Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: … Somehow I went from John being a Cousin to an Uncle... Go fig... fixed this...
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"There's this shop in LA that I absolutely love and miss, its a stage magician shop and a lot of the customers are really big named magicians. They have everything you could ever want, from books, to devices, to costumes, everything. It always felt so magical walking among them, seeing pictures of the worlds greatest magicians alongside the props they used." Catherine spoke with the wistful nostalgia as her eyes clouded over with warm, happy memories.
"You were a magician in training?" Malik asked wondering, if Pandora hadn't snapped, if Catherine would have earned her Magician rank yet.
Catherine looked at him in surprise and giggled warmly, "women can't be magicians, Malik."
Malik blinked in confusion, casting a glance at his two partners in crime and then resettled them back on her. "Uh, why?"
Which made said woman blink in surprise, "Well, because women are the eye candy. We're supposed to be beautiful to help distract the audience from what the magician is doing. How can we distract the audience if they're fixated on us?" She explained, watching Malik try to fathom this arrangement.
"Oh," was all Malik offered, but then that explained why Pandora underestimated Yugi's Dark Magician deck. He may have seen Dark Magician Girl and reasoned her to be just an useless eye candy throw away monster without effects. Where as Yugi had buckled down and actually studied her card and learned that she 'had' an effect.
"But, to be honest, I would have loved to be a Magician myself, well before becoming a mom. The simple tricks I know are enough for me now," She added with a smile that faded away in seconds as she recalled why they were talking about the subject at all. She leaned back on her couch in her living room, her kids had gone painfully quiet in their room. So it was quite possibly that they were pinned to the walls with their ears pressed wanting to ease drop. But just as those old warm memories passed, the soft plush of her couch couldn't stop the memories of more recent events.
"It was there that I met Monte and Travis when they moved into the area as they became friends of the owners' son. It was all rather exciting really, because this group was connected to many magic shops. Not everyone is cut out for being a magician, it takes a unique personality that can hold an audience captivated. But this was a group that could, I had assisted all of them for various shows and all of them had their own style. Their own flair."
Out of the three Bakura's ears were the most pricked for information, stage magicians would be a solid cover for someone with 'real' magical talent. It was also easier to hide tomes of magical or demonic lore in a stage magician's hands than in the actual occult, since eventually someone might foolishly try to use the item. But she had said this was a group of people, so there was no telling if that was a fact or not. Coupling stage magician with real spells would have been an easy crossover, either to increase the 'show' aspect or something that was simply picked up.
"But you said that cuz Pandora screwed up, they're going to kill Travis," Jounouchi pointed out, clearly not interested in anything to distract him from their current hunt.
For which Catherine nodded sadly, "When Monte called and told me that, I went and called to check on Travis. I had hoped that this was just something that Monte was doing as a way to scare me, because Travis is my friend as well. But he never picked up the phone, which I tried to shrug off as him being busy. Its not like I was calling him at a good time, considering the difference between Japan and California time zones and my schedule. So I tried to call some of our mutual friends, and no one has heard from him. Because apparently two years ago, on the same day everyone just decided to move out of the area."
"Wait... what? That can't be normal, what group just decides all at once to move from a hub where they've been working at like that?" Malik asked, dumbfounded by the strange event.
Jounouchi following up with a firm nod, looking at his two fellows before looking back at her. "Yeah, did this friend give any clues what caused it?"
"He wouldn't say for certain, just that something about a camp out that went wrong and resulted later in Johns' death. He was the shop owners' brother," she explained, but there were so many red flags already raised they didn't need another quite yet.
A camp out that went wrong? Someone dying and everyone just scattering like a cabal of thieves having been caught during a meet up? There was absolutely no reason 'not' to look at Bakura, ask what he was doing two years ago and could it be confirmed by an outside source.
The first instinct was to get the information about this person so they could hunt them down and get facts. But like a thief, the goal could be as pretty as it wanted to be, that didn't exclude traps from existing, and Bakura needed to know more.
"So Travis also moved away from the area?" Bakura suggested, "Maybe the house is just empty because he's gone, not because he's in danger?" Though in retrospect 'would' Pandora even mention his sibling to these people? Also, the fact that they went after blood kin and not the object of Pandora's affection left a bit of a knot in that thought process.
"I can't imagine Pandora being well enough to think all these things in a proper order so that he would consider that. Maybe they're pulling one over on him because they know he's moved and Pandora doesn't? After all Pandora is one guy, but the other group... how big could it possibly be?" Jounouchi pointed out, though the further he spoke the more he realized the flaws in his own process and looked to Bakura and Malik to help fill those gaps.
"This group doesn't see value in Catherine, clearly, if they did they 'would' have gone after her to punish Pandora. Given that Pandora had the book, but didn't do as they wished must have irked them, but they reclaimed the book. So there's no reason to bother with him, just let the madman wander into oncoming traffic," Malik thought aloud, considering the information.
"Malik is right, from a leaders' perspective this groups' head may have given the book to Pandora with an expectation that a task be performed. But what that task 'was'? We don't know, and perhaps even he didn't know. He's just on a side of unstable that he might not have paid attention once he realized he could use the book to get Catherine back." Bakura agreed while his mind went down the well traveled paths of a thief.
"They need this book, it was a risk to give it to Pandora, but there was a task that they felt he could carry out. Since he didn't they would have to settle on what would be the bigger net gain prize, go after a woman of no value or go after a brother. Its easy to say that Catherine would get a bigger reaction out of Pandora, but they are opting for his brother and its enough to depress Pandora. Whatever happened to the old group that they were a part of is enough to make Travis more important than Catherine." Bakura pondered aloud for the group, as he tried to weigh which 'treasure' was the best to go for.
"We're going to need to find Pandora aren't we?" Jounouchi asked finally. "Cuz he's the only one who knows what he was supposed to do. He may even know where Travis is and if we can find Travis we can maybe find out what happened to the old group."
"That's true, 'if' we can get Travis to talk, we 'are' a trio of strangers who would be dropping in on him for a possible rescue or a surprise visit." Malik agreed with a faint nod of his head all the while Catherine looked between the three in a sort of subdued awe.
It was like listening to three DM's plotting out a campaign, how they could just flow so easily about the possibilities. All three of these guys were high school going college aged teenagers and yet they were crafting possibilities on the fly. In fact Bakura sounded the most experienced in this, his voice when distracted carried the tone of someone who 'had' plotted out big plans and schemes before.
"Huh? What's up?" Jounouchi asked, as he caught sight of Catherines' expression causing the other two to look at her in concern.
"Oh, I'm sorry, its just.. I'm amazed at how brilliant you three are, I never thought of a bunch of teenagers could be this open minded or detailed. Kinda like listening to Dungeon Masters at work on a D&D game," she confessed with a faint embarrassed blush forming on her cheeks.
"Yeah, that makes sense, Bakura used to do that, be one. That's how me and my friends met him, he was running Monster World," Jounouchi agreed nodding cheerful. While the hackles of panic and concern rose up on the back of Bakura neck. Then just as he started relaxing Jounouchi added, "but he did work with Malik to try and kill Yugi so..."
"LOUD MOUTH!" Malik roared in anger, causing Jounouchi to clam up immediately while Bakura quietly covered his eyes with his hand and sighed.
But despite that last admission, Catherine didn't seem the least bit fazed by his words, for which Bakura was grateful. Then again, if she knew about D&D then she probably figured that Jounouchi meant in game rather than in life. "Yes, it was a rather fun game, and we shouldn't be bringing up what we do on our spare time guys," Bakura cut in as smoothly as he could. "I do realize you 'would' like to relax after a hard days' work. Perhaps you have a picture of this gang so we know who to look for?"
"Well..." Catherine nodded after a pause, her brows curved in question. "But they're in different parts of America. How can you find them from here? For that matter, if this group is as dangerous as to threaten or actually kill a person. Why put yourselves in danger?" she asked, a frown tugging the corners of her mouth down a bit at the danger these three were suggesting.
"Do you remember the bomb that destroyed the Turtle Game Shop?" Bakura asked politely, the moment he said 'bomb' Jounouchi shrank into his seat in bitterness and pain, and Malik looked down at the table. But Bakura kept a stable look on Catherine as her gaze retreated inward as she recalled the news before growing apprehensive. "That shop was Yugi's grandfathers' shop, those people knew he wasn't home and bombed it killing both Yugi's mother and grandfather. A friend of ours was on the way into the shop and is now in the hospital due to the blast. This group made it personal," Bakura explained, watching as her eyes grew wide with horror as she processed the information.
"The police wouldn't have believed you in how you were kidnapped or returned home. Even if you call the police in California to look for Travis, by your own admission they may not believe you. There's more reason to believe its just missed calls not missing person, this group isn't just dangerous to one person, but to many." Malik pointed out, not internally missing the irony found in how he had shoved Pandora out of just depression into madness.
Catherine sat there thinking about her old friends, the memories of their time together crippled by the idea that they all scattered like leaves in the wind on the same day? These boys, no young men, were right. Something was going on that was dangerous and if she could do something to save Travis then she owed it to him to do so. She thought about Mahaado and his spells, about how two innocent people were murdered by this group. For the first time trying to see deeper into Bakuras' eyes and saw for all of an instant someone older, wiser, jaded.
Deciding her path, she stood up from her seat and went back to her bedroom, back to the room where she had been sleeping soundly when Mahaado just appeared. Stealing away the sense of security just by proving that magic was 'real'. Made her way towards a book shelf and pulled out a photo album from her life in America and removed a photo she had been looking at a great deal more in recent days.
It was the last picture they took as a group during one of the pairs' chances to return home and see everyone. Timing had been terrible for a while, getting the gang had been next to impossible with work schedules, shows. Back then it felt like they could never get everyone together, until that one day. It was such a magical day when everything seemed to fall into place, the pair managed to make it to Fred and George's own magical debut.
The pair stood in the center, with their uncle between them with his arms wrapped around their necks and holding them close. Catherine posed next to Josie at the twins' feet with the girls holding up their arms dramatically showcasing the newest magician's on the block. Monte stood next to Fred, so handsome and excited for his friends with a confident hand resting on the guys' shoulder. Travis mirroring the gesture and feelings on Georges' side. "We had been so happy."
She put the book back into its spot on the shelf before she walked back to the three in her living room. Somehow this felt so hard, she remembered the news reports that showed images of the bombed game store. The thought of her losing anyone else in the picture felt so crippling as she tried to brace herself for any potential future information. How easily it was for Mahaado to kidnap her was still fresh in her mind, making it easy for her to believe that they could have Travis.
"So basically, what she wants is a picture of Yugi and have him sign it. What's so special about that?" Malik was asking the group when she finally left her room
"Well if you're famous, people assign a monetary amount to things that you touch or promote." Jounouchi was explaining, "I wonder how much a picture of Yugi is worth now if he signed it."
Yet the conversation they had began died the moment Malik caught sight of Catherine and the trio waited patiently as she returned to her seat. All three sat on the 'L' shaped couch in her living room, that was pressed against the wall. The light in the room illuminating these three strange teenagers who had come looking for information. She found herself looking at these three, while feeling the weight of her picture in her hand and was struck by a sudden fear.
"These people are dangerous enough to murder out of hand, use bombs and God knows what. What if they find out you're getting involved, what's to stop them from coming after you?" She stood before them looking at this rather, honestly, odd little group.
This was not a normal looking group after all, one guy with white hair and pale skin, one purely Japanese yet with blond hair and someone from Egypt yet with natural straight blond hair? No, this group was interestingly unique and coupled with their ability to see the possibilities of this group. For a moment she was struck by how grown up this group was, or rather Bakura was. There was just something about the guy that she couldn't put a finger on. But it was there, this confidence that he carried that allowed him to see all these possibilities.
Catherine sat down and Bakura was the one to reach out and place his hand on hers. There was something about how he was so calm and thinking so deeply that struck a cord in her. Out of the three, Bakura struck her as the oldest, not just mature, but 'older'. There were these moments when a look in his eyes showed a more worldly or older soul than the other two.
"I know it sounds crazy to trust a trio of teenagers, but we're all you got if you want answers. Like we said, we're talking things that the cops won't believe," Jounouchi pipped up, his voice rough yet sympathetic. "You already lost two people, it's not fair to make you lose more just because people don't believe in magic. I know how you feel, one best friend can't go to college now cuz these bastards planted that bomb. His folks are now financially struggling just to get him physically as close to normal as he was. My other best friend has two family members not only in a grave, but he wasn't even here when they were laid to rest. Just cuz we were trying to stop something bad from happening to another pair."
"When we decided we would come here, it was because we were hoping to find a way to find Pandora more quickly," Malik added. "But given what you've told us, we might have found a chance to find the very group that started this whole situation. We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't know what we were doing or respect the severity of this situation."
She sat there with a quiet awe of this group before nodding and holding out the picture for the trio to see. "That was us, the twins are Fred and George, I'm next to Monte and he's next to George, Travis is next to Fred and above Josie with John between his nephews."
It was a beautiful picture really, full of the bright glitz and glamour of stage magicians' celebrating an after show shot. The twins were dressed in black with sparkling black collars, white shirts that had been unbuttoned and opened up. Vivid blond hair that framed their faces and if not for the rest of the picture it could have been believable that it was a single shot reversed. Josie was wearing reverse colors as the two magicians, while Catherine was wearing a thigh high sleeveless dress, Pandora and his brother both were wearing nice suits as was John. It was easy to see that John was related to the twins despite having black hair, since their eyes held a similar shape.
Indeed there was just enough in their olive skin tone and eye shape to get Maliks' attention. Greece 'was' closer to Egypt after all..