Soundtrack: Poor Impulse Control – Jack Off Jill, Who Wants To Live Forever? – Queen
Warnings: Death, and probably not the way you're expecting. Non-linear storytelling. Serious mental instability. TWT again. Optional shonen ai between Bakura, Yami Bakura, and/or Malik.
Oh, and I blame this on/dedicate this to Sunfreak, because of all the wonderful parts of The Egypt Game. ^_^
This could have been a stand-alone fic about Bakura, but I decided that it's a Spoils fic and so… Yet another possible reason why Yami Bakura never wins:
~~~
To the victor go the spoils.
Spoil, verb; To corrupt, to cause to go bad. He spoils her with his influence.
~~~
Spoils
Take Three
The funeral was beautiful. It wasn't a large or extravagant event, but he probably would have preferred the small ceremony that they gave him. It was open casket, too – something nobody would have expected considering the condition his corpse was in when they found it. It was amazing what the morticians could do with a little makeup. If anybody hadn't known about the bullet hole beneath his hair, they wouldn't ever suspect.
Marik didn't attend. He didn't know that anybody had died until too late.
~~~
There was a gun in the closet in Bakura's father's room. A .22 Smith & Wesson pistol that was kept cleaned and in working order, with an eleven-round magazine and the bullets in their box next to it. There were others too, but the .22 was the first one Yami Bakura saw. He pulled the knowledge out of Ryou's mind forcefully and painfully and ignored his landlord's protests, because Yami Bakura was an asshole and that was the sort of thing that an asshole would do.
He loaded one round into the magazine, confident that he wouldn't miss. Then he checked to make sure that Ryou was safely locked in his soulroom; good, his landlord wouldn't feel a thing. Wouldn't even know when it happened.
He didn't want to hurt his landlord any more than he always did. The point of this, actually, was to end the pain.
The magazine slid into the handle of the gun and clicked into place. He pushed the safety off.
He'd taken care of everything. Tied up all the loose ends, and now it was time to end it.
Briefly he wondered if Yami Yuugi knew what a gun was. Yami Yuugi, the King of Games, the one who would always win, who was so determined to win, who knew how to live and enjoy his life… Was he jealous of the Pharaoh? Yes, he could admit that he was. Who wouldn't want that fierce determination, that will to live and to win and avoid sacrificing others in the process? Who wouldn't want the support of that group of friends?
Yami Bakura couldn't win a game against the Pharaoh. The first time he should have; he'd gotten the double zero roll, but his landlord had interfered, as he'd known he would. Later, though, in Battle City, Bakura had caught on and had tried to make the thief the victor, worked with Malik and tried to scare Yami Yuugi out of attacking. That wouldn't do, and so it didn't; Yami Yuugi couldn't lose.
Oh, but Yami Bakura would win the last game he played with the King of Games. The gun in his hand would assure that.
~~~
Shrieks filled the air as the dark mist of the Shadow Realm spilled out of the classroom and into the hallway. Jounouchi and Honda sighed, moving to collect the witnesses, and Anzu and Miho shook their heads. "Third time this week," Anzu muttered, and the two began helping the boys round up any students who'd seen the black swirling mass fill up the room.
It was annoying, to say the least, but what else could they do? It wasn't as though anybody could control the Ring Spirit, and Bakura certainly couldn't stay home all the time to try to avoid it. At least most of the time Yami Bakura didn't attack in school, but when he did it caused quite an uproar. The group would have been at a loss had Bakura not learned the nifty trick of using the Ring to make people think that their recent memories were a dream. However, that didn't make it any less irritating, and the four struggled to keep the witnesses together while the duel progressed. There was no doubt as to who would win; it'd been happening for a little over a month. Yami Bakura would challenge Yami Yuugi for the puzzle, lose, get banished, and return to duel again, sometimes within the space of a few days. The fights had been occurring more and more often, as well.
Miho wondered briefly if Bakura was having any more of a hard time than they were.
Half an hour later Bakura and Yuugi emerged from the classroom, the latter still in possession of the Puzzle, and the tendrils of the Shadow Realm retracted and pulled away into nothing. There was a flash and the teachers and students had no idea where half of fifth period had gone.
Bakura stared at the Ring in his hands, rubbing his thumb along the circle rim, and classes started up again.
~~~
'But it'll come back…'
'It only comes back if somebody else tries to get rid of it. If you threw it, it'd stay away.'
~~~
Not half a day later there was the sound of breaking porcelain as a plate shattered in Bakura's kitchen. Yami Bakura leaned against the refrigerator, breathing heavily.
'Welcome back,' His other's voice echoed in his mind. Yami Bakura's permanent scowl deepened. He stood up, leaving the refrigerator, and walked to the other side of the room where the shards of the plate littered the floor. He picked one up slowly, giving Bakura plenty of time to realize his intent, but there were no protests. He gripped the shard angrily, feeling no satisfaction as the blood dripped down and fell to the floor in large drops.
There was still no protest from his host.
He threw the shard away, smiling emptily as it hit the wall above the sink and broke into more pieces. He let Bakura have the body back then, watching in mutual silence as his landlord cleaned up his mess and then bandaged the still-bleeding hand.
~~~
'Why can't you hate me? Stop bringing me back, get rid of the Ring, don't be so stupid!'
'I'm not going to help you do this. If you want to then you'll have to do it yourself. Quit trying to use everybody else to accomplish your goal.'
~~~
The next day he didn't even wait for class to start. He waited outside the school gates for Yuugi and the others to arrive, and smirked as everybody froze upon seeing him.
Yami Yuugi was in control in an instant, pulling out his deck and glaring at the thief. "I haven't even said a word yet and he's ready to fight," Yami Bakura observed, snickering.
Yami Yuugi gripped his deck tighter. "You only come out to make trouble, unless you've come here to give a resignation speech. Are we dueling or not?" He demanded.
The white-haired one summoned the familiar Shadow Realm bubble around them, and the remaining four sighed and began to check for witnesses.
Yami Bakura kept his perpetual scowl/smirk on as he drew his hand of five cards. He was perhaps the only person who could pull off said expression, save Marik, and the blond villain had been on some vacation for nearly a month, so currently Yami Bakura dominated the evil smirk category. "Shall I make the first move?" He asked, voice neutral.
"If you wish," Yami Yuugi replied, glaring over his cards. "Though," He added, unable to resist the jibe, "You went first the last two times and look at all the good it did you."
For his reply the thief merely laid a facedown card in defense. "Your move."
The shorter one frowned and drew a card. No snide retort? His opponent hadn't ever before let him get away with an insult. Not even a 'fuck you?' It was unnerving. So, ever the kind, concerned person with only the occasional borderline-sadistic tendencies, Yami Yuugi proceeded to ask, "What's wrong with you?"
Yami Bakura's expression didn't change. "Play the game, asshole. There's nothing more wrong with me than usual."
Yami Yuugi laid down Black Magician in attack mode – he mentally smiled at the lucky hand he'd drawn – as well as a facedown card behind it. "Black Magician, attack his facedown card," He ordered, glaring again at the thief. He didn't like it when his questions were dodged, and all Yami Bakura ever did was avoid giving direct answers. Either that or he told outright lies.
Yami Bakura allowed his smirk to grow a little as his card was destroyed, activating Man-Eater Bug's effect and killing the Black Magician in return. His expression returned to the standard after a second, however, and the former Pharaoh's notion that there was something wrong only grew. No gloating followed the death of his favourite monster, no scathing remark from the generally cruel and mocking spirit.
"Your turn," Yami Yuugi announced. "And for the record, I don't care if something's wrong with you, but I'm curious now."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Remarked the robber, drawing a card and laying two down.
"And satisfaction brought him back," Returned Yami Yuugi, wincing as both Yami Bakura's monsters attacked. His trap took care of the more powerful one, but the three-eyed beast got through to his life points.
"End turn," The white-haired one said in a monotone. Then, "Maybe I just figured that you wouldn't talk as much if I didn't, and you run at the mouth more than most of these gossiping females do."
At that Yami Yuugi set up a play that halved his opponent's life in one hit. Yami Bakura twitched slightly at the pain, but in an instant his poker face was back.
"There's something wrong with you whether you admit it or not," The King of Games insisted. "And now it's going to be a game to me to figure it out."
"That's a game nobody could win, least of all you," Yami Bakura informed him bitterly, drawing a card and playing Dark Necrophia. Yami Yuugi blinked. Damn; he'd already killed three of Yami Bakura's monsters? He should have gotten used to the other's occult strategy by now, but he hadn't been putting his entire attention on the game.
Then again, he decided as he drew a card, it didn't matter anymore. He sacrificed his three monsters, played Osiris in attack mode, and allowed himself a triumphant smirk. "I'll give you a choice," He told Yami Bakura. "You can tell me what's wrong or I can end the game now."
The reaction was not the expected, but then again it hardly was when dealing with immortal psychos. Yami Bakura threw his head back and laughed. "You'll end the game anyway!" He choked out, flashing a toothy grin and returning to his cackling. "You're the Game King, it's what you do! There's no way for me to win!" He crossed his arms over his stomach and bent over in hoots of maniacal laughter.
Yami Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "Then why do you keep doing this?" He asked, gesturing to the swirling darkness around them. He wasn't expecting an answer.
"Oh, just banish me and get it over with." The laughter was gone and Yami Bakura placed his hand of cards back over his deck. "I wouldn't be able to keep doing it, anyway, if my landlord didn't keep calling me back."
The King shook his head and collected his cards. "Bakura only wishes to help you, yet you can't understand that," He said, mostly to himself.
"I understand it perfectly!" The Ring Spirit screeched, startling Yami Yuugi. "I'm not so far gone that I can't understand fucking kindness! I do everything I can to make him hate me and every fucking time all he says is 'Welcome back.' He says welcome!" He flung an arm and his deck went flying, but neither spirit paid much attention to the fluttering cards. "I hurt his body, I yell at him, I try to kill his dumb-ass friends, and he welcomes me!"
Yami Yuugi could only stare. Yami Bakura glared back at him, before spreading his arms out. "Come on. Quit stalling. Banish me, and tell my dumb-ass landlord to get rid of the Ring."
~~~
'It's a stupid way out. It's cowardly, and if you're going to do it then be a man and do it without anybody else's help.'
~~~
Bakura sat on his bed, Ring in his hands. He ran his thumb over the circle, a gesture that was quickly becoming a nervous habit, and hugged the metal ornament to his chest.
Something was going to break soon, he knew. Something, but he wasn't sure what.
~~~
Yami Bakura waited just outside the school gates for Yuugi and the others for a second time. His smirk failed to appear when the entire group flinched in unison at seeing him, and there was no cackling at Yami Yuugi's bravado. In fact he said nothing at all, merely summoning the Shadow Realm around himself and the King and cuing the sighs and headshakes from the witness crew.
Yami Yuugi pulled his deck out and started to shuffle, but stopped when the thief held up a hand. "I didn't come here for that," He said flatly. Yami Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "I just didn't want your fan club to hear this," He explained.
"Your resignation speech?" Yami Yuugi joked. His eyes grew to a point where it would have been questionable as to whether it was he or Yuugi in control, however, when Yami Bakura nodded.
Apologizing wasn't hard, Yami Bakura told himself. It was just saying a couple words, it wasn't as though he meant them. He was a wonderful liar, he should have been able to say it. But it wasn't the words that stopped him from speaking; it was who he'd be saying them to, and the blow to his pride that would follow. After trying for so long, to suddenly just say 'good game' and quit trying?
"You win," He said abruptly. The words weren't snide, only brusque and rushed, the perpetual smirking scowl was on vacation, and Yami Yuugi was at a loss and speechless.
Yami Bakura waved a hand and the Shadow Realm vanished before the ex-Pharaoh had a chance to regain his composure. Unfortunately, at least in Yami Bakura's mind, the other spirit returned to the Puzzle before any of the others could see the dumfounded expression on his face.
"Huh? Why's he still here?" Jounouchi demanded upon seeing Yami Bakura and checking Yuugi over. Having made sure that he was all right and still in possession of the Puzzle he turned to face Yami Bakura. "What happened? What the Hell?"
Yami Bakura's smirk appeared then, but his eyes didn't narrow in the usual sadistic glee. "He's had a bit of a shock, I'm afraid," He sneered.
"Why you!" Honda threatened, advancing. He stopped, though, when Bakura's big green eyes looked up at him.
'Are you sure about this?' His landlord's mental voice echoed in his head.
'Hey, are you forgetting my former profession? I'm an expert at this. It's fine,' Yami Bakura reassured, shifting his grip on the shovel's handle. 'You'll be back at the airport hours before your flight back home is due, and Kaiba will never know that his Visa Platinum was missing.' He felt Bakura's mental headshake and allowed a grin, walking casually toward the graveyard entrance. The gate was locked, probably on account of the fact that it was a little after 2 AM, but Bakura's body was still functioning as though he were still in Japan, making it sometime in the afternoon for him. He didn't plan to be in America long enough to make adjusting to the time zone necessary; only long enough to drop something off.
Yami Bakura looked around, seeing nobody, tossed the shovel over the chain-link fence, and quickly jumped over after it. He landed smoothly on his feet and pulled out the Ring. With a slight glow one of the spindles lifted and began to direct him, and after picking the shovel back up he followed the slight pull.
'I never thought I'd see you do something like this,' His landlord commented. 'Returning something you stole…'
'Don't rub it in,' Yami Bakura shot back, navigating through the tombstones. The Ring's pointer dropped suddenly, and in the dim light the spirit could make out some letters on the flat stone they'd stopped in front of. 'Most respected landlord,' Yami Bakura called, 'would you look to see if this is the right one?'
A little control was given to Bakura, just enough for him to move his eyes along the words. It took him a minute, but he was able to make out the "Pegasus J. Crawford" engraved into the tombstone.
'This is the one,' He affirmed. Yami Bakura took complete control of the body back and stuck the shovel deep into the dirt.
It was satisfying work; dig in, throw the dirt over to the side, and repeat. Over and over for the better part of an hour, until the bell of the church next to the cemetery tolled for 3 AM. That was when the metal of the shovel hit the coffin, and Yami Bakura tossed the tool to the side and reached into his pocket. The object he pulled out fit into his closed fist, and he set it on top of the coffin. With a flash of light the Eye disappeared through the wood, returning to its previous host, a resting place it favoured over remaining with Yami Bakura.
He climbed out of the hole with his shovel, noticing that it was starting to rain, and grinned. The dirt was quickly thrown back into the grave before the body could get chilled, and as the rain increased into a downpour he finished refilling the hole and left as quickly as he could. Hopefully nobody would even realize that the ground had been disturbed, with the water pouring down and packing the dirt back together.
"I still can't believe it, man! There's hope for the Other Bakura yet!" Jounouchi grinned and threw an arm around Bakura's shoulder. "That must feel great, man."
Bakura smiled up at Jounouchi, rubbing his thumb over the golden circle of the Ring. "It is wonderful," He admitted, looking back down to his necklace. "But…"
The group waited in anticipation, only to be disappointed as Bakura shook his head and decided, "No, it's nothing." His thumb traced the circle.
~~~
It took a week of absence from school before anybody decided to look him up in the phonebook and check up on him. It took another week of him not answering the phone or the door when those few concerned people did check for them to begin to worry, but there was nothing they could do, they told themselves. He was probably just out of town, and didn't have time to tell them – or maybe was in an accident and at the hospital, but then wouldn't he have called one of them? Still, there really was nothing they could do by then, whether they cared enough or not.
It was another two weeks after that – a month in total – before his father returned home, unlocked the door, and wondered what that horrible smell was. Then he noticed the red stain that'd soaked through the ceiling, and he ran upstairs to his bedroom.
The blood was a permanent stain in the floor beneath the carpet as well as a sticky sort of glue, sealing the corpse's pale cheek to the floor, and the smell was too much to bear.
It was another month after that before Marik returned, bounding off the plane and planning to surprise his friend with his early return. He was smiling. Nobody had been able to get in contact with him to tell him the news.
He stared, unable to speak, at Yami Yuugi, the only one who'd been brave enough to inform him. Unable to ask why the Pharaoh, without meaning to, always took away from him those he cared for.
~~~
The two white-haired boys faced each other in the corridor between soul rooms. Bakura smiled softly, expression never reaching his dull green eyes, and Yami Bakura's lip twitched in a failed attempt to return the gesture.
'I'm glad you're trying to make things right again,' Bakura was the first to speak. He stepped toward his other but stopped. 'We'll work this out, won't we?'
Yami Bakura stepped toward his reincarnation, closing the gap between them. He placed one hand on the teenager's cheek, staring into the dim emerald eyes. Bakura placed his own hand on top of the thief's, returning the stare and wondering.
'I wish you would have learned to hate me,' Yami Bakura spoke softly, almost an imitation of his host's usual voice. The green eyes widened slightly in fear. 'It would have made this so much easier.'
Bakura pulled away from his darker half. 'No, you can't mean this…' He trailed off, then started again. 'You were doing better—we can work this out!' Yami Bakura shook his head slowly.
'If only you'd just gotten rid of me, you wouldn't have to go through this too,' He murmured. 'And I know that, even though you wanted this once, you don't anymore.' He walked to Bakura once more, finding the younger boy's hands and holding them in his. 'But I've wanted this for thousands of years and nobody would oblige me, and you… you understand, right?'
Bakura's eyes began to water, and so he shut them. 'Damn it,' He muttered. 'You make me start to feel again, you make me realize that I need to take my life into my own hands and find a goal and start to live, and now… I can't do the same for you, can I…'
Yami Bakura reached up and wiped away one of the tears. 'You make this really hard,' He whispered. 'Really, really hard.'
'The don't do it!' Bakura pleaded, grabbing the hand at his face. 'If it hurts, then just … stay…'
Yami Bakura shook his head again. 'But it'll hurt so much more if I stay.' The thought was almost private, but Bakura heard it, and another tear ran down his face. 'Please stop this. I'm going through with it whether you want me to or not. I just wanted to tell you something first, since you never hated me.'
The green eyes looked up expectantly, and Yami Bakura leaned forward to rest his forehead against the younger boy's.
'I'm sorry about everything,' He whispered in a rush, and before Bakura could react the thief threw him into his soul room and slammed the door.
~~~
'Welcome back.'
The spirit would have placed his hands over his ears and screamed, had he the body to do it with. He did, however, do the mental equivalent and sent Bakura to his knees clutching his head.
'What is wrong with you, boy!?' He demanded, still doing the mental equivalent of physically shouting in Bakura's ear. 'Are you stupidity incarnate rather than my incarnation? Why do you keep calling me back!?'
Bakura clutched his head and grit his teeth but said nothing in response, mentally or vocally. The spirit's rage grew. He concentrated, fueled by his madness, and the transparent form that was possible by the Ring's power slowly became opaque and solid. The Eye glowed within Bakura's pocket, supplying the necessary energy to maintain a physical form. Bakura stared up at his other half, eyes wide and pain forgotten, and didn't even squeak as he was lifted off his feet by his shirt collar. His other half hadn't ever done this before.
"Why are you so stupid?" The spirit hissed, and before Bakura could answer the spirit raised his hand and brought it down onto Bakura's pale cheek. The boy's head fell back from the force of the blow, and Yami Bakura dropped him.
Bakura's head rolled back to a more comfortable position, and he brought a hand to his face, still silent. The spirit fell to his knees next to him, staring at the growing patch of red that was spreading across his host's face.
Wavering only slightly, Bakura stood. "I'll go get some ice," He said quietly, not out of fear but just because it was the way he spoke.
Yami Bakura grabbed his ankle before he could take a step. "Why don't you hate me?" He asked.
His landlord looked down at him, bland green eyes not revealing anything. "I can't hate you," Bakura told him, not trying to pull his leg back. "That'd be feeling an emotion," He explained, "and even if I could hate something, it'd be the things you do and never you."
The thief yanked and Bakura returned to the floor with a thud. "What can I do to make you hate me?" He asked, crawling over to the other boy. He pushed the teen onto his back, holding himself above the still-expressionless boy.
"I refuse." Bakura's voice was firm, but still soft. "I've told you before. I won't help you kill yourself."
Yami Bakura grimaced and raised his hand once more, only to abandon the physical form and retreat into the Ring. The white-haired boy lay on the ground for a few more moments, before standing up and getting the ice for his face.
la fin