CONNECTIONS

While working on the outline for the sequel to Revival, I realized that Bakura and Marik will be pretty significant side characters, but will be introduced as an already established couple. I figure they deserve to have their own story that shows how they got together ('cause hey, more opportunity for smut!), so I decided to tackle that as a shorter piece before beginning the longer sequel in earnest. It's set between the prologue and part I of Revival while Yugi is studying in Egypt. This is a stand-alone, but the prologue of Revival fills in the background of the Pharaoh's memories.

Summary: Ryou Bakura returns to Egypt to try and understand the origins of the Spirit of the Ring. As he struggles to come to terms with his connections to the past, he finds solace—and a new connection—from Marik Ishtar. BakuraxMarik (not their Yamis!). End of series spoilers.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bakura, Marik, or any of the other Yu-gi-oh characters, but then you already knew that.

Rating: T for language, shonen-ai/yaio.

1. Return to Egypt

"Hey Bakura, over here!"

Ryou Bakura looked through the crowd gathered around baggage carousal number three of Cairo International Airport to see a short, spiky-haired young man waving his arm and jumping up and down to see over the crowd. Like Bakura, Yugi Mutou was eighteen, but at barely five feet tall—a good half a foot shorter than Bakura—with wide, innocent violet eyes, he looked more like he was twelve.

With a small smile, Bakura waved back. "Hello, Yugi," he said as his friend pushed through the throng of people and arrived at his side.

Yugi and Bakura stood awkwardly a moment. Neither of them were particularly demonstrative people; Bakura was British and Yugi was rather shy, so greeting with a hug wasn't in either of their natures, but after all the two of them had been through together—and survived—over the past three years, a handshake or bow didn't seem appropriate, either. Finally they settled on a handclasp and a pat on each other's shoulders.

"It's good to see you," Yugi said solemnly. "We missed you after graduation."

Bakura merely nodded, letting the reason he had left Japan for England as soon as they'd graduated high school remain unspoken.

Yugi took a breath and his smile returned. "Professor Hawkins and Rebecca are out in the car," he informed Bakura brightly. "How many bags do you have?"

"Just one. An olive green duffle bag." Bakura pushed his shoulder-length white hair out of his dark brown eyes. "I really appreciate you and the professor letting me stay with you a few days while I'm in Cairo."

"It's no problem," Yugi replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "The professor said you're welcome to stay longer if you'd like."

"No, I don't want to impose," Bakura replied uneasily. "Besides, I'm anxious to get to Luxor."

Yugi didn't reply and Bakura wondered if Yugi's demons weren't all that different from his own. True, the spirit that had possessed Yugi and shared his body for three years had been a friend, not a homicidal maniac like the one that had controlled Bakura for so long, but still… they were both here in Egypt, weren't they?

"Is that your bag?" Yugi asked suddenly, pointing. Indeed, Bakura's duffle had appeared on the baggage carousal. Bakura slipped through the mob, pulled it off the belt, and hoisted it over his shoulder, following Yugi outside.

Professor Hawkins, his granddaughter Rebecca, and Yugi shared a charming rental house on the edge of the city. Like Bakura's father, Professor Hawkins was an archaeologist. His granddaughter was a lively blond girl of eleven who was so bright she was already a college student who would likely complete her bachelor's degree in information technology by the time she was a teenager. Yugi was a freshman Egyptology student studying under Professor Hawkins' tutelage. When they arrived at the house, a lovely dinner, prepared by the housekeeper, was waiting for them.

Professor Hawkins asked Bakura many questions about his father's work. Though the two archaeologists had never met, apparently they had several mutual friends. Bakura answered the questions politely, all the while wishing they could change the subject. He was not close with his father and especially disliked talking about his work. It had been his work, after all, that had brought Bakura the Millennium Ring, and it had been the Millennium Ring that had brought him the evil spirit that he'd known only as "the Voice," but that everyone else had called by his own name.

"Professor," Yugi cut in, "I'll bet Bakura doesn't know about the Atlantis ruins you found."

"Oh, well," the professor began, and Bakura shot Yugi a grateful look.

By the time dinner was over, it was late, so Yugi led Bakura to his room where they would both be sleeping. Bakura tried to take the sleeping bag on the floor, but Yugi wouldn't hear of it, so Bakura reluctantly agreed to take Yugi's bed. They settled in, but neither was particularly tired and Bakura was still on London time, which was two hours behind Cairo, so they stayed up and talked for a long while. Yugi filled him in on all their mutual friends and talked about his studies, while Bakura told him about the six months he'd spent in England.

When they'd run out of small talk, they fell silent. Bakura thought maybe Yugi had fallen asleep, but then he heard the sleeping bag rustle on the floor below him. "Bakura?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you come to Egypt?"

Bakura propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at his friend. Through the gloom he could see Yugi lying on his back, his hands clasped behind his head. "The same reason you did, I expect. Well, not to study Egyptology," he amended. "That would be too close to following in my father's footsteps for comfort. But, you know, to understand."

"Understand where he came from, you mean."

"Yes."

Yugi was silent again for a moment. "Bakura? You said that when the Spirit took control of you, you blacked out, right?"

Bakura chewed his lip. "That's right."

"That's how it was for me, too, at first. After I put the Millennium Puzzle together, I started having these blackouts. Eventually I learned about the other me and most of what we did after that we did together. I… I guess it wasn't like that for you, though."

"Hardly," Bakura snorted. "Your 'other self' was a great pharaoh and a friend. Mine was a psychotic maniac and… a parasite. He even called me his 'host.'"

"I can't imagine, Bakura. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that."

"Well, that is why I'm here, isn't it? To come to terms with it all."

"Hmm." Yugi replied. "Then you don't remember anything he did while he was controlling your body?"

"Why?" Bakura asked, then cringed at how defensive he sounded.

Yugi took a deep breath. "Not long after you left, a couple of weeks after graduation, I realized that I had all of Atem's memories."

Bakura sat up. "What?"

"Everything from the time he came to me until he entered the Memory World when we were in Egypt last winter. Even the stuff I didn't know about before. The early stuff I'd blacked out during. Even… even when my soul wasn't there at all. I remember everything he did, everything he thought and felt, as if I did and thought and felt them."

Bakura closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. "Then it isn't just me."

"You do remember, then?"

"It… it isn't quite like you describe. The things he did are hazy, like something I did in a dream. But ever since we got back from Egypt, I started remembering what he'd done. Duelist Kingdom, Battle City… but nothing after we got to Egypt." He shuddered. "That's why I went back to England after graduation, Yugi. I thought I was going mad!"

"Yeah, me too. It was really weird at first. I'm starting to get more used to it now, but…." Bakura heard the sleeping bag rustle again and opened his eyes. Yugi was sitting up now, his arms wrapped around his knees, his eyes downcast.

"But?" Bakura prompted.

"What do you think it means? Do you…?" He stopped and took another breath. "Téa thinks it means we're really both part of the same person. That I am him. Sorta."

Bakura swallowed. "And if you and the Pharaoh are the same, then I…."

Yugi looked up sharply, and even in the darkness Bakura could see the pain etched in his expression. "Oh, Bakura, you're not like him. You're not. Téa, she, well, I think she has her own reasons for thinking that the Pharaoh is still part of me."

Bakura raised his eyebrows. He knew Yugi had always had a crush on Téa and that Téa quite likely had a crush on the Pharaoh. That would indeed give her reason for bias, and perhaps him a reason for wanting to believe her. And yet…. He sighed.

His time with his darker half was one long nightmare. The blackouts had been bad enough, waking up bruised and exhausted, not knowing where he'd been or what he'd been doing—or whom he'd hurt. Flashes of half-consciousness in the midst of blackness: Finding himself beaten and bloody and barely conscious in Marik Ishtar's arms before he ever remembered meeting him. In the hospital with Yugi's grandfather watching over him. In the middle of a duel against Yugi, barely able to stand, with Yugi debating whether or not he could strike the final blow. In a church in Domino, trying to fight off the last possession of his counterpart. This had been his life those years the Millennium Ring had been in his possession. Even when he'd tried to get rid of it, or someone had taken it from him, it still had been a part of him, linking him to the parasite Spirit that controlled his mind, body, and soul. Only when Yugi had defeated the Sprit once and for all and then sent his own other self on to the spirit world, destroying all seven Millennium Items in the process, had Bakura finally been freed from the bonds of his darker half.

But then the memories had started coming, filling in the blank spaces. Hazy and dream-like, but substantial nonetheless. Dueling his friends in a Shadow Game, not just as a captured soul in a card, but as the duelist. Threatening to kill ten-year-old Mokuba Kaiba to take his body. Ripping Pegasus's Millennium Eye out of its socket and licking the blood off of it. Duels and deals with Marik Ishtar's own darker half. Sending souls to the Shadow Realm. He'd thought the worst was the not knowing, the blank spaces. He'd been wrong.

Knowing was worse.

Bakura closes his eyes again. "He was dreadful, Yugi. Sadistic, callous, a sociopath. But he was a part of me."

"No," Yugi insisted, his voice cracking slightly. "That can't be right. He possessed you. It wasn't you."

"It's more than that, and we both know it. If you're having memories from your other self, too, then you've just confirmed what I already knew."

"No! Forget I said anything."

"Why do you think I came to Egypt, Yugi?"

In a sort of jerky motion, Yugi lay back down again. "Let's not talk about this anymore. I'm tired," he said stiffly.

"Yes," Bakura agreed, lying down as well. "Good night, Yugi."

"Night, Bakura."

Bakura pulled the covers up closer to his chin and closed his eyes, but sleep would be a long time coming.

The rest of Bakura's stay in Cairo was enjoyable enough. When Yugi wasn't busy with his studies, he took Bakura on tours of various places of historical significance. Neither one of them mentioned their other selves again and Bakura thought it was just as well; Yugi's friendship with the spirit who had shared his body for three years made his situation radically different from Bakura's own and it seemed like neither of them would offer the other much in the way of solace or insight. Instead they chatted about their mutual friends, the differences and similarities between life in Japan, England, and Egypt, and the few high school memories that didn't involve Millennium Items or possessing spirits.

The night before Bakura was to leave for Luxor, Yugi insisted on arranging for Ishizu, Marik, and Odion Ishtar to meet him at the train station when he arrived. Bakura wasn't entirely comfortable with this. His memories of meeting the Ishtars at the Battle City tournament in Domino were hazy and confused. Most of them were his counterpart's memories, and those that were truly his own were punctuated by pain and confusion. What stood out the most in his mind was that Marik Ishtar, a young Egyptian man his age, had also had a darker half and the two of them had had some sort of uneasy alliance that involved a lot of double-dealing and backstabbing on both their parts. Like Bakura, Marik had repented of his counterpart's deeds and turned his life around after Yugi had banished his darker self to the Shadow Realm, but still, it made Bakura uneasy to be spending time with people with whom he shared a deep connection and yet were somehow still complete strangers to him. Nevertheless, Yugi had insisted and the Ishtars had been pleased to offer him a ride to his hotel and to show him around Luxor and it would have been rude to refuse, so he reluctantly agreed.

At the train station in Cairo, there was another awkward moment as Yugi and Bakura again debated on the best way to bid each other farewell. Again they settled on a handclasp, and Bakura put his other hand on Yugi's shoulder, letting it remain a moment.

"Yugi, don't worry about me. Each of us has to find our own way of coming to terms with our connections to the ancient past. Find your own meaning in the Pharaoh's memories, all right?"

Yugi nodded uncomfortably and then Bakura decided to hell with being so reserved and he pulled his shorter friend into a brief hug. Then he boarded the train and settled in for the long ride to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. The place his darker half had called home.