Okay, okay, fine! Sheesh, I leave you guys with one little cliffhanger...

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HAH! And you all thought I was dead, didn't you!

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Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Claimer: I own the made-up stuff what I invented!

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…
…

Years pass. A useless nobleman's son becomes the next in the line of useless noblemen earlier than expected. A half-mad monster becomes a powerful holy man. And an utter fiend in disguise turns out to be the best friend you could ask for.

In a sense, Yami was more useless as an adult then he'd ever been as a small child. Father had died, old and bitter, but the job of magistrate was too important to give to a practically half-feral boy. Instead, it had moved to his eldest sister's husband. Being the brother-in-law of the magistrate wasn't nearly as interesting as being the magistrate's darling son, and most of the common folk wanted little to do with Yami anymore.

Seto was a powerful priest, well versed in the most ancient of rituals, and one of a small pool of possible candidates for High Priest. Every temple had a High Priest in charge, but the High Priest of the Court was the most important, and Seto had a very good chance of being named the next in line for that very prominent position.

As always, Yami was perfectly happy that Seto's lifelong dream was going to come true. When you know your own worth well enough not to dream for yourself, the dreams of others are precious enough.

Bakurah's own dream was practically true already. He was one of the most powerful thieves in the area - Bakurah the Jackal, they were already starting to call him - and he might become one of the most famous in the country in less than a decade.

Certainly, Bakurah's exploits were quite daring and dangerous - he had a special fondness for breaking through the most powerful and cunning magical traps the priests could create. Because of that, Bakurah's favorite targets were less and less the tombs of ancient kings and nobles, and more often the fabulous temples of the priesthood instead.

On occasion, Bakurah would bother, whine, and provoke Yami into coming along on one of his little 'shopping trips', much to the latter's annoyance. Yami was still short enough to avoid most attention, and Bakurah liked to insinuate how much Yami would LOVE life as his thieving assistant, but Yami was not stupid.

Bakurah was a necromancer. Yami had learned this fact about his sort-of-friend several years back, and it was a special compact with the gods that the necromancer had made which protected Bakurah when he pillaged tombs. Yami had no such pact to protect his soul, though Bakurah had graciously offered to apprentice him in the death arts.

Without having a purpose or goal in life, Yami found he could learn many interesting things. The royal line had powerful magic as part of their lineage, and Yami was learning what he could do through trial-and-error, thrice-removed as he was from the line. Also, many wise craftsmen and proven warriors enjoyed explaining the details of their skills, the nuances of their crafts…especially when the listener was willing to do more than a little work, for hours or even days, in payment for the information.

Yen was one of those. The old master magismith was as proud of the work put into his creations as the power those creations had given him in battle. Being a smith, Yen's magic naturally specialized in fire, and his pride and joy was a great orange-colored broadsword that burned with a powerful flame within.

It was a strange friendship, made odd by the difference in their ages and perspectives, but Yen was straightforward and honest. It was from Yen that Yami learned of the deteriorating situation of the royal family, something he had thought would never concern him.

But the moon was cloaked in blood one night - the night that the old Pharaoh was murdered.

…

Yami paused for a moment, thinking about those long-ago events. Yugi, totally caught up in the story, squirmed in his seat and looked like he was trying to hide his impatience with the delay.

'Cute…' murmured Yami's treacherous brain.

"Well?" Yugi finally said.

Yugi was glaring - it looked odd on the boy, very alien on his normally bright features. Yami sighed to himself and turned back to the story. It didn't get very pretty after this point…

…
…

The old Pharaoh - a great-great-uncle or something of Yami's whose name he had never remembered and whose face he would never recognize - hadn't been old when he had died. As was to be expected, the man had had a few wives, but there had been no push for him to sire an heir.

No more than a few generations back this would have seemed very strange, as every Pharaoh had done his best to sire at least three or four sons. Of course, there HAD been a great war going on at the time, and those Pharaohs had lead their armies themselves.

By now the sons of those sons had children of their own, and every single one of them was equally qualified to be named the new Pharaoh. In honor of the previous Pharaoh, the new Pharaoh was not to be officially named until after the funeral, but suddenly EVERYONE was interested in playing at politics. The streets rang with rumors, and Yami was made suddenly aware of his own precarious link to the throne.

In a way, he was still safe. Yami was a few extra degrees farther out than most of his relatives, and so was less likely to be a choice. In a moment of concern, Yami made the mistake of asking Seto for his advice. Seto, quite predictably, thought Yami was insane for even considering any desire to not be chosen. Seto was the only child of Yami's mother's brother and his second wife, two and a half further degrees out than Yami himself, but since Seto was a well-known and liked public figure, even the priest's chances for the throne were better than Yami's.

Bakurah thought the whole thing was insanely funny.

The day after the funeral, the whole country held its breath, waiting to hear who the next chosen Pharaoh would be. But the decision, which was to be made by a council of the most important people of the royal court, was unexpectedly delicate. They had to discover the identity of the Pharaoh's murderer, and because no one could decide which was more important, there was no decision made.

After the first week, tensions stretched to the breaking point. One of the older, higher ranked members of the family vanished, and it was widely speculated that he had been chosen and was being prepared for his new role.

Then it was learned than the man had been accidentally killed during an argument with another cousin. They had been arguing over whether the children of so-and-so (a third cousin) had a good chance for the throne, and which of the five might have the best chance…but as the argument progressed, both their tempers had gotten out of line, and…

It was like the start of a race. Cousins found any excuse to fight and 'accidentally' incapacitate each other, and at least four more were killed before the next week was out. Instead of making a decision and putting an end to the competition, the council adjourned, wanting to wait for the anger to settle before making their decision when any fool would have known it would only make things that much worse.

As for the rest of the country, it suddenly occurred to the common folk that they very well might have a kin-slayer taking the throne, and there was a great deal of unrest.

Yami went looking for help.

Yen, completely serious, offered to take Yami as his apprentice. A magismith's apprentice would be bound by a serious magical contract, and not even a god coming down into the marketplace and declaring that one the new Pharaoh would break it. Yen was an honest soul, with no family of his own, and didn't want the current insanity to drag down someone he particularly liked.

Yami told Yen he would consider it, and went to the only other person whose opinion he valued. Not that he would ever let that person know. The annoying idiot's ego was large and annoying enough without any extra inflation.

Much to Yami's own surprise, Bakurah listened to the whole thing with a quietly somber expression.

"Actually…"

The thief hesitated uncertainly, which was something else Yami had never seen him do before, before continuing, "There are…other options…that have recently come to my attention…

"And I didn't want to tell you only because I just knew you were going to get all fucking pissy about it," Bakurah added sharply, "You can barely take a lousy nose ring without crying like a baby, so I figured you were too soft for this."

"What is this marvelous other option, then?" Yami asked, pointedly ignoring Bakurah's insults.

Bakurah refused to say another word for a while, and it took all the prodding Yami could do to get those words out. Bakurah gave the smaller boy a pointedly 'Not Pleased' look and told him he'd live a while longer if he'd just mind his own damn business.

"Not at the rate my cousins are killing each other, I won't," Yami replied stubbornly, and Bakurah finally gave in with a sigh and a shrug.

"Just don't blame me later, you stupid little bastard."

…

"And then what happened?"

Yugi hesitated before asking, because Yami had stopped talking and now had a very dark look on his face. If his younger self were here right now, Yugi thought, Yami would probably chew him out for making whatever decision came next. Maybe asking Yami what happened wasn't such a great idea after all…

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Suddenly, Yami blinked and looked surprised. He'd forgotten he was actually telling the story to someone - to Yugi - and had stopped talking, but the boy didn't look too upset.

"Does it bother you to remember?" Yugi asked, "I'm sorry if I made you remember something bad. You don't have to tell me anymore if you don't want to…"

For some reason, the heavy sinking weights that had taken the place of Yami's lungs seemed to grow lighter with those words. He shook his head.

"It's not my favorite memory," Yami admitted, "But I don't mind sharing it with you. Not really."

"You could just summarize it," Yugi said, still unwilling to push Yami towards more unhappy recollections, "I mean, everybody is allowed to have some secrets, aren't they? I don't want to take all of yours away…"

"…As you wish," Yami said, just a little bit relieved that he could pull his thoughts a little further away from those dark times.

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"It so happened that about a week later, there was going to be an eclipse of the sun," Yami said.

- unbidden in Yami's memory, the rumors that the gods themselves were taking the time to meet, to decide what must be done about the humans who had so suddenly gone completely crazy -

"Bakurah had found that many people, fearing the repercussions of serving a king whose hands were stained with the blood of his own family, wanted to get rid of the royal line entirely and start a new one. Only, one of those group had found the means to do so."

"What means?" Yugi asked, hesitantly.

He was right to be scared.

"They made a contract with a malignant spirit called the Shaded One," Yami said, "On the day of the eclipse, when the powers of the heavens would be at their weakest, the Shaded One would give his sworn and chosen servants the power to do what they thought must be done, the power to utterly destroy the kingdom if it became necessary. The ones who made this contract believed that the powers they were to receive would only be given to them temporarily, and that when the eclipse ended, the Shaded One would take his gifts back."

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"But…oh. They…weren't, were they?"

A pause.

"No, they weren't."

……