Disclaimer: *sighs sadly* Not mine....*smiles maliciously* BUT IT SHALL FALL UNDER MY CONTROL ONCE I RULE THE WORLD! ROAR!! *____* Roar? Jeez, who am I kidding? I'm not going to rule the world with something that weak. *pulls out large jar and puts dime in* YES! I shall buy out Mr. YGO creater! Ha! It's genius!
A/N: Before you get mad at me for not updating, you need to know that I was in Italy for two weeks. Two long weeks with PMS-filled girls who really need to take their drama somewhere else (example: omg! My mom wouldn't give me her Visa card for the trip, so like, I had to take her American Express card!). Seriously, everyone has problems that they need to shine light upon, but before you can bring the sunshine.....live through the dark nights (or find a guy/girl, lol!) -___-' Well, this is yet another successful author's note brought to you by Dr. Jelly.
A/N(2): While reading this, you may have the urge to yell out, "what the hell!?" Well, fear not! I changed the YGO storyline completely. Yup, provided that it's a fanfic, I decided that the story didn't need to have the same storyline as the show. -____- Well, hope you like it and thanks for the reviews.....
Title: Almost Royalty
Chapter III: Past makes Future
"Is it his?"
It was the dead of the night in Cairo. The usual open markets and busy alleyways were deserted as if the local inhabitants had received word of an oncoming sandstorm. The night was cold as well, reaching the temperature of the lowest part of the Nile River. Silence would have become another factor of the ominous setting if it wasn't for two people who managed to brave the elements of the night. It was a man and a woman. The man had sleek black hair, a crooked nose, and piercing violet eyes. He wore a long white robe, a typical outfit for a Priest, and carried a gold rod with the eye of Ra embedded within the scepter. The woman, who looked slightly younger than the man, wore a royal purple dress that unmistakably accented a slight salience within her lower body.
"Yes," her blue eyes closed painfully, "but Bel Saf does not want the child."
The man kept his eyes transfixed on her abdomen as she spoke. "What?" His question spoke distress.
"Even before this child was made, he told me that after Yami was born, he didn't want any other children. Yami was to be the one and only Pharaoh of his time." Kentara answered as she placed one hand on her stomach. "I will not go against his wishes."
"You're going to rid the child?" His eyes widened, obviously confused.
She shook her head, eradicating some of his bewilderment once she said, "this is why I asked you to come tonight. I need your help." She paced around the street, breaking the eye contact they once held. "I want you to take care of my child, Reira."
His face fell, apparently disapproving her plan. "Impossible. The Pharaoh will find out about the child sooner or later." He stepped forward and placed two hands on her shoulders for her to stop moving, "please, for your safety, you must tell him soon."
This declaration decimated her hopes for help. "I will tell him about the child." Her reasoning brought relief to Reira's facial expression, that is, until she continued, "when the child does arrive, however, I will secretly give the child to you and tell him that the child ceased to exist."
"No, you will not." Reira's voice sounded as firm as his stature. "This strictly goes against the clergy code."
Reira's words caused Kentara to fall to her knees, "I can't keep this from you any longer." She mumbled, making Reira stand on his knees to hear her. "The true reason I don't want this child to grow up with Bel Saf is...because...I'm afraid."
"Afraid?" He asked, not fully understanding the use of her words.
She continued, "I'm afraid...Bel Saf will notice that Yami and my unborn child look different than one another." She kept her eyes away from his as she spoke, "There's no telling what he will do if he finds out the truth about Yami."
"I don't..understand.." Reira paused, then began where he left off, "..the truth about Yami?"
Kentara finally looked into his eyes, "Bel Saf is not Yami's...father."
"W-what...?" Reira's eyes widened to their fullest. He couldn't understand how, really, why Kentara had done such a thing. Bel Saf was as good a Pharaoh as he was a person. "How could you have done such a thing?"
Her eyes turned from sadness to anger, "how could YOU have done such a thing!?" She swiftly brought herself to her feet, holding her stomach as if she was carrying her unborn child. Reira only looked on, not realizing the connection she was trying to make.
"What are you saying?"
"Rei..r..a," her tears choked her words, preventing her from continuing. She tried to turn away from him, but instead fell into his arms--helpless. Biting her lip to fight the waterfall of tears, she softly spoke the words that she thought she would never think about again, "you're Yami's father."
He pulled away, giving her a stunned glance. "It's...not possible, we stopped seeing each other-"
"...the day before Bel Saf proposed to me." Kentara interrupted, chiseling memories in his mind. "Four years since." The picture started coming together once all the notations were put into place. "I'm..sorry...I...should have told you, but Bel Saf was so happy to have a child and-" She stopped talking once she noticed that Reira wasn't listening. Instead, he was whispering something to himself quietly.
"I have a son." Kentara heard once she silenced herself.
"Reira, I'm sor-"
He shook his head, "don't apologize for the past. At least Ra put Yami in good hands. Bel Saf will take care of him." Kentara thought Reira was taking the announcement better than expected. Almost as if he wanted her to do something in return. She waited for him to continue.
Reira only grew silent. "I agree."
"You agree?" Kentara questioned, sending him a confused glance.
"I will look after your child." His answer made Kentara slightly uneasy. After all, he did just find out about a son he never knew existed. Why would he grant a favor to someone who lied to him about his own blood? She tried to shrug it off.
"You will look after my child?" Though she heard, she wanted to make sure she wasn't hearing her hopeful thoughts instead. Once she received a nod from the Priest, she bowed before him and said thankfully, "I cannot express my gratitude."
"No, but you can do me a favor." He closed his eyes, "name him after my father, Seth."
*~*~**~*~*
"Why do I have to be a priest, Reira?" A boy, around the age of twelve, looked at his teacher with a pair of curious eyes. "All they do is sit around and pray to the gods, it's boring."
"Mind your tongue, young Seth." His apprentice only put his head in his hands and looked out the window. Reira ignored him and continued to write a speech for an upcoming event for the Pharaoh. "We gather in the temple today to listen to the word of Ra," Reira repeated to himself as he hastily scratched the quill against the papyrus. "Let us begin with-"
"Holy Ra! What's going on outside, Rei?"
Before Reira could look up or even teach his apprentice to not use "the holy one's name in vain," one of the Pharaoh's bodyguards frantically ran into the room with a small child in his hands. "The...Pharaoh's....tablets...t-they have come to life..." He stuttered hysterically before his eyes closed for the last time upon the cold floor.
"The gods.." Reira said softly as he dropped the quill and walked over toward the child. "No, Saf is going to fight the gods alone." He said as he thought about why Saf would leave his son with him. "Shadi said that he could not defeat them without help." After placing the boy on a straw bed, he looked toward Seth. "You must watch over Yami." Not giving Seth a chance to answer, he walked toward his bedside and pulled out a book that had a gold rod playing the role of a marker between the pages. "It's time to finally test your power." He placed the book back down and walked toward the door without taking a glance at the two boys.
"Why do I have to look after the Pharaoh's son?" Reira heard a voice from behind.
Knowing it was Seth, he only answered with a simple, "it's part of becoming a priest," before walking out the room with the gold rod. Seth would of protested, but he knew that now wasn't the time to go against his master's request. Carelessly seating himself on a stool, he stared at the Pharaoh's son, who looked slightly older than him by a couple of years. He had black hair, which strangely transformed to a pink when it reached the triangular ends, and blonde bangs. He was decorated with Cairo's finest jewelry and wore a purple robe, a color that was rare because the dye came from European merchants.
{A/N: I'm in American History now, so I made up that last line. I think their dye came from shells...or something...*shrugs shoulders*}
"This is stupid, I should be helping Reira."
*~*~**~*~*
"The gods are angry.." Reira thought as his eyes remained on the dark clouds that were circling around Saf's Palace. "Who would have caused the gods so much anger?" As soon as he spoke that, a lightening bolt struck amongst the pillars of clouds. "Bel Saf....he can't win...just like Shadi said." Remembering the meeting with Shadi when he first found out about the items, he looked down at his rod, "only I can rid the evil."
"But, do you want to?"
Reira shook his head quickly, "what was that?"
"Bring the gods under your control..."
"No, it is my destiny to put them away." Reira convinced himself, ignoring the voice inside his head.
"Change destiny.."
Reira stopped and looked at the rod. "No, I can't change my destiny."
"Nothing is set in stone, remember that..."
Reira would have answered, but the connection was lost between him and his inner conscience. "No, it wasn't my conscience. It was..." He looked down to meet the eye of Ra on the millennium item. "...the rod."
*~*~**~*~*
"Bel Saf!" Reira yelled desperately as he wandered Saf's palace for any sign of life. The dragging of his feet and the echo of his irregular breathing answered his inconsolable plea. "Bel Saf!" Finding no sign of the Pharaoh within the palace, Reira climbed the stairs to the tower.
"Return, gods of abeyance!"
"Saf!" Reira yelled upon hearing Bel Saf's voice. As he climbed the last step to the tower, he was blinded by a flash of light. Once the light vanished, Reira gaped at the awesome size of Ra, Sifler, and Obelisk to Bel Saf, who was holding his millennium puzzle up toward the gods.
"I knew you would show up," Saf said, his attention still on the gods.
"How did you-?"
Before Reira finished his question, Bel Saf fell to the floor unexpectedly. The Priest ran forward and kneeled next to the Pharaoh, though keeping his eyes on the gods in case they decided to attack. "I'll be fine, seal....the...gods away.." Saf said weakly as Reira nodded and brought himself to his feet again.
"Ra, Obelisk, Sifler, I know not who angered you, but I am here to put you to rest again." With the flick of his wrist, he raised the rod toward the gods and whispered a few words under his breath that created a vortex around the three gods. "I, Reira, turn the key and seal your rest." Within minutes, the gods turned into particles of air that were seeped into a void that was the rod.
Though Reira found the victory over the gods easier than expected, he ignored it and instead walked over to Bel Saf. "Saf, have you been hurt?" Saf only smiled and touched Reira's knee once the Priest knelt down next to him.
"Here," Saf pulled the puzzle off his neck and handed it to Reira, "give this to Yami.."
"What are you saying?" Reira asked, fearing the worst.
Saf held his chest and answered, "this is only the beginning, Rei..."
"But," Reira looked down at the puzzle and then at his rod, "how?"
His question would never be responded for when Reira looked up, Saf lay still, a smile sealed on his face. "Saf?" He nudged the Pharaoh, though he knew he would not get a response. "BEL SAF!"
*~*~**~*~*
With the flutter of his eyelids and the jolt of his body, Seth, not aware of his surroundings, felt a feeling of coldness hit him as a whip would hit a slave. It was the ground-the cold, hard, and begrimed ground. "W..hat? How...did I...?" The rest of his words traveled into the essence of the putrid air while his eyes remained on the millennium item that rest a few feet away from him. He sat up and started crawling toward it. Before he could grab the rod, it all started coming back to him. His journey...the rod's wrath....Reira...
"Reira." Seth could almost taste the venom in his words. "Why have you fed me such lies!?" Though his dreams were fuzzy, his memory was not. "What were you trying to hide from me, Reira?" He looked toward the rod again, fear and anxiety spread across his face.
"I...need to know.." Seth reached forward and grabbed the rod, which remained silent as it was carried back into its master's arms. "Huh?" Seth raised the rod triumphantly, "I can read what the text says on the rod now..." His face darkened, as the rest of his features once the rod was at eye-level. "It says.."
*~*~**~*~* {Slightly recapping, so you know where we stand....}
Even with her teary complexion, Yami found Anzu breathtaking as she tilted her head to look at him. "Fate has a destined path for us, Yami" she responded, making the Pharaoh sigh solemnly, "we must learn to live with it."
Yami closed his eyes and breathed, "fate will not ruin what I have claimed for my own."
"...and what is that?" She questioned, making Yami unfurl the violet orbs that were his eyes.
Anzu gasped as she saw a mirror image of herself within the inner depths of Yami's oculus. She had never seen such austere, yet welcoming eyes before. It was like walking into a virulent windstorm to find the inner eye that emitted a sense of calmness and tranquility.
"Yami..." She whispered, almost breathlessly into a breeze scented with jasmine blossom.
Jasmine blossom. The scent only reminded Anzu of her mother. Her mother. Known as the "Goddess of the Garden," her mother was always found in the garden, saying that it was her "duty to the gods." To other people, Anzu was just a replica of her mother, wielding the same hair and eye color. She wished she could remember though...
"Anzu?" Dazed, Anzu answered to her name with her eyes because her lips refused to form words. Yami only looked on, slightly concerned that her eyes had become so distant from his. "What troubles you?" To comfort her, he reached to touch her hand with his. A tingle of warmth requited his action. A tear.....
"HELP!" A desperate voice rang through his head as the scenery before him changed from the garden to his palace. "No, Seth, what have you done?" The voice yelled again, only this time it was louder than before. "YAMI!"
"What's...going on?" The Pharaoh questioned as he walked toward the main hall, only to find Priest Seth and...Anzu. "Anzu!"
Running toward them, he was halted by Seth, who laughed menacingly, "who are you to come in here?"
"I am the Pharaoh!" Yami exclaimed firmly, clenching his fist.
He laughed again, "you were the Pharaoh."
"What?" His eyes widened from the news.
"Yes, your puzzle was no match for my millennium rod." Seth proclaimed, running his hand along the scepter.
"You.." Yami's bottom lip trembled with fear, "have a millennium item?"
"Has my rod damaged your mind as well? Yes, and now I have yours too."
"I....don't believe it." Yami looked down at his palms, "it's not possible."
Seth smiled, "nothing is impossible, Yami." He lifted his millennium rod, "don't you see yet? What was yours is mine and what was mine is...well...still mine." Seth knew he was adding more wood to the fire, but he didn't care. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have an important country to take over."
"Stand down!" Yami yelled, making Seth look him in the eyes. "You can't-"
"Correction again, my Pharaoh. I can do whatever I want. I am Pharaoh and the gods are under my control."
Feeling his knees give under him, he drove himself to the ground. "No..."
"Yami! Please, you must get up!"
"I can't," he looked up toward Anzu, who was being held by Seth. "I'm...nobody.."
A tear scattered from her cheek down to the ground. "Yami!"
"I'm nobody..." Anzu heard Yami whisper as his eyes started to open.
"What?" Looking around at his surroundings, Yami found himself back in the garden. "It was...a dream."
"A dream, Yami?" she asked as she touched his hand, "good, I feared the worst. You see, you passed out-"
"I don't understand." Yami interrupted unwarily as he touched his forehead, "I've never seen anything close to what I had just witnessed. It was like my whole life was falling apart and all I could do was watch. Oh, Anzu, please tell me what is going on?"
"I don't know," she whispered quietly, "I can only say that it was a dream-"
He looked up at her sudden silence. "What's wrong?"
"Y..our...necklace..."
Looking down at his puzzle, he was slightly baffled by the white light it was emitting. "My puzzle.." He whispered as he grasped the jewelry with two hands and looked examined the Eye of Ra. "I....think my puzzle was trying to tell me something..."
*~*~**~*~*
"Only expect what you want of it." Seth whispered to himself as he tightened his grip around the rod. "Another puzzle to solve, I suppose." Bringing himself to his feet, Seth shook out his asleep foot and began his journey out of Yami's burial tomb. "I now know what I must do..."
"Bring the Pharaoh to his knees..."
Seth stopped and looked around the walls. "Who goes there?"
"Look within the Nile.."
"Why?"
"Look within the Nile.."
Avoiding the traps again, Seth climbed toward ground level and looked toward the Nile, which flowed quietly in its trench. "Where are you!?" Seth yelled, stopping before the Nile to hear only the trickle of water being brought toward the delta.
"Look within the Nile.."
Dropping to his knees, Seth looked within the water to see only tiny fishes swimming away from his shadow that itself among the water. "I don't.." He stopped once he looked at his reflection, which was twisted into the face of....
"Reira?"
~To be continued....~
Hmm.......that was interesting. Reminds me of the time I dressed like a French gay man and couldn't get the stupid moustache off my face. Okay, it was water-proof mascara, what do you want from me? *______* Anyway, how did you like it? I hope to get the next chapter up soon, but I have to start studying for regents and finals. Hopefully, the torture will start AFTER I finish the next chapter. At least that way you know what happens. I'm such a good person. Well, thanks for the reviews and please be patient with the next chapter.
P.S.- Anyone catch a glimpse of the new theme for YGO on KidsWb? YAMI WAS FREAKING HOT! *falls off chair* The theme would have been flawless if it hadn't been for two things. One, why can't they put a decent picture of Tea up there!? In my opinion, there are better pictures of her than those stupid pics from her duel with that retarded guy.*cough* And two, what was with the end of the theme? YGO: Enter the Shadow Realm? Are they freaking stupid? Ugh, too disgusted to answer that.