Necropolis demon
Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh so please…stop rubbing it in!
Necro: Agh! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I KNEW IT! You guys really do want Ryou and Bakura to get together don't you? I'll have to rethink everything now…Grrrr, don't worry, I'm not agitated with you guys it's just that I was hoping that at least more than 3 people would vote for a Seth/Ryou ending but it turns out that only one approves with this pairing. "This fic was supposed to be a Seth/Ryou fic" says the guy who posts them for me and I knew right from the beginning that if I'd introduce Bakura into the story most reviewers were going to want a RXB fic instead of the what seemed to be obvious SXR type. You guys have read the summary haven't you? Guess I'll have to rethink the ending to make you guys happy but it'll take me longer to update now. You guys have given me a challenge to make everyone happy and I ACCEPT. Necropolis demon NEVER backs away from a challenge…right? /cricket sounds/
Note: I just want to remind everyone that the outfits that Ryou, Bakura and Malik wore in the last chapter didn't change, only Seth and Atemu. Don't forget, Seth and Atemu's real bodies were left in the Shadow realm so when they travel back to Egypt through the Shadow realm Seth and Atemu automatically goes back to their original Egyptian bodies.
Destined DuelChapter 13 Back to Egypt
The gang raced to their school and up the rooftop as if they were chased by a pack of wolves. Frantically, they scrambled up the flight of stairs that led to the roof, ignoring the 'no entry' signs that Kaiba had set up to keep people away and found themselves greeted by the now familiar sight of Kaiba and Ryou's Blue-Eyes White dragon and Dark Necrofear as well as the silhouettes of their Egyptian allies.
"Isis! We're here." The Egyptian blond said upon arriving, quickly sauntering towards his sister's side.
"Good, now we only have a few minutes to give you a brief explanation of what you're supposed to do when you get back to Egypt." Isis explained, gesturing towards the setting sun then handing her brother a yellow backpack.
"W-what's this for?" the younger Ishtal inquired, opening his bag and finding several clothes and necessities already packed for him. While the two Ishtals were talking, Shadi had led the time-travelers towards the two duel monsters that still stood prominently to get them away from the two conversing Ishtals.
"It's time for Ryou and the rest of them to go back to Egypt, they've stayed here for too long causing the Shadow realm to start collapsing." The female Egyptian explained, "Malik you're going with them to Egypt"
"What? Why?"
"You're a crucial part of this whole thing Malik…" for a second Isis' expression turned from seriousness to worry, "If you don't help Ryou fulfill the prophecy…your existences will be erased." Isis said, looking intently at the time-travelers and her brother.
"No way."
"Believe us Master Malik…you will disappear from this world." Rishid said.
"I guess what you're saying is true…considering the fact that we don't show up in film." Malik drew out his copy of their group picture and showed it to his sister.
"Oh Malik…it's starting." Isis covered her mouth to suppress a gasp and looked sadly at her younger sibling. "Malik…you must do your part well, don't forget…" she once again turned serious, "you must never let them know what it is they are suppose to fulfill, they must do it themselves otherwise…all will be lost. You may help them on their way but you must never tell them the conclusion of it all."
"I understand…I will guide them step by step throughout their roles but I will not speak a word of their ultimate goal which is to have Seth and Bakura duel each other." Malik spoke gravely.
After a quick pat on the shoulder from Rishid and a smile from Isis, they sauntered towards Shadi's side where Shadi was already explaining things to Ryou's group; he explained to them that they had to go back to Egypt otherwise all would be lost.
"So Malik, Shadi told us that you're coming with us?" Atemu questioned, the blond Egyptian nodded.
"I took the liberty of getting your things packed up and brought here from the Kaiba mansion." Isis spoke to Ryou, handing Ryou his purple backpack.
"Thank you very much." Ryou bowed and gave the worried female a reassuring smile.
"I didn't pack Kaiba and Yugi's things since their bodies aren't allowed to go through the shadow realm as you know. Ryou…" she placed a hand on Ryou's shoulder and spoke to him, "please…all of you be careful, take good care of each other ok."
"Don't worry, we'll look out for each other…thank you for everything you've done to help us, we are forever grateful." Ryou gave Isis and everyone a smile then glanced towards his time-traveling companions.
"Thank you very much for your kindness." The pharaoh as well as the other ancient Egyptians thanked.
"Ryou please take good care of my brother…."
"Of course." With a smile and a final thank you, they said their goodbyes; Tea was near to tears, Joey and Tristan were hugging the life out of Ryou and the others, Isis and Rishid gave Malik a hug and some words of caution and Mokuba bid farewell to Ryou's group.
The sun was finally out of sight, which gave way for the moon to shine its glow, the two images of the duel monsters were clearer than ever. Shadi beckoned for Ryou's group to stand between the two towering monsters with a last warning for them, "Ryou, Malik…the both of you must not overstay your welcome there, don't forget you belong in this world…if you stay there for too long you will cause yet another problem."
"We understand." Malik nodded.
"Now then, I will open the Shadow realm for you; the three of you will go through it-" the mysterious Egyptian gestured towards Bakura, Ryou and Malik, "-and the both of you will lose consciousness signaling that you're minds have left Kaiba and Yugi's bodies to go back to your original bodies which are still both in the Shadow realm as you know."
Everyone nodded in understanding and with that Ryou, Bakura and Malik stepped in between the two towering duel monsters; Ryou and Malik were clutching at their backpacks, Bakura was taking one last look at the world he was about to leave while Atemu and Seth were watching the three of them also preparing themselves for the coming dizziness.
Without wasting another precious second Shadi opened the Shadow realm and sent the three teens back to Egypt as Atemu and Seth fell unconscious signaling that their minds have indeed left Yugi and Kaiba's bodies to return to their original bodies that were left in the Shadow realm.
Again the time-travelers could feel themselves trapped in an endless abyss where darkness was all they could see. Seth and Atemu's souls were able to return to their respective bodies so when Seth opened his eyes and moved around a bit he found himself back in his robes and headdress with his millennium rod tucked underneath his garments. The pharaoh was back in his real body when he woke up and found himself floating in darkness and feeling the cloth of the cloak he wore before when he had attempted to escape from the palace.
"Is everyone here?" came Ryou's distant yell, "Malik?"
"So this is how you guys traveled. It's not exactly first class." Malik replied.
"Seth, have you and the pharaoh returned to your bodies?"
"Yes, we're back in our bodies Ryou!" Atemu yelled back.
"Bakura?" the pale teen searched for his other half.
"I'm over here, I can see that same light we saw before!" the tomb robber shouted out, "We're going to reach out for it like before right?"
"Right." And with that, Ryou and everyone else reached out towards the source of luminance and started spinning and spinning with everything around them disappearing.
The first one to wake up from the five of them was Atemu who was first to feel the effects of the blazing sun, he opened his eyes and found himself flat on his back, looking up at the sun. He quickly closed his eyes shut at the sudden brightness and felt around, noticing that he was stretched out on the desert sand. Getting up and trying to get rid of the sand in his hair, the disguised pharaoh looked around, finding his companions and nothing else but seas of sand.
One by one the others began to rise slowly, quickly averting their gaze from the bright radiant sun above, Malik was the first one to speak…or should I say spit out sand, "Pff! Pfft! Yuck! I've got sand in my mouth!"
"Is everyone ok?" Ryou asked, dusting off the sand in his hair.
"We're fine." Atemu responded, getting up from the sand and looking around to find nothing but miles of sand.
Seth got up and dusted the sand of his robes then swiftly scanned the area, "It seems that we've landed ourselves in the desert miles away from the city."
"At least me and Ryou still have our backpacks." Malik pointed out the bright side, "Hey, hold on…where's Bakura?" he asked, noticing that the tomb robber was nowhere to be seen.
"There he is!" Ryou pointed out to the direction where an unconscious figure with white blond hair was. The group quickly sauntered towards Bakura's side as Bakura was waking up.
The thief woke up and found his companions who were looking down at him without saying a single word; they all seemed to be in a shock. Bakura sat up and groaned, placing a hand on his face…and the he noticed…why was his skin still so soft and flawless?
"Oh Ra! I still look like Ryou!" he shouted, looking at his pale arms and touching his face in search of his old scar. "Why do I still look like Ryou? I thought I'd go back to what I used to look like if we get back to this world!" he demanded an explanation as he stood up and dusted off the sand on his modern clothes.
"I don't know, I guess the Shadow realm is more complicated than I thought." Malik responded, tidying up his purple vest. "But we've got better things to worry about, like how are we going to get to civilization?"
"So we're in the middle of the desert with no way to identify which way leads to the nearest town …great." Atemu sighed, squinting his eyes because of the sun's rays.
"We better start looking for a nearby town or we'll die of thirst just standing here." The pale teen spoke, "C'mon, me and Bakura are highly sensitive to this heat with our sensitive skins." He added.
"Which way do we head to?" the blond Egyptian asked, searching for anything useful in his bag, "Looks like Isis didn't pack us a compass for an emergency like this." He sighed, not being able to find a compass.
"Tomb robber, you're used to traveling through the desert, where do you think we should head to?" the high priest asked the thief who was already scouting out the unfamiliar territory.
"I think I've been through this area before, this is the desert that surrounds your city pharaoh so we should head for that direction, past that towering rock and beyond that would be a pair of towering cliffs that would provide us shade and then beyond the cliffs would be the city." Said Bakura, pointing out a tall towering rock that was slightly visible from a distance due to its size. The rock looked more like a slanted pillar from an old temple that provided shade at the bottom.
"What makes you think that?" Atemu asked, a little doubtful of the thief's skills.
"Well, first of all, I recognize that rock…if memory serves me that rock was where I once hid from the heat of the sun while traveling through this area to get away from the city." He paused and squinted his eyes a little more, "besides, it's the nearest source of shade around, if that area is what I think it is then I guess I know the direction to the city from that point."
"We can rest there for a while then continue forward and when we arrive at the bottom of the twin cliffs I told you about, we can take another rest then we head for the city." The thief king explained their plan.
The five of them made their way towards the towering rock; Ryou was having a hard time keeping up because of his backpack so Seth carried it for him. Bakura was leading the way with Atemu and Malik trailing behind him while Seth and Ryou were close behind, as they got closer and closer to their goal, the effects of the hot blazing sun was taking its toll on them.
The leading thief still kept his composed façade, not seeming to be affected by the heat though the truth was it was harder for him with his now sensitive skin, Atemu was visibly tired and was getting slower and slower with each step but he managed to continue since he didn't want Bakura to take the pleasure of seeing him powerless and weak. Seth looked unaffected but he did take his heavy headdress off so he cold focus on the weight of Ryou's backpack, Ryou was doing better than before and was able to catch up with the group even though his skin was really burning.
Malik was carrying his own backpack and kept on whining about the heat, when they finally got over a small hill of sand that momentarily blocked off the view of the rock, Malik immediately ran towards the rock in search of some shade since he was really tired. He ran towards their goal and didn't notice that someone was already there. The upright rock that they had seen from a distance was actually a pillar and there were other smaller and larger pillars surrounding it. Finally sand and heat were replaced by rock and shade.
Bakura looked ahead of him and smirked, the rock was fortunately what he thought it was, a large pillar from the ruins of an old temple that used to be where people paid tribute to a certain god; he knew that a little past that temple was a downward path that would lead them between two towering cliffs and ahead of that would be the city, finally if they could get past the ruins of the temple and the twin cliffs they'd be able to reach the city. The sound of a snorting horse caught the thief's attention and he swiftly chased after Malik. The others trailing behind Bakura followed as well when they heard a yell from Malik.
"Malik!" they all yelled out and upon reaching Malik's side, noticed what the fuss was about. Standing a few feet in front of the five of them was a man in a long black tattered cloak whose face was hidden behind a black piece of black cloth that covered his mouth, serving as a mask for the man, the stranger was on a black horse that looked as ruthless as he was.
"Well what do we have here?" The stranger sneered, his voice sounding deep and dangerous as his eyes scanned Ryou's group. "Two from a distant land?" he mused, referring to Ryou and Bakura upon noticing their pale skin and hair.
He approached the five teens and stopped three feet away from them, "And let's see…you two seem to have fair skin." He looked intently at Seth and Atemu; only those who had high positions in Egypt or those who weren't from Egypt had such fair skin. "And you must be of this land but…you seem to be dressed differently." He now averted his gaze from the priest and the pharaoh to Malik who was after all tanned like a normal Egyptian but was dressed in modern clothes like Bakura and Ryou were.
Bakura had a bad feeling about the man who was watching them like a predator, "Who are you?" the thief king asked, glaring at the man.
The man slightly pulled back the cloth that covered his mouth, showing them his smirk, "You don't know me? Ha!" at this, the man started to cackle, erasing all doubt that he was not an ally. His smirk widened and he whistled, seconds later ten to fifteen men in cloaks and on horses appeared from behind the temple pillars, all of them surrounding the five teens and the stranger who summoned them in a circle.
Necro: Another chapter finished at long last! Don't forget to review my fics everyone! Read and review The Game and this fic ok. Try and guess this bandit's role and tell me in a review.
Note: I saw a few pictures of Atemu and Seth in the Internet and they were a bit tanned much like normal Egyptians but in the series I kind of saw them with fair skins…I think it was that episode before Battle City started wherein Isis showed Kaiba some stuff about the past (If memory serves, I think it was when Kaiba first got a glimpse of the stone tablet that had stuff about the 'nameless pharaoh' or something.) I chose for them to have fair skins since I read something about some Egyptian monarchs having nice skins because of their high positions and the luxuries they've been so accustomed to.
HEART-TO-HEART QUESTION: To everyone who has read this fic from beginning till this chapter…I just want to ask; is this fic predictable? I mean is it easy to know what scene comes next? I know that some scenes of this fic are kind of common (all stories amateur or professional always have some sort of old and common scene in them that are kind of cliché) but I do try my best to put some unexpected twists like the whole 'Seth using the millennium rod on a cat to find Ryou' thing… Please reply…but don't be too harsh ok…I'm not good with dealing with destructive criticism since I've technically never received one. (Most of the reviews I get are short/long positive words of praise and some creative criticism that helps me correct mistakes.)