Chapter Thirteen:

Premonition of Disaster

The first rays of morning were just starting to claw their way into the sky, casting an eerie half-light on the desert world below. In this time preceding the daily thrum of life, two figures stood at the railing of the palace's uppermost level, faces solemn and coated with bruises and blood.

The air around the pair was despairing and bleak with the knowledge of some brutal fate that lay directly in front of them. Their eyes trailed over the brightening horizon, slowly moving 'til amethyst met crimson squarely. A sad smile passed over the latter's lips. "It's time."

The former nodded, screwing up his courage and forcing out a weak, "I know."

Both tattered teenagers leaned against one another as they returned to the dimly let room, the crimson eyed Pharaoh closing the heavy drapes in their wake. Immediately, the room was plunged into a depressing darkness, the ring of candles in the middle of the floor the only source of light now.

"So, this is the end?" the amethyst eyed thief murmured, trying to avoid the two bodies that lay in state on each end of the room.

The Pharaoh sighed and gave a heavy nod. "If we want this madness to stop, then yes, it is." He led his thieving lover to the ring of candles, fingering the Puzzle that lay around his neck. "These Items that we sought to protect and steal shall be our punishment for failing."

"Our own piece of Hell. The gods have a twisted sense of humor."

"That they do, Kasirika."

Amethyst eyes narrowed and slid to the floor. "He's dead already, love. He died with Antaios and Kavala."

The Pharaoh hugged his lover's waist tighter. "They've passed on peacefully, Kasi-Bakura." The eighteen-year-old knelt down and picked up a crimson stained blade, gripping it tightly in his hand. "I could give them that much."

Bakura just shrugged, gaze raking over the dagger in Khasekhemwy's grip almost angrily. "How do you propose we do this?"

A wince. "My soul has already been bound to the Thousand Year Puzzle, as is yours." he replied, showing the small, intricate hieroglyphics, familiar to Egyptian but different all the same, at the base of his neck.

Bakura didn't need to be told what would have to happen to him. "You're rather lucky I have a high pain tolerance," he tried to joke. As usual, it just came out as a half-hearted threat.

Khasekhemwy led his lover away from the ring of candles to a darker part of the room. Hw winced when Bakura kept his back to him. "Now that I have finished," he warned, trying to keep above his raging heart. "You are eternally bound to the Thousand Year Ring. In this life, and all others, when you die, you will return to the Ring until your kyuusaisha is reborn."

"And that's only when there's a threat from the Shadow Games?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful."

"Kasirika-"

"Bakura."

"Whatever. Pay attention. All your memories will be locked away until such time that you need them to counter the danger, whatever that may be."

"So I won't remember you?" Bakura asked, trying in vain to hide the hurt in his voice.

"Probably not," Khasekhemwy replied, leaning in to give his lover a small kiss. "All that is left is to erase our existence from this world."

Bakura took a deep breath as he unsheathed the dagger from his hidden place under his sash. "It is agreed that we will extinguish each other's lives?"

Khasekhemwy wrapped his arms around the older thief's neck. "Agreed, love."

Bakura suddenly turned in the Pharaoh's embrace, kissing him deeply, passionately. When he pulled back, his eyes were alight with some of their old fire. "Before you do this, I swear I will find you in my next life, Khasekhemwy. Whether you be friend or foe, I will track you down and never go away." He leveled the point of his dagger to the Pharaoh's heart.

Khasekhemwy smiled, hearing the unsung challenge in the twenty-year-old's voice as he mimicked his lover's position. "And I will do my best to run away."

The corners of Bakura's mouth quirked up in a sort of smirk. "I will hold you to that," he warned. Steeling himself, the thief whispered a final, "I love you."

"I love you too."

One more look, one more smile before the doomed lovers rushed upon each others blades...

"Yami! Hello! Pharaoh, get the hell up!"

Yami cracked a lazy eye open, registering Bakura's presence for mere milliseconds before latching himself around said tomb robber's neck in a deceptively powerful hug.

"Um Yami...? Are you okay?" Bakura asked, taken aback by the unexpected contact with the formerly sleeping monarch.

Yami pulled back, leveling the other Egyptian with sad amethyst eyes. His mind mulled over the dream -or was it a memory?- as he pulled away from Bakura. My name. I... "I know my name."

"Good for you?" Bakura replied, starting to wonder if the Pharaoh was really all there.

"And yours!" Yami blurted out as he finally grasped the disputed dream/memory. "And... I-" The other bodies. The one looked so much like Ryou-

"Yami, before you run off to your own little world, explain to me what it is you're trying to say," Bakura demanded, kneeling down in front of the spike haired Spirit. "We already know our-"

"No! The name I use is native to my aibou's tongue." Yami couldn't pull himself away from the sight of the two bodies that had occupied that damned room, another, biting image starting to bleed into his mind's eye.

Bakura saw the Puzzle guardian slipping into his thoughts again and shook him. "Explain it to me or I'll hurt you."

Yami shook his head in a vain attempt to clear the puzzle his mind was trying to put together. "You were insistent on calling yourself Bakura-"

"Because that is my name, you fruitcake."

"-I think it was an alias. Your real name was Kasirika," Yami finished.

Bakura sat back on his haunches, staring at the former Pharaoh like he was growing a second head. "You're making it up."

Yami shook his head. "You called me Khasekhemwy."

"How do you know it was me?"

"I..." How do I know it was Bakura? Kasirika's hair was short, black, and his eyes were amethyst. That and he had a scar under his right eye. But, he did call himself Bakura. Coincidence? Yami shook his head. There are no coincidences. "I just know."

"Sure you do." Bakura plopped onto the ground to sit Indian-style, chocolate eyes calculating. "So, what other great revelations to you have for me to laugh at?"

If I tell him it was my blade that ended his life, that'll slaughter any chance I have of making amends with him, Yami reminded himself. But, his blade ended my life; we did agree to it. And what about the other two?

"Oh Pharaoh?"

Yami pinched the bridge of his nose, completely ignoring the thief before him. They both looked so damned familiar! The former monarch sighed and kicked the train of thought out of the way. In doing so, he suddenly saw Ryou laying on the deck of the Battle Ship, surrounded by his own blood... "Dear gods!"

Bakura jumped, not prepared for the outburst. "What?"

What if the other person was- No. Impossible. "Bakura, I need you to answer me honestly. Do you remember working with anyone?"

The thief shrugged. "Many people. Could you be less specific?"

"Someone close. Not like a lover, but more like a friend or brother?" Yami replied, keeping calm.

Bakura's brows knit together, shifting through his handful of unwanted memories of his past life. "Not that I can clearly remember."

"I don't care if it's a little blotch of ink on a piece of paper."

Another shrug. "There's one person that I keep remembering."

"Details?"

"Not many. All I know is that he wore strange eyeliner and had hair reminiscent to my hikari's little obsession. Other then that, nothing."

Yami glanced at Bakura, before back to the floor. It all makes sense. Bakura stalking me since his hikari transferred to my aibou's school, Malik and Bakura working together during Battle City, and... Malik and Ryou's attraction to each other. It all fits together too well.

"There's something you're not telling me," Bakura accused brazenly.

"Before you woke me up, I had a dream-"

"Obviously."

"-In it, the both of us were beaten almost beyond recognition. We were in a dark room with a small ring of candles-"

"Ecchi dream, Pharaoh," Bakura chuckled before realizing what he was inferring. "N-Not that I would date you or find you attractive... or anything." Yes, you sounded confident.

Yami ignored the thief's loose tongue. "-To either side of us, there were to beds of stone. On each," Yami shuttered. "Were two bodies. I don't know to whom each name belongs, but you called them Kavala and Antaios."

Bakura made a face. "Were they dead or sleeping?" he asked, point blank as usual.

"Presumably dead. Both of them were so young, not much older then I am... well, look. But, I explained this ritual to you, saying that all there was left was to end our lives."

Bakura's face lit up. "You mean I did do something right?!"

Dare I tell him we were lovers? Nah. I'll save that for a later time. "If you're asking if you killed me, yes you did."

"Yes!" I DID WHAT?! Despite his outer glee, Bakura felt like Yami just slapped him. He now has my undivided attention.

"In the end, you killed me and I killed you," Yami grumbled.

"Oh, well that's just wonderful." Why in the hells did he kill me. I mean, I probably tried to kill him first. But- Ah, never mind! "What else?"

'What else?' Damned ignorant thief. "The two bodies I spoke of; one looked like Ryou and the other Malik," Yami all but grated out, feeling a dire need to knock Bakura from his high horse.

The Ring guardian blinked, opened his mouth and closed it again; held up a finger... And started laughing.

Affronted, Yami kicked his former lover hard.

"Waa! I'm sorry," Bakura mumbled around chuckles. "B-But how could Ryou and Malik be part-of the past? Our past, nonetheless?"

Yami shrugged, still somehow offended by the whole situation. I deal him ground shaking information and he starts laughing his ass off. "We're all just follow the Fates' grand plan, thief. I'm in no position to tell you why things happen and for what reason."

"The Fates', huh?" Bakura scoffed. "You don't believe in that crap any more then I do." The thief leveled the Pharaoh with his dark gaze. "You just don't have a straight answer, do you?"

"Honestly? No, I don't. Nor do I want to."

"Why's that?"

"It would all make too much sense and I'm not quite accustomed to that," Yami replied. "I'm used to having to put the Puzzle together forcefully seconds before someone's killed, not have the puzzle fall into place for me prior to someone dying."

Bakura grinned. "You'd have made a fine thief when you were alive. Actually, you still have a chance to repent for your do-gooder ways and cross over to the dark side!"

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Can you be serious for three seconds?"

"No." Bakura leaned his arms on his legs as he leaned forward. "You want me to be honest with you?"

"Depends."

"I think you've already put things together. You just don't want to admit it outloud. What's the word? Oh yeah! Denial," Bakura noted sharply.

Yami smothered his shock at the tomb robber's observation skills. "I'm not in denial. I just want to see what will happen next."

"Denial."

"Shut up." Yami sighed, frustration evident. When he didn't feel Bakura's unnerving gaze leave him, he snapped his head up. "You want to know the truth?"

"That would help."

"I have a pretty damned good idea of what's that dream was and I don't like it." Yami's amethyst eyes flared. "Why do you think Ryou is your aibou or you worked with Malik during Battle City? What about Malik and Ryou's infatuation with one another? Do you think that it's simply a coincidence?"

"I would like to think that," Bakura answered, surprised by the usually serene Pharaoh's outburst.

"You should know full well by now that nothing is coincidence, especially in our lives-"

"Afterlives."

"Whatever. Point is, none of this is coincidence."

Bakura tilted his head slightly. "So, you're basically telling me that you, me, Ryou, and Malik are slated to die sometime soon."

"That's the thing that's not setting right with me. Technically, you and Ryou are dead. So, you should have been sealed back into Ring and Ryou sent to the Hall of Two Truths."

"Well, Pharaoh dear, if you remember, me and my hikari escaped from his body before the killing blow was delivered," Bakura corrected.

Yami's face and tone went flat. "You found a loophole."

"Pretty much. A thief must be good at exploiting those if he wishes to live," Bakura replied sagely, a smirk dancing on the edges of his lips. "And yes, I did cheat Fate out of another victim."

"I've heard karma's a bitch," Yami shot back.

Bakura smiled endearingly and batted his eyelashes. "So are you. I've never said anything though."

"Kasirika!"

"Bakura."

"Whatever." Yami froze at his own words, eyes going slightly round. "See, proof right there. We had the same damn fight before we died."

"Was it friendly banter?"

"Yes!"

"Reeeeeally now?"

Oh shit. "No. It wasn't. We were insulting each other horribly."

Too late. Bakura's smirk was catty as he looked into Yami's eyes. "Enlighten me, Yami. How friendly was this exchance of ours?

* * * * *

"So, um, nice night?"

Ryou looked up from the ground with a muffled yelp. The Brit had been fuming over his lack of Ring possession at that point in time and was slowly formulating a plan of hasty revenge. Unfortunately, before he could solidify any particular course of action, Malik's soft voice had shattered his train of thought. "I guess."

Malik sighed, running a hand absently through his hair. "Look, I know you want the Ring back. Trust me, it's written all over your face like a bad prank." His lilac eyes held an apologetic light. "And I will give it back."

Ryou held his hand out with a semi-childish -yet ungodly endearing- pout set into his alabaster features. "Then give it to me."

"But as I said before, technically Yugi won possession of the Ring and I refuse to give it to the likes that that midget." Malik jangled the Ring. "So if you want it, you'll have to... depart from his body to get it."

Ryou's eyes narrowed. "You bastard, you planned this," he growled, smacking the Egyptian half-heartedly.

"Actually, things just fell into place." With a small nudge, of course. Malik smothered a grin, as it would have him in over his head in boiling water with Ryou. And, while the younger teen was adorable when angry, Malik wanted to make friends (or something more) not enemies. Gods knew he had enough of them....

Ryou growled. He did plan this. Either that or it's just one, great, big coincidence. The sixteen-year-old sighed, sliently fuming again. I hate him and love him. I really wish I could just make up my damned mind. "I can't do that."

Malik looked down at the Brit with a raised eyebrow. "I know the Pharaoh can do that, Ryou. Don't lie; you're horrible at it."

"My body's been dead a disturbing amount of time, Malik. True, Yami no Yugi can replace my soul, but he can't repair the damage done."

Malik finally allowed a smile to creep over his lips. "That little hunk of junk you're wearing has a few hidden tricks up its sleeve. Now, if the Pharaoh's smart, he'll find out how to use them."

"How would you know?" Ryou shot back, eyes narrowed.

"I spent the first ten years of my life learning about the Millennium Items. I spent the next seven learning about the Pharaoh himself and the Item he possessed," Malik replied.

"How is it possible to know those things?"

Malik shrugged. "From what I know, my family was decended from one of the Pharaoh's Priests. The tomb keepers' information was kept within the respective clans, so no harm other then aging came to them. It's actually easy if you have the right connections."

Ryou sighed, shaking his head slightly. "And you're just going to let us guess, aren't you?"

"That's about all I can-want to do," Malik replied, trying to sound casual.

"So, you're not going to give me the Ring back until I'm back in my own body and you won't tell me how to do that." Ryou glared at the Egyptian. "Then, just what is the point of this meeting?"

Malik rolled his eyes. "Can't we just spend some time together." Realizing how strange that sounded, the teenager scrambled to cover himself. "I mean, once you're back to your normal self, maybe we could be..." He couldn't say it. Somehow, it felt wrong.

Ryou seemed to catch on. "You wanna be friends," he supplied easily. Friends?! Can we put a 'boy' in front of that, please? "If you promise not to kill me, I may very well befriend you," he joked.

"I won't. I can't say much for my other half though," Malik warned. "But anyway, we're at the boardwalk. You wanna continue on or bail out?"

Must he ask me? "I think I'll stick around for a while," Ryou replied. "I kinda like being around you."

Malik chuckled. "'Kinda'? You make me sound like a disease or a fungus!"

"Well, you do grow on people rather quickly. So, in a way, you are a fungus," Ryou teased, grinning brightly at the Egyptian.

"Am I a cute fungus?"

A tell-tale blush creeped into Ryou's cheeks. "Um... well... yeah?"

Malik laughed and wrapped an arm around the slightly shorter Brit's shoulders. "If I'm a fungus, then you're a plague."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"You sneak up on unsuspecting people and firmly attach yourself," Malik explained. "That and you never die. You just... disappear and then come back."

Ryou rolled his eyes and whacked Malik's arm. "You have such a way with words, Ishtar."

"Why thank you!"

* * * * *

"This is pathetic."

"Indeed."

"They're toeing the truth."

Yugi, Yami, and Bakura sat around in random places in their soul room, musing over the complete and total denial Malik and Ryou were in.

"I think we're going to have to push them in admitting anything," Bakura muttered, eyes raking the ground restlessly.

Yugi held his hands up. "I'm not getting involved. You and Yami can handle this; I'll just sit back and watch from a distance."

"Whatever floats your boat, kid," Bakura replied. "Seriously though, if we don't do something, those two are gonna be dead and reincarnated again before they admit how they feel about each other."

"But how? Ryou inherited your stubbornness and I'm almost dead sure that Malik's dark side has strict reign over him." Yami sighed.

"From the looks of it, he doesn't care much," Yugi muttered, trying to mask the bitterness in his voice.

Bakura had missed the sour tone, but Yami picked up on it immediately and sent his hikari a single, warning glare. //Aibou, if you don't agree with the situation, then stay out of it. But if you want to help, don't be so cold.//

/I'm not bitter about the whole situation. I just... The idea of Ryou dating Malik doesn't sit right with me. I mean, it's not Ryou's preference in a koibito, it's the person he's fallen for!/ Yugi explained.

//I understand, aibou. Trust me, I fear for Ryou's safety as well. But, I also want him to be happy.//

Was that guilt Yugi heard? The small teenager searched his darker half's eyes before seeking out Bakura. He had never realized it before, but the tomb robber was practically sitting in the Pharaoh's lap and they weren't trying to kill one another. When did this happen? Yugi raised an eyebrow. Are Yami and Bakura... The Puzzle holder grinned.

"What's that look for?" Bakura demanded, not liking it one bit. Last time he saw that expression, it was before Ryou tried to knock his teeth out.

"Nothing," Yugi replied. /Yami, are you trying to help Ryou... Or Bakura?/

"I am not!" Yami shouted aloud.

"Not what?" Bakura asked.

"Uh, um... Nothing?"

Bakura rolled his eyes and laid down, using Yami's leg for a pillow. "So, Pharaoh, you never told me about this conversation of ours."

Yugi blinked. Now things had gotten strange. The tomb robber and Yami -the same two Spirits that were trying to kill each other not that long ago- acting like long-time friends... or love-struck teenageers... The Japanese sixteen-year-old sighed. My life cannot get anymore complicated.

"Nothing happened! I killed you, you killed me, we were damned to the Items. End of story," Yami replied quickly.

"But, you said the conversation was friendly!" Bakura insisted.

"It wasn't, for the love of Ra! You wished my non-existent offspring to have camels and I told you to screw a hippo," Yami lied, trying not to laugh. The argument he was thinking of was actually a drunken dialogue he remembered being a part of for some inane reason.

Yugi, on the other hand, was in stitches.

Bakura looked up at the Pharaoh with a raised eyebrow. "Did you know," he said conversationally, "that you suck a lying?"

"Cork it, Kasirika."

"Make me... Your name's longer then my arms!" Bakura noted. "AND IT'S BAKURA!"

"Kasirika."

"Bakura."

"Kasirika."

"It's Bakura, you needle-headed fruitcake! Get it right!"

Yugi calmed down some, holding his sides. "So, your real name's Kasirika." A snicker. "Sounds like a girl's name if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you." Bakura brushed an annoying lock of hair out of his face. "And you, Pharaoh. Call me Kasirika again and I'll be forced to hurt you."

"Have it your way, tomb robber."

"Can't you just call me Bakura?"

"No. You don't use my name; why should I use yours?"

Yugi perked up. "You mean you know Yami's real name?" he asked, a touch excited.

"Khasekhemwy," Bakura replied obligingly, smirking up at Yami. "Eye for an eye, Khase."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "So now I have a nickname?"

Bakura shrugged and reached up to snag a blond bang. "I'm not saying your full name every time I yell at you." And it keeps escaping my attention that I'm supposed to hate this idiot.

Yugi sighed, seeing the subtle gestures and looks Yami and Bakura were giving each other. Forget what I said earlier. My life's going to get a whole lot harder.

I'm such a damned, lazy author. [shamed] Seriously, I lost track of the days since summer's unofficially started and it's wreaking havoc on my life. -____-U So, um, yeah… Anyway, if any of this was depressing, gomen. I've been a little under the weather as of late.

Animegirl: lol. Sani's actually past the stupid gecko now. I swear, she was in tears when she had to face Cloud at the Coliseum. [snickers] I'd hate to see what happens if she has to face Squall or Sephiroth. Anyway, no, don't ask about the seaweed. Just don't. [sheepish grin]

blu chocobo:[gape] Malik just hand the Ring over and be sensible!? NEVA! [giggles] It wouldn't be any fun that way. But, the things Ishizu haven't yet translated are rather important and time's a wasting! [shakes head] Lazy, lazy person.

Sailor Comet:[shifty eyes] Marik may or may not make an appearance. You never know. [grin] If he does, [hands Sailor Comet a hardhat] do be careful.

Evaru: Glad you could join us again. XP Don't worry, there's plenty of Malik and Ryou next chapter, all chapter. [wicked grin] Wittle creampuff doesn't recover his body for a while but after he does… [giggles insanely] He puts it to good use. :]

Akuro: It does suck that parents can read, doesn't it? [sigh] There should be a language that only shounen-ai/yaoi authors can use to prevent detection. [snickers] It seems that everyone can't wait to see what'll happen with Malik and Ryou's date. [hides] THE PRESSURE!

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Chapter Fourteen Trailer:

...If this isn't flirting, I don't know what is. Ryou allowed a half grin to fall over his lips as a blush colored his cheeks. But... I wonder... "Random question: When you look at me, who do you see?"

Malik jerked back as if the question had smacked him hard. What the hells is going through his pretty little head?! "I see the same stubborn little brat that tried to squish me. Why do you ask?"

I'm an insecure schitzo borrowing a friend's body to seduce a crush for my cursed jewelry. Otherwise, no reason. "I... Like I said, random question," he replied.

He thinks I'm falling for the midget's looks?! "Ryou, I'm not so shallow as to fall for a person just for looks. I like your personality."

'Fall'! He said 'fall'! Calm down, Ryou. Remember what you have to do. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little insecure," Ryou muttered.

Malik shrugged. "You have every right to be. But don't worry. When I look at you, I don't see a strange little midget with electrocuted hair. You might not be you, but it doesn't matter."

Ryou smiled. "Thanks." He stretched some. He could have sworn he saw a brief image of Bakura ramming his head against a wall and Yami making gagging motions. He couldn't stifle the snicker that escaped his lips when he realized the impression was all too true.

"What's wrong?"

"I think we're killing the dead guys again with out heart-to-heart," Ryou replied.

Malik grinned. "So, all it takes it profound words to kill them? Had I known that, I would have been Pharaoh a long time ago."

Ryou snickered when Yami passed him an interesting bit of information. "You know, to truly be Pharaoh, you'd have to marry your sister."

Malik's face went oddly deadpan. "Inbreeding causes insanity."

Ryou's eyes widened when he caught the subtle jibe. "Malik Ishtar! You... you... Ugh!" The Brit smacked the older teenager's head somewhat hard. "That's disgusting."

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