A/N: Ok, so I'm trying to push these next two chapters out sort of quick. This is due to mid year exams coming up. I was originally going to have this as the one chapter, but it became too long so I cut in two.
Thank-you to all who are reviewing and hope you enjoy the next chapter!
Disclaimer of both Yu-gi-oh! and The Mummy
رِحْلِة الأَلْف مِيل تَبْدَأ بِخَطْوَة
The next morning saw our adventurous Egyptians standing at a port, waiting for their English friend to arrive. Marik was feeling nervous because he wasn't sure their rotten guide will turn up and they'd been waiting for a while.
"Do you really think he'll show?" Marik asked, taking a glance at his older brother who was currently leaning on his suitcase with his arms crossed. Malik shrugged at the shorter man.
"Undoubtedly, I know the breed, he may be a thief, but his word is his word."
"Oh, he'll show." A familiar soft voice said from behind them, startling the two men. Both Ishtar's turned around to see a smiling Ryou, holding a suitcase as well. This confuses the two brothers greatly.
"Are you coming too Ryou?" Malik asked, perplexed. Ryou nodded.
"I'm not missing this opportunity to actually see Kul Elna firsthand, and I've also been given strict instructions by our mother to….keep an eye on Bakura." He replied with a wry smile. "Although, I don't know how forceful I'll be considering the way my brother likes to behave." His smile turned into a harsh frown, but, seconds later, split back into a wide smile. Marik rolled his eyes.
"To be perfectly honest Ryou, I think your brother's filthy and rude. I don't like him one bit."
"Gee, anyone I know?" A deep accented voice asked. Both tanned males turn to see who they believe to be one Bakura Touzoku. He was impressive, to say the least. Clean shaven, hair some-what combed, the man was quite a sight for people who hadn't seen him normal and not dirty before. Malik and Marik both exchanged surprised looks, where else Ryou merely rolled his eyes at his twin.
"Took you long enough." Bakura smirked at his brothers' remark.
"Well, you know what they say, leave them guessing and all." The Ishtar's broke out of their shock and Malik forced his hand into Bakura's.
"Great day for the start of an adventure, eh, Touzoku?" Bakura, once they'd finished shaking hands, went to check his pockets for his wallet.
"Oh, I wouldn't steal from a partner, eh, partner?" Malik grinned, throwing an arm over Bakura's neck. Immediately the Englishman took a hold of said Egyptians arm and removed it from around his neck and twisted it so it was stuck behind the mans' back. Removing his pale hand from Malik's tanned one he chuckled.
"Sorry, reflex reaction, eh partner?" Malik gave Bakura an awkward smile while rubbing his arm as Marik stepped forward, ignoring the men's scuffle.
"Mr Touzoku, can you look me straight in the eye and guarantee me this is not some sort of wild goose chase? Because if it is, I'm warning you-", but he was cut off when Bakura took a hold of the scruff of his collar again. Ryou, shocked by his brothers' behaviour, tried to intervene.
"Bakura, please let him go!" Bakura turned his stone gaze to him, effectively shutting him up. Turning back to Marik, Bakura stared directly into his defiant violet eyes.
"All I can tell you, Mr Ishtar, is that I found that blasted map in an ancient fortress, and that all of my damn troops believed in it so much, that without orders, we marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city. Like I told you, all I saw was sand. Everybody else was wiped-out by Tuareg warriors." He then let go of Mariks shirt, picked up his suitcase and boarded the boat. Marik followed the mans' back with his eyes, intrigued by what may have spooked him into his train of thinking. Malik wandered up to him, suitcase in hand with a grin plastered on his face.
"Oh yes, real blood thirsty. Seriously, I reckon I could take him." Marik fixed his stare on the taller man.
"You wish, he'd kill you before you had time to pull your gun out." Ryou walked up to the men, chuckling.
"Well, a very good morning gentlemen, but we best be off. Time for adventure and all." Marik and Malik nodded as the nicer Touzoku twin walked past them and onto the ship.
"They're like complete opposites aren't they?" Malik asked Marik, but found that he'd already disappeared onto the ship. Scrambling to grab his case, Malik made his way also up the plank onto the ship with his mouth in a fine line.
"Fine, don't let me finish speaking, see if I care."
Night had fallen over the ship as it carried our four adventurers across the Nile. Malik, ever the playful one, had found himself some poker playing companions. They all had nothing to lose from this game as they were all millionaires already. What intrigued Malik the most was the lengths they'd go to for their greed. Malik had just made a bet when Bakura walked past the table they're playing at, gunny-sack in hand. Striving to get on the thief's good side, the Egyptian called him over with a wave.
"Come sit, Touzoku, come sit. We could use another good player."
Bakura merely turned his nose up at the request. "Thanks, but no thanks chaps. I only gamble with my life, never my money." One of the millionaires perked up at that statement. He had bright green eyes and jet black hair tied in a pony-tail. He grinned at Bakura's cowardness.
"Never? What if I wagered you five hundred bucks says we get to Kul Elna first?" Bakura gazed at the man for a moment before returning his cocky grin with one of his own.
"You're on." Another man, one with silver-white hair covering one eye fixed his gaze on the thief.
"What makes you so confident, sir?" Suspicious by the man, Bakura hardened his gaze.
"What makes you?" The third man at the table, one with long cascading bluish hair and mis-matching eye colours, crossed his arms.
"We have a man who has actually been there." Bakura's poker face dropped as he stared at each man, perplexed. Malik also seemed suspicious, but decided to open his mouth anyway.
"Well what a coincidence, we-", Bakura "accidently" whacked him with his gunny-sack to successfully shut him up.
"Whose deal is it? Is it my deal? I thought I just dealt?" He changed the subject in the nick of time and Bakura nodded to himself, satisfied and walked away.
يمر الوقت
"Ok….where the hell did my treasure go?"
Malik, having finished his pleasant game of poker was searching for the supposed "treasure" he'd found. The key was nowhere to be found and all of his suspicions pointed to the thieving Touzoku brother. Frowning angrily, Malik stomped his way towards the twins shared room on the ship like a man on a mission. Not caring in the least if someone was getting dressed or sleeping, he grabbed the doorknob, twisted and flung the door open with a bang. What he did not expect was the reaction of the person inside the room. A loud metallic sound echoed throughout the room as a sharp knife came straight towards Maliks face, hell-bent on its target. Just in time, Malik managed to duck before it could imbed itself in his face, but not without a comical 'Wah!' coming from his lips. The knife ended up on the other side of the hallway with a wham. Malik spared a glance at the now knifed door and gulped to himself before taking a look as to who threw it.
Ryou was sitting on his bed, eyes wide with fear and hands shaking. He couldn't believe how close he had been from killing one of his new friends. He let out a strangled gasp at his reaction and sprung up from his position on the bed.
"Oh shoot! I'm so sorry, I reacted without thinking again! Are you all right? I didn't hit you did I? Because if I did I couldn't forgive myself…." The soft spoken Brit blabbed, giving Malik a one over. The taller man merely chuckled at Ryou's over the top reaction, shaking off his worry.
"Seriously, what is it with you Touzoku's and your reflexes?" Ryou grinned sheepishly at the Egyptian, scratching his head with a hand.
"Runs in the family I guess," he shrugs. Malik glanced once again at the knife that may have ended his life then turns a suspicious gaze to Ryou.
"Call me crazy, but why on earth were you sitting on your bed with a knife in hand and, most importantly, how the hell did you learn to throw like that?" Ryou looked put out for a moment while looking anywhere but at Malik, he'd probably have to tell him now. The young man heaved a sigh.
"I may as well tell you the truth. Both Bakura and I, well lets just say we're not like your average polite and soft-spoken Englishmen. I, we, have trained and studied many martial arts in our time. Actually, to be perfectly honest, Bakura doesn't have a clue I know the arts because he ran away from home when he was little. He decided to 'break ties' as it were and took up a life of thievery, picking up tricks here and there, and eventually making his way to Egypt. But I've always been able to track him down, that's why our parents aren't out looking for him because I report back any news about him. They aren't happy with him, but he's still their son." Malik was in awe at Ryou's open honesty, the twins had many secrets and it seemed Ryou was so eager to trust someone that he'd spill most of those secrets to someone he barely knew. Ryou seemed to forget an important part, bopped his head with the heel of his hand.
"Oh and the reason I had the knife was for protection. I didn't have it in my hand until I heard footsteps and, I naturally freaked and threw it without checking who it was first. Again I'm incredibly sorry for my rash acting." He fixed Malik with an apologetic stare. Malik, breaking out of his awed expression, shruggled his shoulders.
"It's alright I guess, no harm done. I'll just have to watch out next time." He gave Ryou a grin.
"That's quite an arm you've got there." Ryou blushed and tilted his head.
"Knife throwing is my specialty." Malik's grin widened.
"Huh, ya don't say. Anyway, the reason I came here in the first place was to see if your dummy of a brother had stolen my treasure." Ryou seemed confused by the statement and cocked his head to the other side.
"Excuse me, but what treasure exactly?" Malik gave himself an internal whack upside the head, of course he wouldn't know about it.
"Uhh, it's a hexagonal shaped object. Grey and forms a star when turned a certain way. Ringing any bells at all?" Ryou brought a pointer finger to his lip in thought for a moment. Suddenly he smacked a fist into his palm in triumph.
"Yes! I saw Bakura playing with it before when we were unpacking some of our stuff, I had no clue it was actually yours." Malik looked guilty for a moment before coming up with a fool proof lie.
"Yeah, found it on a site in Cairo a week ago, donno why he'd be interested in it though. I should probably go see him about it. Sorry for wasting your time and", he glanced again at the knife, "your efforts." He finished, turning to leave, but Ryou stuck out a hand to stop him.
"Wait, I know you want it back, but I doubt Bakura will give in so easily. Let me have a chat with him and I'll try and get it back to you by morning. No use giving more fuel to the fire, as the saying goes." Malik gave him a long look and seemed to be contemplating his decisions. Although he enjoyed a good fight once in a while, a fight with Bakura may not be such a good idea as he was just working his way into the thief's good books.
Giving Ryou a shrug, he reached over to the knife embedded into the door next to him and gave it a hard tug, effectively pulling it out. Placing it back into the younger twins hands he smiled.
"Alright, I guess that's a good idea. I do hope to get it back though, if not me, than my brother." Ryou smiled back at him, happy he'd stopped an inevitable argument in its tracks.
"Sure, I understand, but for now I think I should probably head to bed, big day ahead and all." Malik nodded his head, said his goodbyes to the strange young man and left to go to his own room to sleep for the night.
Meanwhile, on the ships balcony Marik sat, reading an ancient scripture he'd 'borrowed' from the museum before him and his brother left. He was muttering the translations to himself out loud, logging it into his memory bank. What the young Egyptian failed to notice, was a sneaky shadow making its way towards him. Bakura, needing to find an empty spot to set up his guns, spotted Marik on a nearby bench. He shrugged to himself, seeing there was nowhere else to go and mades his way over to the preoccupied man.
Marik was currently working his way through the 'so called' legend of Kul Elna as the shadow came from behind him and dumped something in front of him, effectively scaring the ever loving crap out of him.
"Shit! What the hell? Could have warned me before plonking that crap down and scaring the shit out of me." Bakura ignored his statement, grinning.
"Sorry mum, didn't mean to scare you." Marik placed the parchment he was holding down on the table and lifted his head to glare at the thief.
"What scares me most Mr Touzoku, is your attitude and manners." Bakura puckered his lips in a mock pout.
"Still angry I held you against your will are you?" Marik scoffed.
"Pfft no, I'm just stating that you act like an asshole is all." Now it was Bakuras' turn to glare at the Egyptian, but he decided not to respond and started to pull out revolvers, pistols, hunting knives, a massive elephant gun, and a half dozen carefully wrapped sticks of dynamite from the gunny-sack he'd previously dumped on the table. Marik gaped at the machinery, confused. "Did I previously miss something? Are we going into battle?" Bakura gave him a blank look.
"The last time I was at that place, everyone I was with died." This wiped the look off Marik's face instantly. Bakura started to dismantle his guns.
"There is something underneath that bloody sand." He stated, frustrated. Marik grinned.
"Yes, I'm hoping to find a book actually, Malik thinks there's treasure. What do you think is out there?" Bakura locked his mahogany gaze on Mariks violet.
"Evil. The Tuaregs and the Bedouin believe that Kul Elna is cursed, they call it, 'the doorway to hell'." Marik gave him a smug look.
"Ahmar is Ossirion. 'Passageway to the underworld' actually." The blonde cocked a 'know-it-all' smile. "I don't believe in fairytales Mr Touzoku, but I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there. The book of the living." Bakura gave him a confused look.
"And the fact that the legends state that the book is made out of pure gold doesn't interest you?"
This interested Marik greatly.
"You know your history." Bakura grinned.
"I know my treasure." Marik then picked up his parchments to head off to bed when Bakura stuck a leg out to stop him in his tracks. Marik stared at Bakura, confusion written all over his face. Bakura then chucked something at him and he barely managed to catch it. The blonde opened his hands to find the key nestled in his palms. He was about to question the thief about why he had it when the idiot decided to open his mouth.
"By the way, you're extremely light-weighted for a male." Then tucked his leg back in while Marik's eyes widened in fury. He then stomped dramatically off to put his papers away, question forgotten. Bakura stared after him with a perplexed look.
"What?...What did I say?"
The thief then heard snickering from behind a nearby luggage crate. Suspicious by the noise, the white-haired man went to see what it was. Reaching behind the crate he pulled out none other than Joey Wheeler, coward extraordinaire.
"Ehh! My ol' pal, what a surprise!" He said nervously in his deep Brooklyn toned voice while he tried to wrestle out of Bakura's grip. "Yer never been a people person 'ave ya?" He fixed the thief with a wide grin. Bakura was not so amused.
"So you're the one leading the others, I should have figured that. So what have you got planned this time weasel? Get them out into the middle of the desert and leave them to rot?" He unconsciously tightened his hold on the struggling man while he put a knife to his neck. Joey shook his head.
"Unfortunately no, these men are smart, payin' me half now and half when I get 'em back to Cairo. So I have to go all da way."
Bakura pulled the knife away, but not before giving him a small cut. Joey automatically reached up to rub at his now subtly bleeding neck.
"Ya never believed in Kul Elna, Toz. Why ya goin' back? The devil 'imself lives out dare."
A loud crash was heard, followed by a load of curses in both Arabic and English, obviously from Marik. Bakura looked back at Joey.
"You hear that? That boy saved my neck. Figured it's the least I could do to keep him and his brother out of trouble." He fixed Joey with a stare that dared him to say anything against his reasons. Joey dared all the same.
"You always did try to act innocent Touzoku." Bakura glared at the insult, then broke out into a wide grin that wiped Joey's straight off his face.
"Let's make us even then shall we?" Bakura said slyly, Joey just looked confused.
"Even?" The thief then grabbed the man and chucked him overboard.
"See you Joey!" he shouted. Joey landed in the water with a loud splash and resurfaced immediately.
"Touzoku, I'm gonna kill ya for dis!" he shouted back at the man watching him from the balcony.
Bakura turned around with a smirk, "Sounds familiar."
He began to work his way back to his shared room when he noticed large wet footprints on the floor underneath him, definitely not his. Scrunching up his nose, the man followed the footprints until they stopped where the carpet begins, leading towards the cabin rooms. His eyes hardened as he realises an important part of what happened last time he went to Kul Elna.
The Tuareg men.
A/N: So there you have the first half of the chapter. By the way, the title means; "The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" and the middle one means; "Passing time"
Hoped you enjoyed it and I'll be sure to have the next half finished asap =)