Standing in between Yugi and Atem, Marik relays the vague conversation he had with his evil self outside of the museum. It left him with a bad feeling in his stomach and incredibly anxious. He knows Yami Marik will stop at nothing to get what he wants and he will go about it in the most devious ways.
"I'm sure he didn't let you in on what he's planning," Atem assumes.
"Hardly. Except for the fact that you and Yugi aren't on his radar. But I have a strong feeling your daughter is," Marik tells them, causing Atem to narrow his eyes with a low growl. It's something he already knew, but to hear it from someone else has him even more on edge. "Where is she?"
"She's resting at the moment."
"Yeah, we think an evil soul may have caused her to hallucinate somehow," Yugi chimes in.
Marik raises an eyebrow. "Really? That does sound like something he would do."
Yugi shakes his head. "We don't know for sure. One moment Yami Marik was fighting alongside Cairo and after the explosion, he was nowhere to be found. And since Cairo sensed multiple souls, it's hard to know who did it and how it happened."
"That in itself has me suspicious."
"But why? If he were truly working with the souls, they wouldn't be fighting against each other, right?"
"He's probably doing that to distract us..." Atem guesses. "…to take the attention away from him in order to lower our suspicions."
"My thoughts exactly," Marik says. "I've never known him to do anything good. Always expect an ulterior motive from him."
Cairo rolls over in bed, her hair draping over her face as she stares down at the pillow case her head was just resting on. Her mind is in a daze as she tries to recall what happened last night. With the birds tweeting and the sun shining brightly halfway in the air, she figures she has been sleeping for quite some time. Getting out of bed, she walks over to a mirror that sits on the dresser, gazing at her reflection.
Everything appears to be fine, although her eyes still feel heavy and her nose is a little stuffy. She can't tell whether it's from her still being tired or something else. Telling from the dull sensation in her head, her sore eyes, along with the congestion, she can only guess she has been crying.
But why?
Her mind flashes to a dark, rainy night, sitting on the ground and curled into a ball as her father tried to comfort her. Looking past him, she saw the shadowy, evil figure of Magus, staring at her while her father and Yugi took no notice to his presence at all. Then the next thing she knew, she was back in bed.
"Was it an illusion…?" she asks herself, looking into the mirror. "Was it all just some sort of illusion this whole time?"
She slides her hand down her face with a long sigh. "Get it together…you're okay." She begins to wonder if the reason she hallucinated is because of the soul she briefly had contact with yesterday. It would make sense, since she started feeling strange shortly after.
She heads to the door, snapping her fingers to change into the uniform-like clothes she's grown accustomed to since getting there. "I'll just…block out any unwanted imagery as best as I can until I can figure out how to do away with this…curse."
Downstairs, Joey, Tristan and Téa join Yugi, Atem and Marik in the kitchen after classes let out for the day. Bakura also tagged along as well, still surprised just as anyone else that the pharaoh is currently there. His mouth was mostly agape when they relayed everything that has occurred, starting from the Orichalcos where they met Cairo, to this current moment.
"Well that certainly sounds overwhelming," Bakura says. He turns to Yugi and asks discreetly, "Where's your bathroom?" And Yugi points him in the direction.
"Is she doing okay?" Téa asks Atem with concern.
"I won't really know until she wakes up," he replies.
"To be honest, I had the impression that Cairo wasn't scared of anything. She puts on such a tough exterior."
"Well considering Magus's role in Cairo's past, it's no wonder she freaked out," Yugi says.
"Yeah, no kidding," Tristan agrees.
"So what happens when she finally wakes up?" Joey asks. "Will she back to normal or…?"
"Let's hope..." Atem replies. "It's never a good thing when her emotions are out of control."
Joey tugs on the collar of his uniform. "Eesh…definitely don't want that happening."
Marik raises an eyebrow. "Now you all have me curious. What happens?" he asks. "She briefly told me about her past, but maybe I'm not fully grasping the magnitude of what she's capable of."
"Oh that's right. You haven't seen her in action," Tristan realizes.
"Hello," a girl's voice says and they turn around to see Cairo standing at the doorway rubbing her tired eyes.
"You're up!" Téa says, looking relieved to see Cairo up and standing.
Previously leaning on the counter, Atem stands up straight with a surprised expression. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine. How long was I asleep?"
"For most of the day," Yugi replies. "It'll already be evening soon."
"She's seems pretty normal to me, you guys," Tristan comments, causing Cairo to look at him with a perplexed expression.
"Hm? Was I the topic of discussion?"
"Well…" Yugi rubs the back of his head. "We were trying to figure out the cause of what happened to you yesterday."
"Oh…" She crosses her arms, looking down with thought. "My best guess is the second soul I sensed cast some sort of spell or curse on me, causing me to see things that weren't actually there. At least...it's the best explanation I could come up with. I mean…you didn't see Magus right?"
Atem shakes his head. "No. In fact, we also believed what you saw was an illusion."
"Well that's somewhat a relief."
Téa frowns. "That must have been tough. Being exposed to your fear like that."
Cairo averts her gaze. "I fear no one."
"Everybody has a fear, Cairo," Joey points out. "Take Tristan for instance. He's scared of monkeys after being turned into a—."
Tristan suddenly puts Joey into a chokehold. "We don't talk about the virtual monkey robot incident," he growls.
"Have you ever really come to terms with what happened?" Téa asks, causing Cairo's eyes to widen briefly and she turns her head to the brown haired woman who looks to her with concern.
"It is what it is..." Cairo replies vaguely.
"Burying your emotions will do more harm than good," Atem says, noticing Cairo beginning to shut down.
She sighs heavily, turning her back to them. "If we're being honest, if I had the ability to turn back the sands of time, I'd do it in a heartbeat if it meant I could go back to my old self. Or if someone…anyone…could take this darkness away from me…"
Atem's brows furrow. "Cairo…"
"But if I start to dwell on that then…" she pauses, shaking her head. "Anyway...I've done just fine with burying my emotions all these centuries. It's how I've survived all this time."
"Have you really done 'just fine'?" Atem retorts. "Or is everything starting to finally boil over after all these years?"
"Take it from me…you don't want that to happen," Marik chimes in, thinking about how his evil self came to be in the first place, spawned from pain and resentment. "Holding it all in will eat you alive and you will spiral out of control."
Cairo stays silent, choosing to slip out of the kitchen and into the living room. Lately she has been faced with a lot of difficult subjects regarding her past and it's too much for her to bear. Of course she hasn't come to terms with what happened. She never had the time to process everything. But she thought she had accepted it and moved on.
In actuality, her reaction to seeing Magus again, even if it was just an illusion, is very telling. She hasn't healed. Narrowing her eyes, she stares down at her feet. A sense of guilt starts to weigh heavily on her mind. She didn't meant to come off short or even cold to those that only care about her.
As she is about to turn around to go back into the kitchen, she hears the sound of a nearby door creaking open, bringing her attention there. Looking over her shoulder, she watches as the light from inside the doorway turns off and someone slowly stepping out. Her eyes immediately go blank while her heart immediately starts thumping with so much intensity that it gives her a headache.
Straightening out his blue uniform jacket and patting down his white hair, Bakura breathes a sigh of relief as he uses a paper towel to dry off his hands. Feeling a pair of eyes on him, he looks over and sees a girl staring at her. Never seeing her before, he tilts his head to the side questionably before coming to a conclusion and smiling warmly.
"You must be Cairo," he says. "My name is Bakura."
She doesn't respond. Only appearing to be horrified initially by his presence. Is this another illusion? Is her mind playing tricks on her again? He looks different, but he just called himself by the name of yet another person from her past that caused her a great deal of pain. Not to mention, he came close to killing her father.
She remembers when she briefly tried to go against him to no avail and he ultimately tried to kill her with Diabound. Or how he snatched her father's Millennium Puzzle away as he hung off the side of a cliff. And laughed mercilessly as her father plunged shortly after. Not to mention him and Zorc being one in the same. And with her father in the next room, who's to say he won't try something again?
The man in front of her wearing a uniform, slowly morphs in front of her eyes, wearing the burgundy cloak that exposes his scarred chest, a short dark gray skirt and a scar that also graces his face. Those mischievous eyes stare directly at her and he grins, as if being amused by her fear.
But is he real? Maybe he's just here in her head, just as Magus supposedly was. She shuts her eyes. 'No…just snap out of it. You're not in any danger.'
"Oh, hello Bakura," another voice belonging to Grandpa Mutou says, coming from the game room. "You're looking a little pale. Are you alright?"
Bakura chuckles nervously. "Yeah. It must have been something I ate. But I believe it's out of my system now."
Her heart drops as far as it can go as her eyes shot back open. They can see each other?
'This isn't an illusion after all,' she thinks to herself with panic. She shakes her head again. 'What if it's just another version of him from this world? Just like Marik, and Ishizu and Yugi?'
The image of Bakura goes back and forth from a modernized version of him wearing the uniform, to the man from her past that she remembers. She clenches both sides of her head, grunting and stumbling back. Now she's just confusing herself. What's real and what's not? As she continues to stare, watching the ever changing images in her head, it finally lands on the more sinister Bakura from her past. The laughter fills her head to the point where she can no longer think logically.
At first she wants to run, just as she did with Magus. But the more she stares at Bakura, an immense amount of rage begins to gradually fill her, thinking of all the horrible things he's done. She won't be a victim again this time. She won't run or curl into the fetal position. She won't let this horrible being hurt anyone she loves again. If Bakura is an escaped soul, then he must be stopped. All of these thoughts run constantly through her head as her eyes slowly begin to glow purple and her fists emit a purple hue as well.
Sensing a change in the atmosphere, Grandpa looks over to Cairo, who is hunched over and grunting as she holds her head. "Cairo? Is something wrong?"
"Bakura…" she growls lowly, glaring at him with glowing menacing eyes that sends shivers down his and grandpa's spines.
Still confused by her behavior, Grandpa takes a step forward. "You don't look so good, Cairo. Maybe you should rest more."
Hearing the terrifying laughs of the evil Bakura laughing maniacally in her head, she cries out, continuing to step back. She keeps telling herself that this is all happening in her head. But when she can hear the laughs so clearly, she begins to lose all sense of reality. The moment she looks up and sees the evil Bakura once again standing in the young man's place, finally sends her over the edge. Her eyes go from purple to pitch black as a dark aura surrounds her.
Narrowing her eyes, she aims her hand directly at Bakura who shakes with fear, wondering how they even got to this point. He's barely said anything to her and now it looks like she wants to demolish him. Her glowing palms is enough to make him want to faint as he stands there helplessly with Grandpa standing by his side, equally as confused as he is.
"You think we should go check on her?" Téa asks back in the kitchen.
"I do get the feeling that Cairo felt she was being ganged up on," Yugi says with a frown.
"I just wish she'd stop trying to act so tough all the time and express herself," Tristan says, growing a little frustrated. "We're only trying to help!"
"Well she kinda did," Joey brings up, causing all eyes to land on him. "She's dealing with a lot guilt in more ways than one. Didn't you hear her? She wishes she can go back and change what happened so she won't have evil living inside her no more."
"So this darkness cannot be expelled from her in anyway?" Marik asks, turning to the pharaoh who stands with his arms folded and his eyes low in thought. "Is it permanent?"
Atem exhales. "The answer to that is complicated…"
A loud scream suddenly fills the air, putting everyone on alert as they all exchange glances with each other.
"What was that?" Joey asks.
"Sounded like Bakura!" Téa guesses.
Another yell rings out, this time, coming from an older man that causes Yugi to dash off to the source. "Grandpa!"
"Yugi!" Atem calls after him, following him immediately afterward.
In the living room, Bakura just narrowly dodges a punch from Cairo that is so strong, her fist goes through the wall behind him. As grandpa sits up on the floor, he watches helplessly as Bakura tries to avoid getting hurt by Cairo's onslaught of attacks. He had tried to stop Cairo himself, but she simply threw him to the side with her magic.
"Grandpa!" Yugi yells, coming to his aid after hearing the commotion. "Are you alright?"
At first, Atem and the others are expecting an intruder when they rush inside the living room. But when they see the cause of the chaos is from Cairo pursuing Bakura like he's her prey, they are all completely left in shock.
"Oh no!" Téa cries out.
"Is she seeing another illusion?" Tristan asks.
Atem studies Cairo, narrowing his eyes as he observes her expression. No. This isn't caused by an illusion. The black death stare that her eyes are exhibiting as opposed to her controlled purple glow is all the indicator he needs. He remembers staring into those same eyes as they faced off against each other in their final battle and how ruthless and out of control she was. And he can tell that is happening right now. He can only guess that her seeing the modern day Bakura has triggered painful memories of her past, causing her to react this way.
He gasps when she aims her hand at Bakura, forming a magical sphere.
"Perish," she says in an emotionless tone.
"No, please!" Bakura pleads, shielding his face and dreading what's to come.
As she releases it, she feels her body being collided into, sending the blast through the ceiling. Then her arms are restrained as her father holds them down. "Cairo, it's not who you think!" Atem tells her.
Letting out a frustrated growl, she uses a magical force just enough to push him off her, but not enough to hurt him. Then she scrambles and charges at Bakura again. Despite the effort of Joey, Tristan and Marik to hold her back, her rage alone is enough to push them all back with ease. But she isn't able to get much further when her father blocks her path with his arms out wide.
"Listen to me!" Atem yells. "You're being blinded by your emotions!"
She doesn't listen. Instead, she slowly raises her hand and prepares to do whatever it takes to get to her target.
Téa gasps. "Cairo, no! Don't do it!"
She releases the blast and Atem's eyes widen with shock as it goes shooting past the side of his face, hitting the wall next to him. It's almost as if she did that intentionally as a warning for him to move out of the way. Nevertheless, he holds his ground.
"I wouldn't lie to you, Cairo," Atem continues, staring her down.
Her arm that is still outstretched begins to tremble a little and her eyes briefly go purple, then back to black, signaling that he may finally be getting to her.
"The Bakura you know is no longer! In fact, the one you're currently after was once a victim of the evil Bakura as well!" he reveals to her surprise, her mouth going agape. "I know the pain the evil Bakura has caused our family. I know the pain he's caused you."
Her eyes go from black to a glowing purple once more, this time, staying that way as she drops her arm.
"Trust me…if he actually were here right now, I would stop at nothing to take him down," her father assures her.
She looks past him where the innocent Bakura is, his eyes gazing at her with fear. It's nearly the same look the villagers gave her in the afterlife. Which brings back so many negative emotions. She has never met this Bakura before, but she's sure she's left him with a bad impression. She looks down at the palms of her hands, taking a few steps back as her breathing quickens, feeling immense guilt over her actions.
"Cairo," Atem reaches out to her, seeing her being overwhelmed with emotion. Hearing a grunt from Bakura, he quickly turns around and goes to his aid while the others do the same.
As they tend to him, she slowly looks up to the hole in the ceiling and frowns. She did that. She's the reason why the person being tended to right now is shaken up. She even went as far as threatening her own father and hurting Yugi's grandfather.
"I…really am a monster…" she whispers to herself, backing away.
"Are you alright man?" Tristan asks Bakura who holds onto his chest, relieved that he's still in one piece.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. No need to worry," he assures them.
"I'm sorry," Atem apologizes with remorse.
"It's quite alright. I think I understand more than anyone what it feels like being controlled by a dark presence. And yet, you all have always shown my so much grace," Bakura says cracking a smile.
"Same here," Marik empathizes before chuckling a little. "There's definitely no room for me to judge."
"Uh, you guys?" Téa speaks up, looking toward the open front door. "Cairo's gone."
Atem's heart drops. He had gotten distracted with making sure Bakura was alright, he didn't even notice she left.
"Not again," Yugi groans with worry.
"Maybe…she needs some space," Tristan guesses. "I'm sure she feels really bad for what she did."
But that doesn't stop Atem from worrying.
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Cairo sits on the top of an apartment building with her leg dangling off the edge. The other leg is bent so that she can rest her arm on it. She presses her lips to the back of her arm as she looks down with narrowed eyes. How embarrassing that she lost control like that in front of everyone. To go after an innocent person that had absolutely nothing to do with her pain. To hurt Yugi's grandfather who was more than gracious to allow her to stay at his house. Threatening her own father when he's done so much for her since the day she was born.
'I am a monster…a disgrace…' she thinks angrily to herself. 'Maybe it's best I stay away. I'm a danger to everyone around me. After all these years…I still can't keep it together.'
She didn't have these issues in the Shadow Realm, where she was forced to keep a straight face and bury her emotions in order to survive. But when exposed to the world of the living and with other human beings again, everything she has been burying has come trickling back. She once thought she had come to terms to everything that happened. Her dark powers had even become somewhat manageable. But she was wrong.
"I hate this power…" she mutters to herself.
"I'll take them off your hands," a voice from behind her says, causing her to look over her shoulder and seeing none other than Yami Marik.
YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGO
AN: Uh oh…what's going to happen next? Poor Cairo can't seem to catch a break, can she? Leave a chapter and see you next time!