Of Guns and Sand
by Xeora
Stranger things have happened. All this crap with magic powers, monsters and shadow realms. Certainly, being sucked into a stone tablet and ending up in the ancient past in the lap of a touchy-feely priest would be considered normal. But being rescued by Seto Kaiba? Now that's just unusual!
Notes: My attempt at a long-term YGO! Fic. I don't want it to exceed more than ten chapters, but it may extend to 15 if I wanna be adventurous. Also, this is slight AU and just before the Battle City tournament.
Warnings: Boy love. Molesting, possible OOC (trying to avoid desperately) and ammunition. This isn't your 4kids YGO! Fic. Invisible guns have been traded for real ones. ;D
Inspired by a few images I googled.
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One
The Big Rock
"This. Is a rock."
That was a great way to point out what was obvious, but honestly, Jounouchi Katsuya didn't quite care. In fact, he didn't quite care about much. He was bored, of course. Very bored. Standing around at a museum chock-full of broken pottery and giant rocks wasn't exactly Jou's ideal way of spending a weekend. He would have rather gone to the arcade to blow pocket change on a few rounds of Back Alley Fighter. But no... Yugi wanted to drag him here instead.
"It'll be fun," the small teen said, giving off his bright child-like grin. "The new exhibit is really cool, Jou. They discovered another tomb, this time with all sorts of cool treasures. There's a mummy too."
Jou was sold at the word "mummy", because mummies were that cool. Anything dead and preserved was pretty awesome the more the blond thought about it. But the mummy was something they saw an hour ago, and to be honest it was like every other mummy he had seen be displayed in this museum. Dead, wrinkled and wrapped in bandages. They moved onto other artifacts, such as pots, bowls, and even some jewelry. A lot of gold was on display, and even a Pharaoh's magnificent headdress was shown in a glass case. That being amongst the main part of the exhibit. Now, however, they were looking at rocks. Really big, jagged, aged rocks. Limestone, read the label, painted upon to depict the story of the priest and a lover. Not that Jou could really tell. It just looked like a bunch of symbols, pictures of animals, and sideways human figures wearing loincloths and eyeliner.
"Nyeehh..." Jou let out a bored whine, digging into his ear. He looked down at Yugi, who was looking up at the 'rock' in fascination. But than again, Yugi Mouto seemed to be fascinated by just about anything.
"Its not just a rock, Jou." Yugi said. "It tells a story."
"It's still a rock, Yuug." Jou said flatly. "A rock with a big ol' picture of some tanned dude hugging some other not-so-tanned dude. Heh. Its a homo rock."
Yugi just shook his head, smiling a little lopsidedly. "I get it, you're bored. But I wanted to look around a little more."
"At rocks?" The blond gave him a flat look.
"Yes, Jou. At the rocks." Yugi chuckled. "I can meet you at the museum restaurant in about twenty minutes? I'll buy dinner this time."
"Well..." he scratched his cheek.
"Promise." Yugi said, waving over his shoulder. He was making his way to the stairs, practically walking down two at a time. He seemed so damned cheerful, as usual. Jou could only shake his head.
"He promised dinner, so its fine." The blond rubbed his hands together, looking forward to some snazzy restaurant food. He never ate at the museum before. Well, other than during that school excursion, but that didn't count. He bummed a home made lunch off of Anzu that day. Jou shoved his hands in his pockets, looking up at the rocks plastered on the wall, carefully guarded behind bullet proof glass. He walked over to the next one, looking up at another large slab of stone. Although, it didn't look like it had fallen off some wall in a pyramid. It was perfectly squared, but with smooth edges. The paint on it looked almost fresh, and not faded like the rest. He stared at it for a moment, tilting his head. His blond locks fell over his honey colored eyes, which blinked slowly. Something akin to nostalgia washed over Jou, sending a slight shiver down his spine. These characters, though quite indistinct from the rest, seemed oddly familiar. The blond moved closer, trying to have a better look--
"Tablet of Paths..." said a soft voice, making Jou yelp and jump back. He had his arms up defensively, in an would-be kung-fu pose. There stood a woman with deeply tanned skin, dark eyes and even darker hair. She stared at him neutrally. Her arms were crossed in a loose manner, long white gown reaching passed her ankles. Her feet were covered in sandals, and she wore gold jewelry. One that caught Jou's attention was her necklace. The Eye of Ra in its center seemed to glare at him in an intimidating manner.
However...
"Hey..." Jou recognized her immediately. He stopped his stance, relaxing his shoulders. "Its you. That lady that was on the TV. This is your stuff, right?" He motioned to all the artifacts in the museum.
"If you mean this is my exhibit, then yes." She said. She was very soft spoken. "But these aren't truly my own. All this that surrounds you belong to the king of the sands. The god incarnated into flesh."
"Uh... huh..." Jou nodded, making an odd face.. "Okay then. I get it. I guess. So miss... uh..?"
"Ishizu Ishtar," She said, bowing her head a little. "I am truly sorry if I frightened you. But you seemed very much interested in the Tablet."
"The tablet?" He blinked. "Oh. Oh!" He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "You mean the rock? Yea. Nice pictures and stuff."
Ishizu shook her head. "It is not just a rock. Its an important tool once used by priests that were under the direct order of the pharaoh of Egypt."
"Ah." Jou looked back at the tablet, or the huge stone slab he nearly took pleasure in calling the 'rock'. He tried to imagine what it would be used for, only to snort. But he somehow doubted this would be used to drop on someone's head.
"The Tablet of Paths is simply a story," Ishizu said, walking forward to stand beside Jou. "A story that is always changed. As you can see, this stone here is quite old... but the hieroglyphs are not the same age at all."
"So people just wrote over it or somethin'?" Jou didn't know why he asked. He was bored... but he guessed that was all the more reason to do so.
"Priests did, yes." Ishizu said. "The story that is written is of a single figure, or of many. It is passed down to one priest after another, so that he may correct the wrongs within the lifetime of the previous owner."
The blond seemed a little confused. "Sorry, what..?"
"Ah, allow me to reword myself." Ishizu cleared her throat, touching at her necklace. "The priests of Egypt believed they could correct the wrongs of the past if they rewrote their history. To correct great wrongs, and to prevent an evil from happening. This, of course, is only a myth. The practice of the use of the Tablet had suddenly stopped during the rein of Tutankhamen." She looked over at Jou. "For reasons, he believed, that changing the past can greatly alter the future."
"Well I know that," Jou said with a nod. He crossed his arms, glad he at least knew something. "I've watched enough Twilight Zone."
Ishizu merely tilted her head, looking amused. "Of course."
"So... what's the story on this one here?" Jou pointed to the tablet. "You said it changed, or somethin'."
"Over the years we've had it, yes." Ishizu said.
"Nyehh," Jou blinked. "You actually had someone write over it? I dunno about you lady, but isn't that illegal?"
"It is not I or another being that had written over it. Or at least directly." Ishizu said. "It is a very mysterious artifact. It had been interpreted at least a thousand different times over the past hundred years my family had kept it safe. The writing changes, you see. It is never the same. It erases parts of itself, and sometimes those parts never come back." She pointed up to it. "There are missing points here, here... and here." She pointed at the bottom.
"... well, I've heard of spookier things." Jou said. Like Shadow Games, magic pharaohs, real monsters. So stuff like this didn't really surprise him. After all, he did hang out with Yugi.
"It tells the story of a priest who had lost a lover." Ishizu went on. "The high priest to the pharaoh of that time had fallen in love with a Roman soldier. It skips to a part of betrayal, war... and of the priest becoming consumed in his anguish. But as to how the story ends..." She motioned towards the bottom. "That part is missing."
"Interestin'..." sadly, Jou was only half listening. Meaning he really wasn't, he had grown bored again. Ishizu took the hint, obviously.
"Well, it was lovely meeting you, Jounouchi." Ishizu gave him a short bow. "Enjoy the rest of the exhibit."
"Yea thanks--" Jou's eyes went wide and he turned to face her. "Hey--!"
However, she was no longer there. And oddly, he didn't even hear her pad off.
"... woah, creepy..." The blond shivered involuntarily. "How in the world did she know my name..?"
He didn't even introduce himself to that woman.
"Jou...?"
"Gah!" The blond clutched his heart, whipping himself around to see the surprised Yugi, looking up at him with his big purple eyes. "Oh, jesus... what's with everyone sneaking up on me today?"
"Sorry," Yugi rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. "I didn't think you would still be here. I thought you'd be at the restaurant."
"Oh yea. S'okay, Yuug." Jou said, letting out a heavy sigh. "I was on my way, then this big rock kinda stole my attention." He pointed to the Tablet of Paths. "Bright colors."
Yugi looked up at it, smiling softly. "I see. So you found something you're interested in other than mummies."
"Guess so..." Jou said, placing his hand on his stomach. It growled loudly. "Man... Yuug, I'm starving. Lets go get some grub."
"I did promise dinner," Yugi said, hands behind his head as they walked. "I was thinking about getting a burger..."
"At a museum restaurant?" Jou grinned. "Bet they're fancy~"
The smaller boy only laughed. "Thanks for coming with me today, Jou."
"No problem, Yuug. It was kinda enlightening I guess." The blond said, shoving his hands in his pocket. The farther they walked, there seemed to be a slight nagging feeling growing in the back of Jou's mind. He was midway down the hall when he suddenly stopped. "Aw, geeze..." he said suddenly, biting his lip.
Yugi paused as well, looking back at his friend. "What's wrong?"
"I dunno, I think I might have forgotten something back there." Jou pointed behind him. "You go ahead. I'll catch up."
Yugi nodded. "Okay. Want me to order something for you?"
"A ton of fries, milkshake and two burgers." In other words, 'the usual'. Yugi laughed again.
"See you in a bit then."
Jou turned on his heel, walking back a little briskly. "What did I forget...?" he muttered, straining his mind. He didn't remember bringing anything with him other than a wallet and his pass for the museum. He dug into his pockets again, feeling around for his only important object. His wallet was there, and so was the stub from the museum ticket. He stopped in the room of stone tablets, walls and general rocks. He looked around on the ground, then looked up towards the wall. There was the Tablet of Paths. For some reason, his nagging feeling had completely gone.
"Hn... weird..." Jou said, a frown on his face. He looked up at the stone again for a moment, blinking a little. "... musta been imagining it or something..." Still, he couldn't look away from the tablet. In fact, the longer he stared, the brighter the paint on it seemed to get. It looked quite animated... quite alive. He thought, for a moment, that he could hear what these hieroglyphs were trying to convey. These voices, this language... he couldn't understand a damn word of it. Still, he was compelled forward. He outstretched his hand, fingers brushing over the bullet proof glass, which seemed to slowly melt away. As weird as that was, Jou couldn't help his overwhelming need to touch the stone.
The moment his fingers made contact is when everything seemed to fall down around him.
"W-wha...?!" Jou had just another moment to yelp, as the ground beneath him crumbled like a thin cookie. The walls, the pillars, the artifacts... all but the Tablet of Paths fell at an alarming rate. Jou desperately grabbed at the air, attempting to take hold of the stone that floated above him.
All he knew now was falling.
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Well... this will be fun. The next installment includes a very familiar face. :D
Reviews please. I'll hopefully post the next chapter tomorrow evening.
Xeora