Author's Notes: The title… kind of comes into play at some point but it may not be the most fitting. I played around with several and none of them seemed to sum it up too well so this is what I picked. XD;

Based in the movie-universe, because I think it was very sad that Bakura wasn't in the movie. This is my take on one possible way he could have become involved.

Dedication: To Snare-chan (LoverofSilverHairedBishies), as a Christmas gift. Now it's coming up for you guys for New Year's. Phwee!

Warnings: Erm... I might have sworn (I honestly don't remember...), as it IS Bakura... no pairings this time around.

On we go...

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Last Chance

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'Interesting…'

This was Bakura's first thought upon feeling the disturbance in the Shadow Realm's energy. He had spent a good month prowling the chambers of the Sennen Puzzle, but he seemed no closer to his goal than he had been. He was starting to get bored, in fact, by the constant string of empty rooms and traps. But things finally seemed to be looking up: he could sense a powerful energy coming from somewhere nearby.

"I'm getting close," he hissed, grinning savagely as he allowed himself a small moment of delight at the prospect of finally making some progress.

There were many things that could have caused such a disturbance, but Bakura's guess was that the pint-sized owner of the maze he currently inhabited was merely in one of his fouler moods. It was no secret that the former-monarch had enough power to shift the Realm with just his emotions – a daunting thought, for most, but Bakura had long ceased caring. He himself was no amateur, and he was sure that the Pharaoh knew it.

Suddenly, he heard several pairs of footsteps, all approaching at a rapid pace. Scowling, he dropped quickly over the side of the platform on which he had, moments ago, been standing, and ended up on the underside of a staircase. Cramming his hands into his pockets, Bakura strained to hear the voices above – below? – him.

He raised an eyebrow in bemusement as he recognized the voices of little Yugi and two of his mortal companions. They seemed a bit spooked, and Bakura listened carefully to their conversation. Something about zombies. Bakura let out an exasperated sigh as they left again, catching the words, 'We already know we can outrun them!'.

Irritated by the distraction, but intrigued by its implication, Bakura made his way down – up? – the staircase, deep in thought.

"Apparently, this is not Pharaoh's fault after all," he mused aloud, "if whatever created the problem has decided to attack his precious little aibou…"

He paused at the base of the stairs, and blinked as he realized he was somehow right-side-up again. Shrugging it off, he continued forward, not exactly sure anymore where he was headed. However, it didn't take long for him to stumble upon the thing that had first caught his attention…

As he rounded a corner at the end of the corridor, he saw something that piqued his interest considerably.

"VERY interesting…" he decided, approaching the object of his scrutiny.

There, flowing from an unseen source, was a steady stream of energy. Just by looking, Bakura could not tell who it might belong to, but he had a guess…

Curiosity won out over caution, and Bakura, kneeling beside it, dragged his fingers through the blue-green light. He was unsurprised to sense the Pharaoh's life energy. What startled him was that it seemed to be LEAVING the other. He frowned, deeply.

"Well, well… what trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, Pharaoh?" he murmured.

Concentrating, Bakura tried to determine where the former-king's energy might be going, but could sense nothing at the other end. Standing, he followed the flow of the energy through several rooms, and into a darkened chamber; the aqua-colored glow of the energy provided the only light. However, Bakura didn't need even that much light to recognize the symbol on the far wall.

He hissed a breath through his teeth as he saw it – the large golden eye-shaped insignia; the same design the Sennen Items sported. In the center, where the eye's pupil should have been, was a swirling vortex of varying shades of red, violet, and an inky black. The Pharaoh's energy was flowing right into it. Furthermore, Bakura recognized it perfectly well, and now he had no doubt who was behind the deed.

"Anubis," he snarled in disgust, "I thought Pharaoh rid the world of that loathsome parasite…"

Bakura could still remember Anubis: he had been a sorcerer and a rival of the Priest Seto's, if memory served correctly. Anubis had attempted to take the throne by force using an object known as the Pyramid of Light. The relic resembled the Sennen Items much too closely for Bakura's liking. It had the power to drain the energy of Anubis's foes and transfer it to the sorcerer himself, allowing him to become stronger with each conquest. He had dueled against the Pharaoh in a Shadow Game and had lost… barely. The battle, which Bakura had, only by chance, managed to witness, had been long and difficult. Bakura had been sorely tempted to attack the Pharaoh just after he had defeated the sorcerer; the king had been severely weakened by the confrontation. But he had no desire to defeat Pharaoh at a mere fraction of his full strength, and so he had waited for the boy-king to recover.

Apparently, the sorcerer had, like him, found a way to follow the monarch three millennia into the future. Bakura clenched his fists, furious. The fool had delayed Bakura's plans once; he would not tolerate such an act again. He had waited far too long already.

"Nobody is allowed to defeat Pharaoh but ME," he seethed, stalking over to the symbol on the wall. If only he had the Ring… With the Ring, he could easily sever the connection between the Pharaoh's soul and Anubis. But the Pharaoh's brat had the Ring – a consolation prize for defeating Marik – and Bakura had no way to get it back at present.

Bakura paced back and forth in annoyance. This fool always had to step in and interrupt his carefully-formulated plots. Bakura remembered the monsters the sorcerer had controlled, and he grimaced. The Pharaoh was powerful, but if his search proved anything…

"He doesn't remember a thing," he muttered to himself, "which means he is quite ill-prepared for this."

Apparently, the Pharaoh had brought more foes from the past to the future than even Bakura had originally considered.

"And it is ridiculously simple to gain access to this soul room…" Bakura gnashed his teeth in frustration. "Damn it!" There had to be a way to inform the royal imbecile of his predicament…

Bakura had an idea. He couldn't stop Anubis from absorbing the Pharaoh's energy, perhaps, but he could certainly slow it down. He had a great deal of magic without the Ring, though the Item kept his stamina up and amplified his power.

"This is twice that I've helped you now, Pharaoh," he spat. "Try to stay out of trouble after this; I don't want to have to chase you to your death to get my revenge, but you know I'll do it if that's what it comes down to…"

Bakura dropped down next to the flow of the former-king's energy. He drew his hand through it again, this time uttering an incantation under his breath. Immediately, he shuddered in unmasked disgust as he felt the Pharaoh's energy alter its course, streaming partially to him, where he then released it back to the Pharaoh, cutting the flow to Anubis in half.

As the other's energy passed through him, Bakura also siphoned some of his own energy to the monarch, trying to counter the sorcerer's damage. Now attached to the Pharaoh directly, he could feel the physical harm being inflicted upon him and realized they must already be dueling. Unfortunately, the Pharaoh's pain was now his pain as well, and he clamped his jaw shut, bearing the suffering – and his loathing – in silence. Hopefully, those dolts the other called 'friends' would find a way to stop Anubis soon; task was becoming tiresome.

It all stopped very suddenly, and Bakura stumbled forward, resting on his hands and knees. He clawed at his throat as he tried to catch his breath. Someone had finally managed to sever Anubis's hold. In the split second before Bakura had been released, he had sensed little Yugi. "Figures," he muttered, climbing slowly to his feet.

His strength was slow in returning without the Ring to help it along, but after a little while, he managed to listen in on the Pharaoh's conversation with his merry band of fools. As usual, the former-king had defeated his opposition, with the help of his 'friends.'

Bakura scoffed at the idea. He didn't need anyone's help to defeat the Pharaoh, and once his plan was set into motion, there was no way he was letting the monarch's little pals help him out, either. It would be Bakura and the Pharaoh alone: a fight to the death.

He licked his lips in anticipation of their final battle. He had cleared this little obstacle posed by Anubis; now all he needed was the Ring back, and the end would be quick in coming.

Bakura threw his head back, cackling maniacally as he went over and over his plan for the Memory RPG. "There will be no more help for you, Pharaoh; I am through assisting from the shadows…"

And with that, Bakura slunk silently back into the darkened passages of the Pharaoh's soul, waiting for his chance – his last chance – to take his revenge.

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End Notes: The first time he helped Yami out was when Malik was controlling Bandit Keith and Bakura knocked him out, in case that wasn't made clear enough. If I missed any… just pretend I wrote down a different number. XD I know it's really short… but it had to fit into the movie-universe (so to speak), and he wasn't with the group for the whole time, so it made it kind of hard to draw it out any more than I did already...

HAPPY 2005, EVERYONE!