sword and took a swing at the women, but she bent down in grief over her child and he only caught the back of her neck. She collapsed, gasping and bleeding. Blood was shooting everywhere, sending flickering shadows from the light into the alleyway as Bakura stood shaking and watching as his fellow outcasts and criminals were brutally slaughtered. He heard a crackling noise behind him and saw as an arrow had hit his hay stack, the place he now thought of as home, and the flame was spreading quickly across it. He ran down a separate alleyway behind a house which was now going up in flames and crawled underneath it as it collapsed around him. He scrambled on his stomach through a collapsed stone building and then sprinted across an open street, hoping the guards wouldn't see him. He made his way around another flaming building before letting the pharaoh's army pass him by and then retreating into the desert.
He just started running into the night. Never again did he want to see the glow of light. He didn't want the fire. He didn't want light being in the night where it didn't belong. He just felt his legs moving beneath him as he ran into the comforting dark. Finally, he collapsed down onto his knees. But he didn't feel the abrasive sand on his knees and palms. He felt lush greenery and life. He opened his eyes to see he was at the stream that he had played in so often when he was younger. He focused on the sound of the water flowing through the rocks instead of the screaming from the nearby town. But then he heard something else: footsteps. Immediately he thought it would be an Egyptian soldier who had found him running and come to take his life. He prepared himself to leave the world, but instead he opened his eyes slowly to see Kisara standing in front of him. He looked up at her and she looked completely normal. Her eyes weren't glowing and her hair wasn't blowing. She just looked like the little pale girl she was.
"Kisara! The… the soldiers are slaughtering everyone in the town. You need to help them!" He pleaded into her eyes as she simply stared him down. "Please Kisara. All those innocent people, kids, babies." He heard a rather loud scream and felt tears welling in his eyes. "You have to help them Kisara! You have the power to. I've seen what you can do; you can save all those people!" She continued staring at him with large sad eyes.
"Those people shunned me. They tried to stone me. They wanted me dead. So they can die now and I don't care." She began walking away.
"Kisara! Please!"
"You shunned me too Bakura. You hated me and ran from me, something you promised to never do… Goodbye." She then simply walked away, leaving Bakura with his hands clutching the grass and screaming after her at her back.
"Kisara! You can't just let them all die! You can't just walk away from those dying children when you can save them! Kisara! Kisara!" He let his face fall into the plants as Kisara disappeared into the night. He gripped the grass in his fists and spoke through clenched teeth. "Fine, Kisara. Just let them die. And I'll avenge their deaths. I'll take revenge on the pharaoh. I'll avenge all of Kul Elna, even if you won't save them. The pharaoh will know our pain!"