Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

It was a thought, certainly. One that drifted among them as a cloud or fog of thought. Yugi's past life self had sealed himself away to stop the demon. But for 'how long' was he meant to be sealed? "So Kaiba tried to bust Yugi out and that's how everyone ended up here?" Malik suggested questioningly.

The thought struck Anzu as harsh, given how Kaiba was. Mahaado had only really known Kaiba when he was decidedly kinder towards the people he knew. As such Mahaado's act of being Kaiba had been gracious and relaxed towards them. Only to shift back to the Kaiba she knew the moment a stranger approached, even then he had a slightly softer side. If that was to be any indicator to how Kaiba 'used' to be... How much must he have suffered to change to the person they knew?

She had assumed it was all Gozoboro, but it appeared more and more that it was actually compounded from their past life. But Yugi died fighting a demon and despite how it ended in the game... 'Oh yeah, the game doesn't necessarily equate real life... So we don't know how it actually... it actually ended...' She realized as she sat there. 'It wouldn't have ended so neatly, it wasn't a game or a real memory. Just a game based on an incomplete memory...'

Weighing the memory against current events Anzu couldn't help but feel small. Kaiba possibly healed a large chunk of a hospital to heal Yugi. He had the power to heal, but if that was the case why hadn't he healed Yugi back then? All the priests died, yet Kaiba had the power to heal so he could have saved them. Even if Isis said he wasn't as strong then as he was now. He would have been able to help the other priests survive.

As Anzu sat there letting the guys talk the enormity of what Yugi had done laid itself over her shoulders as a weighted mantle. Kaiba could have saved him but didn't back in Egypt, meaning something stopped Kaiba. But also in this life his mother and father might have survived their deaths had Kaiba known he had this ability. All those innocent people in Egypt, his family in this life time, had he known back then...

'Yugi wouldn't have done this if he had a choice. It would be too cruel, the guilt that it would have involved...' She thought as she let her eyes drift over the walls of the mansion. The picture frames, and suddenly the mansion felt so empty. With only the newly redubed 'Kaiba' brothers with undoubtedly nothing from their biological parents they could bring over. Kaiba having no time to really share with Mokuba...

Painfully empty, that was suddenly how the mansion felt. When compared to the walls of family photos, the awards, the everything be it her own home or the Game Shop. 'One plus one equals two... It wouldn't take long before someone would ask. If Kaiba could save his mother and or father like he saved Yugi. Why didn't he? Yugi couldn't bear that kind of guilt... Motivating Kaiba to get these memories back must have been difficult decision.'

With this demon that was trying to be reborn into the world all the while Kaiba's business rivals tried to assassinate the CEO. It made her whole school situation feel small and insignificant... Not that Yugi ever treated it that way, or Miho. With her thoughts turning dark she looked down at the expensive rug as Malik took charge of the conversation again.

"Ironically, or maybe not. One of my former Ghouls was friends with a family that was in charge of looking after the book that sealed the demon. But even sealed up said demon managed to start affecting them. Warping their awareness of time, faked a family members' suicide... and nearly drove the Ghoul in question into killing himself."

"Yeah, who knew that our little trip to California would end up so massive," Jounouchi admitted readily. "Damn monster murdered a guy and stuffed him in another man's grave and..." The blond rested his head in his hands. "Guys we're so out of our depths here, how are we supposed to help? What are we supposed to 'do'?"

"Welcome to my world," Anzu noted with a self depreciating smile. "Not a duelist, all I can do is cheer from the side lines and pray that Yugi pulled off a miracle."

"We're not completely useless, this isn't just card games anymore. They're not just going to stand there politely drawing cards," Malik pointed out.

"Oh and that makes this even scarier," Anzu admitted. "What can they do? This group I mean... Actually I get why we can't say the demon by name. Mahaado explained it to me once, but we need something to identify this group that serves the demon. This whole 'the group' is getting a bit aggravating."

"Fair..." Jounouchi confessed, and then proceeded to put on his 'thinking face' on. "Hey Malik can we borrow your 'Ghouls' tag?"

"No! That's my brand!" Malik argued, earning a smirk of amusement from Honda.

"Can't brand a type of monster that predates us, how about 'Big Ghouls'?" Honda suggested earning Malik's displeasure while letting Anzu sit back and think.

'Honda was right though, Yugi set us all up. He put us on the board in places that kept us from getting hurt, near Mokuba so he wouldn't be alone. I almost feel bad being so unobservant, I should have noticed how brilliant he could be.' Anzu thought as she sat there remembering all the games he used to play. 'Yugi wanted us to look after Mokuba and Kaiba, which I guess means at school since Isis and Rashid can't attend there.'

"Actually we have something we can do tomorrow," Malik noted thoughtfully. As the other three teens turned to give him their attention he continued. "We can visit Yugi, he should be set up in his room. So we can find out what's been happening at the hospital since today."

"Yeah, oh and he might need stuff from here..." She began when Anzu realized that being in a coma... well short of bringing Maha, there really wasn't anything that they could do 'for' Yugi. Save spy on the hospital.

"You going to be ok with this, Anzu? Between school and Yugi wanting you to be the go between for his dad and Kaiba..." Jounouchi asked, bringing back what Yugi had asked of her.

She blinked in surprise at Jounouchi and shrugged in an effort to shake off the weight of what Yugi had been planning. But also the reminder of what her school life had become, she would have liked to distract them but... Just a glance between her fellow classmates told her she wasn't escaping this. "I don't know, Mr. Mouto hasn't been back in Japan in... well you guys never even met the man. So that should tell you something. Though, ironically he works in communications," she admitted with a rueful smile on her face.

"So... communication should be the easy part?" Jounouchi offered a little confused by Anzu's facial read.

"You would think so... But well if Yugi and Grandpa are all about games, Mr. Mouto is all about business." Anzu answered with a faint shrug. "I'll be ok though, I think he remembers me from when he used to be here. He's kind of like Kaiba actually, hard worker, focused and driven, just his job sent him far from home."

"And everything he knows is second hand... I'm learning that feeling," Malik admitted as he leaned back. "I'm head of my tribe yet I'm here. So not only is my age a bit awkward, but also the distance."

"Do they seriously need you back?" Honda asked from his spot, as Jounouchi nodded as well.

"Yeah, no one messing with the Tablets I hope," Jounouchi added. For which the pair were reassured with a disinterested wave of the hand.

"They're fine at the moment, the Tablets have not been touched or visited by outsiders. Just when we left, it was meant to be a short visit to help 'Kura. Now with the Demon and helping the Pharaoh. Its more like we went on vacation and got called to active duty. The tribe was a little taken aback and alarmed by the suddenness of it all."

The softest sounds of movement caused them to look up where Mokuba finally reappeared. Walking down stairs quietly, each step and grasp of the rail noted along with the disheartened expression on the child. The boy moved with the weight of a dark cloud hovering over him, despite the fact that Yugi had done all in his power to protect the Kaibas. But then again, Yugi was in a coma, nearly died and it was in their defense.

'Perhaps the problem isn't Mokuba's struggle to process this, and more our inability to realize he's a kid.' Anzu thought to herself as she sat there with guilt hitting her. 'Why would you leave a message for Mokuba in that video though? I mean why did you expect a kid to be involved in a conversation like this?' Though really the message didn't seem all that bad or have content that... 'oh maybe its us that's the problem.' She thought as Mokuba finally reached them and climbed back into his seat. 'Maybe we shouldn't have started with the adult conversations right in front of him. I mean, Mokubas' been exposed to enough that he's not 'that' naive anymore...' she realized.

"Mokuba?" She rested her hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze while the guys grew quiet. Letting her lead it seemed.

"He's going to take a nap, he promised not to steal anything in his sleep," Mokuba reported while he stared down at the tops of his feet.

"We're all sorry. I guess we wanted so hard to believe this is no different than when the Sennen Items were around. Thinking that this is going to be handled purely with cards and well..." She gave him a small hug, feeling as he shivered under her hold. Or perhaps he was just holding in the tears. "Its going to be ok," she began when he seemingly gave up trying to be an adult.

"Its not fair! This whole thing has been nothing but disaster after disaster and everyone says the same thing!" Mokuba retorted. "'Its going to be ok, just be patient'" he quoted as the teens collectively looked down. "But it's not! We've been kidnapped, Big Brother has been stabbed, we were going to be assassinated on live television! Now you're telling me that he could have saved mom or dad but didn't! Why! Are you saying Big Brother 'wanted' to be adopted? That all of this was just one long chess move to get into position to protect big brother?"

The teens shared an 'Oh shit' glance between each other before looking over at Mokuba. Realizing that despite how young he was, Mokuba had connected the dots that they had hoped to avoid.

"That's not true! Kaiba may be an asshole, but I'm sure that when he was a kid he wasn't thinking that it was ok for your parents to up and die!" Jounouchi countered while the other two nodded.

"You were at Battle City, your brother didn't start remembering things until then," Anzu pointed out when she glanced up and saw something that struck her heart.

Maliks' stricken expression, as though a cord had been struck and in that expression Anzu remembered Isis' words back in the hospital. She didn't understand them, but Anzu remembered Malik's words. Isis invoking against violence and with that though Anzu couldn't find any more words. Set didn't have a younger brother. He probably would have shoved Mokuba to the ground...

What if Set didn't care about Mokuba? What if Mokuba was right about this? That all of this, including the brothers' parents death' was orchestrated 'by' Set? It was a horrifying thought and perhaps they were all to blame for letting Mokuba join in on the meeting. Clearly Mokuba wasn't a kid anymore that they could just assume didn't understand. The thoughts caused Anzu to hug him tighter while the guys tried to think of a way to talk around that.

"Yeah, even then he was hellbent on showing that he was the master of his own destiny." Honda pointed out trying to comfort Mokuba as the boy began to sob.

"You'll see your brother tomorrow," Malik pointed out as gently as he could. "He still has to go to school, and Yugi said that he'd be in his right mind when he was at school or work. We won't give up on him either. We'll do what we can to get him back into his own..." Malik floundered for a good word to describe Kaiba's current condition ending with a weak. "Normal state of mind."

"Its not fair I know, we've been asking you to put a lot of faith in us. And we sure aren't paying you back for all that you've tolerated," Jounouchi admitted. "But we're all in this together at this point, you're not alone with Kaiba, you can talk to us."

Anzu nodded, resting her cheek against Mokuba's head as the boy finally began crying into her arms. She rubbed his back in soothing circles until he stopped crying on his own and into her arms. "He's right, its fine if you want to be upset or anything, we understand! We're also going to be here, especially since everything seems to be targeting the Yugi or Kaiba. So if you need us, don't think you have to 'be like Kaiba', you can reach out to us. The way Kaiba behaves is because of Gozoboro, but that guy is gone and we're here. You're not alone Mokuba."

No one knew what exactly to say beyond that, since they sat on that same nebulous edge as Mokuba. Anzu wasn't even sure what she could say to Mr. Mouto, even though Yugi was entrusting that duty to her. In fact, Yugi seemed to have assigned duties to 'all' of them in his own way. The thought making her smile slightly, 'did you realize I would have this crisis? Is that why you assigned us things to do?' she pondered.

"I can't believe Yugi took that bullet..." Malik finally commented. "All this time we've been running to California and he's been facing down a bullet."

"Yeah, I mean he was more withdrawn now that I think on it. Or maybe it was nostalgic when we talked, and that whole time..." Jounouchi added, his words causing Mokuba to shiver.

Anzu barely caught Jounouchi's attention and stopped him from going further with a look in her eyes. Yet Mokuba surprisingly joined in the conversation as well, "Mahaado didn't know, or he's a really good actor when he's not acting as Big Brother. He said if Yugi said it was ok, he would teach me to summon Kuriboh."

"Wait... you can learn to sum..." Malik blinked as an idea seemed to form in his mind. "Do you think any of us can learn how to summon Duel Spirits? Or at least our own?"

"Not a safe option, but possibly..." Jounouchi answered with a faint shrug, "It would be like living the game though. You'd be using your own life force to sustain the spirit and if they get hurt..."

Anzu nodded, "that's probably what happened to the priests back in Ancient Egypt. But Yugi didn't give that as an order so maybe he doesn't want us to learn how?"

"But we'd be able to help!" Malik pointed out as he began to study Mokuba more keenly. "Also Mahaado offered to teach Mokuba to summon 'Kuriboh' not his own Ka beast. Meaning that not only can we learn to summon Ka, we can learn to summon the Ka sealed in the Tablets. Maybe that would be the safer option," Malik offered.

"Summon from the Tablets rather than ourselves?" Honda clarified with interest, as in typical guy fashion the idea of summoning monsters was beginning to overtake the guys.

"Summon the souls of dead to fight for us," Anzu re-clarified for them. "Dead, like Mahaado who's soul is locked in eternal servitude to 'anyone' who knows and resonates with him strongly enough. You think that's ok?"

The trio's light of masculine enjoyment suddenly got snuffed out...

"Dead yet 'unlike' Mahaado, have had their souls locked in that state against their will, and without their consent."

"Yeah, but... those were criminals..." Jounouchi countered though he no longer looked so gung ho to learn the skill as before.

"You mean like Ryou?" Anzu countered smartly. "If we have to, we have to. But these Tablets house 'people' to some extent or another, you should remember that."

"Yes, Anzu," Malik replied sulking in tone when an amused, deep voice interrupted them.

"Truly the Pharaoh's wisdom is vast," Rashid commented from the second floor with an approving smile on his normally stern face. "You will make a good Priestess to the Pharaoh in this day and age."

"Rashid!" The teens turned to look up at the man in surprise as he made his way to the stairs leading towards them. He was still dark clad and his serious expression didn't shift, but if he was rotating out from Isis...

"How is Big Brother?" Mokuba immediately asked as he pulled away from Anzu. He took off running towards the stairs and waiting for Rashid's slow and steady steps to bring him to the ground floor with them. As solid as a mountain of strength, the man finally came down and let Mokuba walk with him back to the group.

"He will be back soon, already he showed signs of waking up."