CHAPTER FOURTEEN: IEAHU - INTERPRETER
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The veritaserum was a small crystal vial. It contained only a few drops of the clear liquid.
Hermione carefully opened it while Ron tilted Bakura's head back, which lolled lifelessly into position. Harry was standing on hand ready to enervate the teen. Hermione dripped three drops into Bakura's mouth carefully, and Harry shot the spell.
Bakura's eyes fluttered before opening, the blank expression on his face and his half-open eyes evidence of the potion taking effect.
"Who are you?" Harry asked clearly, to check the potion's effectiveness.
Tonelessly Bakura said, "Ryou Bakura, also known as Tomb Robber Bakura, Soul Stealer and The King of Thieves throughout the years."
That was a surprise.
"What? Why are you known by those names?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Because I am Ryou Bakura; named so by my parents. I am known as The King of Thieves because that is who I was. I am known as a Tomb Robber because I am a Tomb Robber - I defiled the Necropolis of the kings of Kemet and shoved it in their faces as have my ancestors and my descendants after me to this day. And because I am the Soul Stealer - none can cross me without tasting my vengeance."
They shivered at the blank statement.
"How can you have descendants? You're only eighteen!" Hermione demanded, flabbergasted.
"I am eighteen. I am also three thousand years older than that," Bakura intoned.
"How does that work? Is it to do with the spirit you've mentioned?" Harry asked.
"Yes. The part of me also known as Tomb Robber Bakura, Soul Stealer and The King of Thieves, that was the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. The half of me that dates back to Ancient Egypt and was trapped in the darkness of the Millennium Ring for three millennia until I was finally reincarnated as my own descendent. The part of me that can be called evil for what it's done… and the part of me which I often condemn."
"What's the Millennium Ring you mentioned?"
"One of the seven Millennium Items."
"What are they, and how are you connected to them?"
"Three thousand years ago they had a situation. To stop it, the Millennium Items were created through a blood ritual. Through The slaughter of the village of Kul Elna they were created.
Ninety-nine impure souls had to be massacred. No soul is truly pure, so they used Kul Elna, the village of thieves which had caused the pharaoh problems in the past.
I was the hundredth villager. I lived to see everything I'd ever known burn to the ground."
The trio shivered. They couldn't comprehend what that would be like, and the toneless voice Bakura had under the serum made it seem even worse.
"The Items would give seven people ultimate control over the Shadows. They would be given to the pharaoh's priests.
In the Items creation, however, a new evil was unleashed. The creation of the items allowed Zorc to be free, but only if the items were returned to the place of their creation. The only way he could act upon the world without that occurring then was through possession."
They knew what was coming next from what they had been told before now, but Harry voiced his question throat dry, "What happened then?"
"The sole survivor of the slaughter was a perfect candidate for possession, those put through trauma always are. I was only eight, but I swore I would destroy the pharaoh for what he'd done. Zorc was the only one left for me, he taught me to harness my hate and summon my Ka. By the time I was old enough though, the pharaoh had died. My hate had not, however, and I decided to pass my revenge to the next generation."
"What did you do?" Hermione asked, completely entranced by the story Bakura was telling.
"I killed some of the new pharaoh's priests and returned the items to their resting place, hoping to bring peace to my people and vengeance to my soul. But Zorc betrayed me; he thought my uses were over and he struck me down. He decided to acquire one of the priests instead, rather than a thief like me.
I died over the Items, and with my last breath, I sealed half my soul into the Millennium Ring, the first Item I'd stolen so that I wouldn't die that easily. It turned out Zorc still possessed me at the time, and a part of him was sealed in with me.
The new pharaoh managed to stop Zorc, sealing the Shadow Realm and its magic from all but the Item Holders. He died in the process, sealing half of his soul as well.
I was reborn millennia later as my own descendent many times over, Ryou Bakura. I was innocent in this life. I knew no evil and couldn't judge anyone. I was light. Incomplete.
When my father gave me the Millennium Ring I met myself for the first time.
The half of my soul that had been sealed had spent three thousand years in darkness, and instead of my two soul pieces merging together upon contact, they developed separate identities. Distinct personalities, vastly different from one another.
When my soul was split, I was separated into light and dark. Half of me never knew what was happening, while the other ran rampant. I befriended a boy named Yugi Mutou. He had the Millennium Puzzle and was the reincarnation of the Pharaoh I'd tried to destroy so long before.
The one half was still trying to get revenge after three thousand years, while the other half befriended the pharaoh. The battle of the past was recreated. My innocent half was banished from the final battle, allowing the part of me consumed by revenge to work alongside Zorc unabated.
Once more the pharaoh fought me, in doing so he freed the ghosts of Kul Elna and gave me peace. Once more Zorc had no need for me, he destroyed me and took my body for his own.
The pharaoh saved my body by destroying Zorc entirely, allowing my lighter side control of his body. With the destruction of half my soul though, instead of finally passing on my spirit started to merge into a single whole finally after so long.
With the evil finally gone, Yugi let the pharaoh pass on, and with him, the Millennium Items were destroyed."
It had been a confusing and rambling story. The trio didn't know the full relevance of most of what they'd heard, although some questions they didn't know they had were now answered.
But at the same time, Harry couldn't help but feel a growing stab of sympathy and understanding, something he found surprising in a way, since Bakura had just admitted to committing so much evil in his life - possessed or not.
Still, he felt nauseous at how easily Bakura had told them so much personal information with almost no prompting. He couldn't waste too much time on that awful thought though. The serum would only work for so long. He could feel sick about it later.
Harry drew a shaking breath before he asked the most pressing question.
"Bakura, what did you mean when you said there was… soul magic on me?"
"It's there, most of the time it's dim but just now it was very noticeable. You have either made a Horcrux or you are one. You must be destroyed or the magic must be removed, otherwise, you will continue to affect the Shadows badly and harm the Balance."
Harry felt frozen to the spot. Could it be true? Was his scar really a Horcrux? Did he really have a part of Voldemort's soul in his body? He looked at his friends. They both looked at him with almost fearful expressions.
"Harry…" Hermione trailed off not knowing what to say.
Harry spun to face Bakura's blank face again, unwilling to look at his friends, "How can the magic be removed?"
"The Shadows were once used for extracting the evil inside humans, which was easy enough with the Items. However, it'll be more time consuming without them. Either way, a Shadow Game must be played.
The evil is placed into a stone tablet traditionally, where it would be sealed. However, any object can hold a soul. If the object is then destroyed, so is the soul."
"Can you remove it?" Harry asked quickly.
"Harry no! We can't trust him using magic around your brain!" Ron yelped.
"Yes, I can remove it." Bakura said impassively, "But probably not alone."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Harry pressed, ignoring Ron.
"It would take at least two Shadow Mages to remove the magic. The darkness given off by these Horcruxes is painful to Shadow users; it affects the Balance and seems to make us… more unstable than usual. Two would be needed to make sure the other doesn't lose it."
Harry paused, "Is that why you've been acting so unbalanced?"
"Partially," He spoke impassive, "It is also due to the fact that I am essentially an embodiment of what was at one point, two different people. Now, both personalities are fighting for control until they strike a balance."
"So… what are you then?"
"A torn soul trying to repair itself after being used by evil after evil."
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Bakura paused for a moment and blinked slowly before speaking more freely without any prompting, in a more emotional if dazed tone, "At this rate I probably won't survive long, I'm not even sure I want to. It's not like I haven't had a long life, three thousand years is nothing to sneeze at – even if most of it was spent in mourning, pain, possession or revenge. Then again, if the rest continues like that there really isn't much point. It's probably just a matter of time before yet another evil force seeks to control me, probably this British Dark Lord this time around.
I wanted to make sure the world would be safe for once, instead of being the one it needed saving from… I should have known I couldn't do it, I was never a hero. Yugi and his friends were heroes. I was just the convenient sacrifice for either good or evil, If not both…"
Bakura had stopped talking, his dazed eyes filled with tears and a hopeless look. He blinked and silent tears slid down his face. The boys looked at Hermione for help, a bit shell-shocked at the change of events.
"The serum must be starting to wear off, he's becoming more aware of things." She said to them nervously.
"Do you think it's true then – that You-Know-Who would go after this guy if he knew about him?" Ron asked, his voice strained.
"It doesn't seem too unrealistic. Bakura is powerful, but he also said he has been controlled before, making it likely it could happen again." Hermione said brow furrowed.
"But he's not unstoppable, I mean, we managed to stun him," Ron said uncertainly.
"True, but I'm not sure how much of that was just luck, I mean he wasn't exactly sane at the time."
"At what point was he sane?" Ron rolled his eyes.
"Think about it this way; he knows too much for us to let You-Know-Who capture him for himself," Harry said.
"So, we'll keep him here then?" Ron asked, clearly not liking the thought.
"Do we have much of a choice? He may be insane, but we can't just hand him over to the Ministry, that would send him straight to Vol- You-Know-Who." Harry said, "We still need to get rid of the Horcrux in my scar too."
The three of them contemplated for a while before Ron asked Harry quietly, "Should we ask him where to find more Shadow Mages then?"
"Pardon, ask me what about them?" A soft voice asked.
They turned their eyes back to Bakura, gripping their wands. Bakura was blinking in a confused way, white hair falling over his face and tear tracks staining his face. He noticed that he was tied up and gave a small gasp of surprise.
"Did that really happen?" he was blinking fast to stop tears, "Did I really try to hurt you guys?"
"Yeah, you did you bloody psychopath!" Ron roared out in frustration, losing all his self-control suddenly. He just couldn't stand it - how could this guy act like this after what he'd done? It was infuriating!
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ron yelled, "I can't believe any of my brothers could be connected in any way to someone so bloody sick!"
Ron was over it, he hadn't meant to burst out and he'd been holding it back. But Bakura acting like this - so… innocent, after trying to kill him and his best friends twice! It was too much. This entire day had just been too much.
Moments after he started yelling though, Harry grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted at him to calm down while Hermione kept a nervous eye on Bakura.
Surprisingly, Bakura didn't start crying or getting angry. He just sat there with a pained look on his face. He didn't struggle against his ropes. In fact, he went limp. His head slumping slightly.
"I understand your rage. My connection to your family is sullying to you, as is my connection to m-my own father. You have the right to kill me for what I have attempted. I will not defend myself. It will also prevent me from hurting others. I'm obviously a burden here, it might be for the best."
Ron stopped dead in his tracks at those words. face filling with alarm, what sort of person would willingly let someone else kill them?
"Wh-what?" He faltered in his rage, the wind taken completely out of him.
"I'll tell you where to find another Shadow Mage beforehand so that Harry can have that magic removed." He paused, pained expression growing, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that, I know Harry wouldn't be able to make a Horcrux, despite the taint on your forehead your soul is clean."
They didn't say anything, all of them were thinking about what Bakura had just offered to let them do. They couldn't, could they?
When they didn't speak, Bakura continued regardless, "Most of the Shadow Mages are in Luxor, Egypt. That's where you'd find the Tomb Keeper Clan lead by Isis and Marik Ishtar. They're both working at the main Antiquities building there. In Japan, you'll find Yugi Mutou and his grandfather. I wouldn't bother with Kaiba, he doesn't believe in magic, even if he does have it-"
"Bakura, I can't kill you. That would be wrong. It's wrong." Ron said abruptly, interrupting the other boy.
"-If you send them a wizard owl they probably wouldn't be too surprised, your best bet would be Yugi or Marik, although Yugi's probably busy with university at the moment," Bakura said, ignoring Ron's protests.
Out of the three, only Hermione had the presence of mind to scramble for a quill and write the information down as Bakura spoke, before she looked up at her friends and back to the main issue at hand.
"What do we do with him?" She asked, biting her lip.
"Let's put him in one of the rooms upstairs and have at least one of us guard him at all times for now," Harry said shakily.
"How are we going to get him upstairs?" Ron asked doubtfully, looking down the long hall sceptically. He was much too exhausted to carry Bakura all that way. Ron was so done with this day, this was all too much.
"We can levitate him, idiot!" Hermione hissed, patting him lightly on the back of his head in fond frustration.
After ten minutes difficulty, during which Bakura decided to stay quiet as he was levitated, they got him into an upstairs bedroom still tied to the kitchen chair.
Standing quietly around him for a moment, they looked at Bakura's soft face and weary eyes before Hermione spoke.
"We should write to one of these people. It might not be very safe, but we do need their help."
"How do we know the names aren't just friends who'll help him kill us? He wasn't completely under the serum when he gave the names to us." Ron muttered, dead on his feet and about to fall asleep.
"We don't have much of a choice here, Ron." She sighed, running a hand through her hair, "Not if Harry's a Horcrux."
Harry gulped and looked at his friends. He could see the fear in their eyes, and he didn't like it.
A/N:
Edited 2018