Surprise update for my little time travel story. Next update will be for Heart of Magic, I think. Fun fact, this is TWEYHO's longest update yet!
Unbeta'd, my mistakes are just reskins.
Bakura's house is as organized a mess as he remembers it being. Meticulously kept piles of RPG clutter and those occult looking books he was nose-deep in whenever he had the chance. He's not entirely sure which Bakura opened the door to them, but it's definitely the normal Bakura who's fussing about everyone having enough homemade (fucking homemade) snacks as everyone puts their characters together. He can't picture Thief King explaining what a kouign-amann is, or how it's different to regular puff pastry. To be fair he doesn't get it either.
He concedes the role of Magician to Anzu's elf the second he remembers it was her final explosive attack that saved all their asses last time. She'd know what to do with it better than him anyway.
The RPG goes a little differently - they actually make it all the way to 'The Dark Master's' castle without the switches taking place, even when they fumble or the enemies get super crits. But then, inevitably, the plucky adventurers cross some imaginary line. Something in Bakura's eyes flickers just a bit, and suddenly the room gets a whole lot bigger and Jounouchi gets to remember how his skin feels when it's replaced with wood. It's a little better than sensing the Shadows at least.
So long as Yugi still voluntarily joins the game and leaves Atem to take his place, this will work. He repeats it in his head, over and over until he does, especially when he realizes the device is still trapped in his pockets, back at his body.
Yugi will finally see 'the other Yugi' for the first time all over again. And he does, and so does everyone else. He looks up at him, wondering if he told Atem his name now, what would that change? Knowing his luck, it'd summon the real Zorc right into Bakura's apartment and he's reasonably sure the deposit won't cover that.
Speaking of Zorc, Bakura's held up his promise so far - he's not appeared yet. He remembers that old figurine used in the first RPG. It's weird, he's always assumed that knowing what the real Zorc looked like would've made that cartoonish thing less scary in retrospect, but if anything the opposite is true. Echoes of the real thing in his design are so painfully obvious now, especially in those creepy staring eyes. But small miracles can happen, since he didn't have that weird snake dick. Maybe he can ask Bakura about that later. Oh man, he can just picture the look on his face...
The Dark Master is kinda weak in comparison. He's perhaps the most stereotypical demon he's ever seen, complete with forked tail and hooves; honestly it's like he just repainted a generic enemy model for an entirely different story. It's almost insulting, especially since Bakura doesn't even bother putting much effort into his line delivery. He could at least try!
Not that Atem seems to mind, or really care, as he directs them to attack. The left arm remains a weak point, one easily dismantled by a team that's actually got some decent levels and spells behind them, and a very familiar NPC pulls himself from the wreckage. He offers to join their party again too, without a moment's hesitation.
He clearly doesn't know about the new truce between Bakura and the Thief King, but he can tell something is different, judging by the glare he fires at him. "How dare you drag more innocent people into this sick game? Where is my master, what have you done with him?"
He reminds himself that the angry healer before them isn't really Bakura, he's just an NPC in this game. Although it's not like he's wrong to yell at him...
The Thief King doesn't flinch. "I don't recall giving you any dialogue options."
Before the NPC can retaliate, Jounouchi grabs his shoulder. "Listen, maybe we shouldn't antagonize this guy -"
The mage rips himself away from Jounouchi's grip, eyes wide with fear, but then suddenly narrowing. "Why don't you look surprised, like the others? Did you know this was going to happen?"
Shit.
He wants to deny it. The others start to defend him, but soon fall silent at his own refusal to answer the question, even Atem and the Bakura above them. Anzu steps forward. "Is that true, Jounouchi...?"
He really, really wants to, but he's just not good enough at lying to pull off one that big. He can't do anything else but nod.
Yugi doesn't say anything at all and that's even worse than Anzu's choked sob and he turns around, desperately wanting to take it back and explain everything but his words freeze in his throat at the force of Atem's eyes from above their world. He's not seeing Yugi's best friend anymore, all he sees is a traitor. It's kinda frightening to see how easy it was for Atem to distrust him.
Suddenly he almost feels bad for the people who've made an enemy of Atem before.
Thief King rolls his eyes, reaches out and raps his knuckles on the top of Jounouchi's figurine. It should hurt, but it's kinda muted instead. It's like someone's got a drum on his head and gave it a whack and Atem's visible anger at Bakura touching him is a little reassuring. "You should really be thanking him, kid - I wasn't even going to bother playing some silly game like this, but he convinced me to give you a sporting chance. He did a little digging, connected some dots, and confronted my host after school. Of course, there's only so much those mortals can do against someone like me. I do hope you're a little less... disappointing as my opponent."
If there's one thing both Bakuras are good at, it's lying. It does the trick as Atem's piercing eyes finally, finally, turn away. He's already sick of pretending everything's okay and he doesn't need Atem second guessing him at every turn...
Still, it's like a repeat of what happened with Hirutani and he doesn't want to remind anyone of that shit. Hell, he doesn't want to remember that either.
He feels Yugi's hand grip his arm at his last insult, that familiar ire of someone daring to insult his friends rising up in his eyes and drowning out whatever doubts he had before. It lessens the ache a little, just enough to make it bearable again. When Anzu and Honda take up a sort of defensive formation beside him, he knows he's been forgiven. If they have, then Atem will follow suit, or at least give him a chance.
The other other Bakura's still suspicious of him though, though he turns away when Bakura speaks again. "I think it's time I got to the point of this Shadow Game - if you win, your friends are all released, including my host and all the others I've captured. I'll acknowledge your strength and stay nice and quiet and out of your way. Of course, I'll still assist my host if he should need me."
"And if you win?"
Bakura's lips curl into a very familiar sneer. "Same thing, just that you acknowledge my strength, and stay out of my way." At Atem's pointed stare at the other figurines, he lets out one of his weird loud-quiet cackles. "I seriously don't give a shit about these people, y'know. To be honest, they're not worth the cost of maintaining their paintwork. They're free to go too."
"They're worth more than you'll ever even begin to comprehend."
He's torn between agreeing with him, and bringing up that the Thief King never really got the chance to in the first place.
The dice roll. There was so much cheating in the last game, and they've been playing by the book so much here, that he almost doesn't notice Bakura's hand throw the dice in that specific way. Nobody else does either, and they don't question the fumble, cheering as the figurine trips and smacks itself on the head with its own pitchfork, doing just enough damage that Anzu's spell can once again deal the final blow, dazzling fireworks firing from her hands at the honest super critical.
The other other Bakura just looks confused. He's not taken his eyes off Bakura even after his promise not to harm his friends. But he doesn't get the chance to object, since Jounouchi is pulled back into his own body, along with everyone else and the board falls silent. Bakura's slumped over the desk by the computer screen and like before Atem doesn't hesitate to rush to his side, though perhaps he's a little more guarded than last time.
"Are you alright?"
"I think so... I'm so sorry about that."
"It's alright. The important thing is we're all safe now."
Last time, they scrambled to get Bakura to hospital as blood stained the board and the pain in his hand became rapidly apparent, and spent the night stuck in the waiting room as Bakura's hand was put back together (and it never did heal quite right, he'd seen him rubbing it in cold weather even years later).
This time the board is clean and Bakura's hand is unscathed, and it's just a matter of wondering where the Ring came from (a gift from his father back in Egypt) and if the spirit within will keep his word (of course he will, or he'll face retribution). Most importantly, of course they're still friends, all is forgiven and don't you forget it!
He gets the distinct feeling Atem's relieved at not having to deal any Penalties this time too, though he can't tell where it's coming from.
Everyone relocates to the couch once all the figurines and maps are stowed away. He's never noticed before how easy it was for everyone to slip back into the normal routine after all these crazy events. He kinda feels like an outsider for not being able to follow suit, not that he needs any help with that. Bakura has no trouble pretending, it seems, but he catches his eyes a few times and it helps.
But still. He knows what's coming just around the corner and he can't relax, not completely. Pegasus, Shizuka's eyes, Battle City. And after that...
They're just kids.
A bunch of stupid kids talking about school and homework and what games they all like or dislike and all pretending that they didn't just have their lives on the line, that it's not happened dozens of times before and that it's not going to happen again in the near future. They shouldn't be dealing with ANY of this bullshit, and he's including the Kaibas AND the Ishtars in that too. But it's their destiny, apparently. Their 'fate'.
Fuck 'fate'. If someone or something chose for all this shit to happen, chose to erase the people of Kul Elna or desecrate Malik's back, to make Kaiba and Mokuba orphans, that someone or something better hope they never run into him.
He comes back into the conversation when Anzu mentions something about how that 'Duel Monsters' card game's really taken off since Yugi and Kaiba's duel. Come to think of it, he needs to make his deck. He didn't come back with his 'old' one and while it's going to be fun as hell playing the expert he knows it won't feel right until he gets that Red Eyes back.
It's just Bakura and Jounouchi now, finishing off what few snacks were left behind. Bakura makes the excuse that he wants to talk to Jounouchi about their meeting the day before, which they buy without question. Yugi hangs back for a bit, quietly asking something of Bakura who can only shrug in response, before hugging Jounouchi and saying he'll see him later. He holds onto Yugi maybe a second too long before letting him go.
Officially they need to plan for the upcoming storm, but his brain's a little frazzled. Some little French looking pastry things with chocolate on top and a name he can't even pretend he can pronounce need to be eaten before they spoil in the morning, so he and Bakura wolf them down instead of talking. Damn tasty, though as he chews something less ominous comes to mind. "Wasn't Bakura supposed to surrender before we reach the final boss?"
"He did - 'The Dark One' wasn't the final boss, just one we moved to the gate. If we'd played the campaign properly, you would've met him if you took the dungeon route through the castle. Bakura never bothered with a model for him last time and we didn't have time to make a unique one for this game."
"Oh."
"He's actually a sort of bat-spider hybrid, at least in my preliminary sketches. It's pretty cool, he can inflict poison that does damage to you in relation to how much damage you do to him each turn and if your beast taming abilities are high enough then there's a chance you can end the fight by taming him and -"
Jounouchi shoves one of the pastries in his mouth - yeah, he didn't want to talk about the new future yet but that doesn't mean he's going to let himself be stuck here overnight under the weight of Bakura's extensive bestiary either. Bakura doesn't look too impressed to be interrupted, though that doesn't stop him from eating it anyway.
"I saw you n' Yugi talking before everyone else left. What did he want?"
"He wanted to know what the real point of the game was. To tell the truth, I had no idea what to say."
Of course Yugi would wonder something like that. His grades might be hovering dangerously close to Jounouchi's on a good day but he's smart in a way you can't test on paper, and almost as curious as Bakura is. He's obviously already figured out that the Thief King has no reason to challenge them in the first place, or that he'd be so generous with the terms of the Game, like losing or winning didn't really matter. He even gave Atem a loophole.
They could always chalk it up to territory shenanigans, or sizing up the competition. Yeah, that could work. It's damn well better than 'he's your enemy from three thousand years ago who just got ripped from nothingness and put back a decade in the past, along with two of your friends, and he's decided that the third time ain't the charm so it's easier to just go with it'.
"What's Bakura doing now?"
It's almost cute in a super creepy way how Bakura holds the Ring in his lap like a sleeping kitten. "Just invoking the Shadows put us all at risk of drawing his attention, then when you consider who he was playing against... I think he was shielding us. Now he's just resting."
"Well, wasn't he helpful for once?" It's a little more bitter than he means it to sound, though maybe he does because a few good deeds doesn't make up for what Thief King did to them. Either way Bakura doesn't look offended.
"He's doing more than I've asked of him, and it's better than nothing at all."
"Yeah..."
It's almost midnight now. He should really go home, even though if he remembers correctly, his dad ended up dragging some of his equally drunk friends home that night and he didn't get a wink of sleep.
He doesn't remember falling asleep on the couch, but he's grateful to wake up under a blanket the next morning.