A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: I changed the ending comment for a reason, like the ending of Noa's arc. It changes nothing but I'll explain it here if it never comes up again. A great example is Isis, when she reincarnated it was done intentionally to limit her powers, (She's a natural born Seer so she should even in the modern times automatically had the ability to see the future.) What Mahaado is saying is basically that the reincarnations have had their powers severed and Kaiba needs to fix that.
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It was a gut punch, out of nowhere, clearly invisible, a blow that knocked the wind out of his body and sent all he had figured out, screaming out of a window.
Every room in the hotel had a structure to it, go in and be forced to endure some Disney style version of Ancient Egypt. Step out and his mind tended to go back to the moment and play what 'actually' happened, refreshing Seto all over again on why he was the way he was. It was so much pain it left his body continually wrecked with a plethora of emotions he wanted to believe he was done with. Love, happiness, warmth, safety, everything that anyone with a soul would ever want, and the cold void like space when it all ended.
Because it 'did' end.
And that was what hurt the most.
He didn't live the life of a common soldier as he dreamed as a child, he ascended to the role of General. A position that amounted to nothing in the end, for he failed to protect the very people he was sworn to defend. Abandoned his post, plotted against the Pharaoh for the good of the kingdom, and in the end everything went wrong.
It was Battle City all over again, it was that Tower with the winds whipping around them as they stood facing each other down. His careful plans were torn apart, each plan, everything he had done to stack the deck in his favor. Seto didn't like believing in luck or fate, luck was indifferent, fate stifled creativity and resourcefulness. He liked his plans, his facts and figures, he liked being able to route an enemy to get what he needed or wanted.
Until Yugi showed up.
That spiky haired teens presence was like a kiss of death, everything fell apart like a sandcastle when the tide roared in. The foundation he used for what he built was crushed in Yugi's presence. The guy's presence was enough to remind him of the emotions, their duels pushed his planning skills to the limit. Every attempt to defeat Yugi had been to try and escape his past, the neglect he suffered under Gozoboro. The stress of looking after Mokuba when the rest of their 'family' abandoned them.
With what Battle City unable to dig up, this whole hotel had managed reach an even lower depth in the grave that kept all of Seto's emotional baggage. As those memories crawled out, reminding him of those final days. Battle City reminded him of the final battle between the two, while every haunting this place gave, every encounter with Mahaado or the illusion of his child self dug deeper.
And now as he laid bleeding and stunned on the carpet of the hotel floor, staring up at the vivid blue and white robes of his past self standing over him. While the rest of that day played through his mind he found himself recalling that final fateful night.
So why was Set standing in the hallway with him!?
The memories came when he stepped out of the room and the illusions didn't follow him out. Even if this would was borne from Mahaado being forced to obey, Set should have stayed in that room!
"A last game of cat and mouse before you fade away?" Set asked as he continued walking towards Kaiba.
"How... how can you leave the room?" Kaiba demanded his voice shaking as a whole night of extreme emotions began to take their toll. The wound was still untended and now it seemed it would continue being that way, as his gamble didn't work out. The hallway had begun to sway visually causing Kaiba to worry about possibly passing out. He couldn't afford to pass out with a homicidal past self stalking him.
"How could you?" Set countered easily his steps a steady pace as Kaiba began backing up.
"I'm not you!" Kaiba automatically retaliated, though which 'you' was now up for discussion.
"Right hand, left hand it's still the same body." Set pointed out while Kaiba stumbled over his own feet.
"You belong in the past with the rest of those hated Items!" He snapped back as he bumped into the wall. "I just want to be free!"
Set seemed to smirk at Kaiba's admittance that they were one in the same, but he didn't stop moving forward. Kaiba struggled to push himself away from the wall he had been leaning against. There was so much information for him to process, he couldn't focus properly on any one thought as he struggled. He turned and made his way towards the stairs to get back on the first floor, maybe he could now get into his room?
He barely kept his balance as he walked down the steps, the confidant stride he was known for turned into the limping of a wounded animal. Clinging to the handrail for support, each slow step down as his mind galloped like a stampede of horses running wild in a direction he wanted none of. The memories he pushed away, they had to be the key to the situation he was in. But after ages of shutting those memories away, how could he possible figure out the solution to this? Breaking down, accepting the past just to survive this? Was he really this weak? He wanted to believe he could handle worse.
His legs gave out on the last step hitting the landing, that came before the second set of stairs, hard. He barely missed the slender ornate table that rested against the wall. Barely could he lift his head up, as he pushed himself into a sitting position. The fact that Set was already reaching the bottom of the steps failed to surprise him. Kaiba couldn't run away, he could only grip the injury, while his scattered thoughts tried and failed repeatedly to focus.
"No, I won't let you beat me. It wasn't my fault what happened back then, it was yours. You left them to fend for themselves, while you went traipsing after that bastard. You let him run off with her, you were supposed to return as the Pharaoh's strongest defender. But you couldn't leave well enough alone and after all this time went off and killed Maliks' fath-" he was cut off as Set grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up into a standing position.
"If 'you' accepted who you are, I would not have even needed to awaken. You sought a power that I spent my lifetime fighting to protect and hide. A power great enough to destroy the world, and for what? So you could prove that I am incapable of doing anything correctly? Shame me by acting as though I am insane and unable to learn from my mistakes?" All he saw was blue, angry eyes, and the hint of a madness three thousand long years in the making. The maelstrom of determination borne from Set's spirit and warped by the Rod. But it was the flash of red and cinnamon that tore Seto's gaze away from the madness General before him. The sight of the child mage, his arm missing, his robes torn open to show the damage from a scythe long stilled. It was then that something slipped into place.
Mahaado.
Seto should have seen it, understood it himself when he dreamed the day he became the new heir for the Rod. Mahaado could be ordered to create all these illusions, But they were only illusions and the status between Magician and Pharaoh meant he could do nothing to discredit Seth's image before Seto. Once Seto left a room, he was freed from Mahaado's spells only because the Magician was letting him go. There 'was' no established rules given the situation beyond what Mahaado, himself, created. That Seto got out of the room was only because Mahaado was letting him out. Mahaado always dominated Seth when he got out of hand.
The second that Seto saw Mahaado the image of the High Priest Set evaporated like a mirage in the desert...
Because the truth was that Mahaado could, that was what they always whispered. Behind hands, in shadowed corners, the whispers of the servants that hinted to the Mage Master's madness against him. Some people took pride in teaching those who would surpass them. For High Magician Heisheen, it was the ultimate insult, teaching one who's power rivaled the Gods themselves. Who's very mastery of the Magical Arts came long before he came to the Palace and needed no medium, no idle Item dipped in corrupted darkness to enhance his own. So his master beat him, like training something fated to be huge, so they always thought they were small.
Making Mahaado think he was so small, so helpless, that only his death could prove to be of any help. Well now Mahaado stood there, his arm gone, blood pouring out of him as though he had just been slaughtered. Yet he looked like a child, an innocent, sad, lonely child.
So much blood.
They were friends! They had been the best of friends! They did everything together, watched out for each other as they looked after the Prince. They watched Ra in his victory over the demons, gazed at the lights of the sky when Ra left the sky and thought and dreamed!
So much blood.
But the blood he didn't know he had put a stop to all of that, before Set even knew what had been happening. He didn't know anything, just that Mahaado stabbed in him the back and said they couldn't be friends any more. Set never knew why, didn't understand even after everything and he learned of his bloodline. Even then he refused to see why the Magician turned his back on the General.
So much blood.
It was always between them, it was why there had been blood on Kaiba's face when he escaped the room. It was why Mahaado bleed every time Kaiba got angry. It was on Mahaado's body, Kaiba's hands, his face, choked down his throat. Along the floors and walls, down the steps, out the hotel beyond into the history that explained the bones of the world. Kaiba, right or wrong, accept or decline was a God no different then Yugi himself. Though the title might have sounded overly self indulgent, this was the religion of three thousand years ago. As Yugi had become Pharaoh, died and become a God. So to did Set become a Pharaoh, die and become a God. Though the Blue Eyes White Dragon was powerful, surpassing Mahaado's restricted strength, a dragon was still a beast. But a Magician had much more room to move to create and destroy.
Mahaado lived in the dark of night, Seth in the bright of day and the blood was the red of dawn and dusk streaked across the sky by ninety nine members of a town of tomb robbers. Dripping down a pair of Pharaoh's who died for a crime they did not commit and suffered for it as well. While the one who brought all this death about sang praises, went laughing to his grave for his wish was granted and his son ruled as Pharaoh. The branch that needed to die lived on, while the branch that should have lived on died. While Mahaado bathed in all the blood of those secrets and that pain.
It was Mahaado who wove these illusions.
It was Mahaado who held him here.
It was Mahaado who held him hostage.
But it was Kaiba himself who pulled those strings.
After all, it was as Mahaado had said. Kaiba summoned him here.
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"You're seriously insane you know that?"
"Seth?"
"Not you silly, the freak behind us. Who goes around arguing with a gold stick?"
"Sennen Rod."
"I've never seen the General argue with the Rod. No this is an insane nutjob."
"Seth..."
"Shush Maha, you're hurt."
"As is he, I need to attend to him."
"You don't need to attend to a madman."
Well he was still alive if the first thing he experienced was hearing that Kid call someone a nut. He couldn't get up nor could he move beyond opening his eyes and looking about where he might have been.
"He's bleeding you know."
"In a contest between the two of you, you win. Now stay still."
At the edge of the stairs that descended down into the main floor. Below him he could see Seth and Mahaado, with the mage on his side, his head on Seth's lap. Given what Seth said, Mahaado was probably still manifesting his wounds. But with that being said, what did Seth mean by his earlier comment? Arguing with the Rod? The teen turned his head to look back at him as though he could feel Kaibas' eyes focused on his back.
"Yeah, arguing with that stick. What were you doing over there doing that?"
Kaiba never did give himself a chance to figure out why this boy could see and talk to him to this expansive degree. Then again so could Set.
"Mahaado attend me." He ordered quietly, his shoulder needed healing and he knew that, even if indirectly, Mahaado could heal injuries.
"Monster!" Seth tightened his arms around Mahaado as the Mage child clearly made the attempt to get up. "He is terribly wounded and you order him around as though it is nothing?! How dare you!" He saw the anger in the boy's eyes as he began getting up, while trying to keep Mahaado down.
"The longer this goes on the worse he's going to get. Don't you want Maha to get better?" He asked the teen, his voice tinged with his exhaustion. It gave Seth a moment of pause as he looked down at Mahaado. The mage was still wounded, still openly bleeding, but if it gave the mage a chance at healing Seth was bound to take it. But the look in his eyes whispered that if Kaiba did one thing to hurt Mahaado his death would be swift. Which then made Kaiba stop and think, if Set was willing to threaten taking over Kaiba's body and resuming his task, could Seth do the same thing?
Mahaado struggled to his feet, Seth hovering protectively at his side as the mage climbed the steps to reach Kaiba. He didn't have his arm still, Seth had to help him hold the massive tome that he used to cast his spell. It wasn't going to be enough, Kaiba had lost far more blood than he had regained through the spell. He had to put an end to this and looking up at Mahaado, at least now he knew who to ask to find that ending.
Perhaps it was that look of expectancy in his eyes that made Mahaado relent without a word. The mage looked up at the ceiling for a moment before awkwardly trying to sit down, not an easy proposition with one arm that was currently holding a massive tome in it. "I can not take you back to the second floor."
"Is he there?" Kaiba asked closing his eyes as the healing spell continued mending his shoulder.
"Yes. If I go near him again he will just put me back in that room." Mahaado agreed and explained as he opened the book again.
"How do I resolve this?" He asked quietly, unable to put much more force in his voice. He didn't have much time left, Mahaado was trying, but his healing spells were limited to what he could do and it was starting to show. "What brought this about?" He asked next, needing to formulate some direction to what he needed to do.
"This is your decree as a God." Mahaado explained with a shrug. "You wished to end the Shadow Game that kept Pharaoh prisoner within the Sennen Items."
Kaiba sat up at that, the room didn't spin that badly which was a good thing because what Mahaado said made no sense. Ok it made sense given Set's determination to protect Yugi, but it was over, Yugi was free. The 10 year old looking kid now looked his true age and height, what did that have to do with what was going on now? This was about the bomb that killed Yugi's mother and grandpa wasn't it?
"That doesn't explain why Set is roaming around here or even that kid." he pointed out casting a glance at Seth who was still helping Mahaado with the tome.
"You are as the Pharaoh was, fractured, but in his case it was magically done by your divine hands so that the wheels could be set back into motion. As Set you cut off your connections to Seth, as Kaiba you cut off your connections to both. But you rely on both of them for certain aspects thus it chains you to them." He winced as an organ slipped out and he dropped the tome in an attempt to grab the mangled stomach.
"That's it, you're not getting near him!" Seth grabbed Mahaado and began pulling the boy to come down the stairs.
"It... it's ok, the General is mad that is all..." Mahaado tried to appease Seth, but Kaiba knew it wouldn't do any good. Seth would never be appeased until he had his way, which would be moving Mahaado as far away from Kaiba and Seth as he could. But Seth clearly wasn't going to listen to either of them anymore, and with no other recourse he could take Mahaado turned around. "You severed everyone from their powers for the sake of your pride. Humble yourself and restore to them what is theirs.."
