A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: White Swan

A/N: Dusting away and cleaning up. I hope you guys appreciate my desire to never have a free moment from my laptop.

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Bakura was 'not' a computer expert, but when the program came on he immediately realized all manners of threat. Once the headset was on he had seen a vivid blue sky above him. But having spent so much time being forced out of control of his own body, it made the awareness of change evident. Something that Yugi wouldn't have picked up on due to his beneficial relationship with the Pharaoh. Where as Bakura near instantly felt the loss of control of his own body realized that 'this' was how the coma was done.

Yugi probably 'did' start off just playing the game, and got hypnotized into the state he was in, nearing the end of the game. While Bakura looked about in concern at his new environment. Which included Anzu standing to his left her eyes staring unfocused ahead of herself.

"Anzu?" Bakura gently called out as he reached to shake the girl as he looked about their new setting, a village square filled with NPCs. The village looked rather similar to a village found near a desert, even the air had the dry feel of one. Despite it being a sensation brought by the pod, the whole feel of the place had a calming affect on Bakura; it was much like being home in an ancient sense. He helped Anzu sit up as she came around, and she looked about, baffled.

"Bakura? What happened? Is Yugi here?"

"More than likely not. I would fathom that Mokuba brought us into the original game as a way for us to get used to the way the game is played before we venture into more dangerous areas. Even so, we need to get going, there's no telling when we'll be noticed and acted against."

"Right, let's get going," Anzu nodded and started to take a step when she noticed the duel disk attached to her arm, or a very old version of one. "A duel disk?"

"I think it's more of a very high end deck holder, there's no field to place the cards if there's a battle. Simply the holder to contain them which makes sense I suppose, since pulling it from a pouch would be counter productive in a battle situation," Bakura pointed out as he began walking with Anzu in tow.

"Bakura, are you ok with this?" Anzu asked, as they walked about uncontested by the NPCs despite not being dressed like them, as she caught up to the taller teen.

"With what, may I ask?" He asked politely, turning to face her as they walked along the dusty street.

"Well you got very distraught earlier about what happened at the hospital, I don't want you to be forced to putting yourself in a situation that might make you have to do something that goes against your nature." Anzu was trying very hard to tiptoe around the subject, unsure of how to handle Bakura's take on his history.

"That's kind of you Anzu, I'll be fine though, Yugi needs us after all." Bakura replied with a faint smile on his lips as he continued to move forward.

"Bakura, it's just that the way you ran off… I don't want you to think we hold that against you." Anzu felt very uneasy about bringing this up; though she trusted Bakura, knowing what the other Bakura, the Ring's Spirit, was like made her edgy. Yugi was displaying several characteristics that the Other Yugi was known for, including putting his hands in his pockets when he wasn't using them or having his enthusiasm tone down. Though it was unfair, there was no telling who or what the 'real' Bakura was like since he had been possessed and used for a long time. Figuring out who the 'real' Bakura wasn't going to be easy.

"You're uneasy about bringing that subject up," Bakura noted his head down, with his eyes hidden by his white bangs. "I understand, it's hard to travel with someone who may stick a knife in your back."

"It's not that Bakura," Anzu replied before quick stepping so she was in front of him so he had to face her. "Bakura, I know how Yugi was before the Puzzle, better than Jounouchi and Honda even. I can see how life after the Items has changed him, but I know it affects you as well. We know you would never betray us, that you're a good person, regardless of what the spirit made you do. But I don't want you to throw yourself into situations that are going to bother you simply because you feel you have to make up for something to Yugi."

"You don't know what I did, what I'm capable of doing…" Bakura began only to be cut off by Anzu.

"As long as you don't want to be the person who did all those bad things, then that's all that matters to me or Yugi. Bakura, it would tear Yugi apart if you got hurt or killed because of him, I know him, he'd blame himself over that and I don't want that to happen to him. But more than that, I don't want to see you or anyone else on a self-destructive path simply based out of guilt. If nothing else, please, just don't give up on yourself. Don't keep saying you're a bad person or expecting bad things will happen to you just because of the past. We believe in you, so don't stop believing in yourself."

"You should worry more about Yugi than myself; the way I was before, I know how cruel the heart of a human being can be. Yugi does not like to acknowledge that it exists, but it is there. Some people deserve to be utterly destroyed," Bakura pointed out quietly only to get yanked on his sweater and dragged down to face an annoyed Anzu. "… I meant someone else! Not me! Not Me!"

Anzu gave a smart nod before she began an actual 'search' for Yugi while Bakura recovered in his little emotional cubbyhole. "Excuse me? Have you seen a guy this tall, with three colors in his hair around here?" She stuck her hand above her head as she asked the first random person she met.

"Ah yes, he went to the Arena, and defeated the Champion there with his mage," the man, dressed rather commonly, stopped to answer her question. While it was always possible that he would ignore her, there was no clear clue to how detailed Kaiba had made this game. The fact that a random NPC was 'capable' of answering showed the level of detail Kaiba had applied when he built this system.

"Really?" Bakura was a bit surprised; then again maybe Mokuba didn't reset the game? So all the information Yugi stored was still accessible?

"Do you know where he went after he won?" Anzu asked excitedly.

"Not really, but you can ask someone at the Arena, they should know," the NPC replied, going so far as to point towards said Arena as the pair replied the same as though they had been talking to an living person.

"Thank you!"

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ The Arena \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"Excuse me? We heard a guy recently beat your champion, and we need to find him." Anzu asked the ticket attendant at the first booth she came to, while Bakura took to discreetly looking over the area. It had something of almost primitive version of the Roman coliseum, not that it mattered to Bakura; he walked among the people, gazing at a great manner of things. Did Kaiba actually create all of this on his own with codes? Speaking of the devil in white, was that Kaiba over there in the shadowed archway of one of the hallways? Bakura walked towards the archway, but he quickly noted differences between Kaiba and this stranger; for starters hair color, whatever color this person had for hair, it wasn't brown. Dark hair became black in shadows more quickly than lighter shades of hair color, so whoever this person was, he wasn't Kaiba. Bakura stopped before he reached the archway his whole posture more cautious as he took in the stranger's business suit that stood out from the rest of the game.

"Hello?"

"You want to save Yugi."

There was something completely off about this 'character' as far as Bakura was concerned. The clothes was completely out of touch with the tone of the game, at least from what Bakura could tell so far. As such he was already wary of meeting 'new' people, especially new people who knew why he was here. Now it was fully possible that this was a helper NPC. Just a program that was designed to help those who were out of their depths or lost. Maybe even something that Mokuba might have thrown together in short order due the severity of the situation. However; this persons' clothes and his awareness of Yugi while the stating of facts and not the instant offering of assistance did nothing to help Bakura.

"And you would be…?"

"The true heir of Kaiba Corporation, Kaiba Noa."

Bakura didn't bother expressing his surprise despite never having heard about such a person. Then again he doubted he would ever have been interested in the life and family of a business tycoon who built weapons for his wealth.

"So why is Yugi trapped in this game then?"

"I needed to have a talk with Kaiba and he never steps into this world. However; I have it on the highest authority that he has a strong interest in Yugi." Noa answered sliding a hand into his business suit coat.

"If this is between you and Kaiba, why bring Yugi into this?"

"That's not something you need to know about," Noa replied casually before tossing a card to Bakura's feet. "You need that if you want to get past the desert."

"Why should I trust you?" Bakura asked instead of retrieving the card.

"If you knew who Seto really was you'd trust me." Noa replied sedately only to raise an eyebrow at Bakura's snort of sour amusement.

"I know more about Seto than you ever could, which is why I don't trust either of you."

Well that got Noa at a loss for words, so instead of replying, Noa retreated further into the darkness, seemingly disappearing into the wall, leaving Bakura to stare at the card before slowly bending down and picking it up to study it.

"Bakura!" Anzu's voice came from behind him; apparently she had finished her conversation. "What are you doing? Did something happen?"

"I just got a visitor, someone claiming to be the true heir of Kaiba Corp," Bakura explained as he straightening up to face her.

"What?"

"I honestly have no clue," Bakura began as he started to walk away from the Arena, Anzu in tow. "I never did any real research on Kaiba Corp, before or even after Kaiba took over. But we both know that Kaiba is adopted; if there's an actual heir to the company, why was he adopted?"

"Maybe he's illegitimate?" Anzu suggested; after all it wasn't unheard of for powerful men to sleep around. "I never really paid much attention to Kaiba Corp until after Kaiba took over since it was always about weapons until then."

"I don't know, if he's not exaggerating then it gets creepy, he looks about 20 years old, which puts him a few years older than Kaiba. Also, it strikes me that he's more like a full blood Japanese version of how Kaiba looks, like how his eyes are more slanted. Though his hair is too bright to be a traditional black or brown color, so either he 'is' illegitimate or..."

That was right, Anzu had to remind herself that, despite having pale Japanese tone skin, Kaiba was half Egyptian and his eyes reflected it by being slightly rounder then someone with full Asian blood. Which was probably a way he validated keeping his eyes narrowed and focused all the time. "Still if this involves Kaiba, why bring Yugi into it?"

"I think we're going to have to wait to find out," Bakura stated as they reached the thick of the market place again, while he seemed to increase his focus on a card in his hand.

"Oh! Bakura we need a card to get across the desert," Anzu grabbed Bakura's wrist to stop the teen from walking.

"What?" Bakura asked taking his eyes off the card to look at Anzu.

"Yeah, apparently the prize at the Arena allows for people to travel the desert," Anzu began while Bakura brought his focus back on the card in his hand. Holding the card so she could see the front even as she spoke of its name.

"Niwatori!" Anzu exclaimed in a relieved voice as she leaned over to get a closer view of the card. "Yugi won the one that was in the Arena, they said that we would have to wait a week before another tournament would begin!" But even with that information, Bakura didn't lighten up from the encounter, he seemed so lost in thought that Anzu finally pulled him to a stop and forced him to look at her. "What is it Bakura? If we're friends then tell me what's bothering you."

"A game…" Bakura finally stated before pushing past her to walk towards the desert. "This is just a game to Noa, that's how all nobility are, it's why wars happen. Because the people in charge don't care about the civilians, nobility only stays with nobility and nobility never fight in wars, so they don't care about the common person. He's using Yugi as bait to bring Kaiba here, but knowing those types he'll exploit Yugi until Yugi breaks."

His tone was rather chilling, a half remembered tone that spoke of dark times and darker memories. His bangs once more hiding his eyes as he thought back to those un-welcomed memories of his ancient past. The concern gnawing at Anzu made her reach out and take a hold of his hand, giving it a light squeeze to hopefully remind him that he was not alone. "Bakura…"

"I'll be fine, I won't let these memories control me. Don't worry," he replied giving her a faint smile before they finally reached the edge of the desert. "So we have to cross the desert, are we looking for anything specific?"

"It looks like a tower, but it's actually just a labyrinth, but if this is Yugi's file then we won't have to battle anything because he already fought everything."

Bakura nodded before holding up the card in his hand, "Niwatori, come forth!" he commanded, and in a bright light two birds just like on the card appeared before them. Pleased with the effect he stood beside one ready to help Anzu mount the bird when he noticed this 'look' on her face. "Well climb on," he instructed as he held the bird still for Anzu. Only she made no move to do so making him tilt his head to the side a bit in curiosity.

"No!" She blurted it out, as a slight bit of pink started to grow on her cheeks. And she began tugging in an embarrassed way at the mid thigh high skirt she had been wearing.

"… this is going to turn into another Pegasus Tower climb, through the desert isn't it? I'm going to have to go through this blindfolded…"

"No, you don't have to be blindfolded for the ride, just ride in front of me…"

"But… But you hang out with Yugi, would you think to wear shorts at least?" Bakura asked timidly.

"I didn't think I'd be chicken back riding!" She countered defensively.

"But you hang out with Yugi, who has weird things happen to him," Bakura countered her counter.

"Bakura, Yugi wants to see you alive, get on your own bird and don't watch me or I'll have to break the bad news to him."

"Yes ma'am."

Bunny Bakura led Lioness Anzu on through the desert, while keeping their eyes peeled for the tower, while Bakura was feeling like he was on the march to his slaughter.

But after some time of traveling they did come across the tower that was supposed to lead them to the end of the game. It stuck out of the ground, looking from a distance like a monolith to desolation. It wavered only via the waves of simulated heat that rose from the false sun, but they knew it was real, and they had to reach it.

Anzu looked down at the back of the head of her bird as she thought about the situation, Bakura's discovery making her nervous about Yugi's condition. Not just for Yugi, but also for Bakura and even Kaiba, how could the trio have such terrible family records? Yugi losing the two family members that were closest to him with his father wanting him to leave the only friends he had. Bakura with, well with everything from his ancient past to his current life losses, he really had no one to rely on other than himself. And Kaiba was just a mess, though she didn't know about his ancient past beyond the fact he existed and served the Pharaoh. But having his modern parents die at an early point in his life, his closer kin rob and abandon him and now this?

Now this was getting to Bakura, the desert, the feel of desert wind on his body, the sun over head, the sense of being angered by someone who carried their position arrogantly. The part of him that wrote stories for his Monster World games kept trying to write up the bio for Noa, kept trying to create angst ridden histories to justify a stunt like this, while the thief in him just snorted that it would be the High Priests lot in life to be forced to live with people just like him. Yugi wouldn't hurt Noa if he could avoid it, and if he didn't know Kaiba was there, then he was more then likely going to take the blunt of anything tossed at him, just because he wasn't an aggressive person by default, giving Noa an advantage over Kaiba.

Anzu's mind said it was getting hot in the game, something that impressed her more about Kaiba's skill with a computer. Well they 'were' in a desert and the fact that her mind was being tricked so well was impressive. Then again, maybe it was in the real world; maybe there was a private temperature control for each pod so a person could have a more in depth experience? She pulled off her small, light maroon colored jacket and admired how already she felt a bit cooler with the cloth not on her body. Then she noticed that Bakura seemed to have the same thought; he was tugging off his sweater and un-tucking his shirt. He didn't even seem to be paying attention to what he was doing when he unbuttoned it and pulled 'that' off too.

'Dear Gods if you love me let Bakura have a normal body type', she thought as her hormones kicked in, reminding her of what the Thief King's chest had been like; if Bakura was anything like that… "Kill me…"

"What!?" Bakura's ears were still quick as ever and he turned his mount around in alarm when he heard that.

… Nope not hard enough to wash clothes on, but he 'did' have a chest hard enough to eat a nice sushi dinner off of… "I'm going to get you back for this Gods." She growled to herself while politely turning her gaze away. That earned her a confused look from Bakura and a shrug as he resumed the trek for the remaining distance to the tower. Why couldn't she have more female friends? Boys were so useless at times like this!

They rode the last bit of the journey in silence until they finally reached the massive engraved doors of the tower, etchings of what looked like leafless vines reaching for the sky. Around them evening was closing in on them, taking the light from the sky as they finally dismounted their birds and walked to the great doors. Bakura slipped on his button on shirt and slung his sweater over his shoulder before he put his hands on the door with the intent to push. Anzu followed him, now that she didn't have to be near a naked chest. She helped him push and the ancient type doors slowly swung open to reveal a large tech lab with a single large column in the center, with four pods resting in cardinal points around it.

"Bakura!" Anzu alarmed as she saw a pool of blood under the seat where they had found Mokuba when they arrived the first time. She rushed over and found there was a bullet hole in the computer screen Mokuba had been looking at as well. With even more dried blood on the keyboard, and considering the silver white theme of the room. The blood stood out like a terrible bulls eye.

"So that's his game…" Bakura noted as he stood looking around while his DM like mine kicked into overdrive.

"What game?! Why would someone do this?" Even if she knew it was fake, something was nagging in the back of her mind about 'why' this could have happened. Given this was Mokuba's station in the room the idea that there was blood scared her, some part of her brain asking 'did Yugi wake up to this?'. What would he think to see all this blood? Would he associate it with Mokuba as her brain automatically had?

"Yugi wakes up thinking this is the real world, he finds this pool of blood and thinks it's real. I won't be surprised if it turns out there's a dead body that produced that pool somewhere near by."

"So…" 'I don't want to know Bakura', she thought; a pity he didn't hear her brain.

"So he goes off looking to get revenge, and because he doesn't know that this is still a VR world, he puts his own body at risk. Not knowing that he's being used or the situation surrounding him, he goes into battle over and over again until his brain inflicts enough mental damage on his body that he dies."