Nah I don't hate Yami, I just have a particular direction I'm taking the story. And it'll take forever to get there, so go ahead and just sit back and watch me make Yami a bad guy. I, personally, AM trying to get Bakura to look like a good guy, but not so much so. Well maybe not good, but at least innocent because he had reasons. And if he didn't have a reason for whatever, then he'll feel guilty. Ryou will introduce him to a variety of emotions Bakura does and doesn't enjoy feeling. True love - and guilt. And though I have a plot "line" it doesn't mean I can predict events inbetween beginning and end. I write when I feel inspired by either reviewers or other stories. Its great to know people like my stuff. -happy-

"Ryou..." Bakura said in a hushed whisper as he sat on his own bed and pulled his knees to his chest and leaned against the wall.

"What is it you want to talk about?"

Ryou, at least at this point, having seen Bakura change from a madman to a being... almost human. He'd never seen Bakura so calm or so well-tempered. He almost seemed sane. The crazed look had vanished from him, even his hair seemed to tame down to look a bit more like the lighter halfs. All these changes made Ryou unsure of what to say around him, not knowing wether he'll explode or just take it in...

Bakura closed his eyes, deep in thought. Ryou scooted closer on the bed and sat next to him, apprehensive.

"I'm going to tell you a short detailed version of my life story..."

Ryou nodded.

"I grew up in a small village called Kurueluna," Bakura rolled the R into an L very carefully and continued, "i-it was a nice place, all of Egypt was, at least where there was shade and food. My village was on the Nile, near the valley of the kings..."

Bakura reached down and grasp Ryou's hand. Bakura's cold hand made him jump and involuntarily squeak. Ryou blinked at Bakura, who's eyes had not opened and his expression hadn't changed.

"Can I... show you?" he asked slowly.

"Hmm?" Ryou blinked again.

"I want to show you..." he tightened his grip on Ryou's hand.

"Alright...you can show me..." the boy agreed curiously.

"Close your eyes and you will see... the same vision I've seen before me..." Bakura seemed to almost have chanted that like a spell, and then he squeezed Ryou's hand again.

Ryou closed his eyes and squeezed back. A vision, blurry at first, became very clear. He was on top of a mud-brick building, painted white and bleached a pinkish yellow by the sun. Blue lotus blossoms were painting on a railing that enclosed the entire roof. It was exotically beautiful, and Ryou smiled in spite of himself. He looked beyond the detailed railing across a large vast city.

It and all its splendor seemed to be vastly decorated in the same white and blue lotus print. The entirity of the city was bordered by two cliff faces with arched and loomed above on all sides but one. Houses themselves were carved into the cliff faces. This city looked like something Ryou would have designed for Monster World if he'd ever come up with the idea.

"You lived here? It's so nice!!"

"Isn't it..." Bakura seemed sad, "Dwelling on memories cannot make me happy anymore..."

"I don't understand..."

Bakura showed up the roof next to Ryou, his elbows propped on the railing, looking out with the same blank expression he'd recently developed.

"You'll see."

Ryou looked at Bakura with a puzzled expression. How out of place it seemed for both him and Bakura to be here. He followed his other half's gaze. Suddenly, around them, light flickered from the sun, and clouds, stringy things that looked like pea pods drifted at such speed Ryou's eyes could not follow them. The sun moved across the sky and it grew darker as the sun suddenly touched the ground directly beyond the side of the city that the cliff did not enclose. The sun grew brighter then and red flickered across the buildings in rays of light and dark. Then things began to slow down again...

Bakura pointed in the distance.

"Watch and you will witness the fate of my home..."

Again Ryou's eyes followed to where Bakura was looking. At first, he saw nothing, then a line of moving figures. And they grew closer with great speed. Specks of reflecting light shined off of them. Suddenly a battle cry rang out against the casual setting of the city. People below looked up from what they were doing. A baby started to cry in the distance. The line of figures dawned upon the edge of the city and then spilled in, and for the first time, Ryou realized that the light was reflecting off of weapons.

Fear struck him as he let out of breath. More and more of the figures stormed in, and screams from all directions rang out. The figures grew closer, and Ryou followed one's path. It met up with a woman hiding in an alley. She looked up, and then turned away, carrying her baby who was still crying. But then a spear hit her and she was was struck from behind. The spear jabbed into her back and she started upright and her agonizing scream filled Ryou's ears. She dropped the baby, and she struggled upwards to get back to it. The spear still jabbed in her side, she cuddled her precious baby underneath her protectively. The same man who threw the spear came up behind her, and another one followed. The first grabbed her away from her baby by her hair and the other ripped the spear out. Another scream, then pleas to spare her child's life. They didn't last long, and then... Ryou looked away as the man raised the spear above the baby.

Ryou was shaking as he backed away from the railing. No matter where he looked, similar scenes were happening throughout the city. He wanted to gag, who would do such a thing? To so many innocent people!!

"These are soldiers from Thebes."

Ryou covered his ears to drown out the screaming and yelling that came from every direction.

"Now let me explain things to you, things I didn't know until later. These soldiers are here because of a war that is going on between Egypt and several other countries that were ganging up on us - including Nubia."

Bakura's eyes wandered through the crowds of panicking people below, looking for something - waiting for something. Ryou didn't know what Nubia had to do with anything, so Bakura continued.

"Kurueluna is very near the Nubian borders. Thebes, I can only assume, convinced the reigning pharaoh that my people were conspiring with the enemy. It became known to me that they thought they were going to lose the war against the rebelling countries, and needed a powerful spell to summon guardians to protect them. Again, the priests convinced the pharaoh that just such a spell existed in the book of the dead. It required the sacrfice of 99 lives..."

"N-ninety-nine!! That's alot of people!! All of these people..."

Ryou opened one eye and looked again at the city. The smell of blood was thick and putrid in the air. And red splotches were evident on the white walls below. The noise was dimming now... and there was fire coming from the thatched roofs of a few of the poorer houses in the cliff faces.

"Bakura... I don't want to be seeing this...!"

"I don't either... Trust me, I don't either..."

Bakura walked to the other side of the building and motioned Ryou over and pointed down. A dark alley lay below and a man was trying to comfort a scared little boy with dusty white hair. Ryou watched on. He couldn't understand of any of the clearly heard conversation... but he felt its meaning.

"My father..." Bakura's eyes softened.

The man grabbed the boy by the wrist and lead him to the back of the alley and stowed him a small crevass between that building and the next. Garbage usually piled in such crevasses, but to the small boy, the hiding place would save his life. His father leaned forward and gave him a big hug and kissed him on the forehead and then he backed down the alley.

Three soldiers appeared at the front of the entrance and the small boy cowered into his hiding place. The boy's father yelled at the soldiers, shaking his fist at them. One of the soliders laughed and the three advanced on the defenseless man who held up his fists as weapons. Two of the soldiers held up their scimitars which gleemed in the sunlight and said more that Ryou could not, and did not want, to understand. The third man arched back and threw his spear and Ryou closed his eyes tighly. The little boy, hidden in the crevasse, did the same.

The man did not falter, did not yell out, when the spear hit him. He raised his fists again, still ready to fight. The soldiers laughed and the one came forward to reclaim his spear, he pulled it out and the man fell foward, and the soldiers dragged him away. A stain of blood was all that was left behind...

Ryou let out a shaky breath, and tears sprang at the corners of his eyes. He looked around for Bakura but did not see him now... his other half had disappeared. Ryou furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing where to go or what to do. He walked over to the far edge of the building and down at the trembling boy, who's sobs were racking his small body. Ryou cried too, and his tears fell freely down his cheeks.

"Poor Bakura..." he mumured, "I never knew... he'd been through this..."

-wipes tear from eye- Sorry if things got too detailed for you causing you to read quickly and skip over things... Curious as to how you react to this... so I'm anxious for your reviews... Anyone cry besides me? Oh one more thing, I wanted the conversation in the "flashback" to be all in the mental link with the slash lines and the double slash lines, the /, but the site's editor refuses to let the double slash be, even if I seperate them or make them go the other way. So... I guess that means no more mental links? In this fanfic maybe... but every fanfic?! I hope not...