A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Original Beta: White Swan
A/N: Fleshing things out as I go. Hopefully it won't take me a whole DAY to do a whole day by the next arc.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
The multiheaded snake like dragons' flames came boiling out of each mouth, pouring towards Bakura. The air heated up from the bright flames, even as it consumed the air to survive. Slamming into the ground in a wide radius around Bakura turning the area into a bonfire using human flesh as a fuel.
Anzu fell to her knees in shock as she watched the attack hit, smoke rising up from the ground and blocking the view of Bakura's side of the field. The sound of the attack ricocheted off the wall behind Bakura, throwing it back for her and Noa. Just so they could listen to as it bounced off the buildings past them, creating an eerie crashing sound that carried on while Noa turned to face her. His monsters were staying focused on where Bakura fell, even with their Duelist looking away.
She wasn't much of a duelist, though she probably had more experience than Bakura, but now there was no one left to find the others. Anzu began repeating 'this is just a Virtual Reality Game' in her mind. A wild, desperate bid to fight against the pit of cold settling in her stomach. What would happen if someone died in the game? Would they die in the real world?
"Bakura! No!" Anzu tried to rush over to where Bakura had been, only to be stopped by Noa and his monster. The dragon had numerous heads, several that were sparred to coil around to face her as she approached. Its heads whipped about so fast that it got her to skid to a halt mid run. Large serpentine eyes stared balefully down at her and a pale yellow liquid dripped from its exposed fangs. Yet before either Anzu or Noa could say a word to the other, a bright, indeed glaring, 'A' appeared next to the 'E' on the Destiny Board.
The increased light from the new letter caught Noa's attention causing him to turn back to Bakura's side of the duel field. "How…?" Noa spoke the question on both their minds as the smoke began to dissipate, revealing Bakura standing up and dusting himself off.
"I activated my trap cards, Enchanted Javelin and Nutrient Z," Bakura explained with a shrug; indeed his life points were back to 4000 putting him back to where he had been at the start of the duel. Not only that but he just needed two more cards to finish the duel against Noa!
Anzu gave a relieve laugh as she waved at Bakura in relief, "Great Bakura!"
Noa frowned in annoyance; this was taking longer then he would have liked. While yes, Bakura was considered a duelist of some note, it was also listed that it wasn't 'him' dueling. That it was a different personality with a much more violent personality that had the dueling skills. Yet the person before him lacked those qualities that were used to describe said personality. So he should have only been good at the role playing game aspects of this world. Not the dueling aspects of what he was now in.
This was turning into an unfortunate delay, he had assumed he could convince the passive personality to back off. But it was probably a sign of his limited experience with people that it didn't work. Something he was going to have to get Mokuba to help him with once he was out. Until then he was momentarily trapped in this pointless duel, as Seto had cultivated a rather... Obsessive commitment to finishing duels. It was a trait that Noa was going to have to learn to mimic until he could refine Seto's image. And since he still needed to finish his plans concerning Seto, he had to finish this person off. "I end my turn, are you done?"
"No, I want to understand why you would be driven to hurt someone who had nothing to do with this. If you went after Kaiba, then I wouldn't care, but Yugi was innocent of what happened to you." So like himself actually, hurting the young child Pharaoh because of what his uncle had done, and what his father had turned a blind eye to. "I play Souls of the Forgotten in defense mode."
"What's there to understand? Do you think it's fair for someone to be stuck inside a computer for most of their life?" Noa asked with a shrug.
"No, but I don't think it's fair to bring people who are not involved in your problems into them just because you can," Bakura replied his eyes shadowed by his bangs. "What happened to you was unfortunate, but what are you trying to accomplish? You spoke of a need for a guide."
"It was Father's original plan. Find someone who looked close enough to me and adopt them. From there he planned to download my mind into their body. So it's only fair that Seto give up his body, I'll take his body and my father's company back in a single move. Kaiba Corp is too good a company to be in the hands of a murderer like him." Noa announced with an near obscene amount of casual confidence regarding this 'plan'. Without empathy or awareness of how wrong all of this was, while Anzu and Bakura stared at him in various degrees of amazement.
"That's… not something a person normally comes up with," Anzu noted as she tried to fathom Noa's thinking. While she had enough of a grasp to realize that he was the victim of a horrible event that left him trapped here. At the end of the day, he was a 'computer program' a recording of the life experiences of living person. Someone trying to force their way into the living world despite never having been alive in the first place.
"No, it's not something someone who has any options comes up with," Bakura agreed his tone growing dark. "It's the ideas of someone who is so removed from the idea of limited options that humans become expendable." It was like dealing with the Pharoah's uncle all over again, going after Yugi had given that bastard the room he needed to put his son on the throne!
Not that Bakura was going to let that happen again, though a part of him was appalled by the idea that he would be helping protect 'Kaiba'. Then again, Yugi would never forgive himself if something happened to the CEO. "You're not the only person in the world who has lost the ones you care about, but it's not right to sit there and think you're more entitled then others to take what you want as compensation. Your time ended and you should pass on to the next life. Not cling to this one with such obsessive behavior. Its not like you're the 'only' person to be trapped in a coma, more over. You're more fortunate that you can pass over peacefully here rather than in a moment of panic or terror."
"And why not? My father could do anything he wanted when he was alive and he wanted me alive," Noa pointed out.
"If that was the case, then didn't he carry it out? Instead he kept Kaiba by his side and apparently left you here. That doesn't sound like a loving father..." Anzu retorted from the sidelines only to be cut off from a sharp flash of lightning.
Bakura at that point lost some of his proper British upbringing for a snicker or hundred. As Noa used his control of the world to turn Anzu's digital form into stone. Yet that didn't stop the sniggering fit he was in, not even the expression of mild disbelief on Noa's face could do anything. Noa understood that he had been sealed inside the computer system for a number of years. He understood that he more than likely had some under aged perceptions of how adults acted in situations. But laughing as a friend is turned to stone right in front of them?
"I don't suppose you can share what you find so amusing?" Noa asked, his genuine curiosity mixing with his contempt.
"Oh, just that you're a very typical spoiled child," Bakura replied with a rather manic brightness. "You're all for talking about how terrible it is that you lose things, but then you want to take away from someone else. You've sat in a computer for so long you don't even consider the fact that people have their own minds and opinions. You just hear someone who doesn't have a problem with you, disagree with you and you stone her. Not only typical, but raises the question, what can you possibly do that's any better than how Kaiba is? The measure of a man who was born at the top is how he conducts himself when he falls, just as the measure of a man who was born at the bottom conducts himself when he reaches the top."
This… this wasn't the Bakura who had come into the VR world, this wasn't the marginally withdrawn teenager, the one whose life signs had shown only fear before. Someone who seemed to find a thrill to something going on, and had an almost… predatory… look in his eyes, "who?"
"You know how some people get knocked senseless? Let's just say I get knocked into my sense." Or a overwhelming sense of annoyance and frustration, the type that got him to pick pockets on instinct. He was trying 'so' hard to be a pacifist, but if the world wanted to see him take a stand...
Noa narrowed his eyes in annoyance; his father would never allow anyone to mock him like this! He looked down at his hand deciding he had to take out Bakura so he could deal with Seto. "I'm done playing around! I play Shinato's Ark and summon Shinato, King of the Higher Plane! I destroy your petty Souls and with Shinato's special ability you lose 900 life points! People like you can never understand what it feels like to lose those you hold dear!" 'T' appeared on the field joining the 'DEA'. "You're not the only one with a plan during this duel! I activate the spell card Mystical Typhoon, and destroy your 'A' spell card, now with one letter gone your Board is destroyed!"
"On the contrary I can understand perfectly how it feels to lose loved ones. But that doesn't mean I go about trying to inflict my pain on every single person I meet anymore." He retorted thinking back to the time when he lost most of his ability to distinguish bystander and intended victim. The loss of the Destiny Board didn't seem to bother Bakura as he continued with his move, "I place one face down card and end my turn."
"How can you understand? Your loss could never match mine! My father had the world in his hands! All the things we were going to do together lost to some pitiful thief's jealousy! Shinato attack his life points directly!" Noa ordered his eyes sternly across the field at Bakura.
"I reveal my face down trap card, Negate Attack!" Bakura ordered the card lifting up to reveal a shimmer light type shield that saved Bakura.
"I end my turn, you can't hide behind shields forever," Noa taunted Bakura.
"When this began, I had planned on beating you in the most gentle fashion I could think of. I didn't think you deserved being beaten down like a common animal, considering your situation; however; I realize now, that you need to be taught a great deal in humility. So let me show you how the real world works. I send my three fiends from the graveyard out of play to summon the Dark Necrofear in defense mode!" Bakura's voice was low, hard to hear in the real world, though audible to those in the virtual world, with the ability to increase the volume as it were on their hearing. Whatever compassion, whatever warmth that had been there was now utterly lost.
For those who knew Bakura, this would have raised the hackles on their necks, memories of the thief spirit of the Ring rising to the front. But Noa was clueless, reckless, drunk on the power of one born to high society, but an ugly drunk when deprived of the very pleasure of that lofty status. Bakura was right though, no one had ever taught Noa the meaning of humility, or how to empathize with another's pain. A true pity that Bakura was stepping up to do the job in the mood that he was now in. As he placed the Necrofear onto the field the blue skinned bald woman in tattered clothes rose up from black flames, a naked doll with a hole in it's head and an empty gaze in it's eyes in her arms.
"Ha, you haven't even learned that Shinato will just destroy your pitiful monster and all of it's worthless defense points will become damage to your life points! Shinato! Destroy the Dark Necrofear!" Noa ordered, watching as his divine king destroyed the demon spawned woman, stripping 2800 Life Points from Bakura. Though he seemed unfazed by the loss, even more disturbing was that he was still as quiet as the proverbial mouse as he quietly lifted up the Dark Necrofears' card from the battlefield and placed it in one of the magic/trap zones. "And with that I end my turn!"
"Shinato, Attack Noa's Life Points Directly." Bakura ordered casually, as though he didn't just order a monster to attack it's master, and to Noa's horror he watched as his monster turned and betrayed him. He was flung back by the force of the blow, while the numbers on his Duel Disk spun downwards to 0. Striking him with 3300 Attack points worth of damage and ending the battle. "Why look so shocked? You never did anything to earn your power, so you shouldn't be surprised that you lost to someone who had more experience at surviving. You're nothing, had you a soul that bore compassion there would be those who would care about you. But as you are? You're just a computer program that's going to get deleted by people who have power that goes beyond make believe."
Noa laid there stunned as Bakura walked past him towards where Anzu had been restored, returning the girl to a virtual human state so she could join the white haired teen in walking away. Stunned at the loss, Noa's mind went over what Bakura had said and inside he felt a burning anger at the thought that a middle class kid would lecture 'him'! "How dare you! I'll show you who has power here! Battle field Activate!" He called out, not that it stopped Bakura, until Bakura reached a dark alley and yanked Anzu into his arms as an Alligator Sword sliced straight down with it's blade.
"Anzu draw a card, pray it's a strong enough monster and call it out," Bakura told her as he re-summoned his Dark Necrofear.
"Right," Anzu nodded, made a short prayer and drew a card from the disk. "Silent Magician level 4 come forth!" From a sudden glowing portal in the ground before her a little kid, no older then Mokuba, appeared in black robes with red trim. More than that, it was the monster Yugi used to defeat his past self, one of several monsters in his 'Silent' collection.
"Silent Magician? Starts out weak, I'll cover you, and hopefully each monster that responds is treated as though a new card was drawn," Bakura noted before he began running, pulling her along. "Hurry we have to find where that Blue Eyes is soaring over and fast."