Chapter Two: Everybody's Fool
Yami Yugi woke to find several people, most of them quite familiar, hovering over him.
"Oh, my head," he groaned.
"About damn time," Seto Kaiba muttered, turning swiftly away and striding over to check on some burning incense.
"Oh," Yami murmured. "You're speaking Ancient Egyptian. I didn't know you could do that."
"Yeah, big surprise for all of us," Joey said. "Feeling better? You collapsed. Kaiba did too - " triumphant grin - "but he woke up pretty quickly. The kingdom's in an uproar. They think you're dying or something."
Mai, who had a companionable arm around Ryou's shoulders, said gently, "If you're feeling better, we have to find Bakura. Ryou can't sense him."
Yami blinked, sat up, and glanced around. There seemed to be rather a lot of white-robed priests in the room. He only recognized two - Kaiba and his little brother, Mokuba. They both seemed to be trying as hard as they could to appear nonchalant. Joey, Mai, and Ryou, of course, stood beside the bed.
"Where's Yugi?"
"Went to get some herbs," Joey said. "So Kaiba can make a potion to make you well. I mean, we /know/ you're well, but hey - superstitious Egyptians, they want magic..."
It was getting harder and harder to think. Yami surveyed the room a second time, and said pointedly, "The three of you are half-naked."
Mai tugged at her barely-adequate top. "Yes, well, I seem to be a handmaiden. Joey is a Palace Guard, and Ryou...well, we're not sure about Ryou." The pale boy was dressed only in what seemed to be a short white skirt.
Yami massaged his temples. "All right. Now that you've explained absolutely /nothing/ - "
"Oh, right," Joey said. "We've somehow been sent back to Egypt by an Evil Wristwatch of Doom."
Ryou nearly burst into tears at that point. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! But the demon wanted it fixed, and everything went wrong, and I'm sorry, I should have told you, but Yami said not to, and if anything's happened to him I'll just /die/..."
"You know, we're very lucky," Mai noted suddenly. "I mean, normally we wouldn't have been allowed in to talk to you, but Kaiba took it so well and gave us clearance without even wondering what was going on..."
Yami sighed. "So. Let me get this straight. I'm the pharaoh again."
"Yes."
"And this is before the Shadow Games?"
"I suppose."
"Then why can't I remember anything? I mean, I don't - I don't know /anything/ about this time. Not anymore. Just those dreams, and they stopped ages ago..."
Ryou buried his face in Mai's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he wailed. "I'm sorry, so sorry, I should have told you..."
Feeling quite resigned to his fate to never understand anything, Yami asked gently, "What, Ryou?"
"About the demon, the nightmares, the watch. I still have it, but - it's stopped, it doesn't work, I don't know how to get us home..."
Kaiba sighed and shooed the other priests out of the room. Once he had closed the door, he leaned on the wall, every inch the icy CEO they knew, aside from the robes.
"I think you'd better start from the beginning."
**Perfect by nature
Icons of self-indulgence
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that**
It took Ryou nearly an hour to lay out the tale - the nightmares, the demon, everything he could remember that his yami had told him. When he finished, there was silence for a moment.
Yugi had joined them around the part where the demon first appeared, and was the first to speak. "So, can we see the watch? What did you call it - Satagala?"
"Sathaugula," Ryou said miserably. The name of the demonic object was burned into his mind. He held out his wrist, visibly rubbed raw by his feverish attempts to remove the watch. "It's stuck. Won't come off."
Yugi tried tugging at the band. "It's fused together, I think. Creepy. The Millennium Items are gone - "
"Of course," Mai said. "They haven't been created yet."
Mokuba, who had listened quietly to the entire story without moving, finally spoke up. "But why were we brought back? I mean - Seto and I, Mai, Joey..."
"I'm the High Priest," Kaiba told his brother. "And the advisor. Of course I'm here. You, though - I don't know." He glanced at Yami and explained, "I had to find him some spare robes and make up some nonsense about him being my apprentice."
"I bet that Bakura would know," Mai said slowly. "After all, he's the one with nightmares about this. We have to find him."
"How?" Yami asked. "He's a tomb robber. He'll be in hiding. You won't find him."
"I could look," Mokuba offered. "I'm good at being inconspicuous."
Kaiba sighed. "Mokuba, we're in ancient Egypt. This is a huge country, not to mention the desert. The pharaoh is right. We won't find him."
* * *
In fact, it would have been quite easy for Mokuba to find Bakura.
The former spirit (or soon-to-be spirit, his concept of time was thoroughly twisted by now) was currently in a small, cold room several levels below the palace, deep within the catacombs, trying to convince Shizu that he hadn't gone completely mad.
"I must have hit my head!" he said desperately. "It's only temporary loss of memory!"
She glared suspiciously at him. "There's something wrong with your accent," she pointed out. "You sound like one of those Eastern people."
Well, of course he did. He hadn't heard or spoken Egyptian in years. He didn't tell her that, though.
"Yes, that happens sometimes." He nodded in what he hope was a sage manner.
"Since when are you such an expert on medicine?"
"I, uh." He blinked. "I don't...remember?"
Shizu rolled her eyes and stood up. "Well, Akil, when you're feeling well, I need your help with the last stage of the spell."
"What spell?"
She patted him on the head. "The /spell/. You know. The High Priest? I don't want to marry him, so you came up with the plan to put a love spell on him. Then he won't love me anymore, and he'll break the betrothal to be with whoever he falls in love with, and we can be free."
Bakura stood up, staring at her. "I came up with that idea? But you can't - you don't mess with people's emotions." As soon as he'd said it, he cursed his poor memory. He didn't /care/ about emotions, he knew that.
Well, he hadn't cared, anyway. Until Mai...
But that wasn't the point. The point was that if his memory didn't come back soon, Shizu would probably suspect something more than a bump on the head.
As it was, Shizu simply gave him a strange look. "I think I'll ask Seto for advice on how to cure memory loss..."
"Seto?"
"My betrothed," she said slowly, as if speaking to a very small child.
"Wait, /Seto/?" he blurted. "You're...engaged to.../Seto Kaiba/?" ~And his name is still Seto here, ~ Bakura added to himself. ~Unless I'm wrong, and it's someone else entirely, whose name just /happens/ to be Seto. Ah, coincidence. How I miss thee...~
"Kaiba? What kind of name is that?" She seemed reluctant to leave him alone, but did. He listened to her footsteps receding and relaxed somewhat.
He'd forgotten. Of /course/ Kaiba would be here. He'd been involved, Bakura knew that. The High Priest, the pharaoh's nemesis.
~Unless it's only me who came back.~
Well, there was only one way to be sure.
He left the small room and headed in the same direction Shizu had gone. Sure, it was dangerous. He was probably a wanted man.
But he had to know.
**Never was and never will be
Have you no shame, don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled**
Fortunately, Bakura had walked these paths often enough that they were deeply ingrained in his mind, untouched by time, and he caught up to Shizu easily. He walked a few yards behind her, silent as a cat, and idly wondered where Rana was.
He rather missed Rana. /Rana/ wouldn't have run away just because there was a demon in the room. And /Rana/ wouldn't have attacked him for his watch.
Gods, he missed Atenna...
~Oh, it's only been a day! Less! I am such a sentimental idiot...it's Ryou's influence, I swear...~
He stopped abruptly when he turned a corner and realized that he'd lost Shizu, and found something else entirely.
It could have been the same demon; they all looked rather alike. Bakura wasn't sure. All he knew was that this one didn't have the slightly insane cast to its eyes.
"Er," he said.
The demon stared at him. "Things are going to get rather interesting around here."
"Yes, I guessed that." He wanted to turn around and find another route, but remembered something. "You're a demon. They make deals with mortals."
"Sometimes."
Bakura weighed his options. With his memory so disturbingly blank, he was in trouble. And he'd obviously messed up terribly in his past - or present? - life, enough to warrant being imprisoned in the Millennium Ring.
"I need my memory back," he told the demon. "And I need...insurance."
The demon searched his eyes. Bakura gazed solemnly back, and was somewhat startled when it broke into a devious grin.
"All right, mortal...let's deal."
* * *
Shizu didn't go immediately to Seto. She wanted to have the spell prepared, just in case an opportunity presented itself.
She didn't really /need/ Akil. Any of their acquaintances would do.
The first she ran into was a small, dark beauty working as a handmaiden. "Oh, Shizu!" the girl gasped. "It's terrible...the pharaoh has recovered!"
Shizu sighed. "It's all right, Leila. These things happen. It doesn't change the plan. I'm worried right now about Akil. He's lost his memory. What if he never recovers?"
"I think we can manage without him. The pharaoh's got a new slave, looks just like him - it's amazing. He could do."
Shizu thought about that. "Yes, he could do nicely, if we need him. For now, though - the potion."
Leila nodded. "Yes. Almost ready, isn't it?"
Shizu led the smaller girl to a chamber that glowed gold with the effort of containing the magic. "All we have to do is choose someone to cast it," she said. "I can't, I can't be anywhere near when the spell goes off. I thought Akil might like to, but in his condition - "
"I'll do it," Leila said eagerly. "I haven't done anything for the cause yet - let me do it!"
Shizu smiled innocently, pulled a piece of papyrus out of one of the deep pockets in her robe, and began to read it aloud.
* * *
Mai hated the handmaidens.
In an effort to preserve some semblance of sanity among the time-travelers, they'd all decided to play their parts. Mai had been hovering near the other handmaidens, watching them, and had decided that they were all empty- headed idiots.
They giggled and gossiped when no one could hear, but fell silent when anyone of higher status walked by, and bowed.
Almost everyone was of higher status.
Insofar as Mai could tell, most of them didn't do anything but sit around looking pretty. She figured that there would be some fanning and feeding of grapes later on, but not yet.
It was very annoying.
And there was one - a tiny girl, Leila. She seemed to slip off fairly frequently, and whenever she returned, the other girls would flock around her and ask eagerly for information.
Mai hated Leila most of all.
She seemed so fake. She carried herself regally, smiled and spoke softly, refused to answer questions. Not like an ordinary handmaiden at all, really.
And whenever Kaiba happened by the throne room where the girls lounged, Leila's dark eyes narrowed and she half-raised one hand, then let it fall.
Very weird.
Mai missed Bakura, wanted to hold him and kiss him and go /home/. They'd been together for so long, she could barely breathe now without screaming in frustration, when she didn't know where he was, or even if he was alive...
**Look, here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh, how we love you
No flaws when you're pretending
But now I know she**
Bakura stared down at the watch on his wrist, unable to focus properly on anything. Honestly, the demon hadn't even given him all of his memories, but he still felt like his head would explode...
"Sathaugula," the demon said softly. "It is mine. It will soon disappear, and you will forget it - but when you need it, there will it be. It will give you power over time. But remember - when you have used it thrice, I must have it back. Never break a deal with a demon."
"Never," Bakura said. "Actually, that's in the 'Tomb Robber's Handbook.' Rule Fifty-four: 'I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being, then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.'"
The demon smiled. "You are well-learned. Be wary." It disappeared, and moments later, Sathaugula vanished from Bakura's wrist. He blinked.
"Ow." He clutched at his head. "Ow! Too much! Way too much!" After a moment, the pain faded, and he frowned. "Wait...remember /what/?"
* * *
Joey wasn't exactly sure what a Palace Guard /did/, so simply chose to hang around in the throne room, looking threatening and surreptitiously sneaking glances at Mai.
He really couldn't believe he still had a crush on her. After all, he was with Tea, had been for three months, and Mai was with Bakura, and they were all happy...
But something, something was there. He felt it, knew it. He still loved her. It was warm and it made him glow just to catch a glimpse of her.
He felt slightly guilty, of course, especially /now/. Her handmaiden outfit bordered on indecent, but he was only a teenage boy, and though he knew he shouldn't look, he did.
He saw the hateful glances she threw at Leila, and the wistful look in her eyes when she gazed into space. Thinking of Bakura, probably. She always did.
Joey bit his lip to keep from reacting badly when Kaiba walked in. After all those months, he still couldn't stand the CEO - or High Priest, or whatever. And now, how much worse that he had magic, and walked around smugly lighting torches with a wave of his hand?
Well, okay, he'd only done that /once/.
A blonde girl dressed in dark robes otherwise identical to his followed Kaiba. She tugged on his arm, smiling, and said something. He responded curtly, and she left the room, still smiling.
Joey and Mai were the only ones who caught the look she threw at Leila.
A look that plainly said, 'Do it. Now.'
Yami and Yugi entered at that moment, stood beside Kaiba, and after a moment, the three walked over to the dais. Yami sat on the throne, and the other two hovered nearby. Leila lifted her hand, then let it fall and averted her eyes.
Joey wasn't sure what was going on.
And soon enough, he would wish that he never found out.
**Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled**
Bakura caught up to Shizu outside the throne room. He could see into it, a bit, saw the group of handmaidens, but didn't notice that one had leapt to her feet, staring at him in disbelief.
That might have been because Shizu slammed him into the wall.
"What are you doing?" she hissed. "You can't be here! Get back in the catacombs!"
"I'm sorry!" he whispered. "But my memory came back, and I've decided that you shouldn't do the love spell."
"What? Why?"
"It's wrong! Very wrong!"
She shrugged. "It's no longer in my hands, Akil. Leila has the power."
"Who? Oh, her. Stop her!"
"I can't go in there! If she does it, and he sees me first, we're doomed!"
"Why?!"
She stared at him, and then smirked. "Well, apparently not /all/ of your memory is back. Come on, darling, you know this. Love spells. Irreversible, breakable only by death. Since I have no intention of dying and we still need him...he can't see me first."
"Breakable by death," Bakura echoed. "Oh. Oh, no. You can't let Leila do it!" He jerked away, and she made a desperate grab for his arm, caught it, and held him. "Let me go! We have to stop her!"
"/You cannot be seen/!"
He wrenched his arm from her grip, tried to run, and was stopped when she tripped him, caught him before he could lose his balance, and kissed him.
It was dizzying, passionate, like he'd never felt before - not that he could remember, anyway. Not even with Mai. ~This,~ he thought, somewhat detached, ~is the only other woman I ever loved.~
So he kissed back, for an instant, then broke away, gasping and unable to tear his eyes from her.
"If you go in there," she told him, "they will kill you. Immediately. No questions asked. Don't. Do it for me. Go back to the catacombs and don't leave."
"Uh," he said. "Will you do that again?"
"Every night, forever, if you like..."
She turned and walked rapidly away, and Bakura sank back against the wall, one hand to his lips. ~Gods, I'm shaking,~ he realized.
~What does that mean? I don't love her. I love Mai.~
Another, less welcome, followed that thought instantly.
~Don't I? ~
**Without the mask, where will you hide?
Can't find yourself, lost in your lie
I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore**
Mai stared in absolute shock as that - that /woman/ kissed Bakura. /Her/ Bakura. No one else had noticed, no one but Mai, and she was thoroughly horrified.
He'd kissed back. She was sure he had.
She watched as he ran away, chasing after that demon-in-women's-clothing. Watched as the love of her life turned his back on her.
~I hate him. ~
She was wrong.
One other /had/ noticed, Joey, who couldn't help it. He was stationed near the door, had heard most of what was said, and saw the look on Mai's face.
~I have a chance...~
Mai made a split-second decision and ran up onto the dais, ignoring the gasps from the handmaidens. She tugged on Yugi's sleeve.
"Where's Ryou? I have to ask him something."
Yugi shrugged. "I'm not sure." He made a face. "We're /slaves/, you know. Some noble or other probably sent him off to run errands."
* * *
Leila could feel the power coursing through her veins, filling her completely. She couldn't remember to breathe, sometimes.
All that magic, looking for a way out.
~Just point at him, ~ she told herself fiercely. ~And tell it what to do. It will work, Shizu said it would work. And if you hit the wrong person, it won't matter. The spell can be worked again. Just get rid of the power!~
But she knew that if she missed, she wouldn't get a second chance.
Oh, the spell would be worked again, but that took time, and magic, neither of which the rebels had much. That was the bad thing about rebels. They looked upon every little mistake as a disaster.
Unless it was Akil, or Shizu. They were the leaders. They were exempt.
Leila wasn't important.
She couldn't make a mistake.
She lifted her hand, pointed at Kaiba, and whispered, "Go."
Bad luck, that he chose that moment to take a step backwards, startled at what the pharaoh had just said.
Bad luck that he was standing in front of Mai.
Leila watched as the spell hit that new handmaiden, watched as the girl fell to her knees, and knew. Shizu had explained it.
Blurred vision. Pain, as the spell lodged itself. And when you could see again, the first person in your line of sight was the one you would love forever.
Unconditionally.
Till death do us part.
**It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
Never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
And somehow now you're everybody's fool**
~~
A/N: No, there's no "Tomb Robber's Handbook." Actually, it's the Evil Overlord List. Very funny. Stupid ff.net won't let me put the link here, so I will put it on my bio page if anyone's interested.
Next Chapter: Going Under. So, who's Mai going to see first? What's going on with Bakura and Shizu? And how will Leila be punished?
Wait, Leila's an OC. No one cares about what happens to /her/. Right.
Oh, and don't expect every chapter to be out this quickly. I have six original stories to work on, a very difficult paper for my English class, and I'm still quite upset that Egyptians don't do gladiator-type combat. Sigh. If /anyone/ can see what I'm planning, I will be thoroughly shocked. That's all.
Yami Yugi woke to find several people, most of them quite familiar, hovering over him.
"Oh, my head," he groaned.
"About damn time," Seto Kaiba muttered, turning swiftly away and striding over to check on some burning incense.
"Oh," Yami murmured. "You're speaking Ancient Egyptian. I didn't know you could do that."
"Yeah, big surprise for all of us," Joey said. "Feeling better? You collapsed. Kaiba did too - " triumphant grin - "but he woke up pretty quickly. The kingdom's in an uproar. They think you're dying or something."
Mai, who had a companionable arm around Ryou's shoulders, said gently, "If you're feeling better, we have to find Bakura. Ryou can't sense him."
Yami blinked, sat up, and glanced around. There seemed to be rather a lot of white-robed priests in the room. He only recognized two - Kaiba and his little brother, Mokuba. They both seemed to be trying as hard as they could to appear nonchalant. Joey, Mai, and Ryou, of course, stood beside the bed.
"Where's Yugi?"
"Went to get some herbs," Joey said. "So Kaiba can make a potion to make you well. I mean, we /know/ you're well, but hey - superstitious Egyptians, they want magic..."
It was getting harder and harder to think. Yami surveyed the room a second time, and said pointedly, "The three of you are half-naked."
Mai tugged at her barely-adequate top. "Yes, well, I seem to be a handmaiden. Joey is a Palace Guard, and Ryou...well, we're not sure about Ryou." The pale boy was dressed only in what seemed to be a short white skirt.
Yami massaged his temples. "All right. Now that you've explained absolutely /nothing/ - "
"Oh, right," Joey said. "We've somehow been sent back to Egypt by an Evil Wristwatch of Doom."
Ryou nearly burst into tears at that point. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! But the demon wanted it fixed, and everything went wrong, and I'm sorry, I should have told you, but Yami said not to, and if anything's happened to him I'll just /die/..."
"You know, we're very lucky," Mai noted suddenly. "I mean, normally we wouldn't have been allowed in to talk to you, but Kaiba took it so well and gave us clearance without even wondering what was going on..."
Yami sighed. "So. Let me get this straight. I'm the pharaoh again."
"Yes."
"And this is before the Shadow Games?"
"I suppose."
"Then why can't I remember anything? I mean, I don't - I don't know /anything/ about this time. Not anymore. Just those dreams, and they stopped ages ago..."
Ryou buried his face in Mai's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he wailed. "I'm sorry, so sorry, I should have told you..."
Feeling quite resigned to his fate to never understand anything, Yami asked gently, "What, Ryou?"
"About the demon, the nightmares, the watch. I still have it, but - it's stopped, it doesn't work, I don't know how to get us home..."
Kaiba sighed and shooed the other priests out of the room. Once he had closed the door, he leaned on the wall, every inch the icy CEO they knew, aside from the robes.
"I think you'd better start from the beginning."
**Perfect by nature
Icons of self-indulgence
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that**
It took Ryou nearly an hour to lay out the tale - the nightmares, the demon, everything he could remember that his yami had told him. When he finished, there was silence for a moment.
Yugi had joined them around the part where the demon first appeared, and was the first to speak. "So, can we see the watch? What did you call it - Satagala?"
"Sathaugula," Ryou said miserably. The name of the demonic object was burned into his mind. He held out his wrist, visibly rubbed raw by his feverish attempts to remove the watch. "It's stuck. Won't come off."
Yugi tried tugging at the band. "It's fused together, I think. Creepy. The Millennium Items are gone - "
"Of course," Mai said. "They haven't been created yet."
Mokuba, who had listened quietly to the entire story without moving, finally spoke up. "But why were we brought back? I mean - Seto and I, Mai, Joey..."
"I'm the High Priest," Kaiba told his brother. "And the advisor. Of course I'm here. You, though - I don't know." He glanced at Yami and explained, "I had to find him some spare robes and make up some nonsense about him being my apprentice."
"I bet that Bakura would know," Mai said slowly. "After all, he's the one with nightmares about this. We have to find him."
"How?" Yami asked. "He's a tomb robber. He'll be in hiding. You won't find him."
"I could look," Mokuba offered. "I'm good at being inconspicuous."
Kaiba sighed. "Mokuba, we're in ancient Egypt. This is a huge country, not to mention the desert. The pharaoh is right. We won't find him."
* * *
In fact, it would have been quite easy for Mokuba to find Bakura.
The former spirit (or soon-to-be spirit, his concept of time was thoroughly twisted by now) was currently in a small, cold room several levels below the palace, deep within the catacombs, trying to convince Shizu that he hadn't gone completely mad.
"I must have hit my head!" he said desperately. "It's only temporary loss of memory!"
She glared suspiciously at him. "There's something wrong with your accent," she pointed out. "You sound like one of those Eastern people."
Well, of course he did. He hadn't heard or spoken Egyptian in years. He didn't tell her that, though.
"Yes, that happens sometimes." He nodded in what he hope was a sage manner.
"Since when are you such an expert on medicine?"
"I, uh." He blinked. "I don't...remember?"
Shizu rolled her eyes and stood up. "Well, Akil, when you're feeling well, I need your help with the last stage of the spell."
"What spell?"
She patted him on the head. "The /spell/. You know. The High Priest? I don't want to marry him, so you came up with the plan to put a love spell on him. Then he won't love me anymore, and he'll break the betrothal to be with whoever he falls in love with, and we can be free."
Bakura stood up, staring at her. "I came up with that idea? But you can't - you don't mess with people's emotions." As soon as he'd said it, he cursed his poor memory. He didn't /care/ about emotions, he knew that.
Well, he hadn't cared, anyway. Until Mai...
But that wasn't the point. The point was that if his memory didn't come back soon, Shizu would probably suspect something more than a bump on the head.
As it was, Shizu simply gave him a strange look. "I think I'll ask Seto for advice on how to cure memory loss..."
"Seto?"
"My betrothed," she said slowly, as if speaking to a very small child.
"Wait, /Seto/?" he blurted. "You're...engaged to.../Seto Kaiba/?" ~And his name is still Seto here, ~ Bakura added to himself. ~Unless I'm wrong, and it's someone else entirely, whose name just /happens/ to be Seto. Ah, coincidence. How I miss thee...~
"Kaiba? What kind of name is that?" She seemed reluctant to leave him alone, but did. He listened to her footsteps receding and relaxed somewhat.
He'd forgotten. Of /course/ Kaiba would be here. He'd been involved, Bakura knew that. The High Priest, the pharaoh's nemesis.
~Unless it's only me who came back.~
Well, there was only one way to be sure.
He left the small room and headed in the same direction Shizu had gone. Sure, it was dangerous. He was probably a wanted man.
But he had to know.
**Never was and never will be
Have you no shame, don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled**
Fortunately, Bakura had walked these paths often enough that they were deeply ingrained in his mind, untouched by time, and he caught up to Shizu easily. He walked a few yards behind her, silent as a cat, and idly wondered where Rana was.
He rather missed Rana. /Rana/ wouldn't have run away just because there was a demon in the room. And /Rana/ wouldn't have attacked him for his watch.
Gods, he missed Atenna...
~Oh, it's only been a day! Less! I am such a sentimental idiot...it's Ryou's influence, I swear...~
He stopped abruptly when he turned a corner and realized that he'd lost Shizu, and found something else entirely.
It could have been the same demon; they all looked rather alike. Bakura wasn't sure. All he knew was that this one didn't have the slightly insane cast to its eyes.
"Er," he said.
The demon stared at him. "Things are going to get rather interesting around here."
"Yes, I guessed that." He wanted to turn around and find another route, but remembered something. "You're a demon. They make deals with mortals."
"Sometimes."
Bakura weighed his options. With his memory so disturbingly blank, he was in trouble. And he'd obviously messed up terribly in his past - or present? - life, enough to warrant being imprisoned in the Millennium Ring.
"I need my memory back," he told the demon. "And I need...insurance."
The demon searched his eyes. Bakura gazed solemnly back, and was somewhat startled when it broke into a devious grin.
"All right, mortal...let's deal."
* * *
Shizu didn't go immediately to Seto. She wanted to have the spell prepared, just in case an opportunity presented itself.
She didn't really /need/ Akil. Any of their acquaintances would do.
The first she ran into was a small, dark beauty working as a handmaiden. "Oh, Shizu!" the girl gasped. "It's terrible...the pharaoh has recovered!"
Shizu sighed. "It's all right, Leila. These things happen. It doesn't change the plan. I'm worried right now about Akil. He's lost his memory. What if he never recovers?"
"I think we can manage without him. The pharaoh's got a new slave, looks just like him - it's amazing. He could do."
Shizu thought about that. "Yes, he could do nicely, if we need him. For now, though - the potion."
Leila nodded. "Yes. Almost ready, isn't it?"
Shizu led the smaller girl to a chamber that glowed gold with the effort of containing the magic. "All we have to do is choose someone to cast it," she said. "I can't, I can't be anywhere near when the spell goes off. I thought Akil might like to, but in his condition - "
"I'll do it," Leila said eagerly. "I haven't done anything for the cause yet - let me do it!"
Shizu smiled innocently, pulled a piece of papyrus out of one of the deep pockets in her robe, and began to read it aloud.
* * *
Mai hated the handmaidens.
In an effort to preserve some semblance of sanity among the time-travelers, they'd all decided to play their parts. Mai had been hovering near the other handmaidens, watching them, and had decided that they were all empty- headed idiots.
They giggled and gossiped when no one could hear, but fell silent when anyone of higher status walked by, and bowed.
Almost everyone was of higher status.
Insofar as Mai could tell, most of them didn't do anything but sit around looking pretty. She figured that there would be some fanning and feeding of grapes later on, but not yet.
It was very annoying.
And there was one - a tiny girl, Leila. She seemed to slip off fairly frequently, and whenever she returned, the other girls would flock around her and ask eagerly for information.
Mai hated Leila most of all.
She seemed so fake. She carried herself regally, smiled and spoke softly, refused to answer questions. Not like an ordinary handmaiden at all, really.
And whenever Kaiba happened by the throne room where the girls lounged, Leila's dark eyes narrowed and she half-raised one hand, then let it fall.
Very weird.
Mai missed Bakura, wanted to hold him and kiss him and go /home/. They'd been together for so long, she could barely breathe now without screaming in frustration, when she didn't know where he was, or even if he was alive...
**Look, here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh, how we love you
No flaws when you're pretending
But now I know she**
Bakura stared down at the watch on his wrist, unable to focus properly on anything. Honestly, the demon hadn't even given him all of his memories, but he still felt like his head would explode...
"Sathaugula," the demon said softly. "It is mine. It will soon disappear, and you will forget it - but when you need it, there will it be. It will give you power over time. But remember - when you have used it thrice, I must have it back. Never break a deal with a demon."
"Never," Bakura said. "Actually, that's in the 'Tomb Robber's Handbook.' Rule Fifty-four: 'I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being, then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.'"
The demon smiled. "You are well-learned. Be wary." It disappeared, and moments later, Sathaugula vanished from Bakura's wrist. He blinked.
"Ow." He clutched at his head. "Ow! Too much! Way too much!" After a moment, the pain faded, and he frowned. "Wait...remember /what/?"
* * *
Joey wasn't exactly sure what a Palace Guard /did/, so simply chose to hang around in the throne room, looking threatening and surreptitiously sneaking glances at Mai.
He really couldn't believe he still had a crush on her. After all, he was with Tea, had been for three months, and Mai was with Bakura, and they were all happy...
But something, something was there. He felt it, knew it. He still loved her. It was warm and it made him glow just to catch a glimpse of her.
He felt slightly guilty, of course, especially /now/. Her handmaiden outfit bordered on indecent, but he was only a teenage boy, and though he knew he shouldn't look, he did.
He saw the hateful glances she threw at Leila, and the wistful look in her eyes when she gazed into space. Thinking of Bakura, probably. She always did.
Joey bit his lip to keep from reacting badly when Kaiba walked in. After all those months, he still couldn't stand the CEO - or High Priest, or whatever. And now, how much worse that he had magic, and walked around smugly lighting torches with a wave of his hand?
Well, okay, he'd only done that /once/.
A blonde girl dressed in dark robes otherwise identical to his followed Kaiba. She tugged on his arm, smiling, and said something. He responded curtly, and she left the room, still smiling.
Joey and Mai were the only ones who caught the look she threw at Leila.
A look that plainly said, 'Do it. Now.'
Yami and Yugi entered at that moment, stood beside Kaiba, and after a moment, the three walked over to the dais. Yami sat on the throne, and the other two hovered nearby. Leila lifted her hand, then let it fall and averted her eyes.
Joey wasn't sure what was going on.
And soon enough, he would wish that he never found out.
**Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled**
Bakura caught up to Shizu outside the throne room. He could see into it, a bit, saw the group of handmaidens, but didn't notice that one had leapt to her feet, staring at him in disbelief.
That might have been because Shizu slammed him into the wall.
"What are you doing?" she hissed. "You can't be here! Get back in the catacombs!"
"I'm sorry!" he whispered. "But my memory came back, and I've decided that you shouldn't do the love spell."
"What? Why?"
"It's wrong! Very wrong!"
She shrugged. "It's no longer in my hands, Akil. Leila has the power."
"Who? Oh, her. Stop her!"
"I can't go in there! If she does it, and he sees me first, we're doomed!"
"Why?!"
She stared at him, and then smirked. "Well, apparently not /all/ of your memory is back. Come on, darling, you know this. Love spells. Irreversible, breakable only by death. Since I have no intention of dying and we still need him...he can't see me first."
"Breakable by death," Bakura echoed. "Oh. Oh, no. You can't let Leila do it!" He jerked away, and she made a desperate grab for his arm, caught it, and held him. "Let me go! We have to stop her!"
"/You cannot be seen/!"
He wrenched his arm from her grip, tried to run, and was stopped when she tripped him, caught him before he could lose his balance, and kissed him.
It was dizzying, passionate, like he'd never felt before - not that he could remember, anyway. Not even with Mai. ~This,~ he thought, somewhat detached, ~is the only other woman I ever loved.~
So he kissed back, for an instant, then broke away, gasping and unable to tear his eyes from her.
"If you go in there," she told him, "they will kill you. Immediately. No questions asked. Don't. Do it for me. Go back to the catacombs and don't leave."
"Uh," he said. "Will you do that again?"
"Every night, forever, if you like..."
She turned and walked rapidly away, and Bakura sank back against the wall, one hand to his lips. ~Gods, I'm shaking,~ he realized.
~What does that mean? I don't love her. I love Mai.~
Another, less welcome, followed that thought instantly.
~Don't I? ~
**Without the mask, where will you hide?
Can't find yourself, lost in your lie
I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore**
Mai stared in absolute shock as that - that /woman/ kissed Bakura. /Her/ Bakura. No one else had noticed, no one but Mai, and she was thoroughly horrified.
He'd kissed back. She was sure he had.
She watched as he ran away, chasing after that demon-in-women's-clothing. Watched as the love of her life turned his back on her.
~I hate him. ~
She was wrong.
One other /had/ noticed, Joey, who couldn't help it. He was stationed near the door, had heard most of what was said, and saw the look on Mai's face.
~I have a chance...~
Mai made a split-second decision and ran up onto the dais, ignoring the gasps from the handmaidens. She tugged on Yugi's sleeve.
"Where's Ryou? I have to ask him something."
Yugi shrugged. "I'm not sure." He made a face. "We're /slaves/, you know. Some noble or other probably sent him off to run errands."
* * *
Leila could feel the power coursing through her veins, filling her completely. She couldn't remember to breathe, sometimes.
All that magic, looking for a way out.
~Just point at him, ~ she told herself fiercely. ~And tell it what to do. It will work, Shizu said it would work. And if you hit the wrong person, it won't matter. The spell can be worked again. Just get rid of the power!~
But she knew that if she missed, she wouldn't get a second chance.
Oh, the spell would be worked again, but that took time, and magic, neither of which the rebels had much. That was the bad thing about rebels. They looked upon every little mistake as a disaster.
Unless it was Akil, or Shizu. They were the leaders. They were exempt.
Leila wasn't important.
She couldn't make a mistake.
She lifted her hand, pointed at Kaiba, and whispered, "Go."
Bad luck, that he chose that moment to take a step backwards, startled at what the pharaoh had just said.
Bad luck that he was standing in front of Mai.
Leila watched as the spell hit that new handmaiden, watched as the girl fell to her knees, and knew. Shizu had explained it.
Blurred vision. Pain, as the spell lodged itself. And when you could see again, the first person in your line of sight was the one you would love forever.
Unconditionally.
Till death do us part.
**It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
Never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
And somehow now you're everybody's fool**
~~
A/N: No, there's no "Tomb Robber's Handbook." Actually, it's the Evil Overlord List. Very funny. Stupid ff.net won't let me put the link here, so I will put it on my bio page if anyone's interested.
Next Chapter: Going Under. So, who's Mai going to see first? What's going on with Bakura and Shizu? And how will Leila be punished?
Wait, Leila's an OC. No one cares about what happens to /her/. Right.
Oh, and don't expect every chapter to be out this quickly. I have six original stories to work on, a very difficult paper for my English class, and I'm still quite upset that Egyptians don't do gladiator-type combat. Sigh. If /anyone/ can see what I'm planning, I will be thoroughly shocked. That's all.