A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Edited By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: So much dust... but I'm catching up to the present and that's a good thing right?
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He was towering, an imposing force in-boded standing at the top of the steps that lead to the alter where the Pharaoh laid. Lapis Lazuil stones were threaded over and over to form a top that covered most of his torso, leaving only the upper portion of his pectoral muscles revealed. While a pair of straps rested one over each shoulder to help support the top. From the waist down was a golden wrap that covered his waist down to his knees. He stood there barefoot and only with a pair of lapis lazuil stone bracelets on his wrists.
The mask itself was a piece of work, made of finest of skins, and shaped with the sharp features of a Jackal. Unlike the jackals of the wild, it was pure black, and bore a long mane that draped down the back. 'Mane' being a good association of the hair, calling back to the fierce protective nature of Sekhmet and the duty of the priest to defend the living and safeguard the souls of the newly dead on their way to judgement.
And looking down at this pitiful 'modernization' of himself, was positively revolting. The skin was as sickly pale as of the desert sands, and just as fertile. His bungling had nearly cost them the soul of the Pharaoh, while at the same time endangering the world by restoring the very demon the Pharaoh had died fighting against.
"...Worthless. You wasted all this time subservient to that outsider and not protecting the Pharaoh. Your actions have continued to shame me in His eyes, for I would have been restored to my proper place as his faithful General, had you done as expected. But no. You have to hide behind your stone walls and shut out our ruler. Cowering behind the tail of the noble Kisara like a dog whimpering for her to fight your battles for you. You have forgotten the sworn duty! Becoming nothing more than a toothless mongrel with no worth!"
Kaiba was struggled to process what he was seeing. Somehow seeing a child version of Mahaado, or Yugi was acceptable, even seeing and being chewed out by an illusion of his past self as a child was ok. Somehow his mind could wrap around what that was and had no problems, but stare at a past version of himself as an young adult? Kaiba's brain seriously wanted to nope out of this room all together.
Maybe it was because this room felt like a horrible truth, while the illusions outside the room showed living, breathing children. In here there was only the horrible adult world of truths, there was no playful games, or stories. No more truths hidden behind doors that could just stay closed so long as you didn't touch them.
Here was the ugly truth.
"If you had just wanted to protect the Pharaoh you would have won that battle. The title you lust for would have been yours. That is why you were born to that couple, to protect the Pharaoh. Worst of all, the shame that will comes from the cost of their lives. You could have saved your modern parents and let them do their job raising their son. Instead you stripped the boy of his birthright and for what? What have you accomplished for our Pharaoh?"
Kaiba lunged forward hitting a wall that never existed as he reached for the bastard before him. There was a clawing panic rising up the back of his spine like lightning warning him that if this 'person' knew that much. In the deepest parts of his soul he knew there was more, that what this 'Priest' said was only half the message. And he had to stop the 'Priest' from saying the rest, no matter what the truth had to stay buried!
He knew where he was, that memory that he never in his darkest nightmares wanted to return to. When the General's last act in the service to his Pharaoh was to lay each of his fellow priests and the Pharaoh himself into their graves. Standing before him, arrogant, proud, defiant and enraged, was the High Priest General in all his Egyptian glory.
Every strike from Kaiba's hand against the invisible wall earned him the roars of angry dragons , but there was only one dragon that Set, that he himself held close. Shaking his head he backed up from the wall while he glared at the General. The Blue Eyes White Dragon was his symbol standing for all that he loved. So why did he hear the roar of the Dragons, a roar of anger no less, against him? What reason would they have to roar against 'him'?
Three Dragons shone under Ra in the land of Egypt. While one hid in shadow, protecting the light of the Pharaoh who never rose again.
"The fourth one..." The one he tore asunder with his own hands, the one that Set sent to protect the Pharaoh. Side by side it had stood with the Dark Magician so that the demon that the Pharaoh sealed away could never be freed. "Why are you doing this? Yugi is free now, the Puzzle has been resolved, there is no reason for you."
"You've seen the writing on the walls, I will not tolerate your failures any longer. As you will not protect the Pharaoh, I shall assume control again," Set coldly informed Kaiba as he delicately placed the mask of Anubis into the air where it hung, seemingly frozen in time. Hard blue eyes stared down at him, framed by tan skin, eye make up, and a soft flow of brown hair.
"What?" Kaiba asked, though a part of him knew what Set was talking about. When Set forced his way out to stop Gozoboro. If not for summoning Black Luster, Kaiba would have been gone. Kaiba had sacrificed everything to Gozoboro in order to protect his brother, even what little power he may have possessed at that age. He wanted to shut out the world at that moment, surrounded by those who he had loved and lost. The softest of hisses drew his attention down towards Sets' hands, who was walking towards him. In the Egyptian's hands was the Sennen Rod, the blade being drawn!
"Do not be alarmed so, after all, you want this as much as I do. Or have you forgotten who started all of this?" Set answered the look he got with that calm voice, as though talking about murdering someone was normal. Kaiba backed up as Set approached, the CEO's eyes widen in alarm, without his Blue Eyes what power did he have? He refused to summon Black Luster again, thus he fell back giving more and more of the room to this manifestation of his past life, while his eyes searched the room for a way out.
But now he understood what Mahaado had tried to say, that Set had unleashed this madness upon him. Set probably summoned Mahaado here, and in a panic Kaiba pulled Mahaado to him when the Knives started flying. Thus killing Mahaado by his own spells, just like before when Mahaado had taken his own life because of what Set's father did.
He dodged the first slash as he had to begin forcing himself to remember this day so he could recall the room's layout. But a memory that had been suppressed so hard and so long was not easily revived. He blocked another swipe and the only saving grace he could find was that Set knew only Egyptian fighting styles. He could fight with blades, but Kaiba knew hand to hand. It would leave him with an unarmed fighting style that would, hopefully, keep him safe. At least until he finally got out of this nightmare. He grabbed Set's wrist and twisted it hoping to get the Priest to drop the blade.
Maybe he should have remembered that Set was just as stubborn as himself, yet again he wasn't really in the frame of mind of seeing Set as a part of himself. Which made the next problem more obvious, as Set tried to punch him in the face only to get his fist caught. So here were two nearly fully grown men, locked together, looking identical save the skin tone and clothes. Kaiba didn't remember everything that went with the style of fighting that Set knew. But he knew how to get someone like Set off his feet fast.
He jerked back once, intentionally causing Set to pull back as well, before setting his foot behind Set's and tripping the High Priest up. Robes or not, he knew Set would get up and get back into the fight before he found a way out. So instead of running, he went into the offensive reaching to take away that hated Rod for himself.
The Rod froze him to the spot, as though a wall of pure ice had come between him and the ability to move. Suddenly everything that Set said made sense, why should he bother with Mokuba? Why waste his time slaving for some silver spooned child while he should be serving the Pharaoh? His Glory, his Light, that was why Seto lived and breathed, all he lived for. It was why he reached through three thousand long years for the chance to awaken Him. Nothing mattered of this materialistic world, nothing save the return of the true Pharaoh. In this modern world orphans weren't left on the street to live or die as they had when he had lost his parents. Who cared about the little one when compared to the light of the Pharaoh's grace and love?
"Now you understand." Set sounded distant from Seto's ears, yet almost pleased. Why was he even fighting himself? They had the same goal didn't they? What greater purpose in life was there, than to free the Pharaoh from the Cursed Sennen Items? He released his hold on the Rod so he could get up, yet in that moment he was knocked completely to the floor. The horror of what he had even just 'thought' serving to knock the strength out of his legs and sending him onto the ground.
He laid there stunned by the horrifying revelation, his eyes fixated on that hated Rod. All the emotions that went into his past, that he fought so hard to resist had just been cut off. It was sharp as a laser, decisively separating logic from emotion. Was it the first time he had ever seen the hated thing so clearly? For this to be the first time he realized the extent of that hated Item's taint, that hated Rod had sealed away all his emotions. His lingering emotional attachment to Mokuba caused him to, as Set put it, forget his mission. When Set inherited the Rod right after Mahaado had broken off their friendship, all Set wanted was to forget how much it hurt.
He wanted to be severed of those painful emotions and the Rod answered by making him not feel any of them at all. For Set, there was nothing but the mission to protect the Pharaoh. For Kaiba he emulated that cold detachment, but without the Item he could be broken out of that state. Yugi's stubborn will proved that.
That hated blade, even if just a manifestation, was like a painful splinter in Kaiba's mind as he realized how damaging it was. It gave relief by giving him the ability to forget the emotional pain of loss and suffering. A Damocles sword, its hilt tipped in poison for what it gave it took in a different fashion. Asking a question of which pain did Kaiba want more, the pain of isolation or the pain emotional desolation.
And Gods save his soul he didn't know the answer.
Perhaps Set had realized that indecisiveness, and lacking it, with a viper in speed the blade shot out as Set pierced his shoulder with the blade.
Kaiba gave a grunt as he fell back as the shock and pain hit him past all the emotional upheavals he had just experienced. The pain was a blessing in disguise though, forcing Kaiba to wake back up and remember he was fighting for his life. His hand gripped his wounded shoulder as he kicked trying to get Set to back off. The High Priest was pulling back his hand once more looking to stab Kaiba again.
In that last moment Kaiba's hand snapped out and he grabbed the lapis covered wrist, twisting it to the side. Even as the blade lightly sliced into his arm, drawing more blood, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the stab wound. Kaiba pulled Set towards him, yanking viciously to free his legs so that he could get up. He was supposed to be the strongest, the one to hold the Circle together and instead he tore it apart. He ran off and let Mahaado go to his own death, let everyone fall apart while he followed a man whose existence was a lie to him.
He was to be the soldier, the one who was to have fought on the front lines for the Pharaoh. Though becoming General never entered into his original dreams, the idea of being on the front lines to protect him had. He had never mourned, or said good bye to the Priests, he had viewed their deaths with the expectation of seeing them in the next life. Which he had, but he had never said 'good bye', he had viewed their deaths as a loss, but something that just happened.
He barely got himself free, but in that moment remembered the path he had to take to get out of the room. Set struggled to his feet as well, his eyes as remorseless as Kaiba's normally was, though at the moment so many revelations going on gave his eyes new life. His hand gripped his shoulder where the shirt served as a crude bandage. He backed up, dodging another attack as he moved up the steps between the alters holding Yugi's and Isis's bodies. But the exit was between Kalim and Shada's alters, with Set in the way. Despite the pain in his shoulder he had to think of a way to get past Set who starting to stalk him again.
'He thinks I can't use the past to my advantage, that I've shut it out completely.' He thought as he moved between Mahaado and Isis' alters. 'Thinks I've gone soft does he?' He didn't smirk, as he continued the waiting game. This wasn't something you could hide like the faces of your cards, more like a lethal business meeting actually. He had to wait, as dangerous as this battle was, let himself naturally show exhaustion, pain, most importantly; weakness. Let Set pursue him without seeing the real danger.
His arm was numb, his free hand gripped the weakened shoulder, letting the glow of the fires reflect on the fresh blood that covered his hand. He had not bothered with his coat, when he had tried to escape the hotel. Which was something he was grateful for as he didn't have something stark white remind both of them how badly he was hurt. It would only encourage Set, and was a visual moral dampener that Kaiba didn't need.
For a moment he looked down as the loss of blood began to take its' toll on him, and he found himself looking into Mahaado's eyes. There were so many things he wanted to say to the person who had been his best friend for so long. The dangers of the Items, the silent burden of carrying a secret around of such magnitude, the willing sacrifice of his own magics to protect them all. But just as pride kept him strong, it also kept him silent. Set had always believed himself to be the one to hold them together, but the truth was that it had been Mahaado.
It was only because Mahaado looked away that he looked up in time to avoid another strike. But it got the response that he so wanted, Set had come behind the Alter and was approaching Kaiba. With the center of the room unguarded, Kaiba between the two sets of Alters and towards the exit of both this memory and room. His bloody hand reached down, having an odd moment of faith that he would grab a modern doorknob.
Kaiba gave a sigh of relief as he was finally able to escape the horrible past that he had been forced to remember. Never had a typical high class hotel hallway been a welcomed sight. He shut the door behind him as he staggered out of the room before grabbing his shoulder again. He had to find a way to get back into his room. The wound needed tending even if he was alone doing it, that and a rest as blood loss was nothing to-?
Kaiba turned around as he heard something click behind him, something louder then his footsteps. Turning around he saw the door he just left disappear as it opened inwardly.
"No..." it sounded weak, pitiful from his own voice as he stood there watching who came out of the room. "That isn't possible, it hasn't happened in all the other rooms." He argued weakly, he didn't have the strength to force more out of himself.
Fresh blood dripped from the tip of the Sennen Rod, soaking into the ground as the hand holding it tightened. The attire of a Priest of Anubis wavered like the heated desert air into ivory white, crisp clean robes traditional robes he normally wore stained in blood, but not much compared to the other priests. It looked more like an ink pen had been busted open and spilled it's rich red contents down the side of the robe. But it was still him, standing there with all the strength, independence and pride that marked him, despite how out of place he looked.
High Priest Set, General of Pharaoh Atem, Cousin, Heir, Pharaoh and Living Horus long did he reign stood before him.
