The Past Returns Chapter 4: 4, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

The Past Returns

Chapter: 4?

Synopsis: An AR of the Battle City Tournament arc seeing as I have only watched up to where Yami and Yugi defeated the Silent One for the God Card Isis (?).

As Yami and Téa admit their feelings and start their relationship down a new path, New Millennium items are disclosed to the gang, Seto, and Mokuba – the Manacles of Time and Power. Each could only be welded by two distinct women – the younger sister and cousin of the Pharaoh! Two young women appear, each wearing one of the Manacles! Are they Yami's family? And do they come just in time to help against a dark foe that has been waiting for the right time to strike?

Rating: R for the vivid and ugly death of Teana and the old Egypt group.

Ishizu stood in the entryway as she had the first time she met Seto. This time she had a serious expression on her face and spoke quickly before turning to walk away. "I am glad to see all of you."

"Hold on, Ishizu." Seto growled. "What do you want of me and my little brother?"

Ishizu looked over her shoulder as if she refused to be denied. "That is something you will learn quickly enough, Seto Kaiba. Now follow me, for time is far too short."

That was a shock; the woman would always speak in such riddles yet never so curtly. The group followed her to the room she had revealed the truth to Yugi, Yami, Téa, and Seto. Joey and Tristan were in shock the second their eyes saw the tablet. Joey went off, "hey, hey, hey! How come those two guys look like Yugi and Kaiba?"

Téa shook her head, "because that was them nearly five thousand years ago, Joey."

"Yes and no, Queen Teana," Ishizu interrupted.

Seto was not in the mood for shocks, "what did you call her?"

Without ovation, Ishizu touched her Millennium necklace. Instantly they were all transported into the past. The group found themselves in an ancient meeting room in the middle of the morning. Téa liked how bright and light this vision was compared to her strange dream. Yami rested his hand on her shoulder and they both smiled, until they noticed that Yugi was standing next to them and he looked solid ... real.

Yugi silently took a step closer to Yami and they both reached out for one another; both expected that their hands would pass through one another's without hindrance as they have always in the past. Yet they were both firm and could be touched! Yugi beamed as he hooked his thumb against the Pharaoh's and gripped Yami's hand in a way he had wanted to for so long. "It is nice to finally hold tight to my honored vessel."

"Right back at you, Pharaoh," Yugi beamed before embracing his friend.

Yami held his friend close, because without this young man the lost Pharaoh knew that he would be still trapped within the Millennium Puzzle. The boy meant the world to him, and to Yami's true love. Once Yugi was done and had taken a small step back, Yami took Téa into his arms and smiled.

Seto was in shock, "Two Yugi's?"

"No, I'm the real Yugi. This is the ancient Pharaoh Yami. He was trapped in my Millennium Puzzle for over five thousand years until I put it together. Now we share my body until the world is safe again." Yugi explained.

Seto disliked that. "So, you don't fight your own duels then?"

"Not every duel, however you can be assured that even dueling as a team a majority of the times you have faced us it was against me, Kaiba." Yami said strongly.

"And will so again, Yami. But this time I will defeat you after I defeat Yugi." Seto vowed. It all felt so familiar to him that he was truly afraid that all of this was not mere illusion – a possibility he did not want to accept.

They walked out onto the balcony into the sunshine and were stunned at the scene before them all. Each of them saw themselves as they once were in the past, with the exception of Mokuba. The moment seemed frozen in time.

Joey chuckled, "Hey, there's Duke Devlin! And look, he and Tristan's wearing skirts!"

"So are you, dweeb." Tristan blushed and growled.

"What!" Joey looked only to discover that Tristan was right! "No Way!"

Ignoring the pair, Seto walked over to see where his past self was smirking as he stood looking over the balcony edge. Below them was a group of boys frozen in place during the middle of them running around in a game of some sort. Among them was his little brother, but that was impossible! "Is this more of your games, Ishizu?"

A new voice pierced the tension, visibly startling both Yami and Seto. "Ishizu has never played games with you, Seto. She speaks the truth you fear because of the shadows that are bound as tightly within your soul as they were five millennia ago."

"You can't be!" Seto choked out in fear and shock.

Yami on the other hand had eyes that were filled with hope and joy, "Kisara?"

The ivory hood of the right figure dropped to shatter Seto's arguments for the most part. In everything, this was the young woman whose face haunted his dreams at night. The platinum blonde that he had seen in his dreams ever since his first duel against Yugi Motou, "Kisara ... I know that name ... your face ..."

Kisara slowly walked over to Seto and rested her hand on his cheek tenderly. "You are remembering, but the shadows are making you afraid of the past. They drive you to ignore what was because if you learn the truth the evil loses what power it draws from your spirit."

Seto shook his head yet leaned into her sweet touch. It was like a cool breeze on a hot day, "it can't be. I decide my path."

"Yes, you do. However, the shadows block from you possibilities, hiding some paths that it does not wish for you to explore. In that, the evil controls you." The second figure pointed out before dropping her hood and beaming at Yami. "Did you really think that brat would show up without me?"

Kisara glared over her shoulder at her cousin, "look who is talking about being a brat. She who always made her uncle cringe at the mention of her name and the word incident in the same breath."

Yami chuckled as he accepted fully that he was no longer alone. "Kisara does have you there, Solina."

"Hey! Two on one is not any fairer than it was back home!" Solina growled.

"Whining does nothing to change the fact that you and trouble always went hand in hand." Seto snapped and then went wide eyed in shock at his own words, stepping away from the young woman a part of him wanted to hold close. Though he hated seeing the pain in her eyes as he backed from her touch, Seto wasn't about to give in that easily to the fantasy Yugi and his friends seemed to love. "What is happening to me?"

A bright light flooded the scene — sharpening and intensifying the vistas of all gathered. "We have come to undo the wrong committed by one of our own."

Once the light left, there was an ancient winged Egyptian woman standing before them all. Téa drew closer to Yami in fear as she stuttered out. "Who are you?"

"You need not fear me, once Queen of the Forgotten Kingdom. At last, I am able to set the Universe right as is my place." The woman nodded a bow to the couple.

Instantly Yami knew who was before them, "Ma'at."

"Huh? Who's she, Yami?" Joey asked in a usual shout.

Yami was used to Joey's behaviors, and knew the Goddess before them too knew them just as well or even better than he did. "This is, Ma'at, the ancient goddess of truth and universal order, Joey."

Seto gave a distrusting glare at the woman. Something in his soul hated her instantly. Yet he wanted to grab Kisara and hide her along with Mokuba behind him to shield to pair from this woman. This view deepened when she beamed at him directly. "You again wish to defend them from any who might take them from you. Very good once Seth, the revered High Priest who was family by blood and in the Heart of the young Pharaoh but still is everything in the heart of his sister."

Kisara blushed at that last part when Seto looked at her in shadowed hope. Yami's chest too burned with hope. "Who attacked us, Ma'at?"

"Your celestial grandmother, Neith, and the God, Anubis, who took full control of a sorcerer ages ago. The sorcerer you defeated before the heart of darkness challenged you, forcing you to sacrifice your soul for the people of Egypt and the world. This darkness unfortunately then and even now holds control of them both."

When Kisara shuttered slightly, Seto pulled her subconsciously behind him where Mokuba had naturally gravitated in search of security. Seto disliked being played, and if there was anything playing him the time had come for the game to end. "Why?"

Ma'at smiled on the wary young man. "Because of the wrong you set out to right long ago without even knowing it."

Yugi slowly remembered, "Reuniting me with my lost sister."

That gained a nod from Ma'at. Téa raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me that this is going to go further into the past than any of us have ever gone."

"It does Lost Queen. We must travel back to the innocence, before the Gods warred among themselves and used mortals to battle. Before the darkness took form." Another brilliant light slipped the group further into an unseeing past.

Before them were Aknamkamon and his younger brother, Aknadin. Before these two was a weary old man and a frightened, young girl who couldn't be more than eleven if that! "Pharaoh Aknamkamon was wed to a young Princess called Innana who was not of age to bear children. Her father, Marduk, had sent the girl into the marriage in hopes to gain troops and guard his child from the Nomad invaders that attacked their Kingdom."

Yami and Kisara felt lumps grow within each of their throats before the weakly called out, "Grandfather."

Ma'at nodded, "Yes, unfortunately, this was not to help, as his kingdom was overthrown by the invaders and Marduk perished before word of need reached his son-in-law's Kingdom. Royal law demanded that Innana produce an heir to the throne before one year of marriage was to pass or face returning to her homelands in disgrace. Her return promised that the girl would perish or be treated as a common harem servant."

Téa cuddled close to Yami while Yugi stood before the couple to guard them. This pleased Ma'at, because it showed the three were still a strong family – despite their being unwise of the entire truth. She altered the scene to show Aknamkamon praying to the ancient Gods and Goddesses for help. "Aknamkamon had grown to adore his young bride as both mate and friend."

Yami looked upon his Téa, understanding his human father's feelings in full. Then the scene changed drastically. Two ethereal beings suddenly appeared and filled the temple room with light. One was a man who had the head of a falcon and the other was a woman with the head of a cat! Yami and Kisara were stunned; here were both of their fathers in one room. Mokuba showed his intelligence at that moment. "That is the Sun God Ra and Bastet, the fertility Goddess."

"Very good young one, yes," Ma'at smiled and nodded. "The pair agreed to help Aknamkamon in his wish, but plainly stated he would only be the child's human father. The infant's blood was that of a God and regarded as equally divine as the babe's blood father. In addition, the birth of divine child would cost their mother the ripening of her womb; Innana would never again bear a child. To all of this Aknamkamon agreed without a single thought to how undermined he would one day feel. As Bastet did not want to hold either sex greater than the other, she set two babes into the young Queen's womb."

The scene again changed to the young Queen of Egypt holding two babies – a son and a daughter. A son whose hair was red with the rise and set of the sun, golden with its midday rays, and in places darkened with its shadow that often spelled doom to a people. His sister's hair was silver as the light of the Goddess Moon. The scene began to move and showed how happy with her twins the young mother was. Innana began to hum and cuddle her babies close. Aknamkamon slid into the room and saw how beautiful his two stepchildren were. Yami and Kisara smiled at the picture of their mother so happy. They wished life had remained this content for their family.

Innana offered their son to her husband with a bright smile on her face. "What shall we call them, my King?"

That was eerily similar to the final question Teana asked Yami of their dead child moments before she too perished. Yami shivered as he drew Téa closer to his side for comfort. It had unnerved her as well and the contact of Yami was all that eased her sorrow.

Aknamkamon smiled on his boy, "Yugi, for I know that he will one day be a great King who will be a great ruler."

Baby Yugi squirmed happily at that before being set back into the arms of his human mother. Téa beamed up at the fully-grown Yami and how calm seeing his infancy made him. "Once I was called Yugi? Perhaps that is why I gave that name to the child we lost."

Téa nodded and hugged her love. Seto was confused by this, "What child? What are the two of you talking about?"

Ma'at smiled indulgently at the struggling young man, "you shall learn of that in time, Seto Kaiba."

Then Aknamkamon took up his only daughter. Already his saw such great wisdom hidden within her morning sky blue eyes ... the girl was destined for greatness as well. "And you my daughter, you will be called Kisara."

Unlike her brother, baby Kisara settled comfortably into the hands of her stepfather seemingly in gratitude. The grown Kisara smiled and rested her head on Seto's shoulder as she took a more possessive position at his side. Surprising himself, Seto did not move. It was odd, but he felt a kind of comfort in the sensation. It was as if he felt a small part of his anger pull away. Not like Yugi or Yami (whichever of them had hit him with that light show long before), this was not tearing and brutal. The feeling was of warmth and support Seto had only received from his little brother in real life.

Ma'at went on before Seto was urged to fight his comfort, "Aknamkamon had no idea which God had fathered his stepchildren and might not have acknowledge that secret to the Kingdom."

The light brought the group closer to the future, but only by a few days. Aknamkamon and Innana, along with several others, were on the main balcony. The Royal parents each held one child, preparing to present the two heirs to their people. Then the scene began to move. Before Aknamkamon could step forward and present his son, a bright light filled the area and a voice whispered into Aknamkamon's ear, "Remember Pharaoh, they are to be shown the same honor as the God who gave them life in your Queen's womb."

A beat later, both babies hovered in the air in invisible hands. Remembering the voice well, Aknamkamon suddenly realized that the God who had implanted his Queen was Ra himself! The god the city asked for protection from in the hours of light was the father of the King's heirs! Barely showing his shock and sudden fear, Aknamkamon called out to the crowd. "My people we have been blessed twice over by Ra! For the children brought into this world by my Queen are of the God's seed! Blessed be my Kingdom's heirs, Yugi and Kisara."

Ma'at explained what could not bee seen, "The people cheered, but Aknamkamon was already growing jealous and angry. He would not have an heir of his own seed, and his bloodline could very well end with him. He had no idea his brother had a family of his own."

Yami sighed, "All this time, I thought he loved me."

Téa rubbed his back, knowing how it felt to know that in truth a parent despises you. "I'm sure he did in some part of his heart. And even if he didn't, all that matters now is that you are loved by your blood father, sister, cousin, our friends, and by me."

"Too true, my Téa, and yet that possibility will always hurt." Yami admitted.

Kisara sighed, but was grateful when, automatically, Seto drew her slightly closer to himself and accepted her head resting again on his shoulder – this time next to his neck.

"The Gods too were angry at the double birth. Ra asked for no permission, nor was there any other Gods asked to become the honored father. Most supported Ra's decision and new position, but there were those who cared not for the groveling of a single human. His mother, Neith, was enjoying the battles and having her say in what was to come as the Goddess of destiny. Ra knew she would never agree and so did not consult her, in a manner taking her calling without any consideration. This angered Neith and for this she refused to acknowledge her half-human grandchildren, going so far as to vow to use them to end the world." Ma'at explained.

Joey shuttered, "that is one scary idea."