Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Betaed AGAIN this time by accident so might as well By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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He was starting to envy the life of the NPCs in roleplaying games, they had such simple lives. Pre-written scripts that allowed them to perform the same duty over and over again without tedium. Never having to think beyond the script created by someone else. Yet ironically the moment his thoughts ever turned that way, Bakura found himself struck by how very unjust such a comparison was. That he was equating the lives of very much living people to that of a few lines of description, a bit of dialogue. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to say he was envious of people who lived in a bubble.

Lives that had no influence on anyone else and therefore lived and died by their own errors. A person who performed actions that brought about only their own demise was one thing. But performing, willingly, a task that brought about suffering upon others who had no involvement? 'That' was a crime that resonated in Bakura a bit, too, sharply for him to ignore.

But he would have been lying if he said he didn't wish he could go back to being a face in the crowd. Perhaps that was the irony, he 'was' a face in the crowd, despite his thick white mane of hair he never really got anyone's attention. Perfect for a thief, this ability to move about unnoticed and uncontested by anyone.

Save his female classmates.

Malik and Yugi instantly grabbed anyones attention now, it was the only in their company for people to notice Bakura. Once they zeroed in on 'those' two, Bakura's life turned into a deranged version of 'running from the bulls'.

He moved among the masses on his way home, a student in his reserved blue school uniform and polished shoes. While the spirits of Ancient Egypt floated and walked about ever on the watch, studying the world around them. The Veil was thinning out, and it was making it easier for the spirits to start interacting with the living realm. Yet the Veil between the living and the dead was one thing, and in all reality Bakura had no trouble with dealing with the spirits.

It was the poisonous tainted touch of a demon that had him on edge. It was the hiss of corrupted evil that defiled anything in its presence that he found abhorrent. Zorc was too weak, the stalemate ended in its defeat recently. That it was trying to rebuild and be reborn so soon seemed almost irrational, insane some might even say. Far better to sit back and marshal its strength, wait until Yugi had lived out his life and passed away. Surely there would be no one left to face Zorc who had a chance if given some time.

And that was something that bothered Bakura, just 'why' was Zorc trying to return 'now'.

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"Yugi, I know you haven't got all your memories, and maybe this is pointless but I have to ask... Can you think of any reason why Zorc would try to reform so quickly? It was stuck with the other half of you in the Sennen Items for the past three thousand years in a stalemate. Isn't it a bit foolish to try to reamass yourself and resume a battle while the person who stalemated you before is both alive and with a established instant win hand?" Bakura inquired, sitting in Yugi's room.

Which was a bit different than how it was back in the game shop, it wasn't the bedroom of a small child with toys everywhere. Whatever games he had already amassed was put away, the bed wasn't completely made up, but it was serviceable. And Yugi was in a positively introspective mood, as the teenager took in Bakura's question.

"Well... if we look at it from the stand point of a game master in an RPG, I'd suspect that the correct course of action 'would' be to wait. That there would be a long drawn out plan to validate the rest of the game. But this may not 'be' that type of game being played, perhaps it would be better to look at it from the stand point of something more instant like chess," Yugi theorized out loud. "Games either involve luck and or strategy. Luck in this case would be arrogance, so we have to assume this was originally a plan, possibly a back up." Yugi began his expression thoughtful as he reached up and pulled at his hair draping it over his shoulder in this almost thoughtless manner. As though playing with it was becoming a habit.

"But this would be a fools back up plan, I think we can both agree. Isis and I have been talking, her Visions are coming back... But for now all she can really 'see' is whatever is coming, if they have anything reaching back into Egypt. Its not as far back as Seto or I..."

Bakura blinked slowly at that it was reasonable. Evil was Evil, because Bakura was so entwined with the evil that Zorc exuded he just automatically assumed that everything was Zorc. It was 'his' book after all... Or was it? What if this was just a demon summoning book or like the Level Monsters in Yugi's side deck, Zorc was just a 'level' with something weaker or stronger in the wings?

Though given his time with the Demon to think there was something that 'surpassed' what he endured? It was enough to make him shiver.

"Are you ok, Bakura?" Yugi asked, his head tilted a bit to the side as he began straightening up in his seat.

Bakura waved away the concern, and opted for a momentary distraction, "Malik hasn't mentioned Isis getting visions." But the smirk on Yugi's lips gave away 'something'.

"Ask him about his thoughts on his sisters' past life marriage to Mahaado..." Yugi answered as he stretched his legs out as he got more comfortable in his seat.

"Oh Hathor that was a thing wasn't it..." Bakura replied shaking his head as he covered his eyes with his right hand. Bakura, back in Ancient Egypt, had already been an adult by that time, not to mention Zorc dumping a lot of information on what his other pawns were doing into Bakura's own awareness. So he knew about Set being Yugi's cousin, as well as that Isis had recently married Mahaado. Though no children were ever produced from that union, the bloodline of a powerful magician coupled with a genuine seer could have been incredible.

And now Mahaado was eternally a 17 year old looking Duel Spirit while Isis was a living woman still a part of the eternal flow of time.

"I don't think she ever saw 'that' coming when she casually pointed it out. And he's been... in the loving care of Seto... who, like Malik, didn't approve of the marriage. I haven't been able to drag out of either of them what happened on that Colorado trip. But whatever it is, put a reset on how Seto views Maha. And that means the catty warfare has resumed, though thankfully Mahaado isn't expressing Seto's disdain to Isis directly..." Yugi's lips twisted into this overly amused manner as though he had been watching a comedy show.

"Wait... Kaiba was always interested in the Blue Eyes Dragon girl," Bakura pointed out as his mind scrambled for 'this' bit of useless fluff. It really had no weight on what they were doing, but gossip was fun... He was actually getting invested in royal gossip...

"Yeah, if he had to choose he would go for her every time. But she wasn't part of the palace when he grew up there, or I would have seen her. Seto likes one girl, exclusive to all others, and one boy exclusive to all others. And if he can't have one, he's most certainly not going to want to share the other. Keep in mind, Blue Eyes is a dragon, a beast, the emotions may be the same but the human mind is lost to her. She's almost on the level of a highly trained wolf in thoughts now, if there's a way to make Mahaado closer to being among the living. It would work because he's a 'human' magician, she'd just be a dragon and well..." Yugi explained shaking his head as those thoughts finished their path in silence.

"She'd have to reincarnate like all of us, and that would mean starting a whole new life... This may be Japan but Kaiba having such a steep age difference would make him look creepy..." Bakura finished out with a faint nod. "So I guess things are going to be interesting on both our ends for various reasons..."

"Yeah, but at least one of those things is going to be fun! So will you need me for anything while you're dealing with California?" Yugi asked as the light of the sun shone unimpeded into the room with the curtains open behind Yugi's left shoulder. If it wasn't for Yugi's thick mane, Bakura would have been able to see the trees that served as a natural fence around the estate.

"I just need to talk through these things with someone who has any idea of what I'm talking about... Malik and Jounouchi are fine and all. But..." Bakura gave a faint rueful sigh and held out his hands as though offering his thoughts on a table.

"But one didn't live back then and only has history notes to go off of. The other is modern Japanese and by the look in your eye, has problems dealing with our past lives..." Yugi offered gently, watching as Bakura nodded with this tired expressive nod.

"And I can't honestly say I blame Jounouchi... I try to put myself in his shoes and well, any of us its nothing seriously major. But for you... I find its easier to talk about 'why' this may be taking place with Malik than I do with Jounouchi. I think he's afraid to face that thought even if its mistaken..." Bakura offered gently, figuring perhaps this was the best way to get Yugi to offer any insight on the last thing that the group had really 'discussed'. "Yugi, what if this group is trying to either have 'you' make the demon, or just control you?"

"They seem to know about the human sacrifices needed to be used, but the odd thing that stuck out was how they seemed fixated on you. They wanted you returned to them, and even left it as a message on the ruins of the Game Shop. This group could very well be attempting not to make 'one' set, but seven different sets of Items located on each of the major continents of the world. And getting criminals would be far too easy to do, but why are they fixated on you. We've seen that history and information can be lost or misconstrued. This happened with Maliks' misdirected obsession against you, but why would they need a 'god'?"

Yugi blinked before straightening up in his seat a remembered frown crossing his face. "I remember when I was a baby in Egypt, when the night came during storms. I used to see the shadows moving, I was still trying to figure out what was real and what was fake. What was solid and such that all babies do I would suppose. The demon was already in the palace at that stage, not always, or all day, but during stormy nights It would appear anywhere there wasn't fire light or people, needless to say I spent my nights in bed with Maha... And later when Seto got jealous of Maha's nicer bed, with the two of them."

Bakura blinked thoughtfully, while a part of his mind penciled in a 'Royal Gossip Night with Yugi must happen at all cost' in the back of his mind. "Did Zorc try anything against you?" Bakura asked, after all Yugi now had the adult insight to go with what he did as a child. What was lost to the infant was brought back to the front of Yugi's mind, so he could analyze it.

"I think he just wanted me to be scared, the Palace had defenses against demons after all. I guess he was carrying in his own evil intent during storms because it could flow in and out quickly without possibly hurting him? But he never approached Maha's room, once I was in there I knew I was safe."

"Why just Mahaado's room? Wouldn't you be safe with your parents?" Bakura asked curious at the logic of a small child.

Though Yugi only just gave a small childish grin, "Maha's room was far closer to mine than my parents. I might not have been able to make it to my parents, but I knew I could make it to Maha's."

Bakura chuckled as he settled back into his seat, "you must have been interesting as a baby."

"Maha could tell you, Seto could as well if things had turned out better," Yugi agreed running his fingers through his hair and pushing his bangs back. Causing the one little odd number bang to be pushed into the center of his hair like it would when the Other Yugi was in control.

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Bakura finally reached his apartment, glancing up to see Malik standing at the window looking down at him. Which given the fact that Bakura didn't give Malik a key to his place raised a question on how the hell did Malik even 'get into the apartment?!' And then he saw the children, both from the village and some of the Native villages from America... Oh no...

"By their efforts combined," Bakura muttered as he turned his steps towards the front of his apartment building. How could the village children go about and bring children from other lands? He did 'not' want his apartment to become the central 'meet and greet' of the ghost world! The spirits just cheated their way up to his apartment, while he had to take the same way he always took. Short of the fire escape because that's not what it was used for thank you very much Malik.

There were no spirits running around in the hallways, or in the elevator, meaning the party was strictly in his own apartment for which he was glad. Had done some money transfers so he had cash on hand in case of emergencies, had a decent series of 'maps' of the areas, all he needed was to grab his tools. They had a list of things they would need to get done per day, the spirits having done a good bit of the leg work for them.

They knew where Catherines' old group had scattered to, and that had been the reason for getting better maps. No one was in the same area whatever happened that night had been enough to scatter them between the rest of America and the United Kingdom. There was no confirmation if Travis was still alive anymore. Catherine had not heard or seen Pandora, or rather 'Monte' since the whole situation began.

And in all honesty Bakura had been surprised when he found out that Travis was still alive. Which didn't make sense really because they knew where Travis 'was', and he was involved in whatever happened with the book. So why wasn't he 'dead'? The spirits described the situation as though Travis was just living a life, once they found him they kept a pretty good eye on him. While the Santiago's all unknowingly used the same magics that kept the spirits out, Travis didn't.

But again, Monte was insane and did he even 'have' the mental faculties to call his brother and ask?

Or was there something else going on, that he didn't know? For the modern world a Pharaoh was nothing more than the ruler of his land. But the truth was that they were more than simply 'rulers' but also the highest of priests. Only Yugi was still a very small child in his dreams his memories didn't cover the official training he would have had as a priest. While the others probably had an idea of what was going on, the list of what they needed to know about the priesthood was staggering.

Was this priest who sealed in the soul at the graveyard one of Yugi's Priests, or Sets'? Maybe even one that came later?

The door opened to his apartment, causing Bakura to cast his glance at Malik and the spirit children playing in the background.

"I thought Jounouchi was coming with you?" Malik asked, his arms crossed and fingers tapping against his forearms. Though thankfully he had gotten himself some warmer, long sleeved clothes for this trip.

"He's going to be late, he got caught dealing with some of Anzu's bullies," Bakura answered as he walked into his apartment. The blond Egyptian backing up to give him space to do so, his head cocked to the side in question.

"Is that still going on?" Malik asked sounding exasperated as he made his way to the couch and threw himself into it in a huff.

All the while the adult spirits took note of Bakuras' statement a couple even shaking their head at the fact.

"Yeah, doesn't help that Mahaado has been deferring to her occasionally in the school, his act is great... But well fangirls can pick up on things like that," Bakura sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he went to his tool bag.

"How bad was it?" Malik asked in curiosity, watching Bakura move towards his bedroom.

When the white haired thief returned his tone was resigned and a bit flat, "they trashed her cheerleading uniform... Jounouchi caught them in the act."

Malik winced and draped his arms over the back of the couch, "ok so I won't get mad at him for doing something stupid."