Visions
A/N: Never let your beta dare you.... A missing scene, for the episode where Ishizu shows Seto Kaiba the panel of hieroglyphs. Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't belong to me. No infringement intended.
~*~*~*~*~
"It is your destiny."
If she could make it so.
Ishizu hid a frown, turning a seer's serene face to Kaiba. She knew the cycle of history; she'd seen it herself, in the long-ago and far-off times of the Millennium Necklace. She knew how the path of destiny should unfurl, smooth as the past played around her.
Yet around Kaiba, the future - knotted.
As she should have expected. The bits of the past she had unveiled for Kaiba were not the whole story. Far from it.
Two figures facing each other, hands outstretched over a cauldron of fire....
Pharaoh and sorcerer. Yami and Kaiba-who-had-been, as Ancient Egypt had recorded events.
Pharaoh and sorcerer, combining their power to defeat their enemies.
Just as well this Kaiba doesn't read hieroglyphs.
Not that it would have helped him if he had. The text did mention an evil sorcerer, destined to face the pharaoh in a final battle.
Malik. My brother... yes, we shall prevail.
But one versed in Egyptian style would have known her a liar. Enemies of the Pharaoh were displayed crushed underfoot, enslaved, or bound into captivity. Such was tradition; such was the way. Such was destiny.
Still. Kaiba weakened Yami in the past. He shall do so again. She reached out with her final vision-
And found it blunted, thrust aside. Kaiba did not see the vision she had spun for him, of the pharaoh destroying his past self. Instead, Kaiba-who-was saw the pharaoh rise, walk toward Kaiba-who-had-been....
Enough!
She ended the vision before he could see the truth. Before she had to relive those moments Destiny had turned against her, as the pharaoh and Kaiba joined forces to crush her allies into oblivion.
He is mortal, only. He has no memory, no soul of the past, none of the Millennium Items. How could he reshape my vision?
A ghost of magic drifted by her inner eye, and Ishizu felt chill. The pharaoh's magic.
A glimmer only. The Millennium Puzzle had touched this man, opening his mind. Waking a link between Kaiba and the ancient pharaoh himself.
Interesting.
And deadly dangerous. Kaiba-who-was was not Kaiba-who-had-been. This Kaiba did not have greed for power clinging to him, darkening his heart. This Kaiba had-
Touched the heart of the cards.
Yet a breath more, and Ishizu felt her fear ease. Yes, Kaiba was dangerous. But he did not - yet - know his own power.
And power unknown, is power useless. Oh, Pharaoh, you have forgotten much. To begin your pupil's teaching, and walk away... five thousand years have dulled your skills, truly.
It would make destroying him all the easier.
