SUMMARY: An internal monologue on the part of our dear Yami no Bakura.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Some very rich man in Japan does, and I am most certainly NOT he. All I own are Dark Magician and Malik figures.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Potential spoilers alert, as this fic makes rather general mention of the Ancient Egyptian Arc which follows Battle City. As I'm not entirety familiar with it, I'm not sure how many spoilers there actually are. I'm just using what I picked up roaming around Fran and Judy's forum, Kyokou Geenu. Also, the quotes used are from the English dubbed version of the show, as the subtitles in the Hong Kong version are so bad I can't guarantee what the characters are actually saying! I figure the English version is close enough for my purposes. There's not a lot of dialogue anyway.
Submitted for Amphrite's Darkshipping Ficaway.
Separation
Only a tree stump separates us physically, but what feels like eternity separates us in truth.
"Who are you?" you demand, glaring at me, your eyes flashing some colour I've never seen before. The colour of the eyes might be unfamiliar but the rest of you, I remember all too well.
"I am a thief and a stealer of souls," I tell you carefully, watching for any sign of recognition, hoping against hope that perhaps the sound of my voice might succeed where my appearance has not. But no recognition is forthcoming, and my heart pains briefly. Almost forgotten I had the thing.
I knew you'd re-emerged into this world. I listened through my other's ears as he'd spoken to Yugi, and I'd seen the completed Puzzle through his eyes. I'd heard Yugi repeat the tale you told him of the moments before you sealed yourself into the Puzzle for all eternity. But until this day, this moment, I hadn't actually caught a glimpse of YOU. And the truth, much as I hate to admit it, is painful.
You don't remember me.
The fire that used to be in your eyes is gone, dimmed by the passage of time and the loss of everything dear to you. You don't remember the times we shared beneath the fiery light of Ra's rays. You don't remember the laughter we shared in your throne room when you had sent everyone else away so you could, or so you told your court, 'commune with the Gods'. You don't remember how I stood beside you in the beginning of your fight with High Priest Seto.
"Where's Bakura?" You suddenly demand, breaking my internal monologue. At least you recognize I am not the person your other half knows as Bakura Ryou. You know me for what I am, a spirit like yourself. However, you don't know how either one of us came to be like this.
Even if you asked, I doubt I would tell you.
Could you stand to hear the truth? That we were once in love? It wasn't so frowned-upon back then. Pharaoh was the Living Horus, God on Earth and therefore could do almost anything he wanted, even if that included keeping a male bedmate. You had no wife, and took no concubines in all the time we were together. You didn't so much as look at a woman while I stood beside you.
"... Bakura. Bakura is not here," I finally tell you, forcing myself to answer your question before you lose your rather formidable temper. It's the truth, at least on some level. The true Bakura Ryou is not here, as I locked him in his soul room even before we left Domino. The only Bakura here is me, the Thief King. But this Thief King can't help but reflect on the past and what would happen if we were to ever speak of it.
Could you bear to hear how you betrayed me? Could you look me in the eyes as I spoke to you of a Pharaoh's reckless decision to slaughter a village in order to collect enough blood to make the Sennen Items? Could you face me when I told you that beside Pharaoh stood his eldest son – you. And as the Crown Prince, you watched as your father's armies butchered every man, woman and child in the village save one. One small boy escaped the bloodbath and eventually found his way to the capital. Where you found him and took him as your own.
And how you now don't remember any of it.
The pain fades into something else. Anger. You chose this path when you sealed yourself in the Sennen Puzzle. You should have known when you performed the spell that there would be a price to pay. Be thankful the darkness only took your memories. The darkness of the Ring has tried to take my soul. It may succeed eventually, unless I can collect all seven Sennen Items. Only by becoming the darkness can one defeat it.
You never did understand that theory.
As we spoke of the past, could I look at you when I told you of the day I discovered the truth about the death of my people? I couldn't look you in the eyes that day millennia ago, and I don't think I could now. Not once did I look at you while I spat hateful words and vile curses at you before fleeing into the bustling city beyond the palace walls.
Would my words falter as I spoke of the following years? The years of hunger, of hatred, of vengeance. The years where anger took the place of love and what was once happy withered and died.
Would your eyes narrow in anger when I told you how I avenged the villagers' deaths? How I made the Nile River run red with the blood of your soldiers, trading a life for a life?
Would your face soften in reflection when I told you how you punished me when your soldiers finally caught me? How you sealed my soul into the darkness of the Sennen Ring, leaving body behind on the floor of the dungeon to die. Because the body and the soul were separate, you doomed me to millennia of wandering the darkness, never achieving the peace of the Blessed Lands.
For that alone, I should never forgive you. You denied me the final rest, the chance to stand before Anubis and Maat and atone for my actions. The chance, if I was deemed worthy, to enter the Blessed Lands of the West and rest with my family and my people.
I forgave you long ago, foolish man that I am.
"What do you want, thief?" The sound of your voice brings me back to this world. Oh, how to answer that!
Finally, "I want the Sennen Items. I will collect all seven and I shall rule the darkness!" Not the whole truth, but enough for today. You don't need to know the whole story today.
"Give my friends back." Your voice is as cold as your new eyes.
"Duel me for them." My challenge hides my heartache. I don't want to do this, but I must. I want the Items for myself. I can't let you stand in my way. Eventually the darkness will come to take me, and I need to be strong enough to defeat it.
And so we are here, in this day. You sit before me, only a shadow of the man I once knew. And I sit before you, changed beyond anything you'd recognize even if you did have your memories.
Only a tree stump may physically separate us in this day and age, we are worlds apart in every other way. You are as lost to me as my people and our past.
Merely dust in the sands of time.