Chapter 11

A/N: I'm back! I'm pretty proud of one of the scenes in this one, so I hope you enjoy. This fic is getting near the end, so it should be a couple of chapters left at most. I was considering a sequel, so let me know if anyone would be interested in that. Also! Another surprise character shows up in this chapter.

Atem watched Kaiba's car peel off down the street and disappear round the corner, leaving him behind. He rubbed his arms and took a deep breath, sure if he'd had a heart it would have been racing. He couldn't remember the last time he'd fought with someone like that, even his previous debates with Kaiba had never really gotten that heated.

He started to walk just to have something to do, his thoughts racing along with him. Kaiba really considered him a friend? When had that happened? Of course, Atem had thought of him as a friend for a long time, but he never expected Kaiba to admit to himself that they were anything other than rivals.

But if Atem thought of him as a friend... why hadn't he waited to say goodbye?

He knew the surface reason well enough. After some debating with himself, he and Yugi had called Kaiba's business, then his house. Of course they had still been in America, but Yugi's name got them some email addresses to contact.

They sent Kaiba a mail, and there was no reply. Then it came time to go to Egypt, since they only had school break to go in. Yugi had told him they could wait longer, rebook flights even... but Atem had told him no.

That was the basic reason. But was it the whole story?

Atem rubbed his temples. Could digital ghosts get headaches?

OK, so he'd ticked off Kaiba. What else was new? Right now he needed to get off the street and back to the manor. He wasn't sure of the way back but he sped up regardless, trying to stay off the main streets. Luckily there was no one much around, but he couldn't guarantee that wouldn't change. In hindsight he should have had Kaiba drive him to the manor, then kick him out. But he was a little impressed Kaiba had been cool headed enough to know he was too angry to be around Atem.

He had changed a lot since they first met. Why couldn't have Atem just believed...

A droplets falling on his skin distracted him. He looked up at the grey sky. Rain was sure to follow, and Atem had no idea what would happen to Kaiba's tech if water got in it. He needed somewhere indoors, somewhere quiet and somewhere nearby.

He turned a corner and his eyes locked in on the museum.

There was a risk he might see one of the Ishtars there, but it was a chance he would have to take. He hurried towards it, grateful to see there was no entry fee. Sure enough, the second he passed the threshold drops of rain spattered the pavement, increasing in rhythm until it was a downpour.

Atem was fairly sure it was a weekday and sure enough the place was near empty inside, a few adults wandering around who looked too old to care about Duel Monsters. He passed the gift shop, not recognising any of the store staff within.

That was good. He was safe, if only for now.

Atem wandered around aimlessly for a bit, then spotted a sign.

Egypt -

And a another one underneath:

New exhibition open!

He drifted towards it, clicking his tongue at the hokey pillars at the entrance. The rest of the room was the same faux Egyptian architecture, but Atem could see at a glance that money had gone into trying to make it look convincing.

Feeling odd and not sure why, he looked around. The tablet was still there, but now there was a diorama of the Valley of the Kings, with cross-sections of the tombs on show. And one of them looked damnably familiar.

Atem quickly circle around it and knelt down, fearing what he would see. Like usual when he had a bad feeling, he was right.

It was his tomb: the plain, empty sarcophagus, even a tiny golden box sitting on the top of it. The bridge across the chasm, the traps... it was all here.

A caption caught his eye and he seized on it.

The Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh

This tomb was recently discovered and is still being excavated, giving complete new insight to this period of the dynasty. Newly discovered objects are on display in this exhibit.

Atem flinched back like he'd been struck. How? How had this happened?

He looked frantically around, spotted a new display case against one wall.

The items in it were sickeningly familiar: weapons he had used in life, some jewellery, even books and gifts from other countries and keepsakes from his parents! Other things, too, like brushes he favoured for horses he kept. The mummy of a pet cat. And papyrus. Reams of it, ancient and faded and ink splotches from the hours he had spent slaving over them in life.

Looking over the collection he saw a sense of his life, how the shape of it looked from the outside.

A king who read voraciously, who kept good relations with other countries. Someone who liked animals. And a hard worker, knowledgeable in many areas of statecraft.

This exhibit had made him known to the world in a way he had never been before and never expected to be.

He leant against the display case, unsteady on his feet. But there was no escape. Next he spotted a slideshow running on a nearby screen. More facts passed in front of his eyes, a relentless parade of tidbits about his life - laws he might have passed, other politicians he had written to. Many commented that they were only guesses, but most of them were suspiciously near the truth.

Atem backed away, looking around with the sudden feeling he was being watched. He knocked into another display case, bumping himself on the corner. He recovered himself, turning, fearing what he would see.

This case was taller, only one object inside: a stand holding a single golden object.

His crown.

Atem pressed himself against the glass, taking in every detail. It was his crown: the original, not the copy created in the afterlife. The gold was weathered and sank stained, the jewels polished up but scratched. And in the centre was the Millennium Eye mark, with a bloody crack down it...

Spirit or not, Atem suddenly couldn't breathe. He backed away, tearing his eyes from the relic on show. It looked as old as he felt, as old as he was.

He tore his eyes from it, only to lay eyes on the sign on the plinth just below yet more explanatory text about his life:

(Exhibit sponsored by Kaiba Corporation)

Kaiba had done this.

Kaiba had done all of it.

"Why didn't you wait?" a voice said. Atem spun around and came face to face with Priest Seth. Atem felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He backed away, willing himself to get a grip. But Priest Seth just stared coldly at him. "Well? Why didn't you?"

"No..." Atem shook his head, shutting his eyes and willing the vision away. But when he opened them, Seth was still there. He carried on talking like Atem hadn't made a sound at all.

"That's a foolish answer and you know it," he snapped. "The purpose of your Court is to help you, not be protected by you. And now you've got yourself hurt. Do you realise how that makes us look? Do you realise it could have been worse?"

Atem shook his head. The memory of what he'd said came back to him, as if they were lines in a play.

"It's my purpose to protect you," he whispered, dizzy, "Nothing else matters if I can do that."

Seth heaved a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. He looked at Atem, a look in his eyes he had seen in Kaiba's.

"Did it ever occur to you," he said, quietly, "That people would grieve if you died?"

The words Atem had said were on the tip of his tongue - there would be another king - but he kept them in. He shook his head, backing away. "No more," he said, grabbing hold of the display case to support himself. "I can't..."

He looked away, trying to find the exit but couldn't remember where he had come from. His eyes fell on the screen, still running that interminable slideshow.

The current sentence read:

Upon the Pharaoh's death at a young age, new sources indicate that there was an unusual period of mourning not amongst the nobility, but amongst the commoners...

Gods, he couldn't get away from it. He had to get out of here, rain or no rain..

Someone rested their hand on his shoulder. He turned, confused and desperate, and looked straight into the eyes of Isis.

No, not Isis.

Ishizu.

Atem tensed up and she let go immediately. "Hello, Pharaoh. Perhaps we should talk."

Ishizu showed him to a back room in the museum and made herself a coffee, asking, "Would you... Would you like a drink?"

"No, thank you. I don't... Can't drink."

They both took a seat at a table, Ishizu taking a deep drink of her coffee. The visions had faded, but he was still looking over his shoulder, checking for anything else that might appear.

"Are you all right?" she asked, not looking at him as she put sugar in her coffee.

"Fine, thank you. My memories just... Come back at random times. I still don't have all of them."

She nodded, face neutral like she had expected that. Her manner as a whole was shockingly cool. He remembered Isis having a tight control of her emotions, but this surprised him. Even Mani, who he never even met, had shown a little bit of shock when he had seen Atem standing in front of him. But she didn't look the slightest bit shocked.

"I suppose you're wondering about the exhibit," she said.

"W-well, yes," he said. "Sorry, are you not wondering how I'm here?"

"Because of Kaiba, isn't it?" she said, still calm. "I have to admit, I knew about the dig he was making at your grave site. I knew he was going to get the Puzzle." Off his shocked look, she just shrugged. "I never believed solving the Puzzle would achieve anything, and I figured eventually he would understand that and moved on."

"I think you may have underestimated him," Atem said. And Ishizu actually laughed, choking a bit on her coffee and putting the cup down on the table.

"You're not wrong," she said, her smile giving Atem a serious case of deja vue. Had he ever seen Isis smile like that? He must have...

She looked him up and down, scrutinsing him. "Can I ask how he did it?"

Atem nodded, unfastening his coat. He shrugged it off and turned his arm to face her, showing her the generator. Ishizu stood suddenly, reaching out with her hand. "May I?"

He wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but nodded anyway. Ishizu reached closer and closer, finally touching the back of his hand with her fingers. The touch was light, but it sent a shiver through him. It had been literal years since anyone in the living world had touched him, especially this kind of touch - cautious, almost intimate.

Then she surprised him by raising her hand to touch his cheek and his bangs. Her expression was one of curious investigation, but then her eyes locked with his and she blushed, yanking her hand away.

"Forgive me my forwardness, my Pharaoh, I was just-"

"No, it- it's all right. I can understand how odd this must be." He shrugged back into his coat. He cleared his throat. "So, about the exhibit...?"

"Yes." She cleared her throat too. "I'll be honest with you, Pharaoh... I made a deal of sorts with Seto Kaiba."

"A deal?"

"Yes. My family and I would look the other way with him digging up the Puzzle. While we were talking about that, he promised to give funds for us to find and excavate your tomb."

"You wanted to excavate my tomb? Why? Didn't serving me cost you all enough of your lives?"

"Well, Pharaoh, it-"

"Atem. Please."

"...Atem," she said, looking supremely uncomfortable. "To be honest, what motivated us most was the money. Our schooling was a little - inconsistent, since we lived underground for so long, so we really needed something to just tide us over for a while, and discovering an entire forgotten reign was the most lucrative thing that any of us could think of straight away-"

"Ishizu, it's all right. I understand. In fact, I'm glad you could get something back. You served me faithfully for far too long."

She still looked uncomfortable. "I appreciate that, Pharaoh. At the time we thought it would be doing something good for you, too... We hadn't come up with a way we could stage a 'discovery' of your name, but we thought we could at least fill in the holes about your reign. Most of it came from items the Puzzle was buried with, since there was no body in the tomb..."

"I see... And where did Kaiba come into that?"

"What do you mean?"

"He agreed to the exhibit if you would let him dig up the Puzzle, right?"

"What? No." She looked at him, confused. "I apologise, Your Majesty, I should have worded that more clearly. We did agree to look the other way while he dug up the Puzzle, but he didn't make the money dependent on that. He was going to give the money anyway, once he heard the idea."

"But...what?"

She looked even more confused at his confusion. "We ran into each other when he was organising the dig. He knew he would have to clear it with us eventually. The money just came up when we mentioned our idea for the excavation. I already had links with the museum, but Kaiba's involvement just gave us a shot in the arm."

"So... If you weren't agreeing to keep silence in exchange for the money, why did Kaiba give it to you?" Atem said, knowing he didn't want to hear the answer.

Ishizu looked him straight in the eye, an almost incredulous look in her eyes. "For you, Pharaoh. So what you did, who you were, would be remembered."

"He... He said that?"

She shifted in her seat, getting more annoyed with his confusion. "Of course. In fact, I think I remember him saying something like," - and she stopped to do a near pitch perfect impersonation of Kaiba's tight, growly delivery, " 'I don't understand it, but he kept going on and on about his memories during Battle City. If he really was some big shot king, people should know about it.' "

Atem leant back in the chair, rubbing his temple. He should have been trying to restrain his emotions, but he was tired and worn out. How had he messed this up so badly? All he had wanted at the time was to do the best thing for everyone, and he thought that that was him leaving. In the long run, he had thought things would work out. They would remember him, sure, but they would all move on to bigger, better things, and the craziness he brought with him would be in the past...

Ishizu was watching him uncertainly. She finished her coffee and put it down on the table, toying with the edge of the cup. After a few seconds she cleared her throat. "Pharaoh, for however long you intend to stay... It might be wise to give the museum a wide berth in the future. As far as I know none of your friends know about the exhibit yet, but Domino isn't that big a city. If you want to keep your secret a little longer, you should refrain from coming here again." She stood and dropped the cup. "Now that I think of it, what made you come here?"

"It...wasn't intentional. Kaiba was driving around the city, and..." He trailed off, not wanting to get into all of it. Ishizu gave him a long look like she already knew what had happened. Atem stood and bowed to her. "Forgive me, Ishizu. I'll be more careful in future."

"Pharaoh, please don't..."

Atem straightened up, running a hand through his hair. He checked out the nearest window and saw the rain had almost stopped. He had to get back and talk to Kaiba.

There was something he had been denying for years, something he hadn't wanted to admit to himself until Kaiba came along. And if he had any hope of making it up to Kaiba - to Seto - he couldn't deny it any longer.