Yugi
"Yugi, are you alright?"
I clutched the side of my head and rejoined Yami in the hallway, still trying to walk off Kaiba's super intense caffeine migraine from a few memories ago as the door I'd just come back through closed behind me. If he had headaches like that all the time it was no wonder he was so testy.
"Yeah I'm okay." I shot Yami back a smile. Being cooped up in that other room and not able to get out and lead the charge must have been frustrating but he was keeping it together so I would too.
"That one wasn't so bad." I added. It really hadn't been. I'd almost enjoyed reliving it actually.
We'd been back in Duelist Kingdom so I already knew the memory because I'd actually been there in person, but seeing it all from Kaiba's perspective changed things. He was so much taller than me that seeing the world through his eyes was a bit disorientating.
Once again the memory had placed me into his shoes, letting me feel everything he did - which was mainly focus and discomfort as he stepped down from his helicopter. It wasn't much of a greeting, but "I haven't seen you since our duel, Yugi." was as close as those got for Kaiba.
"Uhum. Oh! Here, your deck." I watch myself nod and then pull out the second deck that had been burning in my pocket since Yami's duel with what the gang had started calling 'Ghost Kaiba'. "I've been keeping it for you. Just think of it as a thank you for that duel you helped me win."
My first thought seeing this all again was 'Oh wow, was that really what I'd sounded like'? Hearing my voice back on a recording was always embarrassing. I thought I'd gotten over it since I'd used one of my Dad's old voice recorders to prep for my valedictorian speech, but watching myself and hearing it in person in one of Kaiba's memories was different.
"Thanks." Kaiba's appreciation was honest. I'd been able to tell at the time too from how simple his reply had been, but I could feel that even more clearly now. As he held up the deck a relief to a discomfort he hadn't even known he had washed over him. I'd thought back then it was a sign that he trusted me when he didn't shuffle through them to check on his cards - it'd given me hope that we could be friends. I'd been half wrong, and half right. Kaiba did trust me, even back then when he really had no reason to, but also he could already feel all three of his Blue-Eyes were safe and sound in his deck where they belonged just by holding it in his hand.
He was thankful for their return, but didn't know how to show it. "You'll be compensated for all of your trouble." Was what he decided on saying.
After that he tried to take off. His body ached and was stiff - every time he took a step toward the Pegasus's castle his muscles felt weak and the fabric of his clothing pulled painfully against raw spots on his back despite how loose the outfit was, by Kaiba's usual standards anyway. Back then Kaiba had seemed calm and put together but I could feel he was anything but as Joey got up into Kaiba's space and in Kaiba's mind volunteered himself to be the victim of his prototype Duel Disk test.
It was funny seeing that early model. Things sure had changed a lot. Back then it actually did look like a disk and had to be hurled around like a yo-yo.
Kaiba's arm got tired quickly after tossing it out onto the field a few times, but the ruthless pleasure he got from humiliating Joey in front of the rest of us energized him like a shot of pure adrenaline. Kaiba really liked riling up Joey for some reason. I could feel how much of a rush he got from it as he kept trash talking him but his insults hid something else underneath. He was waiting I'd realized; waiting to see Yami, maybe even trying to lure him out by making an example out of Joey. Joey threw out monster after monster, only to be cut down by Kaiba's Rabid Horseman and all the way through those turns Kaiba had kept watching me in his peripheral vision.
Kaiba had wanted to see him appear so badly, and even Kaiba himself thought that was unusual. It was just an uncontrolled feeling that he couldn't explain; like he was pulled to Yami and me. It irritated and fascinated him at the same time and was so strong I could still feel it even through his overwhelming concern for Mokuba.
I knew now what it was, even though Kaiba didn't.
In this memory it would be a while before we found out about Yami's past but already Kaiba had been feeling the invisible tether that linked us all together pulling at him. I had no idea he'd ever felt it so strongly, especially as early in our association as this was.
With each moment Yami and I hadn't switch places Kaiba had become surer and surer that he'd never existed in the first place; that either he was the manifestation of some sort of psychological breakdown, or Yami had been just some amazing opponent that he'd dreamed up to entertain his own wish for a challenge. I could feel it as the sharp edge of his curiosity was blunted by disappointment and for a minute there'd just been a cold feeling of absolute dismissal.
Kaiba wouldn't like it, but seeing all that stuff only made me more determined to make our friendship happen when we were all together again.
With the duel done he'd turned his back on us and stalked away, trash talking us in case he was wrong about Yami not existing but also feeling hopeless at the same time because he thought he was right.
The thing was I remembered that day just as well as Kaiba did.
Our partnership had been rough around the edges back then but I could remember how the strong courageous presence inside of me had edged closer and closer to the surface to watch Kaiba duel, wanting to see if he'd managed to banish away his darkness now that Kaiba was awake again. As Kaiba trashed Joey I'd been able to feel how angry it'd made the spirit; because Joey was our friend and Kaiba was toying with him, and also because he'd wanted Kaiba to be better than that. He knew Kaiba wouldn't agree to come along with us even before I did, but he didn't want to see he him leave without saying something to him.
"Kaiba, we may not agree with each others methods, but at least we understand that Pegasus must be stopped." They were Yami's words, but I'd said them. Maybe Kaiba could sense that, since he actually turned around one final time to reply.
"I hope you succeed in rescuing your brother." I added.
I guess that was confusing. Kaiba wasn't sure which one of us he was talking to, or if there even were multiple people to talk to. "And I hope you succeed in your ventures." he replied, aiming that at me. "Lets just hope our paths don't cross again before this is all over." he concluded for Yami, just in case.
In a way the memory had made me nostalgic for those early days – out on an adventure with my best friends, meeting all the other duelists and discovering the secrets of the Millennium Items.
"It was back in Duelist Kingdom" I told the holographic Yami, grinning at him as he continued leaning casually against the doorway. We'd really been through so much since then.
Yami's expression instantly switched from curiosity to a troubled frown. It was the sort he wore the night before we were about to duel and the fate of the world was hanging in the balance. He paused for a long time before replying and when he did his voice was solemn and slightly self-depreciating which wasn't something that was normal for him at all.
"I'm sorry you had to revisit that day."
I blanked on what he was talking about.
Duelist Kingdom had happened for all the wrong reasons and Grandpa's soul had been at stake but despite that I had mostly warm memories of it. Meeting Mai and Mako, watching Joey win his first duel all on his own and earn his Red-Eyes Black Dragon and lots of other memories too. Of course there had also been less pleasant ones, like running away from giant fake boulders and being trapped in the Dark Magician card by the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, and having to call back Yami's attack when he-
"-Oh! No it wasn't that." Yami's eyebrows jumped up in surprise as I waved my hands in front of me to ward away the idea. Actually, that memory would have made a lot more sense than the one I'd seen but it hadn't come up yet. Maybe Kaiba didn't think about it all that much, or as much compared to Yami anyway.
"You still think about that duel, huh?" I asked quietly. I could empathize. I would never forget it either.
It'd been scary. I'd waited until the last moment to call the attack off and I was so afraid that I'd stepped in too late. I'd never have been able to forgive myself if Kaiba really had fallen off the castle wall and died.
"I do." Yami admitted, shifting his weight between his feet slightly.
If alternative universes did exist and there was one of them that I'd been too late in what would that world look like? I couldn't even imagine how different things would have played out if there had been no Kaiba around. Yami and I would never have had the chance to see how Pegasus's Millennium Eye worked in their exhibition match afterwards, and without Kaiba that would mean there would have been no Battle City, no trump card against Marik's dark side, no Virtual Worlds, no Grand Prix – the list went on and on. Duelists would probably even still sit down to duel, like in the old days.
Now that I was thinking about it Kaiba had in some unintentional way been pushing us through almost every step of the way since the very beginning.
Yami - the real Yami, so Atem, had called Kaiba 'a valued opponent'. I hadn't really understood why. I'd guessed it was because dueling him had made Yami stronger; strong enough to fulfill his destiny and complete his journey. I think I'd just figured out what he'd really meant and if I was right then he'd really downplayed that title.
"Though, I wonder why that is." Yami continued, his sombre tone change into something more inquisitive. "I'm made from Kaiba's mind, and I doubt he thinks about it at all."
I laughed awkwardly, feeling a drop of sweat creep down my forehead. I didn't think we'd ever get that answer. "The one take away I'll have from all of this is Kaiba's mind works in weird ways." I offered, trying to lighten up the mood.
Yami blinked at me slowly before agreeing with a faint grin. "That's true." I beamed it right back, loving the familiar camaraderie of our partnership even if this Yami wasn't totally real.
"It's interesting to see through Kaiba's eyes. Sort of like playing a character in a video ga-"
"GAAAROOOOOOOOUUUUUU!"
I didn't get to finish. I barely had time to duck as Yami lunged forward to put his hand on top of my head. His finger tips faded out as they left the bounds of his room but his arm stretched far enough to forced us both down to lie prone on the floor. I sure missed having his reaction time. It was a real life saver when scary things started happening.
The thunderous roar echoed through the hallway. It was so loud both of us had to cover our ears with our hands and I pinched my eyes closed against the volume as it echoed around my mind. It shook the corridor and everything in it, including all of the doors. There was too many noises to keep track of - smashes, rattling and a lot of banging as a current of bright white electricity zapped across the doorways over our heads. It crackled loudly enough for me to hear it and was so close it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end even more as it arced from one door to the next. The way everything was rumbling and shaking made it seem like an earthquake, but the bouncing lightning was closer to a freak storm.
"What is this?" I shouted over the opening and slamming of doors. Ow, it really didn't help the memory of Kaiba's coffee headache still pummeling brain.
Yami's teeth were gritted as he shook his head. "I don't know."
"Kuuu-Umph!"
We stayed crushed to the floor as a door close to us exploded off of its hinges and went flying in a trail of splinters. Further down the hall way I heard that same sound again as another one must have done the same thing. I closed my eyes tighter against the tiny bits of wood and kept raining down until the noises began to stop and I could finally pull away my hands from our ears.
I opened one eye up and watched Yami as he clambered back up onto his feet. "Is it over?"
"Yes." he nodded, but the way his eyes flew wide open as he looked around made me regret asking. I sat up and rubbed the back of my head as Yami leaned down to help me stand.
"W-what happened?" The corridor had survived more or less in tact, but all of the doors had been thrown back open. Some swayed on their hinges from the left over force, while a few others had been splintered or completely ruined. My heart was in my throat but it was the noise ringing in my ears that was more important. "That sound." I turned to Yami and he nodded. We'd both recognized it.
It sounded like a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"You two are loud." Quipped a little voice that made me jump.
The door to the memory in the orphanage was open again and the Kaiba from it stood in the doorway. He shivered in his slightly too short pajamas and every one of his breaths was visible as cold air from the room blew out into the corridor.
Maybe he knew what had just happened? I jogged over to him and bent down slightly to get to his eye-level. "Hey again, Kaiba -"
His gloomy blue eyes watched me skeptically as he muffled a cough with his sleeve.
" - Er, Seto?" I corrected, trying his first name instead. It felt a bit weird to say for some reason. At this age he wasn't technically 'Kaiba' at all yet so I pushed that feeling to one side and continued. "Do you know what's going on?" Why had all the doors been reset? Going through them all and trying to close them again wouldn't do any good if they could blast back open again all on their own.
"Why are you outside of your room?" Yami also questioned from his doorway. "Yugi already sealed you once." His tone was sharper than I would have gone with when speaking to a kid. It almost sounded like he was telling the little guy off.
Even though this was a mini Kaiba, it was still Kaiba. I expected him to get sarcastic or snappy, but instead he crossed his arm sulkily and moodily stared upwards at Yami, as if he was put out. I looked as though he didn't like being told off. Or at least, not by Yami.
"You're kinda slow, huh?" 'Seto' muttered sourly.
Yami's stare was intense. He eyed Kaiba just as warily as he would have if he was ten years older and gloating at him from across a dueling area, which only made this Seto cross his arms tighter around his body and subtly shrink away.
"Did you really think closing them all yourself was gonna work?" The little Kaiba added sullenly, hitching his thin shoulders in a small shrug. "All it takes is one little thing and they'll all fly open again."
I sighed slightly. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. I should have guessed. 'Kaiba' and 'easy' didn't go together.
Yami put his hands on his hips and gazed down at Seto in disapproval. The little Kaiba tilted his head to the side and stared back, trying to match Yami's intensity. I wondered why he was being so full on with this Seto? It was almost like he was suspicious. Instantly I missed sharing my body with Yami - just being able to think that question at him and understand his reasoning as if it was my own.
"What are you not telling us?" He sternly demanded.
"Nothing." Seto snapped back.
"You're bluffing." Yami pressed, not relenting at all.
"Are you saying I'm a liar?"
The other advantage of sharing a body was while inside the Millennium Puzzle was I could have easily tuned them as they'd started to argue. Yami sometimes got a bit of a kick out of arguments, I think he saw them as another sort of game, but they made me feel uncomfortable.
"You know something." He insisted.
Based on the participants I already knew this one was going to go nowhere fast. I guessed I'd go and check things out while they went at it.
"I don't have to tell you anything! I don't even like you!"
Even if they hadn't been slightly open I would have recognized each of the doors as I passed them in the hallway. The older memories were behind weathered doors that looked plainer by comparison, while the ones in the Kaiba mansion had freshly polished door handles like someone had just cleaned them. Yami and Kaiba's bickering became softer as I walked the corridor and peeped through the doorways, checking off in my mind all the ones I'd previously closed that had now blown open again.
"We're trying to help!"
I sighed.
Everything I'd been working towards had been undone, and in just a few moments. I'd need to start again if I had any hope of helping Kaiba, but where to even begin? I was deeper into the hallway than ever before and the darkness here was getting creepy so I turned around to walk back but was stopped in my tracks.
One door was still closed and it didn't look like any of the others. The doors to the Kaiba mansion memories had been well kept and fancy but they couldn't hold a candle to it.
It was a gilded wooden double door covered from the bottom to the top in something that surprised me but really shouldn't have in retrospect; hieroglyphs. If Grandpa was here he'd have a field day.
"Go to hell! I don't need your help! I didn't ask for it -"
Two handles jutted out of either side of double doors and running between them was a long cord of thick rope. It hitched around one handle and then snaked back on itself in a set of spiraling loops to bind around the other. Untying it wasn't going to be easy. The end of the knot vanished into a heavy clay seal that had the faint outline of something marked into it that I couldn't see properly in the low light.
"Hey!" I called back.
"- And I don't want it!" Seto's mouth snapped shut and whatever Yami was about to say got cut off as they turned to see where I'd gone to. It looked like it didn't matter the age or place, once those two got into it they both had tunnel vision.
I pointed to the strange door. "Why is this one still closed?"
Yami's dueling face slipped away as he leaned out of the door way to get a better look at what I was pointing at. He squinted in the darkness, but I could see the moment he picked out the door in the hallway's shadows. His eyes opened extra wide as they landed on the hieroglyphs.
"Can you open it?" The little Kaiba deadpanned, like there was nothing spooky about it being there at all.
I tested the handles and the door rattled but there was no way it was budging with the seal keeping it shut. Sand and dust came away on my hands as I pulled them back. "No." I answered, rubbing my palms together to dislodge the dirt.
"Then that's why, idiot." Seto concluded, unimpressed.
Yami shot him a scolding look. "You'll show Yugi respect."
"I don't respect people who ask dumb questions." The little Kaiba sneered, wavering between looking like a sulky kid and a grumpy teenager.
So it was the only door that didn't open? Wasn't that strange? I didn't understand the logic of this place, if there was any at all. Was that a good thing, or a bad one? I glanced back to Yami who shrugged at me as though he'd been thinking exactly the same thing – like we were still connected together. The nostalgia made me smile.
I guess we'd have to find out.
Kaiba
I flicked away my cigarette butt and swapped out my Kaiser Vorse Raider for another trap instead.
Preparing my deck before a duel was standard operating procedure. With only seven available slots and some already cluttered up by useless cards my multi-card combinations would be a hassle to set, especially since I had to 'share' those slots with whatever the Pharaoh played too.
My cards flickered slightly as I revised my selection. They'd get the job done, just so long as the Pharaoh didn't screw things up again by trying to jump the damn line and cut in over me like he had in the desert.
Atem was too busy prepping his own hand and chewing on a date to notice as I glanced back at him.
His game face was on so I could tell he was taking this seriously but watching him chew through a handful of dates at the same time and toss away the pits ruined it. Was eating even necessary here? I was alive so I likely needed to, but I had a duel to win. Until then ignoring such base biological imperatives like hunger was my stock and trade. Plus just the idea of chowing down on the sickly sweet fruit made my teeth ache. I could practically taste the sugar overload from here. The Pharaoh's were a white flash as he bit into another fruit's skin and devoured the yellowish insides with an absent-minded intensity, even as his eyes never left his cards.
Watching him now felt weird.
That was farcical. If anything I had more reasons than ever to keep an eye on him since we'd started doing what we were now doing, but there were too many variables at play. I wanted to draw up a contract and shove it in his face. Once I had his signature on a dotted line I'd be able to assign accurate job descriptions and figure out what fell into the purview of these new roles and what didn't. Case in point, was I now obliged to team up with him against 'Mahad' or did I screw that and duel for myself like always? That was my preference, even though I suspected this was going to devolve into another irritating tag-team situation.
The dawn light glinted off of his rings as Atem flexed his fingers to replaced one final card, then his eyes darted up from his hand to look at me. "Are you ready?" He asked, like he had doubts.
I scoffed at the question. "I'm always ready." Who did he think he was talking to? I'd just defeated Sphinx Teleia alone - he was the one who was recovering from an infection. Isis said he'd be fixed by now and he looked better but there was only so much recovering anyone could do in a single night, even the Pharaoh.
Dripping confidence he sauntered over to my side and pointed a finger towards the cards I was holding. "Let me see what you're planning."
That aggravated me.
Was he was really expecting me to show him my hand? If we were going to work together in our next battle then it was logical, but the idea of openly flashing my cards at him fought against every instinct I had. Willingly submitting to collaborate with someone else was just asking for help in disguise.
Atem didn't move or blink, he just stared bright-eyed at me and waited for me to react like this was some kind of test.
"You first." I grunted.
It was stupid to be so guarded of my cards – especially when I'd just been comparatively less guarded of my whole damn body. I knew that. I had no justifiable reason for holding back, but if I was going to show him then I damn well wanted to see his first.
Atem dipped his head and slowly blinked. The hand that I'd been 'holding', if you wanted to call it that, stretched outwards to me. The gold light of the holograms caught on the angles of his diadem and the smooth finish of arm bands he was wearing around his biceps as he spread the cards in his hand out like a fan.
He'd taken my earlier words to heart since most of them were spells and traps, with only one exception.
"Only one monster?" my question came out sharper than I'd intended.
Since being hobbled using the leftovers from our first duel in the throne room we were now starting to get low on cards. With our shared deck running on the lean side it made sense to play what was left more carefully, but just one monster card seemed over-confident even by his standards. Granted, it was one of the Pharaoh's favorites.
"It's all I'll need." He proclaimed confidently and glanced down at the warrior card briefly before aiming a pointed look back up at my face. "Our goal must be to capture our opponent, not destroy him." His words were toneless but I knew a warning when I heard one. I crossed my arms and turned away from the pompous blowhard.
"My palace has a master interrogator." Atem continued, though now his voice turned stern. "Once we take Mahad's body into our custody Gebelk will be more than capable of extracting Anubis's minion, and whatever else it knows."
A 'master interrogator', huh?
I knew first hand just how useful people like that were to keep around but I didn't see the Pharaoh as the sort to keep that kind of an employee on his payroll. Then again, he hadn't always been as 'noble' as he was pretending to be these days. Yugi was probably in some way responsible for that. Atem's knock-off form of virtuousness was fairly close to his own.
"In fact you may find him familiar." He added, this time with a teasing lilt to his voice.
"Whatever." I didn't bother to ask him to explain the big joke because I didn't care. Knowing this place it probably meant someone else from real life re-cast in Egyptian cosplay was doing the job. Instead I copied his previous move and spread the holographic cards I'd prepared out in my hand for him to look at. My Duel Disk had enough problems to worry about so I'd turned down the brightness of its projections to conserve energy. On the lower setting the blue glow only reached far enough to bounce across the skin of my hand, making it look even paler by comparison as Atem nonchalantly placed his own on my wrist.
He quirked his eyebrow at me as he inspected my selection. "None of your White Dragons?"
"Tch." It wasn't the hand I'd have preferred to play.
Polymerization had gotten into my head more than I'd ever give it credit for. Being an actual dragon had been intoxicating. Every time I thought back on it the urge to slash something apart with my own talons, beat my own wings or fry an enemy out of existence with my own breath hit me like a sledgehammer. After my holograms got over themselves and went back to acting the way they were programed to it would be impossible, but with all of this magical crap going on and the card effects acting however they damn well pleased there was a temptation to try and re-create that experience with my cards. Some combination of Tyrant Wing, Burst Breath would get me half way there but appealing as that idea was it'd be only a pale imitation of the real thing.
Ultimately it wasn't an option. Putting together a substandard rip-off like that would dishonor my Blue-Eyes White Dragons.
It didn't matter what this Mahad guy looked like, if he was a Dark Magician then facing off against him was my Blue-Eyes's right. No monster deserved vengeance against that arrogant finger-wagging dunce more than my dragons. Pitting my signature beast against the Pharaoh's was just how it was done – anything else would be off-brand. As much as I wanted to make that happen I couldn't risk it. I'd patched up my Duel Disk, probably enough to render a Blue-Eyes without issue, but watching it crack open and vanish had left some absurd part of me afraid that if I called my dragon to the field it would blast apart again.
It wasn't enough that it physically hurt me when it happened - like being punched in the heart - it also jostled open the cast-iron door to a memory that I hated. It was hard to pin down a 'worst memory' in my lifetime, my own dragon's s rejection had to be a strong contender.
No matter the cost I'd done what was necessary to claim One, Two and Three, so why was roughing up some doddering fossil of an old man a deal-breaker for Four? I didn't understand it, even now. Ripping it up had been its punishment for opposing me; for it ignorantly refusing to be mine like it was meant to be. They were all meant to be mine. My Blue-Eye's White Dragon's. The purest symbol of both rarity and power in the entirety of Duel Monsters short of the God Cards themselves. Only I was a worthy of wielding them and I'd made damn well sure that the whole world knew it. They were the ultimate symbols of pride and destruction and the very embodiment of my soul, if I still had one.
"Kaiba." Atem interrupted.
"What?"
He looked at me like he was trying to see into my brain before eventually shrugging casually. The modern gesture looked out of place coming from someone dressed the way he was. "You were lost in thought."
"So your first move is to call out my name for no reason?" I snarked before scoffing. I'd left his question hanging; that was why. "I get it, you don't like being ignored."
The Pharaoh opened his big mouth like he was going to argue and then stopped before saying anything, frowning thoughtfully instead.
"I suppose not." He eventually concluded, like it was somehow news to him.
"Well get over it."
I guessed most of his toadies didn't have the luxury of ignoring him, since he was their king. Blanking him was probably a capital offense, or some passive aggressive form of minor treason. Such nonsense. With a flick of my fingers my holographic cards slid back together into one tidy pile, ready for Isis's call when she got back from playing scout. That should be any time now.
"If we're done flashing our cards then you'd better be ready to-" My sentence died in the air as I glanced back at the Pharaoh.
He'd pursed his lips together tightly until they jutted out slightly. Instead of being annoyingly quirked at me in a half-baked taunt or tightly drawn towards the bridge of his nose like his game face his dark eyebrows were now subtly curved downwards in a U-shape.
"Are you pouting?" My voice came out every bit as incredulous as I felt and I could barely suppress my own face from pulling stupefied frown. I tried covering it up with a scowl and could tell the half-and-half expression I was making was probably just as as idiotic as his based on how uncomfortably the muscles in my face pulled against each other.
"Of course not." His expression didn't change even as he protested that "Pharaoh's don't 'pout'. Such childishness is beneath them."
Screw holding hands, making out and nose kissing – this was now officially the strangest thing yet.
"Stop it." I demanded. "It makes your face look stupid."
Trying to parse the difference between the regal pomp of the King of Games, my semi-unbeatable eternal rival, and the face he was currently pulling was scrambling my brain. He wasn't allowed to look that – what was the word? Petulant? Young? Normal? Human? Mortal? Some combination of those terms.
"As does yours." He huffily parried, like a little kid.
It was also vaguely – something else.
Urgh.
I hated the word even as I identified it.
It was 'cute'. Even just thinking that, about him, made my skin crawl.
Damn it. Our whole dynamic was a duel. Where did he get off with changing the rules of our game half way through by looking like that? Now I wanted to kiss him again, just to wipe that moronically winsome look off of his face.
To hell with it! I was Seto Kaiba and I'd do whatever I wanted.
I reached forward towards his chest, snatched the cord around his neck that was keeping the Puzzle in place and yanked on it until he fell forward toward me with a startled. "Umph!"
As humiliating as it was 'cute aggression' was a well documented neurological phenomenon and I fully blamed that for the sudden and intense urge to maul him. I pulled him against my body with more force than I'd intended and bit back a hiss as the impact accidentally rocked our hips together.
Atem wasn't cowed for even a second.
He used the residual momentum to turn the tables and pivoted me slightly so I was up against a tree. In unison he stretched up as I bent my knees and braced my back against the trunk to even out the height difference.
Apparently it didn't take much to get him in the mood. I could feel that as we brushed up against each other again – deliberately this time. Even though the angles were right the equilibrium was off as we vacuum sealed our mouths together. One of my hands wound around to the small of his back to keep him balanced and a matching one of his reached up to hook around the back of my head. With his torso pressed up to mine I could feel his heart pounding in his chest just like mine was as we kissed up against each other.
There was a gross string of spit between our mouths that quickly snapped as Atem leaned back and muttered "By the Gods, Kaiba, why is your hair so soft?"
Ridiculous as it was to look at it was good to know my fixation with his expertly coiffed do wasn't all that one sided as he pulled his fingers through the hair on the nape of my neck.
"Because you're comparing a life time of shampoo to what? Washing yourself in forest streams and waterfalls?" I sounded more breathless than I wanted to.
Atem chuckled and pressed his forehead against mine. "I assure you there are no 'forest streams' in Egypt, other than the ones you've brought with you."
"I was being sarcastic." It was the only reply I could come up with as he pulled his fingers back out of there and placed both hands on the side of my jaw like he was trying to hold me in place.
"Is that so?" He quipped, trying to hoist me on my own petard. Smug bastard.
He leaned in to lock our lips together again until I snaked my hands down to his hips to push him off of me.
"Heads up." With a nod I directed his eye line over to the oasis's entrance. Atem followed it, humming as he spotted the shadows of Isis and his Dark Magician creeping around a corner of the canyon walls and into sight.
"It's time." He agreed. The hot flush on his cheeks cooled off in an instant as he poured on the cement of his dueling face and stepped back from me.
"Hnh." I did the same, straightening my spine and standing clear of the tree. "Don't make that face again." I'd meant it to be a warning but it didn't come out that way.
I could count on one hand the few things in the world that actually revved my biological engine and giving my most challenging opponent the keys to the car was a bad move.
"Alright?" Atem replied, clearly confused. It was a statement, but with an upward inflection at the end as if he meant it as a question too.
I turned back to get the first look at our next potential opponent and ignored his sly smirk my peripheral vision.
Ano
Teleia was dead.
Though the source of her defeat had sapped the most powerful beasts from Anubis's command it was too little and too late. The Master's power was grown thanks to the life energy collected from Seto Kaiba and the Pharaoh's hapless second death.
I had no recourse as I watched them plummet from the sky to the earth. The bulk of a beast's body had cushioned the Pharaoh's fall but in his draconic form Seto Kaiba's neck and back had been broken, the bones protruding beneath the scales at unkind angles. Ribbons of life energy had poured from his body like steam from boiled water and the sight had filled me with trepidation. For every thread that had escaped into the air Anubis's might was restored.
With this new strength his patience was at its end and I could hold him at bay no longer.
"Andro Sphinx."
The Master clawed at my mind, tearing away each hastily made barrier as I formed it. A spike of agony lanced through my very soul in rebuke.
"You have dared to ignore me for the last time."
Over and over he crashed his mind into mine as fiercely as the angry tide flays sand from the shore, stealing away the grains of my resistance in one wave after another.
"You forget yourself. It is I who raised you from death! Your will is mine to command."
I had forgotten nothing.
"It is time to end your pitiful pantomime. Cut down the Pharaoh with the hand of his most trusted champion. Let him taste the anguish of betrayal and harvest his life energy so that I might be reborn!"
It had taken much longer to collect without the Pyramid of Light, but the shed life essence his foes had near fully rejuvenated my Master. His third coming was soon to begin.
"Fail me as Sphinx Teleia did and I shall awaken my new host and take yours instead!" He thundered within my core, striking through my spirit a final time as lightning does a sickly tree.
"Yes, my Master."
He receded from my mind as the pain lessened in my soul. I would not able to continue my act much longer. The time for waiting and watching was over.
Mahad's consciousness was disquieted by this worrisome new revelation - as was mine as my torment final abated.
I was reluctant to harmonize any further with the Magician for fear of losing my thoughts within his own, yet in tandem we cast our minds backward to the Pharaoh's throne room and the battle therein, thinking carefully. Time had been short. Teleia and I had assumed the bodies of those we could, acting quickly to seize our moment. Was it possible that Anubis placed a sliver of his soul within a new host without our knowledge?
If Anubis's threat held merit then that seed would need to be rooted out if the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba were to secure a lasting victory. Left unchecked the Master could use this new host to escape elsewhere and begin rebuilding his powers anew in an endless cycle, until he wore down his foes into an inevitable defeat.
This was of grave concern.
For now, however, the time had come to play a new role – the role of the Pharaoh's trusted guardian finally reuniting with his young king after days in the desert hunting Sphinx Teleia.
I released the spell that bound me to my avian form. It had served its purpose well and even unexpectedly shielded me from Teleia's fate. While assuming the deceptive form of a 'Pigeon Token' I had no offensive prowess and as such had been guarded against the virulent effect of Seto Kaiba's 'Crush Card Virus'. I would miss the marvels of flight, but it was a relief to shed the small body.
My host's sandals sank into the gritty sand that lined the belly of the great snaking canyon that acted as the single thoroughfare between the oasis and the desert wastes beyond. The entrance to the pass was an unassuming thing; little more than a thin gap in two looming walls of mountainous red rock. It was barely large enough for two horseman to ride through side by side and near invisible to the naked eye unless one knew where to look. Once it had been well known, but knowledge of the pass had become restricted after the site's desecration. As the Pharaoh's protector and tutor in the ways of magic my host was one of few still initiated in its location. And so, it was a surprise when the softly curving silhouette of a woman met my eyes standing expectantly further along the road.
Teleia's liberated host waited in the canyon patiently for me as I approached.
Her body was sculpted demurely, her hands folded respectfully in her lap, but something in her eyes glimmered with joy as I neared her. Her enthusiasm was misplaced. A fact she was still unaware of. Teleia's refusal to intermingle her mind with the priestess's own was foolhardy, yet a blessing. Without the insight of my deceased 'comrade' there was no way for the priestess to know that while I wore his face, I was not the man I appeared to be as she well hoped.
Mahad roused from his pensive deliberation at the corner of our mind and became observant once more was we drew closer to the priestess.
Though it was small and subdued an attractive smile curved her refined lips upward at the corners as the distance between us shortened. It was a gentle expression and one I suspected she reserved only for my host and he alone. It was quite beautiful, as was she, now that she had been freed from Teleia's distortion.
"Mahad." My host's named uttered low in a soft reverent whisper was her first word.
With an elegant step forward she brought us closer together than I would have willed and the priestess slipped her hands into my own, simply holding them between us and squeezing them in some wordless expression of affection.
It would seem there was more to the relationship of these priests than I had been led to believe.
I returned the gesture, mirroring her muted yet nevertheless very real and present warmth with whatever I could muster of my own, lest she become suspicious.
"Do her no harm."
It was the first time my host had sought to commune with me so directly.
His tone was heavy and solemn despite being a wordless manifestation of mere concentrated thought. It carried with it a weight, the terrible burden of knowing that despite now whispering in my ear Mahad was still helpless to stop me. He could not regain control while my essence polluted his body and it would bend to my will regardless of his own, just as surely as mine did to my Master's.
Perhaps that is why I decided that I would placate him.
"She is not my concern."
I had no need to keep our peace, but nor did I have any interest in the priestess now that her time as Teleia's vessel had come to an end.
My words set his mind at rest for a moment and the pressure of the Magician's presence became lesser.
"Isis." I greeted, trading my name for hers.
With that mild smile still ever present she separated our hands once more and took a step backward. A respectable distance befitting two priests opening between us once more. Whatever moment had just been shared was subtly veiled like a dagger being returned to its sheath and now she was the Pharaoh's most exalted priestess once more; dutiful and composed despite the disarray Teleia had made of her.
This too, I copied.
"It is pleasing to see your body returned to you. How fairs the Pharaoh?" I led with, playing the role of the boy king's beloved champion once more.
I already knew yet maintained a guise of ignorance. As a Magical Pigeon I had been watching over their fellowship all night, but she could not know of that. In truth there was another question I found more pressing, but one that would seem suspect to ask first. When last I saw her she had been oblivious to my surveillance along with the rest of her cohort, so how had she known to come here and wait for me?
To my surprise my host offered the answer willingly.
He concluded that she must have seen it before, using the prophetic magic of the Millennium Necklace that she once protected. Such insight into my ambitions could foil my ploy, but the knowledge did not dissuade me from pursuing my plot as Mahad hoped. Visions of such a nature were brief, fractured things. There was no reason to assume the priestess was aware of my duplicity given her reactions to me thus far.
Her reply was steady as she stepped aside, one slim arm beckoning me onward toward the heart of the oasis and Pharaoh both. "Fever from a wound befell him but it has broken now." I inclined my head and strode forward down the path as her motion bid me, the priestess easily falling into step at my side and we began toward the site they had last bedded down upon. "The Other Seto has injuries but none are great or worrisome." She added as our footsteps harmonized.
Good. Though far from perfect they were in fair enough condition to do what must be done. I need only ensure my performance was convincing.
"I was doubtful of him when we all stood together outside of the throne room-" the priestess continued, "But I am coming to believe that my doubt was misplaced."
I said nothing, simply letting her fall back into a natural silence. From what I knew of the pair it was their habit to simply co-exist quite comfortably without needing to fill the air with inane platitudes. We did this for several more steps before the priestess spoke once more.
"I sense Chisisi is healthy too." It was a short, innocuous thing to say.
The name was one I did not recognize from Mahad's memories, nor his thoughts. No image readily came to his mind. I could not formulate an appropriate response without proper the context.
Who is Chisisi?
I cast that query inside of my host's consciousness, receiving an answer readily and with little interrogation. The priestess's manner of speaking gave nothing away and so it was fortunate that my host obliged me once more and promptly divulged what this 'Chisisi' was. According to him, the name belonged to a horse that had fallen into the Pharaoh's favor in recent days. No doubt it was the very same one I had seen roaming back towards the palace as I had flown over the desert.
"That pleases me to hear. Though he is an unpredictable horse the Pharaoh enjoys him very much." I repeated Mahad's thoughts in my answer, sparing myself the effort of re-phrasing them.
Why was the fate of the Pharaoh's mount such a topic of interest to her?
Isis held my gaze searchingly for a long moment and then her eyes escaped my own. The priestess inclined her head in agreement without further comment, putting the topic to rest with a reaction that was ambiguous by even the lofty standards of her norm. The uncanny sensation of having said something wrong rippled over me with a strength and surety that could only be imparted by the reproachful countenance of an austere woman. Mahad had never misled me before, yet I wondered if my oddly obliging host may have taken advantage of my confidence in him.
A tranquil hush embraced us and the illusion of a companionable quietude settled as we walked, our pace purposeful yet sedate and growing sedater by the moment as the priestess slowed. The decline in speed was deliberate, yet unobtrusive.
"You are unhurried." I noted, forbidding the suspicion I felt from my host's voice. His trust in her was absolute, as mine needed to appear to be.
The priestess nodded back, her reply soft and guileless. "The Pharaoh and the Other Seto need time to prepare themselves."
At that we proceeded in silence. The trek continued at a stroll, the red hue of the canyon walls and sands parting under the occasional assault of a shrub or palm.
It was an odd way to phrase her intent but I understood it no less. She wished them the time and privacy needed to settle after the long night before.
I had observed from the treetops as their association had rapidly escalated to something neither boy seemed sure of how to broach, despite their shared willingness to do so. The development had been unexpected as the pair had done little but row at every given opportunity since my watch began. Mahad felt their actions unwise, akin to attempting to build a grand temple upon quicksand, yet somehow also inevitable if his lack of true surprise was a measure to be judged by. By my host's reckoning a shared fate had always tied the two together at the neck, and a bond as inexplicable and pervasive as one that stretched across time and destiny could quickly be contorted and made to manifest itself in unforeseen ways.
The verdant greenery that had at first appeared in solitary patches grew in number and luster as we very slowly neared the oasis's heart.
Though the priestess at my side seemed relaxed and at peace there was a tension in her aura that my host's more magically attuned body was able to sense, if not see. For all the moments she spent in my presence it did not relent. Only when the distant figures of the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba lounging by the oasis's waters came into our shared view did it ease.
The two were conversing, quietly, which was in and of itself unusual. This promptly stopped and in tandem they turned to behold us as the priestess and I approached them. The half-eaten date in the Pharaoh's hand was cast aside into the thick greenery of the surrounding brush as Seto Kaiba scoffed at his side and uncrossed his arms. He watched me carefully, while the Pharaoh waited expectantly.
"My Pharaoh." I sank to one knee before him, dutifully bowing my host's head toward the earth, as was his custom.
It was the norm for the Pharaoh to quickly bid his trusted friend to rise when met with such a gesture and it struck Mahad as abnormal when his usual courtesy was not extended. Where normally the Pharaoh's kindly acknowledgement would be there was only a thick silence. Cautiously I raised my eyes from the ground to see the cause of the delay and was surprised to find only one set of eyes were upon me. The oppressive blue stare of Seto Kaiba tracked my every movement behind a stoic glower, while the Pharaoh paid me no mind at all - looking instead towards his priestess.
"What is your verdict, Isis?" He asked her, his voice calm yet weighted with an air of authority that had gone astray more recently while cavorting with the taller boy.
The priestess's reply was simple and solemn. "It is as suspected."
A flame of wrath warmed the Pharaoh's gaze and as he turned back to face me - the heat in it scalded, branding me with understanding.
They were no fools.
They knew of my deception.