Gotc: Annnngst…..It's such fun. Why don't I do it more often?
Ace: Because you're too lazy to actually write anything good enough to qualify.
Gotc: Oh yeah, that's…wait.
Ace: A week into a new college semester and your already half-brain dead.
Gotc: I find myself asking this question again: "Why am I putting up with you?"
Ace: Fanfiction Character's Union.
Gotc: Stupid contracts….Squeaky, care to wrap this up before I get caught in any more red tape?
Squeaky: Squeak! (Please note that Gotc does not own Harry Potter or any legal rights pertaining to its likeness. Nor does the aforementioned hold rights to Yu-gi-oh or any familiar characters.)
Ace: Way to make it complicated, Whale…..
Squeaky: Squeak! (Hmmm…You're right, I forgot anything over three syllables is rough on you.)
Ace: Why you little-
Gotc: Pardon me while I intervene, before I have to make a trip to the hospital. In the meantime, you all go on and enjoy the fic!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Rising Dragon
CHAPTER 24: Before it Gets Better…
It wasn't until later in the afternoon Yugi's limbs remembered how to move properly without shaking. He wasn't sure if it was a side effect of his earlier workout, or the near painful flash that had happened shortly afterward. He was thankful in a way that the ordeal had taken enough out of the Pharaoh to allow him to get some sleep, but at this point, he could only hope it would be restful. And at the same time, he knew it would be laced with the same flashes that had been plaguing both of them. An involuntary shiver ran through Yugi, as the rain-cooled wind managed to find him underneath the woodwork of the Quiditch stands. Deciding that getting sick and adding a fever to an already breaking mind would not benefit either of them, Yugi got back to his feet and started back towards the inviting warmth of the castle.
He felt a little like a wet dog, as he entered through the courtyard and back into the warm glow of the corridors. His whole body might have well been turned to lead, and every step felt like he had an extra thirty pounds draped around his shoulders. In short, he felt worse than if he'd just been through a marathon of Shadow Games. He caught a brief glimpse of himself in the reflection of one of the windows, his hair had fallen limp and his normally bright amethyst eyes looked like they had two deep purple bruises hanging beneath them. Yugi touched one hand to his face, just to make sure the lack of sleep wasn't playing tricks on him, when Nearly Headless Nick came floating up behind him.
"Well hello there Mr. Mutou!" Nick boomed, startling Yugi out of his daze, "You're a bit of a hard man to find, even for a ghost!"
"You were looking for me?" Yugi asked, stifling a yawn that tugged at his throat.
"Well, not so much I as your friends," The Gryffindor specter admitted, "Your foul–tempered friend had me look out for you."
"Which one?" Yugi sighed under his breath.
"Mr. Bakura I do believe," The ghost said with a hint of distaste, "In quite a bad mood today I must say, I had the impression he was a bit more meek than that, but it just goes to show you that not all first impressions are correct! Why, I remember once when I was still alive-"
"Sir Nicholas," Yugi interrupted, not really in the mood to listen to a long and winding tale, "Did Ryou say why he needed to see me?"
"Not quite, but the lad did say it was important," Nick said pointing up a flight of stairs, "He wanted you to meet him in the library whenever you turned up. Although I must say, you sure look like you could use a good couple hours sleep instead. Hogwarts has enough ghosts haunting its halls! You should hear how the Bloody Barron ended up-"
"Thank you," Yugi said with a curt bow, hightailing it up the stairs before Nick could catch him in the tale.
Tired as he was, Yugi made it to the library in good time. Madam Prince pointing to a table in the back of the library, and handing Yugi a book off of the stack she was carrying to take back with him since he was going. Unfortunately, the tome was nearly as big as he was and it took both hands and an awkward waddle for him to walk with the thing. He nearly ran into the table, before a helping hand reached out and took the monstrous manuscript from him.
"About time!" Malik's impatient voice grumbled, as he flipped open the cover and began digging through the pages.
Apparently, that book hadn't been the first Madam Prince had helped deliver to the table, as a pile worthy of being called a fortress now surrounded Malik on all sides, over half propped open with various pages marked. Marik was next to him, insubstantially going over each open page before nudging Malik from whatever he was doing to turn it for him.
The two Tomb Keepers weren't the only ones waist deep in their work, Kaiba sat at the opposite end of the table with what looked like half of an electronics store dismantled around him, and an equally impressive stack of books he kept flipping to for reference. Yugi thought he could see the glint of a duel disk peeking out from behind the jumble of wires and paper, but felt a swift tug on his sleeve that jerked him into the nearest chair.
"It's about time you got here!" Bakura's rough demeanor showing through, as he tore through a few pages of one of their textbooks, "I need to borrow your Ancient Runes homework."
"What? Why?" Yugi asked, momentarily confused, before The Thief King's request sunk in and added in a lower voice, "You speak, read, and swear in Egyptian. Why do you need my homework?"
"Because," Hermione said taking a seat next to Yugi with a stack of papers in her hand, "I offered to help him with it and he told me he didn't need it, then realized he'd forgotten just what had been assigned for us to translate."
"I don't need your help," Bakura insisted, "I can translate this whole lesson blindfolded if I have to!"
"Then why don't you?" Yugi mumbled, propping up his head and leaning on the table. /And why are you doing Ryou's homework for him?/ He added.
((I do happen to get tired of sitting in the passenger's seat all the time you know. Besides, it spares me having to watch Ryou slaughter the language….and he was so tired at breakfast he kept falling asleep over his food.)) "I happen to have other things to do today, and would preferably like to get them done sometime before we have to go spend the night with that wrinkled old toad," Bakura snorted, "Now can I have the assignment or not?"
"Page 36, section nine, twelve and sixteen, plus a possible explanation of the image on page 37," Yugi relented with a bit of a knowing grin, earning him and Bakura a disapproving look from Hermione.
"Finally," Bakura huffed, flipping to the correct page and scribbling the assignment on the parchment in front of him, "See Ms. Prefect, Yugi gave me the assignment and he hasn't fallen over dead yet."
"Honestly," Hermione said peeking over the top of her book, "You've been in the worst mood today Ryou. What's gotten in to you?"
"I'm stuck in a library, with you, Malik, and the God of Irritability over there," Bakura said, not looking up from what he was doing, "What do you think is wrong?"
Yugi saw Kaiba cast a death glare Bakura's way, but apparently whatever he was working on occupied far too much of his attention to waste it on the offending Tomb Robber. Yugi let his head rest a little more on his hand and felt his eyelids start to get heavy, when Hermione's voice shook him awake again.
"So where have you been all morning Yugi?" She asked, almost too brightly for Yugi's mood.
"I uh…I had a hard time sleeping last night," Yugi said, this time not able to keep back his yawn, "I just went for a walk around the grounds."
"In this weather?"
"I was already pretty far out when it started," Yugi shrugged, "I was going to get soaked either way, heading back or going forward."
"Sure took you a long time," Bakura said absentmindedly.
"Short legs," Yugi said quickly, "Anyway, where's Harry and Ron?"
"Those two took off just before you got here," Hermione said with just a hint of disapproval, "Ron's trying out for the Gryffindor Quidich team later today and he and Harry went to get some practice beforehand."
Yugi was suddenly very glad he'd decided to come inside. He could only imagine what it would have looked like with him sitting out under the frame of the stands like some road-weary vagabond. Not to mention how he would have come up with an excuse as to why he was there in the first place and there wouldn't have been many. The sound of metal clashing with hundreds of tiny parts jerked Yugi's divided attention across the table, where Kaiba was uttering a host of rather impressive phrases at the disemboweled duel disk in front of him. He had only just opened his mouth to say something to his rival, when Hermione quickly stopped him.
"Don't even try it," Hermione sighed, gesturing to the frustrated duelist with a wave of her hand, "He's been toying with that disk thing all morning. I keep trying to tell him that muggle technology just doesn't work on the school grounds."
"Which is where you made your first mistake," Bakura chuckled, pulling out another sheet of parchment, "Tell Seto Kaiba he can't fly, and he'll build a customized jet. Tell Seto Kaiba McDonald's stops serving breakfast at 10:30 and he'll buy the place for a McMuffin. You don't tell Seto Kaiba what he can and can't do."
"Wow," Kaiba grunted from the other end of the table, "That was actually a decent insult. Now if only your dueling were just as good…"
"Can you guys cut the commentary for about five minutes?" Malik barked irritably, running both hands across his scalp, "Someone must be trying to kill me…."
"Now that would be a nice change of pace…" Bakura snickered under his breath, while Yugi rolled his eyes at the implication.
"Like you're one to talk," Malik hissed back in Egyptian.
"You're still working on those scans?" Yugi yawned again.
"Yeah, and they aren't making any sense whatsoever!" The Egyptian growled, "It's like I said before, the glyphs are Egyptian, whatever they're saying isn't! I've tried every cipher I know, every technique in the paleographer's handbook, and am still coming up with nothing but a load of gibberish!"
"Why don't you give it a break and come back to it later after you've done some homework?" Hermione suggested in very motherly manner.
"Sure thing," Malik said waving one hand flippantly, "I tell you what, you keep an eye out that window over there and when you see a bunch of pink martians tap dancing to "Singing in the Rain", then we'll talk."
"A simple 'No' would have worked," Hermione pointed out, walking around to stand over Malik's shoulder "Have you found a grammatical pattern?" Hermione asked, "It might help you figure out if it really is another language."
"A good idea," Malik said, mildly impressed, "But this text is all over the place. It's not coherent, nor is it keeping with any other grammatical structure known at the time. The only progress I've made was a short phrase from a separate column in the tomb and then I tried a letter for letter translation, and ended up with a variation of the Latin word 'custodes'. It keeps repeating this same word a number of times throughout the text."
"What's that mean?" Yugi asked, now interested himself in this new conundrum.
"It means 'Keeper' oddly enough," Malik managed without a chuckle, "It's more than a streach, but I'm running out of ideas at this point…"
"A Latin variation?" Hermione said, more than a little puzzled herself, "How old did you say this tomb was?"
"About 5,000 years old," Malik said, "So there shouldn't have been any outside influences that we know of present in Egypt at that time."
"Right," Kaiba huffed, not looking up from his project, "Because we already know sooooo much about the life and times of Ancient Egypt…."
((Someone's in denial…)) Yugi heard Bakura chuckle in his head, ((And where's your other half? I thought he'd have his royal nose in this for sure.))
/He's….tired./
((Like Ammut he is.)) Bakur'as eyes flashed in Yugi's direction, ((You saw something earlier didn't you? Another flash!? Damnit Yugi! That's two in less than a week! What was this one of?!))
/I'm not sure….I saw faces. A woman and a young girl./
((And….))
/Sorrow, loss, and a whole bunch of other feelings that just suddenly rammed into us like a truck. It was worse than before.../
((Which means he's getting worse.)) Came the irritated sigh.
/You sound worried about him./
((Believe me when I say this,)) Bakura rounded on him, ((Nothing in this world would make me happier than to see that Pharaoh of yours at the bottom of a very, very deep hole. At that same token, killing him, or him losing his mind, is like signing the rest of the planet's death warrants before I get the chance to rule over their pathetic lives.))
/I'm glad you have such ambitions Bakura…./ Yugi sighed.
Absentmindedly, Yugi half listened/half stared at Malik and Hermione while they poured over a few important looking phrases, but every time he tried to focus on what they were saying, he just felt his mind start to drift and slip away back to that same dream-like state. Just as he was about to give up on coherent thought, Bakura's voice interrupted the calm once again.
((Did you see anything else in that flash of yours?))
/No,/ Yugi blinked, /A quick glimpse of the two faces and then the train wreck afterwards./
((There should have been more.)) The Thief King grumbled to himself, ((All of your other flashes had more…))
/Yeah, but none of them had the emotion that came with it either./ Yugi pointed out, /And to be honest, I'm glad it didn't last any longer than it did-/
Yugi stopped mid-sentence, as he looked up at Bakura. Whenever the Thief King was in control of Ryou, there were always a few subtle differences he could pick out to tell the two apart. Ryou was always a soft-spoken individual, while Bakura made it perfectly clear he would express whatever thought came to mind whenever and wherever he deemed it appropriate enough to irritate and insult everyone around him. Ryou hardly ever made eye-contact with anyone but close friends, Bakura would stare down anyone and everyone who he thought was in his way. And there was always a confident air the former thief carried about with him that worked at a subconscious level, that simply demanded respect from people who crossed his path. In a way, it was the same aura he'd come to know from Yami, though not quite as abrasive.
But as he looked at the white-haired spirit now, he found it nearly impossible to tell the difference. The normally fierce eyes that never seemed to rest on one spot for too long, now stared off into the distance, looking at absolutely nothing at all, while the rest of his face was set in a strange grimace Yugi was almost certain he'd seen somewhere else before. And it took him all of a half second to figure out just where he recognized it from. Yami. It was the same lost look he'd been seeing on his own spirit's face more and more often.
/You're having these flashes too!/ Yugi almost shouted without the mind-link.
((You're delusional.)) Bakura spat back, but his voice held none of the venom it usually did.
/I'm delusional and you're a liar, so we're all in good company./ Yugi snapped, perhaps a bit more uncharacteristically than usual, /How long?!/
((Since that day in the bookstore.)) He finally relented, ((And almost every night since then.))
/Why didn't you tell us?!/
((Because I thought I had all of my memories!)) Bakura shouted back at him, anger and resentment all to plain in his voice, ((It's that Ra-be-dammed pharaoh of yours that's supposed to be the amnesia patient!))
Yugi felt his anger and irritation at Bakura for hiding something so important, suddenly evaporate as quickly as it had come over him. He'd never even considered the idea that Bakura could have been in the same situation as Yami. Bakura was usually the one to cause problems, not have them. He just didn't show weakness, so seeing it was something Yugi wasn't sure how to approach.
/What are they like?/ Yugi finally managed to say, /And how come Ryou hasn't noticed something like that?/
((Unlike the Pharaoh,)) Bakura huffed, ((I happen to enjoy some semblance of privacy and don't feel the need to be attached to the little whelp's hip like a deformed tumor. Besides, they hardly make any sense to begin with.))
/That's why you wanted to hear about Yami's? To compare notes…/
((Lot of good they've done us so far…)) The familiar growl creeping back into the Thief King's tone, ((Your pathetic excuse for a king is getting worse, and now I caught whatever hallucinogen he's been on-))
A loud hum caught everyone's attention, breaking the hushed silence of their quiet corner of the library. Kaiba sat back in his chair with an overly satisfied smirk on his face, before leaning forward again to hover over his hard-earned prize. Hermione was beside herself, with a half astonished, half horrified look all over her face, as she was faced with the very thing she'd called impossible not a half hour earlier.
"But….." She stammered, for once at a loss for words, "…H….how?"
It was a sentiment shared by all, but hardly unwelcomed by the other three sitting at the table. Despite the nearly tangible sense of dread that had seemed to follow them since their first encounter with this strange new world, Yugi felt a smile creep onto his face. That metallic hum resonated in his very core as a duelist, bringing familiar warmth back to his fingers that now itched to hold his neglected deck. For a brief moment, he forgot his troubles at hand and his only thought suddenly came blurting out.
"Kaiba, how soon can you get two of those working?"
Gotc: I'm finding more and more that certain chapters I have planned end up getting pushed back a little at a time as new thoughts come up. Meh. Such is life I suppose. Anyhoo, you all remember how this little tango goes right? Little button there at the bottom? Reviewing? Happiness all around, then I see you all again at a yet undetermined date? You do? Wonderful! So I'll catch you all next chappie then!