The guards pulled Ryou to the gates of the palace.
"Where is the grave robber?" the watchman demanded, stomping his spear on the ground with displeasure. "You brought the wrong one!"
"This one wanted to go first, Nekhamet." The guard replied as he thrust Ryou forward.
"Those weren't the pharaoh's orders."
"What could it hurt?"
The guard did not have time to answer. Blood chilling screams echoed through the distance, and flames could be seen spouting from a neighboring village.
"The villiage!" Nekhamet shouted, grasping his spear tighter. The echo of a galloping horse struck the palace walls. "Sound the alarm! Send troops to put out the blaze!"
"Yes, sir!"
They took off running towards the outskirts of the palace.
Before his subordinates could put the order into motion, however, an attacker on horseback had slaughtered them. Their bloodied bodies fell to the sand, their heads rolling like mindless boulders. And he turned his attention to the guards next.
The man holding Ryou dropped him to the ground, his shaking hands no longer able to hold the chains. Free from his captor, even if only for a moment, Ryou crawled as quickly as he could behind a golden statue.
"Get out of my way if you value your lives!" the intruder smirked. Ryou let out the breath he didn't realize he was still holding, and peeked around the statue's base.
The man on horseback was his yami, there was no mistaking it. And that meant Ryou's plan was a success. His yami had escaped the dungeons.
Ryou could not stop watching. His shaggy white hair brushed against the jagged scar in the morning wind. But he was older now, perhaps in his early twenties. His muscles, as well as his undeniable hatred, were well toned over time. He was clad in a long red robe, which he had stolen from the tomb of the former pharaoh. That pharaoh was being dragged behind the horse, the sarcophagus dusted with sand as it rode through the night.
"Stop, in the name of the pharaoh!"
"Worthless fools!" The thief laughed, and a dark creature appeared behind his horse.
Ryou gasped. The monster was almost as tall as the palace, and looked more powerful than any of the holographic duel monsters he had ever seen.
"Diabound, destroy these pests!" he sneered, and the monster obeyed. The lower half of the monster, having taken the form of a snake, devoured one of the guards. The creature's hands wrapped around the other, crushing his bones.
"Y..yami?"
With the guards destroyed, the monster retreated back into a gold disc that the thief Bakura had attached to his left wrist.
"They will pay…" the thief muttered to himself, as he wrapped his hands around the reins of the horse. "They will all pay for what they did. The pharaoh. His evil priests. They will pay for destroying my home. They will pay for destroying my life!"
A tear fell from Bakura's right eye, and slid down the length of the scar. He made no motion to wipe it off, or to even acknowledge its presence. Perhaps, he wasn't even aware that it was there.
"I will avenge you…" he whispered, and struck the horse. It cried out, and dashed into the open doors of the palace.
And throughout all of this, Ryou remained unnoticed.
He ducked behind the statue again. Part of him wanted to rush inside, to warn the pharaoh of Bakura's attack. The pharaoh, after all, was just like his friend Yugi. And he would never let his yami harm Yugi or his other friends.
But another part of him was far more hesitant. Could it be that he was starting to feel not only empathy for his yami, but perhaps also sympathy. The fearsome man on horseback was the same child that rescued him from the desert. He was the same orphaned child that lived in a decimated village, scavenged for food on the roadside, and stole in order to survive. He had been beaten and broken by the pharaoh's guards more than once.
The hatred that his yami bore in his heart didn't seem so misguided now. In fact, it almost felt justified.
Ryou attempted to shake those thoughts out of his mind.
"What are you thinking? This is your yami, Ryou." He whispered to himself. "He… he beat you, punished you for interfering. He… He wants you to die. Just like everyone else."
He was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of horseshoes on paved stone. His yami's stallion leapt over the wall above him, landing at the gates to the palace. His laughter echoed, sending chills down the boy's spine.
Ryou ducked back down as an entire fleet of guards raced after the thief in pursuit.
"He defeated all of the priests combined…" Ryou heard one of them mutter. "How can we expect to capture him?"
"It doesn't matter. This is the will of the pharaoh!" another answered, his screams verging on the edge of bloodlust.
"After him!"
"Take him dead or alive. It doesn't matter!"
"To the death of Bakura!"
"For the glory of the pharaoh!"
Ryou simply quivered. Upon hearing the footsteps grow faint, he slowly stood up from behind the statue. It was a mistake he shouldn't have made.
"You!" A new guard pointed his spear at Ryou's face. "Men. Seize him!"