Welcome, one and all, to a very dark, strange, twisted fic. I own the plotline and various OCs added for flavor (kids, etc, not any main characters). I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I suppose you would have to call this AU. According to this, the series ends right after Battle City. No Atlantis, no Egypt Arc. I wrote out some of what happened immediatly afterwards, but it was slow and dragged the plot. It's still pretty interesting, and it's relevant, I suppose, but it's not nessecary. If you want the backround info, e-mail me. Be sure to put "Resurrection" in the subject or I'll just delete it.
One thing from the later arcs that did happen in the timeline of this story was Dark Bakura (who, for the purposes of this fic, will be called Bekhura) giving the Sennen Eye to Seto Kaiba. I'm also assuming, as so many have done, that Kaiba also ends up with the Rod.
Mokuba was, according to me, around eight at the end of Battle City. Joey and Mai were sixteen, Serenity twelve; everyone else was fifteen. That was in 2004. The story picks up in 2024, making Mokuba twenty-eight and the others thirty-five (or so).
When yamis and hikaris speak, a yami's mindlink words are surrounded in hyphens, and a hikari's in slashes, thus: -dark- /light/ I wanted to put hikari thoughts in tildes, but won't let me. Feel the hatred... It won't let me indent either; I don't know why, and I apologize. And I'm irritated.
That'll be the longest author's note, I promise.
Chapter One
All Who Live to See Such Times
Ryou Bakura was out for an evening stroll, pondering his life. It was an amazing thing, really, that a childhood full of missing parents and friends who did not care, teen years notable only for the beatings and hatred of a dark side within, could somehow blossom into a life full of joy and wonder. Now he could wake in the mornings beside his wife Miho, pregnant again, and feel that he was spilling over with cheer.
He spun around and strode back quickly, a sudden desire to be with his family filling him. His shoes clicked on the grey pavement. There was his house, small and white, there was the driveway, covered in chalk drawings. There was the porch, there was the door, there was the window and inside was light and Miho and his daughter and he could smell dinner cooking, but before he could go in he had to cross the yard, and standing before him in shadow was someone he did not know.
"May I help you?" Ryou asked pleasantly, masking his antsiness.
"Yes. You can. The Sennen Ring, Bakura. You've got it, and I want it."
"What?" Ryou said, greatly surprised.
-What?-echoed the King of Thieves within him.
"I challenge you to a Shadow Game. If you lose, you must give up the Ring," the man said. He was sneering at the obvious shock on Bakura's face. No one had asked Ryou about the Ring in years.
"Who are you?" he asked, shrinking away slightly.
"It doesn't matter. But I want the Sennen Ring."
Bakura surrendered his body to his clamoring dark side. His crewcut exploded suddenly in a vision of white; where he had kept his hair closely cropped, Bekhura had let his grow to a huge, unruly mane. "Oh yes, it matters. The Ring is mine, and I plan on keeping it. Who are you to lay a claim on its power?"
"I need its power far more than you. Come, our game begins."
"I have no reason to join you in a shadow game."
"If you refuse me, I will channel my anger towards your family."
/NO!/ came the wild thought of Ryou, shattering for just one second the barrier between physical and spiritual, two angered faces peering from the same dark eyes.
"I can protect them," Bekhura growled, both in retort and to calm his light half.
The man laughed. "Oh yes, Bakura the Powerful will stop me from harming his precious child! Surely, you could stop the might of one measly Sennen Item!" He lifted the Rod in his hands. "But what of two?"
"Two?" came the hissed reply. The light of the house danced along his hair and sparkled in his eyes, reflected and refracted till he was a blaze of firey white light. But the other man seemed to draw the darkness around him as a cape. There was a single spot of brightness on that shadowed face, and the two Bakuras realized together that it was not his skin that bounced back the light -- it was the gleam of gold...
/The Sennen Eye!/
-So I see.-
/But you gave that to Kaiba./
-Kaiba had the Rod as well. So we have no way of knowing who this is.-
/After Kaiba's death, anyone could have taken them.../
-Exactly.-
/Do not risk this, yami. We must take his challenge. Two Items could destroy our life, and I will not risk harm to Miho or little Amane./
-Even Eye and Rod together are no match for the Sennen Ring, but we will have to accept.-
/What?/
"I see what you hide," Bekhura said aloud, Ryou questioning in the back of his mind.
"You draw my trump card for me!" the man said, laughing again. "Yes, yes, I hold more than two Items. Want to see?" A pale hand reached into a thick woolen cloak, plucking the Sennen Ankh and Scales from some hidden pocket. "Now you realize that there is no way for you to protect yourself. I repeat my challenge. Will you join me for a Shadow Game?"
-It cannot be!-
/Four... four Items?/
-Not that, Ryou! Think! Shadi holds the Scales and Ankh, and this is not Shadi!-
/That would mean... Shadi has been defeated./
-It is impossible! But...-
/We have to take his challenge now./
-Yes.-
/We have no choice./
-Yes.-
/I... I... I don't... I think... but.../
Bekhura severed the mindlink abruptly as his hikari started to stammer. "I accept your challenge. Shall we duel?"
"Oh, good. You will be joining me in the Shadow Realm -- how marvelous! No, Duel Monsters is not the game. Come, I have it all set up."
They moved quickly around the house. The man called instructions from over his shoulder. "It is very simple, really. We each tie a rope around ourselves, and whoever makes it to the roof first wins."
Bakura wondered absently when this strange man had entered his backyard and attached ropes to the roof. But there they were, hanging like thin grey snakes that writhed in the growing moonlight.
"Whoever makes it to the roof?" Bekhura spat out. "The roof? Ha! You dare challenge the King of Thieves to a simple house-scaling!" He laughed -- cackled, rather.
"No."
Bekhura stopped laughing. "No?"
"No."
"And if we do not climb, how do you propose we get up there?"
"We will be pulled."
"Really. And by whom?"
"By those who would pull us. Anyone who truly cares for you will be up there. Any lack of trust you have will weaken the rope. Climbing," he smirked, "is not allowed."
-Anyone who cares? I have not truly lived for five thousand years! Who even knows that I exist?-
/Well, me. That's about it./ There was a quiver in Ryou's mental voice that denied the bravado in his words.
-Even if there was one up there, I would not trust them,- he hissed in angered reply.-This is madness.-
"Ready?" the man called mockingly, as if he knew their thoughts. "Game start!"
Please review -- constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
Namaarie, Raz