For ginrin, who requested some Priest Seth and Jounouchi. I'm sorry this is more of a series of loosely connected scenes than a more coherent story.
Seth had cast the spell looking for answers. But the only thing waiting for him at the other end— in this strange, dazzling world— was more questions.
The people did not look like those from his kingdom; too pale-skinned and sharp-eyed. One person was almost indistinguishable from the next except for the swell of breasts to differentiate between the sexes. They stared back at him, but they did so by sneaking long glances from underneath their black hair and boring gazes straight into his back. Confused whispers followed him wherever he went.
In an oasis in the center of the city, he stopped to observe two children battling. Their rituals and diadhank were similar to Seth's time, but they lacked true power. On the one hand, it meant he found his way to the right place and time. But just how far had he come to this future?
Echoes of old magic kept him grounded in this new reality. Using his Millennium Item like a dowsing rod, he cut a purposeful path through the suffocating landscape. The other Items were also here, wild and unrestrained, but the most dangerous of them was the Rod's influence cast across the entire city.
He quickened his pace. He needed to catch his prey before it realized it was being hunted.
He turned a corner in time to see a group of robed men charge into a fight. One of them grabbed a girl first, who shouted and fought back in self-defense. Her male friend faced several opponents at once. The attackers were not under direct control, but each of their minds was tethered back to this other Millennium Rod. Such an arrangement would allow the puppet master to collect intelligence in real time and psychically relay orders.
Seth hefted his Rod and severed the connection. The robed men dropped like puppets with their strings cut. They would be incapacitated by the psychic backlash for some time.
The two would-be victims gaped at him.
"Kaiba-kun?" the girl asked.
"Who the hell are you?!" the boy demanded, his amber eyes fixed on the Rod.
Seth understood them. A brief mental probe revealed why. The magic of the Millennium Puzzle sheltered them.
"I am the High Priest Seth, and I seek an audience with the man that completed the Millennium Puzzle."
x-x-x-
Mistrust rolled off the Ra-blessed boy, Jounouchi, in waves. While the girl Anzu had offered her name readily, Jounouchi snarled and put as much distance between them. But he'd learned the name of the man who would one day complete the Millennium Puzzle: Yuugi.
After some arguing between themselves, they even agreed to take him to meet Yuugi.
"We can't take you like that," Anzu declared and pointed to his clothes. "It might be awhile before we find Yuugi and you draw too much attention in that."
Which was how he ended up shoved in a cramped privacy booth with Jounouchi helping him into the strange and complicated clothing of this time. "Helped" was the wrong word. This sort of behavior and this amount of cursing wasn't acceptable among palace servants.
Seth let him know as much. "You make a terrible servant."
"Shut up," Jounouchi's words were directed at his exposed collar while his hands fumbled with the fasteners for his trousers.
Seth complied, but Jounouchi grew more unnerved. He leaned forward to examine Jounouchi's golden spun hair more. He knew hair like the color of starlight, but he'd never seen a crown colored like wheat bathed in sunlight. He supposed it could be a wig, which was all the fashion among some nobles. He caressed Jounouchi's gold bangs and curled his fingers around the soft strands.
Jounouchi flew back, flinging both arms to hug the walls. "What the fuck are you doing?" he spat past his heaving chest and clenched teeth.
"Your hair, it's a very unusual color. How?"
"You're shitting me, right?"
Seth repeated his question. "Why is it that color?"
"Unfucking believable." Jounouchi's hand flew to his blond tresses. "Because I dyed it, okay?"
Seth cocked his head. Dyed, like linen?
Someone banged on the door. "Is everything in there okay?" Anzu asked.
"Fucking peachy," Jounouchi snarled. He grabbed a short-sleeved tunic from the stool and threw it at Seth. "You gotta know how to put on a shirt." With that, he squeezed past and slammed the door close with enough force to shake the whole room.
It took Seth two tries to pull the tunic on. He figured that the picture and the writing were meant to be on the front. He examined himself in the mirror, which seemed like magic in itself. Mirrors in his time were pieces of bronze polished to reflect, and he had never seen one large enough to reflect his entire body. The clothing he donned hugged his body, and the linen was of exceptional quality.
Anzu gave a hum of approval when he emerged. Seth shunned the closed toe shoes in favor of the more familiar sandals. Afterward, Anzu compensated the shopkeeper with strips of colored parchment.
"Paper money," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
The future was more intriguing than he'd imagined.
"Let's go!" Jounouchi said and strapped a strange-looking diadhank to his arm. "We're running out of time."
-x-x-x-
They didn't have to look far. Less than a block from the clothing shop, a furious roar filled the streets and reverberated off the row of shops with their unnaturally clear faience. Seth looked up and started at the creature descending on the road. Upon second thought, he realized it was a flying carriage with a blue emblem splashed across the side.
Jounouchi cursed, long and colorful. Seth tensed in anticipation of an attack.
The spinning blades atop the carriage ground to a halt. The door slid open and out climbed a sight that Seth could hardly believe. The man wore his former liege's visage with porcelain skin like Anzu's and eyes set like Jounouchi's.
"Yuugi!" Anzu and Jounouchi exclaimed in unison.
Even if he didn't wield the Millennium Puzzle, he could only be one person. Yuugi, the Living Horus returned, walked with the same purpose and confidence as Atem. "Jounouchi, Anzu, you're okay. I feared Malik had gotten to you both." The relief in his voice was even more familiar. Yuugi was Atem.
Since Isis' successor penned the prophecy, Seth agonized over it. Atem's return heralded the Darkness' return, and it would once again threaten the world. But seeing Atem again, whole and alive? Joy and guilt overwhelmed him at once.
The three friends stopped when he approached. Seth knelt before Atem, presented his Rod over his knee, and said reverently, "Pharaoh, it's good to see you're well."
"You know me?" this Yuugi asked, with nary a glimpse of recognition.
Seth nodded with a heavy heart and mind. His hope crested, a wounded hawk plummeting into the valley at the pit of his stomach. Far worse than not knowing Seth, Atem knew not himself or the battle before him.
"Yuugi!"
Seth bristled at the command in the new speaker's voice. What man presumed to make demands of Atem?
"Explain yourself!"
Seth glared at the insolent man who carried himself like a king that expected all the world to bow before him. With a jolt, Seth realized he spoke with Seth's own voice from Seth's own face. Seth may be indignant in the face of this new development, but his doppelganger? He was iridescent with rage.
-x-x-x-
To Seth's surprise, Jounouchi intervened when the doppelganger known as Kaiba tried to lay a hand on him. Though Kaiba insulted him grievously, Jounouchi did not back down.
Perhaps Jounouchi wasn't so much Ra-blessed as he was Maahes-touched. The lion god's providence shone bright in his coiled muscles and the step formation drawing a line between Atem and Kaiba. At least Atem was not without protection in this time.
"You look just like Nii-sama," Mokuba stared up in awe.
Unlike the others, the touch of magic was light upon this boy. His words were garbled and it took Seth longer to grasp their meaning. Mokuba was his descendant's younger brother. (Descendant was the only explanation Seth'd accept. He refused to believe he might return too as this shallow and detestable man.)
"There is some passing resemblance," Seth admitted begrudgingly.
The boy screwed his face in confusion. It seemed that he couldn't understand Seth in return.
But Kaiba did. "It's a trick!" he snapped.
"No, Kaiba," Atem shook his head, Thoth's wisdom flowing from his lips. "He proves what I told you on the way here. I am not Mutou Yugi, but the soul trapped inside the Millennium Puzzle since antiquity. He doesn't speak Japanese, yet we all understand him."
Kaiba laughed. It was a ugly and rancorous sound. "You also said that your enemy was a man who possesses another Millennium Item. Correct me if I'm mistaken, Yuugi, but isn't that one of your so-called Items?" He pointed to Seth's Rod.
Ugly memories clawed their way to the surface. Kisara's blood spilled across the flagstones. Akhenaden's glowing eye bearing down on his soul. Seth had made his mistakes, but his duty held fast and true. Descendant or not, he wouldn't allow this Kaiba to impinge his honor.
Atem flung one arm out, halting Seth's advance. "We've both faced Malik and his minions. This man has none of the same malicious intentions."
When Seth spoke, all eyes turned to him. "This is the Millennium Rod. It can extract and seal away the corrupted parts of one's Ka. But what this Malik is doing, usurping a person's ib, it's a perversion of its power."
Kaiba crossed his arms over his chest and sneered. "I refuse to listen to any more of this occult garbage. We are here to duel, Yuugi."
Seth tuned out the rest of Kaiba's tirade. Even now, he could sense Atem's enemy regrouping and gathering his forces. The convergence of powers could explain how Seth came here so easily. To bend the Millennium Items so far from their original purpose must be another sign of Zorc's corruption. They only sealed Zorc after paying steep, heavy costs. Would Atem, cast adrift in the seas of time, triumph again?
Seth startled at the warm hand patting his shoulder. Jounouchi stood by his side, and his profile cut a noble picture against this unknown world.
"You're really worried about Yuugi, aren't you?" he asked.
Seth nodded. "Of course, he... he was my friend. And he will face many trials set by the gods before he can rest in peace."
"Hmm," Jounouchi hummed, watching over Atem with falcon eyes. "I don't really understand everything you're saying, but you seem like a decent guy. Sorry about treating you like a jerk before. I thought... I thought Kaiba was up to something again."
"He is an unpleasant man," Seth muttered.
Jounouchi snorted. "Yeah, that's one way to put it."
Kaiba glared at them both, but they ignored him.
"Anyway," Jounouchi pivoted to face Seth. "Just know that Yuugi has friends here too. I'd protect him with my life."
Sunlight bounced off a nearby surface, nearly blinding Seth. As he blinked rapidly to clear the spots, a vision of black leather wings sprouted from Jounouchi's back. The sight nearly floored Seth, and he watched as the mighty limbs stretched to shield Atem, Anzu, Mokuba, and even Kaiba. The gem-red eyes of Jounouchi's Ka bore into Seth. Another dragon— Kisara roared in approval.
Seth stepped into Jounouchi's space and said ardently, "Thank you."
Magic tugged at Seth's soul. His time here was up and he'd found his answer. Though the priests were no longer with Atem, he was not alone. He would find new companions and new strengths. For the first time since Atem died, Seth dared to believe. He dared to hope.
Jounouchi stared wide-eyed. It almost felt like they were back in that privacy booth, with Jounouchi's breath hot against his neck and his fingers skating the crest of Seth's hip. Seth threaded a hand through his hair and stole a kiss before the world fell away. Kaiba's "what the fuck are you doing, deadbeat?" was lost in the torrent of magic sweeping Seth away.
When Seth opened his eyes again, it was to the familiar sight of his palace workroom. The Rod was heavy in his hand, but his new wardrobe seemed to weigh nothing at all. Mana waited beyond the boundary of his magic circle, bouncing back and forth on the ball of her bare feet.
"Master Seth, did it work?" she chewed on her lower lip in worry.
Seth nodded slowly. The tingle of fire was still fresh against his lips. Then he smiled.