AN: The ancient Egypt arc of this fic is over, and this chapter picks up in the modern day part of the canon, starting with season 0. Back in the first chapter, I said that this fic would hit upon many canon events. In the AE arc, there weren't as many canon events to explore, because much of Thief King Bakura's life isn't covered in the canon. But now that we're up to the modern day part of the canon, this fic will be much more centered around canon events.
I always intended this fic to be a sort of "what you didn't see" type of fic- something that both filled in the gaps between canon events, and also explained the characters' feelings about canon events. So I'll be talking about canon events- sometimes in detail- when those events are things that I feel are relevant to the main characters' development. I'm trying to keep this as canon-compliant as I can, so things in this fic that happen "in between" canon events will be things that technically could have happened without breaking canon.
"There are some crimes so horrific that if you survive, the only justice is revenge." - "I Spit on Your Grave (Day of the Woman)" 2010 remake tagline
There was a flash of light, and suddenly, he could see the world again.
Bakura knew what that meant. A few times before, a person had found the Ring- a person strong enough to hold it- and Bakura's soul had thus been released into the person's body.
But each time it had happened before, Bakura had soon found that it was not the right time, and not the right person, and that his time to collect the Millennium items had not yet come. Oh, he had tried- but it was no use. He knew now that he would not be able to resume his mission until the Pharaoh returned. And he had no idea when the Pharaoh would return. Bakura didn't even know how long he'd been waiting. It was difficult to keep track of time when the large majority of it was spent trapped alone with a demon inside of an item made from death. He only knew that it had been long and long.
But, as with every time he got a new vessel, hope arose within him. Maybe this was the time. Maybe it was finally time to complete his quest...and to find his partner.
Sometimes, in the seemingly eternal darkness and solitude of the Ring, Bakura had found it difficult just to keep his thoughts straight. He struggled now to pull his mind together. He had to be alert; he had to find out if the time for his vengeance had finally come.
The one that had taken the Ring this time was a teenage boy. He had immediately had a good feeling about this one...but that could have just been wishful thinking. So he waited inside the boy, looking through the eyes, waiting for an answer.
He had felt a jolt the first time he'd heard his own name.
"Bakura..."
Had someone recognized him somehow? But that was impossible...
For a reason he could not comprehend, the boy he inhabited immediately responded to the name.
Bakura had no idea what was going on, and he reeled with confusion.
But soon, he discovered what it was all about. Apparently, the body he now inhabited was named Bakura Ryou.
And wasn't that an odd coincidence? So much so that it couldn't possibly be a mere coincidence.
"Bakura" had been quite an odd name in ancient Egypt. He had never heard of anyone else who had his name. His own parents couldn't quite explain why they had named him "Bakura."
"It just felt right," his mother had said, shrugging.
"Maybe the gods wanted us to give him this name," his father had said.
His mother had scoffed at that. She had never had much faith in the gods. She had always been the more skeptical of the two...from what little Bakura could remember of her.
But maybe his father had been right. Maybe this had been ordained since the moment of his birth. Maybe, from the start of his life, he was meant to eventually live in the body of this Bakura Ryou, and to fulfill his destiny through him.
For a time, he hid inside the boy, wanting to learn more about the new body that he now inhabited. And learn things he did.
He learned that the boy was polite, and shy, and unassuming. And he wondered at the fact that such a meek creature would be able to hold the Ring...yet the boy must have had a hidden strength. Otherwise, attempting to wear the Ring would have burned him alive, as it had others before him.
Bakura also learned that the body that he now inhabited had lost his mother and his sister in a car crash. And that his vessel's father was constantly away on business, ignoring his son almost completely. His vessel was practically an orphan- a child with no real family- like Bakura himself had been.
And with this, he felt a surge of empathy. But he pushed it down, because he was not sure yet. Not sure if this body was the right one.
He had also learned that Ryou was actually the boy's first name, not his last. Bakura was now in a different time and a different culture. In this culture, apparently, the familial name was said first, while the given name was said last. It was the last name of Bakura's new vessel that matched his own first name.
But he did not believe that this changed the significance of it. He wondered briefly if the boy was a descendent of his. He wondered this even more when Bakura Ryou stepped in front of a mirror, and Bakura looked through the eyes of his vessel and saw for the first time what his new body looked like. There weren't many similarities...but there was the hair. The boy had long white hair. While not exactly the same color as his own light gray hair from his previous life, it was similar, and it was quite a rarity to have such a hair color.
Could it truly be possible that this boy was a descendant of his family line? Of course, he had never had any children of his own. And obviously, his village had been destroyed, and he had been the only one left. But it wasn't as if everyone who had ever lived in his village had stayed there for life. It was entirely possible that he'd had great grandparents, or distant cousins, or aunts and uncles who had left the village before the destruction- people he didn't remember, but who had gone away and spread the genes of his family.
So was this boy his destiny? A part of his family line? Or a combination of both?
He didn't know, but he felt more and more sure that this was the right one- the one he'd been meant to find all along.
It wasn't long before his slight doubts about whether this boy was the one he was meant for were totally assuaged. Because he soon learned that Bakura Ryou was acquainted with another teenager- one who also possessed a Millennium item. The two went to the same hall of learning- a school, is what it was called.
Of course, the Ring gave Bakura the power to detect other Millennium items. But there was more than that. With the power of the Ring, he could sense presences- he could reach out with his own ba, and know the soul of the one who held the other item.
And this other teen, the one who went to school with his vessel- Mutou Yugi, the other was called- held the Millennium Puzzle. And inside the Millennium Puzzle was the soul of Pharaoh Atem. Even if Bakura hadn't been able to use the power of the Ring to sense the soul of the Pharaoh, he would have known it, because the Pharaoh had sealed himself inside the Puzzle before Bakura's own death, and Bakura had witnessed it. Though Atem had not been responsible for the murder of his village- Atem must have been only a child at the time, for he was the son of the Pharaoh who ruled when Bakura's village was destroyed- Pharaoh Atem had known about it by the end. Bakura himself had told Pharaoh Atem before the final battle. And still Pharaoh Atem had attacked Bakura, eventually weakening him to the point where he'd been forced to seal his own soul inside the Ring, condemning him to wait in darkness for millennia.
Bakura could feel the closeness between Yugi and the Pharaoh. He could feel how much Yugi wanted to help the Pharaoh. And for this, he hated Yugi almost as much as he hated the Pharaoh.
And anger flashed in Bakura's soul- not at the Pharaoh, nor at this Yugi person, but at his own vessel. Because he could feel that his vessel thought of this teen- this Yugi- as a friend. Could it be that his new body- the one who had always been meant for only him to possess- wanted to help the Pharaoh, and the new body that the Pharaoh possessed? Despite the fact that he and his vessel shared similar looks, a similar past, and possibly a shared ancestry? How could the gods condemn him to such a fate?
And, yes, his anger was at the gods, really- how could he be angry at this body that he possessed? This body that was nothing to him other than a means to get his revenge? Why should he wish to have the same closeness with his vessel that the Pharaoh had with his?
Because it's beneficial, Bakura answered himself. If he could get his vessel on his side...get this body to help him, and turn him against the Pharaoh...
And so, he went into the mind of his vessel, and began speaking to him there. Bakura told the boy of his past, of the murder of his family. He spoke of his pain, and of his great sense of loss. These feelings were things that he had only ever confided to Mahes. But it meant nothing- it was only manipulation. The fact that he and this boy had a similar past was only a thing that he could use to create sympathy and bend the boy to his purposes.
It had been so long since Bakura had had anyone to talk to. But still, this was all part of the plan, and nothing else.
And Ryou- after these conversations, Bakura had started to think of his vessel as "Ryou," but only to avoid confusion, he told himself- was easy to manipulate in this way. For Ryou did feel sympathy for Bakura's plight, just as Bakura had planned.
Bakura continued to learn more about Ryou. Apparently, Ryou had been quite interested in the dark arts and the occult before Bakura had come along.
How do you like the dark arts now, Ryou?
It was only another thing that the two had in common. And still it meant nothing, aside from being another way to draw closer to the boy and manipulate his will. After all, a person who was not possessed of such an interest in the dark arts might not react so calmly when he was spoken to by an ancient spirit that he was lodging in his body.
Ryou thought of Bakura as "the voice," which Bakura found slightly amusing. Far less amusing was the fact that Bakura had begun to think of Ryou as his landlord, as opposed to merely a vessel, a body that he could use.
And still, even with all his efforts, Bakura could not totally pull Ryou away from his so-called friendship with Yugi and Yugi's other school friends. It was quite obvious to Bakura that Ryou was merely a hanger-on- not part of the inner circle, however desperately Ryou wanted to be. Yet Ryou seemed oblivious to this fact.
They don't really care about you, Ryou.
And Bakura had almost said, "But I do." But that wasn't true; his landlord was just a tool to him, that was all.
Yet Bakura had delved deeper into Ryou's mind, trying to see why Ryou was so attached to these "friends" of his. A useless activity, but he was curious. And then, in searching the depths of Ryou's mind, Bakura found that his landlord did know- Ryou knew that he was an outsider, one who didn't truly fit into the group. And Bakura discovered that Ryou's greatest wish was to always be with his friends and to play with them forever.
And soon, Bakura was presented with an opportunity to give this to Ryou- in a way that would benefit the both of them.
Ryou had been playing a game with his friends, and Bakura had taken over the body and attempted to turn all of Ryou's friends- including Yugi- into dolls. To Bakura, it seemed to be the perfect solution- something that would make both himself and Ryou happy. The Pharaoh would be powerless this way, which would be good for Bakura. And Ryou could have his friends in his possession, able to play with them whenever he wanted. Ryou could control them, and no longer be an outsider- and that would be good for Ryou.
Now you can play with your friends forever, Ryou. Just like you've always wanted.
And yet, somehow, this was not acceptable to his vessel. Even if Bakura hadn't felt it in Ryou's mind, he would have known it by Ryou's actions, for Ryou tried to regain control of the body during the game.
Bakura tried to retain control of the body, to do what was best for both of them.
But Ryou had shown his inner strength- the strength he must have possessed all along, for he would not have been able to survive holding the Ring without it- and Ryou had overridden Bakura and taken control of one of the body's hands.
Ryou had used the hand to purposefully fumble dice rolls, knowingly ruining Bakura's plan. Outraged, and not understanding why his own landlord would betray him so, Bakura had used all his will to stab his- their- hand onto a spire on the game board, impaling it. But all Bakura's efforts came to nothing, for in the end, Bakura failed, and all of Ryou's "friends"- including Yugi- were freed from their imprisonment within the dolls.
Bakura didn't understand why Ryou had done this- why was Ryou not grateful for his effort to allow him to keep his friends forever?
But this was a pointless question, and trying to consider it made him feel slightly unhinged. So he turned his mind to other things, and in doing so, something new occurred to him. He suddenly realized that he didn't need Ryou's cooperation. Therefore, there was no reason for him to try to bring Ryou around to his side. Bakura was the stronger one; he could possess Ryou's body whenever he wanted to.
This fact should have been so obvious; why hadn't Bakura realized it before? Regardless, now that he'd had this realization, Bakura resolved that he would stop trying to get close to his landlord- no, not his landlord, his vessel. Bakura had the power to use the body for whatever he wanted; therefore, emotional closeness to the first inhabitant of the body was not necessary to his plans.
Of course, he would protect the body- his body now- from death, because if his body died, then he would be confined to the Ring again. And that basic protection would be the extent of it. He didn't need sympathy or cooperation from Ryou- no, the body wasn't Ryou, it was only a vessel, its name didn't matter. Bakura could possess the body any time he wanted, and that was enough to carry out his plans. And there was no need to take the feelings of his vessel (his traitorous vessel, who befriended the Pharaoh) into consideration.
And even as he told himself this, he did the opposite, for reasons that it did not occur to him to think about. Because Bakura was not the type to think about these sorts of things- at least not since he'd witnessed everyone he'd ever cared for being burned alive in front of him.
When one of Ryou's mentors at the school had been cruel to him, yelling at him and threatening to cut off the boy's hair, Bakura had inexplicably gone into a rage and had used his powers to seal that mentor's soul into a figurine before the mentor could do anything to Ryou (his body, Bakura's body). Bakura had felt an instinctive urge to try to protect Ryou (no, the vessel) from humiliation and unfair treatment. And he couldn't explain it.
Why did Bakura feel so protective of his vessel, even when the vessel's life was not in danger? It was not a question that Bakura wanted to contemplate.
And the worst part was that his landlord (vessel) had again not been happy about what Bakura had done for him. Bakura had saved Ryou from being unjustly abused, and yet Ryou (no, his vessel) had seemed horrified at what Bakura had done. Bakura could not wrap his mind around it. He could not understand his own actions, or his landlord's reaction, and he began to think that maybe he really had gone insane after the thousands of years he'd spent in the darkness of a Millennium item made from his family's blood.
And yet...his vessel had been grateful on some deeper level, even as he was outwardly appalled by the occurrence. Bakura knew, because by virtue of sharing the same body, he had complete access into his landlord's confused and conflicted mind. And what was he to make of the gratitude that his landlord felt?
But this didn't matter. What did matter was the fact that Bakura was slowly finding it possible to think more clearly. And with a more coherent mind, Bakura was now able to recognize the fact that his vessel could be an obstacle to him. Yes, Ryou had shown at least once that he had enough power to override Bakura at times. This was definitely something that merited Bakura's consideration.
So Bakura put all of his efforts into developing the ability to control this body completely. He had to ignore any feelings of sentimental protectiveness that he'd had for this other soul that lived in his body. And he especially had to ignore Ryou's feelings towards him. He had to ignore Ryou's sympathy for him, and he had to ignore Ryou's feelings of gratefulness for the times he'd tried to help him. He knew that he had to ignore Ryou's feelings on these matters because they were obviously false and misleading; it was clear whose side Ryou was really on.
And so he concentrated on learning to control the body, and eventually he- he, his vessel, Ryou, his landlord, whoever- entered a Duel Monsters tournament. Yugi had entered the same tournament, and so had Ryou's other friends. And Bakura knew that this tournament would bring him closer to his goals and would help lead him to the other Millennium Items.
And he stared through the eyes of his vessel, not wanting to miss anything, yet not wanting to make his presence known to anyone- not even to his vessel, his betraying vessel.
And he witnessed his vessel in company of his "friends," as they each showed off their favorite cards. And his vessel (Ryou) had shown his favorite card- Change of Heart.
And could that be anything other than a reference to he, himself, Bakura? Maybe he was reading too much into it...but no...there was only one thing it could mean. Bakura knew that Ryou knew that he was inhabited by an ancient spirit. A spirit who sometimes took over his body and acted quite differently than Ryou himself would have acted.
Change of Heart...and it was Ryou's favorite.
It was enough. There was something there. And as usual, when emotions were involved, Bakura acted without thinking.
He'd taken over Ryou's body then, unable to help himself, knowing there was a bond between them, knowing that Ryou wanted to help him on some level, and feeling elated for reasons he himself couldn't understand.
Once he'd accomplished his goal, he'd let go of his control of the body- just for the time being, always only for the time being.
And dimly, on a level somewhere below conscious thought, Bakura realized that something in his connection with Ryou seemed to be grounding him, to be bringing him out of the isolation and insanity that he'd been trapped in for most of the last three thousand years. It had been happening gradually ever since Bakura had first felt a bond with Ryou, and Bakura was slowly rising up, coming back to himself.
And he had to be careful, because this boy's loyalty was not to him- not exclusively to him, not yet. The boy was still faithful to his friends. Would die for them, if necessary. Bakura could sense that much easily, as easily as he could sense the boy's sympathy for his own plight.
But maybe there was a strategic advantage in telling Ryou more, in creating more sympathy...
And that was the only reason why Bakura eventually broke, why he spoke to Ryou of himself again. And this time, Bakura told Ryou of his search for Mahes. He'd already told Ryou of his past, of his murdered village...but never of Mahes, never of that. And because their minds were connected within a shared body, Ryou's empathy filled Bakura's soul, and caused Bakura to try to pull away from that which he had previously sought. But Ryou didn't want to let him, and Bakura was beginning to regret every conversation he'd had with the child.
But Bakura had no other choice than to carry on, because he was stuck with this body and had to make do with it. And eventually he realized that his openness had actually furthered his goals. That it had, in actuality, all been worth it.
He learned that fact when the Ring was tossed away from Ryou and came inexorably back to him, through a kind of faith that was no particular will of either of them. Previously, he'd felt a need to force his landlord to keep the Ring, even going as far as to use his powers to stab the points of the Ring into the flesh of Ryou's chest so that the boy would be unable to remove it. But this was clearly no longer necessary. The Ring could not be separated from Ryou now, no matter who removed it or how far it was flung. He belonged to Ryou and Ryou belonged to him, and he- and the Ring- would come back to Ryou no matter the circumstances. And he couldn't pretend that the deeper bond between them had nothing to do with that fact.
And somehow, that was what he most remembered about the tournament; that he had managed to secure the complete control- trust, caring- of his landlord. It almost seemed an afterthought that he'd also managed to collect a Millennium item by the end.
Even though the item was really the most important thing. He'd taken the Millennium Eye from a man named Pegasus. The Ring had led him there, and automatically, he had reached out with his ba, checking for Mahes's presence, for he knew that Mahes would be near the Millennium items. And he had immediately sensed that Pegasus was not Mahes, and that Pegasus had nothing to do with Mahes. So Bakura had ripped the Millennium Eye away from him, taking back another piece of what was rightfully his.
And then he had walked on- walked on with Ryou as his semi-reluctant, morally conflicted companion and landlord- and he searched for the remaining five Millennium items...a search which he was sure would eventually lead him to his partner.
AN: Sorry this chapter is so late! I had a lot of trouble with it, and I'm still not sure I'm happy with the way it turned out. Of course, reviews are loved! And don't worry...Kura will find his Mari in the next chapter.