Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: I wonder if its because I'm about to catch up to my current chapters that I'm not seeing as many issues.. Oh well.
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"So what happens to mom and our Uncle? How long do they have to stay like this?" George asked Bakura, oblivious to what the others could be talking about. 'Mom, oh my God, you're here... and you've... How many times have you seen us? I bet you want to go home. We miss you so much!'
In response Bakura turned and repeated the question in Ancient Egyptian for Mahaado, 'He seems a bit stiff... Is there something seriously wrong with what he's seeing? Something that he's not telling us?'
Mahaado turned to look at the thief before bringing his gaze down towards the body, with Malik translating for Jounouchi the same question. He examined the woman, allowing the type of vision that he could only use when he focused assist him. But he didn't see anything that was alarming, everything appeared in place...
"Nothing... Ideally the body will be returned unharmed to their Uncle and once that happens both will be released from their predicaments. The priest clearly has a task that is being performed and will return once the task is completed." Mahaado answered as he studied the familiar scripts of words he saw flowing before his gaze.
"But.. how do we know what that even is? Its been ten years, are they supposed to waste away until they're elderly?" Jounouchi blurted out in protest. 'This isn't right! This fucking group killed their friend, messed up their minds and Zorc's at the center of all this!'
Malik blinked in surprise as Mahaado visibly flinched at Jounouchi's outburst, though he wasn't facing Jounouchi at the time. The angle that Malik found himself at afforded him the opportunity to see an expression he had yet to see on the self contained magician, fear. Even Jounouchi seemed to notice that flinch as Mahaado did the most self contained whirl around and face whoever. Short of teleporting himself into the position.
"I would suspect its because of the reason 'why' the Priest is here. Given what was mentioned before, he appears to be looking for someone. When that person wasn't around he merely returned allowing the family to resume their lives. Now aware of the importance of following traditions. However; in this case, he found who he was looking for and is staying in place."
"So um, what can we or the twins do? If we find the priest do you think he could be swayed to return Johns' body?" Malik asked moving closer to Jounouchi so Mahaado didn't have to move a great deal.
"Why not just break the seal? You can right? Just let them have their bodies back," Jounouchi began when Malik nudged him quiet.
"I would need to know why the Priest is still there. He's not around the Pharaoh and so I don't know where he is. If he's reached he could be convinced to give a set of instructions," Mahaado answered Malik before turning to address Jounouchi. "I could yes, but without knowing the task, he could be protecting that person from this group. Which would leave them exposed to the demon and I am pretty sure you wish not for more to suffer."
"Of- of course..." Jounouchi remarked still taken aback by the Mahaado's responses.
When suddenly Mahaado flinched, "ah... I'm being summoned... If you need further assistance...?"
"No, its ok," Bakura answered with a nod, before addressing the twins, "He can't stay here anymore. He's a spirit in the service of another and being called back..."
"I'll just clean this up then," Mahaado added as the hanging illusions about the room disappeared along with himself.
"Damn money bags doesn't like sharing at all..." Jounouchi grumbled crossing his arms. "Just cuz Mahaado is Yugi's Priest. Did you see how he flinched? What the hell is Moneybags doing to Mahaado every time the guy is away? Someone makes headway without him isn't a reason to yank Mahaado back with fear tactics."
"Yeah," Malik agreed absently, 'but was it because of us making headway? Or something else?'
"If there was a way to find the priest who has your uncle, we could talk about what's going on. At most all I can offer is the cold comfort that both are protected, divinely so in fact." Bakura resumed in a supportive tone. All the while his mind ran down the list of possible reasons that the priest hadn't returned. A list that was turning incredibly, and gratefully, small. 'The priest is looking for someone and isn't tied to Set thus Kaiba. So that takes finding a new hire at KaibaCorp off the table, regretfully.' But how many other people could be pulled in? It was pondering that thought that something hit him, something so obvious that it should have been his 'first' thought.
'Yugi's Ancient Egyptian father... Why didn't I think of that sooner? His brother, Set's father created the Sennen Items to start with. Everything went awry with Yugi true, but it was his father that started everything.' If Yugi's grandpa could reincarnate despite being part of Yugi's fathers' circle, why not Yugi's ancient father? Could there be somewhere in the world, a man who didn't realize his place in history?
Set was trying to free Yugi, how much had been tied to the young Pharaoh as to cause all this? How many threads of fate did Set sever or mangle in his attempt to free Yugi?
"So... demons are real... Mom is ok our uncle is ok and Travis is dead in Johns' grave... I don't even know what to say or think at this point," Fred finally spoke. Breaking his gaze from where the image of his mother had faded away he dropped it down to her actual body. "What do we do now? We've... I think we need time to think on this. We have to tell Travis' parents about their son, and we have no solid clue about Monte."
"Not to mention the... 'compulsion' that forces us to split up like this," George added with a sigh. "But like, how long do we have to wait? How long before we get our mom and uncle back? Hospitals aren't cheap, long term care is expensive and even then... How do we tell 'dad', how can we face our own dad and say 'Yeah mom is fine just...' Just what? Even if Uncle came back, does that mean this demon thing comes after us? Why didn't we bother listening the first time?"
Bakura stood there feeling more helpless as he could offer nothing beyond cold comfort. Could they get the body out? Yes, but should they? Not before the family in question was notified. They were literally walking in and disrupting the lives of an innocent family. Or rather, clarifying 'why' their family had been given this hand to deal with. With all this focus on the twins mother and uncle, Fred had brought up a good point. What 'about' the twins' father? He wasn't part of the clan, he married innocently into a situation he didn't know about. Just recalling the old man at his shop just put another heavy rock in the sack of Bakura's already heavy sack of burdens.
"Once we leave.. if we find your uncles' body, which is a very big 'if'. We'll try to get him to send word to you. By what I could gather, its not out of maliciousness that this priest is doing this. He seems to have a task that he is trying to see through and honestly? Given the Demon's interference I would guess he doesn't even realize this is going 'on'. But I can 'not' promise anything beyond that. If he's intentionally protecting another person he may not wish to return yet. There are pieces to this puzzle that I don't have so I can't make a promise," Bakura explained. Puzzle. Yugi... HA!
"Yeah, we understand. No communication after today really, or if you do show up, I suppose its going to be like this. Just out of nowhere..." George acknowledged.
"Yes, though probably harder given what you said about your compulsion. We'll have to find where you are later and well umm..." Bakura confessed with a rueful shrug.
"Malik? Did I miss something?" Jounouchi nudged the Egyptian, his voice low with concern. "Did I seriously spook Mahaado?"
"He saw something... but what I don't know..." Malik explained his own brows furrowed with concern. "I'm worried that it might be the demon, but they're talking divine protection..."
"Think its Moneybags? If this doesn't involve anything of his, would he tolerate us keeping Mahaado to ourselves?" Jounouchi asked recalling the surprise on Mahaado's face. Something hard to forget when Mahaado often looked, too, serious for his age. "Yugi makes it sound like Kaiba and Mahaado were close friends after all."
"That would be some aggressive yanking to pull Mahaado back like that though. I would think it wouldn't hurt him to be summoned back to Kaiba's side. Unless Kaiba... maybe something happened to Mokuba? Maybe that's it?" Malik suggested as the thought struck him. "Its not as though they are exchanging words on what's going on. Perhaps something happened and he really 'truly' needed Mahaado to return to his side?"
"But Yugi's theee... I see your point," Jounouchi agreed, "but wouldn't Mahaado warn us before disappearing?" 'Yugi you better be ok when we get back or else...'
"Yes, it seems out of place for Kaiba to just snatch up Mahaado and not give any warning..." Malik folded his arms across his chest as he thought about it. "Honestly Kaiba appears to have more manners around anyone from Ancient Egypt. Which makes some sense because they were friends back then, even if Kaiba doesn't like admitting it openly."
"Back to the drawing board in finding that book though," Bakura finally commented turning to face his group.
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The KaibaCorp Human Resources department was a unique place to work at. From the outside it looked no different than any other HR department. Well save that the CEO was a 17 year old teenager that was almost synonymous with the term 'dragon'. There was paperwork to fill out, files upon files for every employee of KaibaCorp. It was far enough away from Kaiba's office that people were willing to discuss birthday notices without fear. But what it made it stand out, was a very special stamp that came out of the department. Every interview involved was recorded live so that Mokuba could watch from his office during the process.
Because there was a 'type' among people. A unique type of person capable of doing brilliant work and by that be a great asset to the company. But would either wet themselves, faint, or outright die of fright if Kaiba so much as sucked in the breath needed to start yelling. It was a stamp that symbolized, in short, 'handle with extreme care'.
Which wasn't fair to Kaiba in a sense he wasn't 'that' desensitized to humanity as a whole as to not recognize the type. Nor was he so emotionally non existent that he didn't fundamentally know how to tone it down for such people. He just let Mokuba do it to humor the child.
It wasn't like he just forgot sometimes...
It was an accident. Yugi shouldn't have beat him at Battle City.
So every time he had to have such a meeting with such a person the paperwork always, always, ALWAYS, came with such a stamp.
However; Mahaado never came with paperwork, and if he was stamped, even 'once', like outside some shifty night club. Kaiba was positive Mahaado would break just from that much pressure. It was subtle. Mahaado appeared in his office, straight standing and not bothering to sit down as he had gotten used to. Eyes straight ahead with not a single emotion anywhere on his face. The absence of emotion as the clarion call that there was a great 'deal' of emotion going on internally.
"Sit."
And Mahaado sat. Without a word or a glance he sat straight down and if not for the chair would have ended up on the floor. Only the thickness of his shoulders forced his arms to use the arm rests, but his hands rested inward just slightly, instead of completely covering the wooden rests of the chair. Mahaado had to search for Kaiba's eyes and even then lowered his gaze just enough so they were not making eye contact.
The CEO leaned back in his seat, eyeing a game board he didn't want before him. He knew how to handle the fragile, scared paper pushers in KaibaCorp. His oldest memories knew how to handle the magician in front of him. But the adult that was him knew that none of those techniques would work. The brat that he used to be would just take up arms, he'd go on the offensive to the best of his ability to find the person who had terrified Mahaado.
It was just how he protected his friends.
But Mahaado was no longer human. As a Duel Spirit currently under the control of Kaiba, the mage had no freedom of his own that was not from Kaiba. He easily recognized the behavior patterns from their youth that something had upset Mahaado. Pushing him to a point that would have sent Seth into a fury in fact. So the question became 'what did he do next'. He couldn't just order Mahaado to tell him, it was within his rights. Only it violated Mahaado's right as a person, a status that Kaiba and Yugi both believed Mahaado deserved.
Even if there was a way to give Mahaado his own body, the ability to give Mahaado his life back. There was really no way for Kaiba to get Mahaado to open up fairly. When Kaiba was still viewed as an orphan taken into the palace. Mahaado would have spoken up about what happened. But that wasn't the case anymore. Kaiba wasn't 'just' a kid off the street that the Prince took in, he was the Pharaoh's cousin. General, pharaoh, God, there were just as high, if not higher, justification for Mahaado to answer out of servitude.
So they sat in silence instead, Mahaado emotionally shutting himself down and Kaiba trying to think of how to override Mahaado's fear. Yet that meant figuring out the answer for himself since it would leave him only to notice the visual cues when he hit the mark. It wasn't the demon, Mahaado had no fear of that thing. It was staring down a chessboard, seeing the clearest path to the opposing Queen. It took only one move of a piece and he would have his answer.
"So they know about their uncle, and their mother," Kaiba began, keeping his voice as neutral and calm as he could.
The one move was such a yawning chasm between them.
"Yes. The pair will be fine, though there will be the retained loss of years to their lives..." Mahaado's voice was polite, almost light, a rock skipping over the still waters of a lake. Travel fast and light, convey information and be silent.
"How could he be tethered to the book?" Kaiba asked, mentally going over everything he already knew about this so called 'spirit'.
He couldn't remember how he used to sound. But again, who could say they did? If a person associated their 'child hood' voice as being whiny, it didn't mean that if they tried to recreate it they would hit the mark. Voice actors could make themselves sound younger true, but that didn't mean that they projected their voices to sound exactly as they themselves did when they were children.
And in the end, they were all so very, very broken.
It was a safe self assessment that Kaiba could make on his own about himself. An awareness that he was too messed up to ever sound as giving, caring and confident as he did back in those long ago days. With Mahaado near dependent on that voice to even try to escape the shut down he was now lodged in. Getting Yugi would be useless, Mahaado would just push everything away and go back to being Yugi's coddling 'Maha'.
The fear struck a cord in Kaiba, awakening the very real theory as to why Mahaado could be so scared. "You know that Yugi and I would never, ever, allow Heisheen to summon you. Even if you're a Duel Spirit."
"My apologies that this comes across as an issue regarding my service or duties." His mouth didn't move.
'This comes across as an issue...'
"Would it help if I let you rest in your tablet for a while?" Kaiba asked finally, weaving his fingers as he leaned forward, hiding his mouth behind them. Even as Mahaado gave a nod, Kaiba released the magician, sending him back into his tablet. Leaving him alone in the office of his mind, sealing Mahaado in place so the magician could get some rest far away in Egypt in his tablet.
"Heisheen. Of all the bastards from back then to be reborn, why the hell is Mahaado's teacher HERE?!" he demanded before grabbing the phone and flinging it uselessly across the room. The sharp clattering sound of plastic rebounding off the opposing wall was as impressive as was the subsequent bounces across the floor back towards the CEO. It didn't make it, but its return trip was impressive and quiet after it had settled on the ground. No dial tone or means to call out for help or even someone to talk to.
