A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: White Swan

A/N: This wasn't bad in terms of fixing...

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It was a classic cliché, but the roof did offer solitude to those who sought it from time to time, with the stronger winds to compete against, it just made sense. So for Bakura, he hid himself away on the roof where no one would notice him 'talking' to himself, since there was no helicopter on the helipad at the moment. For now, all he saw were the spirits wandering idly around him, not understanding why he was fighting tears that wanted to fall down his cheeks.

The spirits didn't understand the frustration he felt, the grief at killing someone who was innocent of any crime, simply because they wanted to protect someone else. Long dead, they didn't need to protect anyone until now, the Ring was gone and no one was around to protect Bakura. But it amazed Bakura that Mahaado would be so calm around the white haired teen's presence; he honestly expected Mahaado to flip and try to kill Bakura in defense of Yugi. He didn't have the nerve to speak to Mahaado; bringing his existence to the awareness of the Mage seemed like a very bad idea to Bakura.

Then there was the money in his wallet, the Yen he'd stolen, something that Bakura never thought he would be capable of doing. It bothered him, not that he did it, but the fact that he didn't even care. Wasn't there supposed to be some type moral in him saying that 'stealing is bad'? Apparently not, because what he felt 'was' embarrassing was that he hadn't been doing this for years. But there was still some things that upset him, and presently they were hovering all over the roof with him. These spirits apparently only knew him possessed and nothing about him as a person; worse yet they 'liked' him as a possessed mass murderer! They didn't even seem to think about how Bakura felt about anything. Didn't they know? Didn't they realize yet that the Bakura they knew 3,000 years ago was a demonic god borne from the very evil of their own souls?

He heard the door open from a distance while he sat there, but he didn't bother to turn around to see who had come out. He was so forlorn with his own misery he didn't really care.

The blond poked his head out past the door, gave the open aired roof a glance then, once spotting Bakura, walked over rather sedately. That guilty feeling began welling up inside Malik again as he watched Bakura just sit on the ground, uninterested by anything around him.

"Say, Bakura are you ok? Ryou?" When Bakura didn't respond to his name Malik shifted from one leg to the other before trying again, "am I going to be buying you ice cream?"

"What?" Bakura looked up to see Malik looking straight down at him; where had the ice cream come in?

"Ice cream, it's the new big thing my sister indulges in when she's depressed," Malik explained as he stared down at Bakura.

"Do I look like a woman?" Bakura asked as he turned around to face Malik, only to have Malik begin playing with his hair.

"I don't know… maybe do something with that hair of yours. Oooh funny bunny ears," Malik crooned out as he began messing with Bakura's bangs.

"Will you grow up?" Bakura huffed as he tried to pull Malik's meddling hands out of his hair, "I'm fine."

"Then why did you leave? The others are looking for you right now," Malik replied as his hands were pulled out of that snowdrift Bakura called hair.

"You sure? Are you sure that they would want to find a murderer? Someone that stole something from another person?" Bakura asked sounding as miserable as he felt. "Or maybe they're just looking for a cop to have me arrested."

Malik shook his head in amused disbelief. How could Bakura scold him in one breath for being childish then say something so childish in another? "Bakura, be reasonable, you haven't done anything wrong. I'll admit that I don't know a great deal about you since I only dealt with the Spirit of the Ring, and I'll admit I wasn't a part of the group that entered the Memories of the Pharaoh as Anzu and Jounouchi did. But give me some credit when I say that they're worried about you, not of you."

"You're right, you weren't here, so you don't know what I've done to them," he looked at a long faded scar on his left hand. "I never take the blame like I'm supposed to, I just hide away until everything blows over like some… like some… like some stupid rabbit who can't stand up for itself!" Bakura burrowed his face into his knees, hiding his whole head under his long white hair.

This was clearly serious, causing Malik to sit down so he was across and to the side of Bakura, 'no more idle bunny remarks I guess.' "Bakura…"

"No! You don't understand! I never do anything! I'm completely useless, all those ages ago I sat back and hid within myself and let that demon do whatever he wanted! And I did it again in this lifetime! Yugi was no older then Mokuba is to me then, and I just sat back and let a ten year old who had no say over what happened before his birth take responsibility! I knew it wasn't him or his father, but I hated what happened to my village so I just let that hate use me in whatever fashion. I just let innocent people suffer! What was worse was that I helped enthrone the son of the man who destroyed my village! And the icing on the cake is that Kaiba took absolutely nothing from the experience into this lifetime! He's just as cold, calculating, power hungry as he was back then!" Bakura ranted, barely lifting his head from his knees to do so.

"Oh now that's not fair. From what I understand Gozoboro was a regular monster! It's Gozoboro that turned Kaiba into the way he is now, it's not like Kaiba 'wants' to be this way." Malik countered, resting his chin on his own drawn up knees.

"He owned Kaiba Corp for six months before I met Yugi; he could have sold the company off to the highest bidder and lived comfortably off for the money for the rest of his and Mokuba's life. He could even start a company on his own if he wanted to, but instead he'd rather show off how once again, he stole something he never worked to build and take all the glory. Face it, he's cold as they come and he hasn't changed in three thousand years."

"Be reasonable Bakura, you never knew what Kaiba was like as a child growing up, you only seemed to know him in the final days of battle. The Items changed you, there's no reason to believe that the Rod didn't change him into something more useful for it's own needs. The goal of the Items was to be reunited in a stone to bring forth Zorc; if a personality made that hard, it shifted the personality." Malik began gently. "I know what it feels like to look back on your life and find corpses strewn about, and I'd give anything to take those mistakes back and bring back the people I killed. But you and I both know that it can never happen. All we can do is try to stop ourselves from making those mistakes again."

"Who are you and what did you do to Malik?" Bakura finally asked dully, earning himself a glare from the Egyptian.

"What's that supposed to mean!? I'm trying to be some help!" He huffed in anger.

"Well you're just a kid, barely half my years if I count back then." Bakura replied with a weary tone, to which Malik sank his hands into Bakura's hair again and began tousling it. That is until he realized Bakura had come to rest against his knees, and seemed to rest all his weight into it. "I'm tired of all these corpses Malik, I just want to be normal."

"Aw come on, if you were normal you wouldn't have all those nifty tricks to hide from your adoring fans with," Malik teased gently feeling they had returned to something of common ground.

"If I was normal my hair would still be brown and I wouldn't be as noticeable. Only magic users or those who channel strong magic regularly have white hair."

Ouch, which meant that Bakura could never forget his past because his hair would be the reminder. Even if he colored it or cut it, there would always be a reminder to the death's he caused. They sat in silence for a while, the sun creeping higher into the sky while Bakura rested his head against Maliks' knee; the occasional appearance of a medical worker or workings of the helicopter going unnoticed by the pair. Bakura sat silently, holding back tears as he rested, Malik sat quietly, lost in thoughts on how to handle this situation, while the Lady Ghost sat on the ground feeling quite like the failed mother. She really hadn't known, it's not like he explained anything to her, she didn't mean to make her son feel bad. But hearing him talk about how he felt, about how she and the others 'didn't care' about his feelings, well that was just wrong, they did care. Oh well, back to the planning stages; children 'really' should have been born with instruction manuals.

"Bakura? Maybe it's time to stop running like a rabbit and start facing what happened? Perhaps it's time to start fighting back against those who would use you."

"I'm scared."

"Haven't you gone through enough to stop being afraid of what people 'might' do to you?" Malik asked with a soft put upon sign.

"I'm scared of what I'll do to them." Bakura deadpan elaborated.

The door opened in the distance once more, but instead of hospital employees, Anzu and Jounouchi stepped out on the search. Once they got the pair on radar they rushed over in concern over Bakura. Well Anzu was, Jounouchi was still freaked out about any potential ghosts, but that was a given with Jounouchi. The ghosts didn't bother the pair when they arrived, which was good since no one wanted Jounouchi to jump off the roof.

"Bakura? What's wrong? Why did you run off like that?" Anzu asked as she got close to the pair.

"I just have things I need to work through," Bakura answered weakly, looking up at her and smiling faintly.

"Well with that being said, while we, uh, were looking for you, Honda came out of surgery," Jounouchi added, shifting from foot to foot in concern.

"They're not going to bother you, Jounouchi," Bakura tried to assure Jounouchi. Why 'was' Jounouchi so afraid of ghosts anyways?

"Really!" Malik chimed in at the same time, his eyes wide with relief before he got to his feet, dragging Bakura up with him. The small group left the rooftop eager to check on Honda, even if the teen was still asleep. Malik and Anzu were towing Bakura's more hesitant steps by holding on to his arms as the group followed Jounouchi down to the post-op.

"Just remember, anyone with any fixation with pointy objects are to stay 'away' from such items if Honda's awake," Anzu pointed out with a glance towards Malik and Jounouchi.

"You too?" Malik asked looking a bit surprised as he cast a glance at Jounouchi.

"Fight against my old gang. Surprised Anzu found out, but then again I don't think Yugi keeps much of anything from her."

"So you're not just a loud mouth puppy!" Malik grinned before ducking a mock hit to the head from Jounouchi.

"I need more female friends… Mai! Where are you?" Anzu asked forlornly as she moved along.

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Apparently Mai was in a part of the world far, far away from Jounouchi, Anzu decided as she sat there with her hand wrapped in a bandage. After Jounouchi, in a fit of stupid male humor, told the barely waking up Honda that the blond was about to start surgery. It scared Honda so much that the poor guy started screaming, so much, and so loudly that the hospital staff had the quartet escorted out of the hospital. But not before Anzu laid Jounouchi out so hard that she bruised her hand in the act. Needless to say, Malik was sitting with Bakura between himself and Anzu, refusing to take any chances on angering the young teen.

Shifting his attention, Bakura sighed and looked over at Malik, "what were you saying about rabbit holes?"

"I hate you."

The afternoon sun was dipping down slowly while Anzu tried to find her Happy Place before she went to jail for beating a puppy to death. Was the only time that they could act like a semi rational, mature group when Yugi was around?

"Well we might as well leave, there's no point in loitering around in front of the hospital," Bakura noted aloud as he finally stood up.

"I'll walk the puppy home," Malik offered quickly hoping to avoid Anzu's potential wrath that may have still been simmering in the girl.

"The fuck?! I'm NOT A PUPPY!" Jounouchi snapped, but unsurprisingly, Malik was indifferent to Jounouchi's anger.

"Fine, I'll walk Anzu home," Bakura held his hand out to Anzu to help her up, and not like he was expecting it to be ripped off his arm in a matter of seconds. Like he was safe around her... yeah. Then again, with the ghosts around him who knew how long before Jounouchi recalled and freaked out?

They parted ways, about five blocks from the hospital with the sun just beginning to disappear behind the horizon of tall buildings, in the far distance Kaiba Corp HQ stood piercing the sky. Anzu spoke lightly of New York, of the things she had seen and experienced giving Bakura a chance to relax. Anzu didn't act any different than she normally did, so maybe she wasn't upset to be walking home with a thief? But as they walked a sudden sound emanated from Anzu's small purse, proving to be her cell phone. Thoughts that it was probably Yugi getting the latest information on the surgery played through Bakura's mind, somewhere in the background of his thoughts until Anzu suddenly stopped and stiffened where she stood. Suddenly she ran to the end of the block, hurriedly read the name off the sign and then impatiently gestured towards Bakura to catch up.

Unwilling to upset the girl, Bakura did as cued and rushed up to join her at the curb, though he was still baffled by her sudden shift of behavior. "Anzu? What's the matter?"

"That was Mokuba on the phone just now; something happened to Yugi. He's sending Isono here with the limo to pick us up and we need to get there in a hurry, before something worse happens."