A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: White Swan

A/N: Originally this was 3 pages long. Now its 4 and a bit of 5 pages long.

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"This is..." Anzu looked about the room and was taken aback how it looked exactly like the room where the pair were physically in. There was this subtle type of panic that planted itself in the pit of her stomach. A nameless worry that was growing so quickly that she found herself looking at Bakura for some type of assurance. Whether it was because she was hoping that he was just as baffled or because he somehow figured out what was going on.

"The room where our bodies are in, and while I'm no computer expert I wouldn't be surprised if this Noa person was able to download the blueprints of the building or any place really. Reshaping this world to fit the outside world," Bakura answered as he noted the trail of blood from where Mokuba was probably sitting at in the real world. But more worrisome was the trail of blood that led from the seat to the doors they just had entered at.

"We have to get out of here Bakura. We need to find Yugi and Kaiba before Noa can do more damage then he's already done." Anzu began pulling on Bakura towards the door, as her attention was captured by the Duel Disks on their arms remolded themselves into the modern design. The room had a nauseating perfume of dried blood in the air and the sight of Mokuba's seat was problematic. If this Noa person was 'that' obsessed with details than why was there blood? Was there supposed to be a Virtual Mokuba in the room, or more exact, a 'dead' Mokuba The pair left, each quietly trying to figure out where was the best chance of finding Yugi or Kaiba.

"Perhaps we should look for Kaiba first, he has been here longer than we have so he may know more than we do," Bakura offered as they stepped out of the room.

"Do you think that Noa will let us? After all he's after Kaiba, and using Yugi." Anzu pointed out as they walked along the hallway towards the front of the building where the reception area should be.

"We'll find out I guess… Though I would guess that he knows exactly where both of them are." Bakura replied as they reached the end of the hallway and into the reception area. He held the door open for Anzu, allowing her to slip out first when something caused her to stop and back peddle into him. Knowing the two of them back into the hallway while she cried out in alarm.

"Bakura!" Anzus' eyes were wide with horror as she cast her gaze to the ground. She looked completely spooked, and covered her mouth with her hands as though she wanted to hold in her food.

Concern filling Bakura, he pushed the doors open again and found what apparently upset Anzu. Perhaps it was the occasional splotch of blood on the ground that warned him in advance about what to expect. For that seeing a lifeless Mokuba on the couch didn't affect him the same way it did Anzu. Though he did find it rather macabre to see Mokuba and Anzu 'resting' on the long couch. Mokuba didn't look all that bad, he could have been sleeping if not for the deep wine red stain under his body on the couch.

Anzu herself looked worse for wear, dirty and a bit singed soot on her clothes that he could see, despite standing on the other side of the room. Seeing ones self dead and a dead child 'would' be distressing to someone like Anzu. At least that was what Bakura figured as he heard the door open behind him.

"I'm ok, it just startled me."

She was still green around the proverbial gills to Bakura's eyes, but she gamely carried on into the room. She didn't approach the bodies, and instead made her way to the front doors of the building. Allowing Bakura the time to decide if checking the bodies would yield anything useful. After all, Noa was after Kaiba, he didn't strike Bakura as someone who would extend something into a full game. With that decision he joined Anzu at the front doors of a virtual reality version of a building they were actually in.

They could have been standing in the real city; it wasn't hard to understand how Yugi could confuse the two. But what could convince him that this was reality when all he had to do was call the police? For that matter, why didn't he realize something was wrong when he called Mahaado to his side? After all that Mage would cross time itself to be with Yugi if he wanted him to be. It was something they would have to ask him when they finally found the teen. The sharp sudden flash off a dented sign caught Anzu's gaze, causing her to move out and to check the skyline out as a Blue Eyes White Dragon soared above a few buildings off in the distance.

"Bakura!" Anzu's eyes widened at the sight as she gestured towards Bakura to join her.

"What?" He asked as he joined her turning his gaze towards that area of the sky. "Blue Eyes?!"

"Kaiba must be in that location! There's no reason for his favorite monster to be in the air like that otherwise!" Anzu grew excited in an instant at that hopeful sign before her. Running off with full expectations that Bakura was right behind her, thus Anzu was alarmed when she turned to look behind her. Instead of a white haired teen, there was a brick wall that appeared out of nowhere, blocking her from her friend and effectively leaving her to fend for herself. "Bakura?" Skidding to a halt she ran to the wall and began beating on it with her fists.

"Anzu? Anzu! Go and find Yugi, I'll be fine!" Bakura's voice drifted over the wall.

"I can't just leave you here!" Anzu retorted as she began feeling along the wall hoping for a latch or something.

"Go on! It's not safe to wait around, so find him and Kaiba! Don't worry, I've got my deck!"

Anzu gave the wall a frown, "no way Bakura! I'm not leaving you behind!"

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"Is there something you wanted," Bakura asked while turning around to put his back to the wall, looking at the green haired teen. As calm and unruffled by the presence of the stranger as though he expected this.

"You implied that you know a great deal about Seto, I want to know what it is." Noa replied, a duel disk visible on his arm.

"Why? What I know is of no one use to anyone else," Bakura replied as he studied the guy across from him, with the brick wall at his back. He rested his back against the bricks, crossing his arms as he waited for the stranger to validate the interruption. A concern that maybe this person, AI or not, having access to criminal files whispered in the back of his mind. Wondering if there was any system that had information about the Spirit of the Ring.

"Have you ever heard the expression 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" Noa replied smoothly, with eyes as guileless as a child in a way that whispered he couldn't 'read' people. There was some lacking knowledge that came with living in the real world that he lacked. Something that Bakura picked up quickly on.

"Yugi's not my enemy, so where is he?" Bakura replied his hand slowly reaching for his deck.

"True, but Yugi doesn't know what Seto is capable of," Noa casually shrugged.

"So you lock him in a game, make him believe that this is real and that there are people that he knows that are currently dead?" Somehow this didn't surprise Bakura; maybe it was an actual Kaiba trait to be twisted? "And somehow doing that is going to convince Yugi that Kaiba is some type of monster?"

"I needed bait, and from everything I've researched he showed the highest value as that. I couldn't use Mokuba since I'll need a guide when I leave this world, so Yugi made the best option. However; once this is over and I've regained what I lost, I'll release him from this world. Then he can guide me in the world that exists outside of here, when Mokuba wouldn't be an option." Noa explained, which didn't sound so bad, but then again Bakura wasn't a reincarnation of a thief for nothing.

"Why would you need a guide? Where is your body, the one that exists in the real world?" Bakura asked looking the teen over once more.

"Gone." It was a single word that startled Bakura; was this person dead then? "When I was ten years old I was in an accident, my body was completely crippled leaving me mentally alive in a dead body. My father put me in this computer system while his doctors worked to heal my body. But after seven years of hard work and effort on my father and the medical team's parts, one of my father's rivals found out where my body was. He destroyed my body leaving my mind trapped as nothing more than a computer program."

Bakura lowered his eyes for a moment thinking about a life like that. Living a rich lifestyle had created that all too familiar cocoon of protection that the rich suffered from. How did a person wake up from such intense pain as an accident that crippled the whole body only to find themselves locked within a computer? Probably in some aspect it was something that Yugi could relate to as he did the same thing, dying violently only to have his soul survive inside the Puzzle. Unlike Yugi, however, Noa was a program of an identity that had passed on. Whether or not Noa, himself, saw it that way, it was a truth that Noa was dead. The soul had not enough time to properly reincarnate, and Bakura doubted this Noa wanted to wait for a chance encounter.

"I'm going to find Yugi," Bakura began drawing the cards from his deck a move that Noa echoed.

"I'm not going to let you."

"Then may I suggest you start thinking of ways to stop me?"

"Duel!" they replied at the same time.

"Draw five cards. I go first, I play Portrait's Secret in attack mode, and place one card face down and activate Ectoplasmer," Bakura announced as large ornate portrait rose from the ground only to have a ghastly face. But even as it began snarling Ectoplasmer activated, letting mist wrap around the monster, sucking out it's soul and direct attacking Noa with it. Bringing Noa's life points down to 3600 in the very first turn, "you've been trapped here a long time, let me set you free. I place one card face down and end my turn."

"Set me free? Does that mean you're going to help me crush Seto?" Noa asked before pulling out his first hand. "I summon Chiron, and active his special ability, sacrificing one of my spell cards I destroy Ectoplasmer, and direct attack with Chiron. Then end my turn."

Bakura was shoved into the brick wall as almost half of his life points were taken by the centaur's power, dropping him to 2200. Though this was a virtual reality world it still felt real to him as his head was thrown against the brick wall at his back. Stars burst before his eyes as Bakura sagged to the ground in physical shock, trying to get his bearings before making his next move.

He pushed himself back to his feet, flexing his fingers open and shut a few times before speaking, "actually I was thinking more along the lines of freeing you from here to the afterlife where you belong. I activate the spell card Premature Burial and bring back my Portraits Secret. Then Sacrifice Portrait Secret to summon Vampire Lord, and finally activate my trap card Destiny Board!" As each card appeared, following Bakura's order he fell to one knee as the required 800 points were taken from him; draining him from 2200 to 1400 life points, and having lost so many life points so fast he was left gasping. "Vampire Lord destroy his Chiron!" Bakura ordered and as Noa lost 200 life points, "and by Vampire Lord's effect, discard a monster card from your hand and I place one face down card."

"I have no idea what you are attempting to accomplish, you've lost most of your life points and the duel hasn't even gotten serious yet." Noa pointed out as he stood there while Bakura knelt before him. "Either way my turn, I summon Inaba the White Rabbit, which allows me to direct attack you for 700 points of damage." Noa smirked as he played the card, watching as the little white rabbit jumped in his hole, and reappeared behind Bakura, slamming his weapon right into the small of Bakura's back.

Bakura lost another 700 Life Points from the attack, sending him down to only 700 Life points remaining. But Bakura was not a fighter, the direct attack tore a scream of pain from his throat as he fell.

While on the other side of the wall, Anzu fretted about what to do, with Yugi it was ok to shout encouragement from the sidelines, he knew how to play the game. But Bakura… she couldn't risk him getting hurt because of her voice. So she began looking around for a way to reach Bakura around the brick wall, hoping that Noa was lying about Bakura's condition. Above the wall she could see another light glowing; she had heard Bakura announce Destiny Board, she could only assume that 'E' had now joined the 'D' on the field.

"I… draw a card, place one… face down, and attack you directly with my Vampire Lord. I also summon Headless Knight in defense mode. Then end my turn." Bakura panted out, without even the strength to watch as his monster's attack was carried out. But even though it took out 2000 Life Points from Noa, it still wasn't enough to make it a level playing field.

"You're not a very good duelist are you? I play Soul Exchange, allowing me to sacrifice your Vampire Lord, and your Headless Knight, and summon forth my Yamata Dragon. Now attack Bakura's directly my Dragon!" Noa crowed out victoriously as Bakura laid on the ground before him.

Anzu felt her heart in her throat as she followed the wall all the way around until she was behind Noa. No duel should have been this quick, if it was Yugi or Kaiba it would be longer. But poor Bakura wasn't a duelist, this was out of his field, and it made Anzu's heart ache to think he was putting himself through this because of some unspoken need to make up to Yugi. It was her aching heart that stopped when she finally made the turn and saw two glowing letters hovering over Bakura's unconscious form. No monsters on his side of the field, just face down cards, with Noa standing with his dragon rearing back and exhaling its breath weapon onto Bakura's prone, defenseless form. "BAKURA!"