Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"I wish you had a spell that translates for us," Bakura offhandedly remarked with a sigh in Ancient Egyptian, glancing at Mahaado.
For which the magician nodded quietly, "I have one for the written word. I would need a little more time to come up with one that involves spoken or heard languages."
"I don't suppose you have an easy way to explain the issue of how they could lose a decade of their lives?" Bakura wistfully as the twins studied the exchange even if they couldn't understand what was being said.
They both held dull, blank expressions unable to decide what to believe or not. Suddenly everything felt hopeless and meaningless. Sure their uncle was, in a sense, ok and their mother was too. But Travis was dead, his brother messed up in the head and supposedly a decade of their lives had been stolen from them. Internalizing the strange conversation they had just been given and deciding if they really 'had' messed up.
"Well, time as a river is normally a good start. But in the case of magic, its less a river and more a pair of wheels bound by a working axis." Then without so much as a 'by your leave' the High Magician created the illusion of a cart suspended in the air for the room to see. The cart disappeared leaving only the desired items. "The spell that would have been used would change their perception of time into this model. We note the passage of time by exterior events for the most part. The eternal pattern of seasonal changes marking it, and we know a year has passed when we have gone through the cycle itself. So what the spell does is condense the perception of pattern down to its most basic points."
"Think of what you do as part of your daily rituals, undoubtedly there are many things that you do repeatedly. The spell would condense it in your memories so you think you've done it fewer times than you actually have. So say you break fast with a particular meal routinely, instead of 1000 such meals the spell convinces you that you only had 100. Unless something sticks out distinctly, you wouldn't realize you lived that day." After a beat Mahaado gave a slight shrug, "perhaps you should start explaining it to them with that."
Bakura blinked as he processed that and ran it back over with everything else he already knew. Trying to understand why Mahaado would present it with the presence of the wheel and after a moment he took to studying the spokes. Realizing they weren't turning in the same speed though they were going the same direction. 'So if one wheel represents time progression and the other our perception of it...'
"Did... how could he..." George had stood up while Mahaado had been talking to Bakura, wide eyed, the stage magician studied the hovering wheels. With his brother, slowly and begrudgingly, joining in to study this sudden suspended in air illusion.
"No way, they knew about mom maybe they installed it?" Fred asked, either forgetting or just simply not caring that Bakura could understand them.
"Think of the two wheels as a model for what Mahaado just explained," Bakura offered. "The example he gave was with breakfast. If you have the same meal everyday, or a routine of when you have that breakfast. You won't recall all of them, only the ones when something unique happened. Even if you're stage magicians, it would undoubtedly be the same. Whatever could be merged together 'was', and because they were routine actions or days they were forgotten."
"So uh, if I got this right, its just a spell. But was it from the Spirit or the demon?" Jounouchi asked, barely following the American translation of Mahaado's Ancient Egyptian explanation.
"Demon," Mahaado answered easily as Bakura spoke to the twins. "Its why they can not stay in this area for long periods of time or near each other. Given the uncle's situation and that he is meant to cleanse the area of demonic activity it would make the place rather unpleasant for them. More over it would increase the number of different people thus keeping the twins from really having something to draw their attention. Say for example a small child from this house of healing, if they repeatedly came year after year. The growth of the child would be recognized and alert them far sooner than if they were away."
"That's a fast answer," Jounouchi joked in an effort to mask his own feelings. 'Shit, forced away from their family and losing years of their lives. Just when magic starts looking awesome...'
"Well, I've already had to explain this to Seto, he likes his machines and magic is my realm so..."
"Mahaado actually gave a good example to Katsuya," Bakura remarked, bunny ears a go. He offered the same example, causing the twins to glance at each other and ponder it themselves. "But he also explained that this is part of the demon's doing. Your uncle is compelled to cleanse the area of demonic activity and the spell on you is demonic."
"But what about the others?" Fred asked his voice broken into accepting this madness, the walls of resistance too weak to be sustained.
"Josie... she always talked about time and stuff. What made her so special that she was immune?" George asked, helpless in his gaze as he looked at Mahaado even as he spoke to Bakura.
"Josie..." Mahaado startled Bakura in how a soft smile actually crossed Mahaado's stoic expressive face, making him appear less like a stern adult and more like a 17 year old.
"They want to know why she's immune to the demon. Well so do all of us actually," Bakura explained, glancing at the others who nodded in turn.
Mahaado answered easily enough with two more illusions even as the wheels spun on. One was Josie, the way the group had seen her dressed the day they met her. The other was Mana.
"Josie is the current descendant of my apprentice, Mana. Though she is long since dead and gone, Mana has spells woven into her bloodline that protects them. Of course she can't stop something Set does, but she served as his High Magician when he ruled. So he seems to not try and overpower her authority on certain matters." The nostalgia was thick in Mahaado's voice, even without understanding what was said, Jounouchi and the twins knew that there was some type of connection. Though the twins didn't recognize the brown haired, tanned skin girl, they all felt that there was 'something'.
Something that was quietly explained by Bakura, causing the twins to blink and look between their very African American friend and this bright, cheery Middle Eastern looking stranger.
'Ahh, I see, Yugi's Dark Magician Girl huh? Good to know she was able to have a family,' Jounouchi thought to himself.
"Is there any further questions? If not I would like to proceed with the examination," Mahaado finally broke the silence that had just begun to creep into the room. 'I can feel you tugging Seto, you have gained no patience in all these years have you?' Only the occasional intercom system from outside giving the room any real background noise. Hell it was the only thing that really grounded anyone to the hospital itself really.
'Well that explains a lot on that end,' Bakura thought to himself as he asked the twins for Mahaado.
Fred snapped out of his growing admiration for the illusions before him at the question, George glanced at him waiting for his decision. Not automatically diving trustingly into the situation which told the man his brother was as rattled, if not more so than he was. Or maybe the weight of the situation was just too heavy for him. It brought his eyes back towards the still spinning wheels just hanging there in the air.
'We'll have to go to the police won't we? To get Uncles' grave exhumed to see if Travis is in there. I mean if Uncle John is alive he really doesn't need that grave yet, now does he?'
"I finally had made some peace with what we had talked about before, at the idea of helping mom. Now..." Fred closed his eyes and let his tense shoulders drop as he stood there. "I found uncle hanging in his bedroom and when I close my eyes I can still see him. Lifeless, and yet..." his voice choked as he struggled to keep the pain dammed up in his heart. "Uncle is alive and mom's been stuck here for a decade. While some bastard took our friend and buried him alive? What do we do now? I want that son of a bitch dead for what he, or whoever the fucking hell did this! But what do we do? How do we even get them punished?"
"Yeah, its not as though we can tell the police some kids notified us about what happened.." George agreed dispirited.
"We're dealing with the group, though you're right about Travis' situation. I could ask if Mahaado could help us with that, at least in removing the body from the grave. But beyond that... What his family chooses to do is... I want to say I can make myself available but I think we all know that can't happen." Bakura answered feeling utterly horrible that this was even a situation they found themselves in.
"But we'd be in danger if all of a sudden these things came to light. Whoever shoved Travis in there might find out we know about them." George added as he leaned against the bed the twins mother rested in.
"'About' but not 'them'," Bakura clarified. "We have a pretty locked down idea about why they're doing this. But we don't know who they are or where they're even located. They could count members from any country, or all of them. Walks of life or status, all of it is on the table until we find at least one person who knows them."
"Save a bunch of Japanese teenagers," Fred sarcastically noted, though he lacked any real bite with his retort.
"Mahaado," Bakura answered in turn, redirecting his attention to the magician. "Considering the fact that we're not in public, would you prefer to be in your priest robes?"
The magician blinked at the suggestion, it seemed sudden and out of place, 'I suppose its just another subtle method to make his point.' Mahaado didn't answer with a shrug, rather he simply willed his modern attire back into the robes he preferred to wear. "I suppose I can get to work then as well." Walking over to the bed he released the restraints on his own abilities so he could see the woman better.
The twins openly gaped at the shift in attire, moving away from Mahaado as though the robes might turn into snakes. The group watched as Mahaado stood, seemingly rooted to the ground as he looked down at the woman. From there the group was at a bit of a loss. Mahaado wasn't a doctor, he didn't hmm or haw over anything. Never bothering to check her pulse or the machines for anything in particular.
But what 'were' they expecting really? What happened during a magical examination? As minutes began to stretch, with the speakers plucking at the nerves growing taunt. The twins began glancing at the trio of teens for help. Hoping for a clue of what to expect, and it was a sensation that wasn't lost on Bakura.
"Mahaado? Would it be possible to make what you're seeing visible?" Bakura asked in his most bunny soft polite voice he could muster.
He watched as Mahaados' head snapped up and then turned to look at the former thief, blinking away some thought in his head.
"My apologies, of course you're right. I forgot..." Mahaado automatically answered, before a simple hand wave over the twins mother produced a startling display of symbols.
From head to toe she was cocooned in of glowing apple red glyphs that Bakura couldn't make heads or tails of. Well save that they were in Ancient Egyptian, but perhaps that was merely a translating choice. The symbols swirled about the body enough to make one dizzy if they kept looking at it save key points on the body. Those areas were anchors with cords that reached to the body then extending outward as one. Revealing the twins mothers' soul hovering between her boys with each cord attached the corresponding part of her spirit.
Unlike John, she was wearing what she was wearing on the bed, and for all the world looked alive to the group. The twins, having followed the cords with their gazes, were understandably taken aback by her just 'standing' there between them. She was fixated on her body, leaning over and reaching to prod at the symbols over her toes.
"Mom?"
Abigail had turned her gaze down to her feet noting how her toes didn't feel anything through the cords to her own toes... When she glanced up to see George looking at her.
Oh.
Malik watched as the twins began to interact with their moms' spirit. Be it an illusion like what Mahaado did for John, or just her actual spirit. But he couldn't speak English so instead he focused on Mahaado and the light that covered the woman. Jounouchi joined him as they approached the mage and gave the body a once over.
"That's an awfully cheery color... so is it safe to bet that its just the spell not the demon stuff?" Jounouchi asked peering around Mahaado's shoulder. Why else would he use color associated with something as cheery as a fresh red apple? Well unless he was trying to be reassuring and that was a disconcerting thought.
"Cheery?" Mahaado asked turning to look at him, there was a distant gaze in the priests' eyes. As though he was seeing more than normal looking at Jounouchi and was trying to look at all of it.
"Happy," Jounouchi tried and saw the understanding return to Mahaado's expression. "So, can you undo this?"
"Ah, yes and no. This spell holds no real problem for me," Mahaado explained. "Rather the fall out would be on Johns' end. The cords are connected to more than just the lady, granted you can't see it because of her bed. The spell should solely be covering John's body, but obviously that's not happening because the spell wasn't cast with a twin in mind. Realistically she should also be possessing a body, but she hasn't been assigned a 'target' if you will. So she's just here."
"So, the spell duplicated itself because of a twin?" Malik asked as he also studied Abigail's comatose form. She looked peaceful enough, and the words that swirled around didn't glow with anything he could rationalize as malicious...
"Yes, see these?" Mahaado pointed to a series of particularly bright gold trim. "The Demon in question could brush this spell aside with ease, its this trim that is protecting this spell. Its divine protection ensuring that what is going on continues, something a demon could not brush aside. At least not brush aside without a very real reaction."
"Set?" Malik asked, after all Set 'did' appear from what Josie recalled. So he was taken aback when Mahaado shook his head against the suggestion.
"No, this is the Pharaoh's ancestors who hold the spell. Their connection to the Gods is what gives the spell its protection." Mahaados' answer startled the pair, and Bakura who was ease dropping.
"How? I thought Set showed up that night." Jounouchi asked in confusion as he switched his gaze between the woman in the bed and the magician then back again.
"He's not leashed, he goes where it suits him. Understand that the seal on the Pharaoh was meant to last for all time, see," Mahaado gestured to a spot just below the woman's breasts where another symbol was swirling. "The Book was meant to be sealed for eternity as was the Pharaoh, but Set severed it when he forced open the seal on the Pharaoh. Thus why you see such disruptions in the life of this family. More over its why Set appeared that night."
The pair of blonds exchanged glances as they tried to process the information before Malik found the need to ask. "Set broke the seal on Yugi... and he showed up that night when the book was open... But why?"
Mahaado answered with a faint shrug, "Set wanted to free the Pharaoh and it took three thousand years before he managed to crack the seal. But the Pharaoh was restraining the demon in the first place. When Set forced the reincarnation to happen, it meant the demons' seal was opened so Set took the Pharaoh's place. Hence why chains were present when he met these people, to show that he was still holding the demon in check."
"So what about all the blood?" Jounouchi asked, curious at how Mahaado could know so much about the seal.
"That is for Set to know, I am not inclined to share his secrets." Mahaado answered simply as he gripped the side bar of the bed.