A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: White Swan

A/N: Still fixing up Bakura and Maliks' voices to match up.

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Honda sat relaxing in the dinning hall of the boat, feeling the ever-happening shift of water under foot. With his knee out, he lacked the smooth adjustments that people normally had, akin to poor suspension. The room was large enough and the chair was bolted to the floor. While in front of him on the table was a notepad for anyone who wanted to tell him what had been going on vocally when this meeting started. Jounouchi already seemed to be in a state of denial and would fall back to talking and moving like normal. While Honda followed with his cane and when he caught up he would push the notebook in the guys' hands to remind him to write not talk. Jounouchi looked ready to cry that first time he had done that, just seeing the broken anguish in Jounouchis' eyes was heart wrenching.

The doctors were discussing the idea about taking up Sign Language, since the odds of him reclaiming his full hearing was not expected. The idea of trying to get Jounouchi to learn Sign Language was as amusing as it was sad. Honda had already spent his days after the initial blast angry over the attack and the pain he had endured from the bomb. Anger over the fact he got hit, anger at the loss of his hearing and anger that anyone would have the nerve to do such a thing.

But no matter how hot his anger was, the shame of even possessing that anger was stronger. As it had been pointed out by 'helpful' people, he was still alive, while he should have been blown to pieces or at least blind as well. Unable to just be angry, and afraid that if he let his shame and despair consume, he would never climb out. Hopefully he could learn something here, something that may have been missed so that he could get some closure on why that had to happen at all.

A hand touching his shoulder, with all the soft grace of a lady, disrupted Honda's dark thoughts. Turning, he saw Isis standing to his side with the rest of the gang behind her. Before the turn of her attention redirected his own focus towards the door where bounding in was Mokuba. Yugi following close behind towering now as though Kaiba was there. Honda remembered back when he and Jounouchi talked Yugi into hiding his growth spurts. It had been meant as something fun, to surprise Anzu with when she came home; to have to face the guy she once loomed over and protected, reach her height.

In all honesty, that seemed to be how far they figured Yugi to grow, just enough to be eye to eye with her. When Yugi got on the phone, he claimed to have caught a cold and couldn't talk loudly, to hide how his voice broke. When Honda was still in the hospital it had given him something positive to think about amid all the pain. Lost in a haze of pain, he forgot how many days it had been, so he just thought of how Anzu would react to the sight of Yugi.

It was supposed to be just the five of them, Yugi, him, Jounouchi, Grandpa and Yugi's mom waiting at the airport when Anzu stepped off the plane. It was supposed to be about how that once shy little kid was now physically growing up. But that didn't happen; Yugi and Jounouchi got kidnapped trying to protect the Kaibas, leaving Honda alone. When the bomb happened, Honda tried to salvage the fun idea, just the three of them waiting for Anzu at the airport, hoping that Anzu's safe return would bring out Yugi from what he knew would be a deep terrible mourning. It didn't happen that way.

Instead of Yugi getting back first or even Anzu, the pair was on the same plane. Honda had sat there and watched as Jounouchi wrote what looked to be the most heart breaking story of his life on paper. The blond wanted to tell the story, not write it down, but that was impossible with Honda's hearing pretty much gone, so Jounouchi had to sit there and write. Had to write about how Anzu had run into him at the airport, showing her awareness of Yugi's loss. Then when they were seated how she went to look for the guy, not realizing that she was sitting right next to him. Yet Yugi wasn't just eye level with Anzu now, he looked like he was on eye level with Kaiba, or very near it.

With every stroke of the pen, every scratched out error another reminder that he had to write because Honda couldn't hear.

Isis had left his side, no doubt to offer greetings to their guests, Malik and Rashid joining her. He watched as Bakura hung back looking distressed as Yugi saw him and walked over. Yugi's back was to him, but he could see the distress and agitation in Bakura before the teen ran off leaving Yugi alone. Malik walked up behind Yugi and rested a hand on the Duelist's shoulder, apparently explaining something before leading Yugi to the table and ultimately Honda. That's when the awkwardness seemed to settle in for the gang, as the three newcomers now had to deal with something they could pretend wasn't reality.

"Hey guys, any comments, well, please refer to my notebook," Honda spoke into his perpetual silence, pushing the notepad forward. Anzu's response was to walk over and hug him fiercely while Mokuba and Yugi both went about writing in the notebook. Their greetings didn't surprise Honda; Mokuba's was painfully short and Yugi offered himself up to Honda. Even though he had no home of his own, he still offered to help Honda in any way he could. Before taking the book and sitting down next to Honda so he could write down what was said so that Honda could participate.

Only for Rashid to take the book from Yugi with a firm, "the Pharaoh does not do dictation." Rashid to Honda's left, Jounouchi to his right, Yugi before him with Anzu next to Yugi on Duelists' right and Mokuba on the left. With Isis at the head of the table with Anzu and Rashi nearest. While Malik stood between his sister and brother.

Isis lifted up a book and letter from a small table resting on the side of the room and brought it to Yugi as he sat there near the end of the table. "This book and letter were given to me by a former assistant of a magician that you know about. This is probably the best place to start in regards to what seems to be happening to all of us," she explained. Yugi gave her a curious look before he lifted up the letter and began reading it aloud for everyone.

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"How dare he!" Yugi snapped as he finished. The occupants of the room a bit surprised, though Yugi's voice had progressively become more irate as he read. Yet the outburst, his voice hot with anger, few understood.

"Yugi?" Anzu asked, curious as Yugi sat back in his seat his arms crossed, fuming at some unseen spot in the letter.

"He tortured his own Dark Magician in that duel during Battle City, he even destroyed him for a chance to attack me with a spell card! Then when he gets a second chance at having Dark Magician around he doesn't do a single thing different! Mahaado's been very kind to me and I bet he would be to anyone who was kind to him, and what does Pandora do? Hurt him!" Both Isis and Rashid nodded slightly at that proclamation; faint memories as they were, the name and the description was enough.

Catching the nods, Yugi tilted his head to the side curiously, "you know Mahaado?"

"Barely. We have been dreaming of Ancient Egypt for a while now, of our lives there. However only recently has Mahaado entered our dreams," Isis explained quietly. "Though at the time because we did not discuss it among ourselves we assumed it was the history we had been taught interacting with our imaginations."

"So who was he?" Jounouchi asked curious as a, well, as a pup.

"A slave, no one knows where he came from, even himself. My father told me when Mahaado was formally brought to the court that he was the slave of a criminal organization. However, when his master kidnapped the prince Mahaado murdered his master and fled with the infant, trying to return to the palace," Rashid explained calmly, remembering that conversation as he spoke. "The Pharaoh was grateful to have his son returned unharmed. Since Mahaado was born with incredible strength in magic, his reward was a place in the palace as a student to the Royal Magician."

"I remember, my father spoke of it as well. The Priest did not want Mahaado however. He was one who didn't believe in teaching magic to one of such low birth." Isis added, her voice growing sad. Back then she had just accepted it as fact, but in a world where she had been fortunate enough to not have to worry about birth rank, it saddened her.

"Low birth?" Anzu asked, surprised to hear such a thing, from what she had seen of the Pharaoh's memory, a slave wouldn't dress the way that the person Catherine described did.

"In those days there was a caste system we lived by. It was very ridged and it took something short of a blessing from the gods to bestow a low caste member any rights above their place." Isis explained gently to Anzu. "But for some, even with such a blessing, once a lowly slave always a lowly slave."

"I don't remember him killing anybody," Yugi injected, his eyes clouded by his own memories. "I remember him lifting me up from my makeshift crib and sneaking away. But they caught on and gave chase apparently because he started running hard like he was being hunted…"

There was a circle of red around them, like a ring of fire when the boy stopped running. Yugi, through the prince, didn't understand what had been going on, but the boy closed his eyes and seemed to be focusing on something internally. Something dark enough that the light from the distant torches couldn't brighten up had appeared standing over the boy's shoulder. But with that wild long black hair and buckles, Yugi recognized the Magician of Black Chaos now; while before the looming being frightened him.

"He took care of me, even if it meant his own life," Yugi finished softly. A slave? Mahaado couldn't be a slave; he was the Dark Magician, even if Yugi didn't want to think about all the ways Mahaado had been killed during duels. He was as his card claimed him, the ultimate wizard, true Yugi had beaten the Dark Magician in Duels but that didn't lessen his strong admiration of the magician. His heart called out to the mage who had appeared before him in the cell, Magician, whose very presence was calming to Yugi.

Mahaado answered with his sudden appearance, yet there was a hint of what he had been doing as he appeared on his knees with a hand out as though he had been prodding something repeatedly. Noticing the change in scenery, the mage looked up in alarm looking about before his eyes fell upon Yugi and he relaxed. The mage walked over and immediately dropped before Yugi in a proper bow waiting for permission to rise, while Anzu and Honda finally got to see first hand the human soul of the Dark Magician. True for the gang, they had only seen him as the Dark Magician, not having arrived in time to see him in his human form back when they traveled through the Other Yugi's memories.

"Mahaado what were you doing?" Yugi asked innocently as he leaned over to get close to eye level with the mage. "Did you see Maha?" he asked in amusement, his voice soft while the mage looked decidedly embarrassed. "You don't have to kneel before me Mahaado I'm not a pharaoh."

"Pharaoh is Pharaoh to me," Mahaado replied obediently as he moved to stand behind his ruler. While the others had talked Malik had brought the letter over so Honda could read its passages, now with a raised eyebrow Honda cleared his throat.

"If its not too much trouble could you tell me something Mahaado?" he asked while he gained the floor. The others turned to listen to Honda while the teen's eyes went over the letter in his hands. "Jounouchi told me yesterday about what happened while they had been held captive, but you said you had just awaken and headed straight for Yugi. But by this letter it sounds more like you'd been enslaved before then. What really happened when you awoke into the modern world?"

"Forgive me, for my ability to speak this language is not very good, but I shall try to explain to you as I explain to Isis and Kalim what happened." Mahaado looked between Honda and Yugi, concerned over if he had just stepped out of his boundaries. But with a soft voiced encouragement from Yugi he began, "I am unsure if you understand where we mon…" suddenly he stopped, looked at Yugi and tried again. "We spirits come from so I shall begin there. The monsters originally were part of the human soul. Like how your body has a shadow the human soul is like that, but it requires strength to call it forth. Strong emotions are good for summoning Ka, which is why commoners normally cannot summon as they are without much motivation to call forth such emotions. Up until that time the ability to have more then one spirit was impossible, yet after the creation of the Sennen Items that changed. With them people could have their spirits removed from their body and sealed away into Stone Tablets." Mahaado paused giving Rashid time to write down what was being said for Honda while the others had a chance to think about what he was saying.

"Wouldn't that mean that anyone to this day would be able to summon Ka?" Anzu asked her expression thoughtful, "what stopped people?"

"If a Ka is destroyed, it affects the health of the person; one could very possibly die if their Ka is destroyed. Only those with a Sennen Item or a strong connection to them could survive that. When evil people were judged if found guilty their Ka was removed. But Ka is important to a person. Stripped of it, their willingness to live is diminished, they lose the ability to fight back or strive for anything." Mahaado explained calmly, while Yugi suddenly seemed to think of something he didn't like.

"Wait… So you're saying that unless a person had an Item the only Ka they would have would be their own. Yet… Then how did you get the Magician of Black Chaos to help you that night?" Yugi asked looking up at the spirit in concern.

"I… The magician was mine, till Master decreed it too mighty for a slave and took it from me… I was a child though, as I grew older I was able to manifest another one to replace the one I lost, though…" Mahaado stopped as he felt such emotion from Yugi, "Pharaoh?"

"They took part of your soul just because you were of low birth?"

"I had to be taught my place, I was a slave expected to live as a noble, so it was justified if they took the Magician from me, if they… Pharaoh I was to serve, how could I do that with any type of spirit that could rebel?" Mahaado saw such a sad look in his Pharaoh's eyes that it caused him to pause in his explanations.

"When Atem died, that death caused people to lose the ability to call forth Ka then?" Malik asked, "the books that got passed down never mentioned why people stopped summoning."

"The next Pharaoh banned them, Pharaoh's cousin who became Pharaoh afterwards denied access to that power." Mahaado explained, sounding almost grateful to not have to see his ruler cry.

"Yugi," Anzu gently rested her hand on the teens forearm and sighed. "We're going at this the wrong way. We need to know the present not the distant past. If you guys are remembering your past lives, you're only going to confuse yourselves more by trying to jump around." Anzu spoke with a firm certainty before addressing the Magician. "Mahaado, what happened when you went to find Yugi the first time, when Pandora got control of you?"

'Thank you,' Jounouchi thought as Anzu took over. Yugi wasn't one to be forceful or aggressive, when they were growing up that had actually been Anzu's role between the pair. Anzu understood Yugi's heart outside of dueling better then Jounouchi or Honda did, so her taking charge was quite welcome, since Yugi looked to be getting depressed all over again.

"I do not know, when I left my tablet Pandora stood there before it with the book. How he attained such an item I am not aware of, yet it had power over me," Mahaado explained calmly. "Because of the book he became my master. Once the lady set me free to find Pharaoh I could return to my place beside my true master."

"Then how can Yugi call you from your tablet without the book?" Mokuba piped up from his seat on the other side of Anzu.

"Because I am a monster that must obey the summons of those who know and share a type of spiritual twin like self with me." Mahaado replied as he fumbled over trying to explain what it required to summon him. While Yugi flipped through the pages of the book.

"Bakura, come in," Malik called out to Bakura who was standing outside the room listening.

"What happened to make Bakura so edgy?" Anzu asked, as she leaned towards Isis, in a soft voice.

"The people of the Kul Elna have been freed from the Items that they were a part of for so long. However; they are restless, angry, as the last of their village they have been staying by Bakura openly to protect him. Yet they continue to believe Yugi to be a threat, they refuse to accept that Yugi means Bakura no harm and for that they will not allow him to near Bakura. Thus their attack yesterday when Bakura lead you up to your room, Yugi. They are not emotionless though, they realize they have hurt Bakura and shaken what little trust he placed in them, so they are staying at bay for now. In fact, they sought to lavish him with gifts befitting a self proclaimed Thief King earlier, but that was not what Bakura wanted." Isis explained, her voice calm yet tinted with sadness.

"Wait, you mean all those jewels?" Jounouchi exclaimed in excitement. "Say, did you guys keep any of them?"

"Jounouchi!" Anzu made a lunge over the table, grabbed Jounouchi's ear as Yugi grabbed her and pulled her back… consequently causing Jounouchi to go face first into the table.

Honda who had been innocently reading what Isis had said, looked up at Rashid and asked "you know, you're awfully big and strong. Mind if I hid behind you from Anzu?"

Rashid looked calmly at Honda before turning to look at Yugi. "Tell me, were the buckles on the shirt you wore before supposed to simulate the stripes on a referee shirt?"

"This is falling apart…" Yugi moaned as he laid his head on the table his arms wrapped around his head. Mokuba looked at all the activity with amusement as he reached over and patted Yugi on the shoulder. When the tricolored haired duelist looked at him, the kid grinned encouragingly. "We're going to have to leave soon," Yugi noted as an after thought. "It's getting late and I don't want Kaiba to worry."

"I don't think there's a way to avoid that without him being present," Jounouchi replied, rubbing his abused nose.

"He won't get too worried, I'm with you and Isono after all," Mokuba countered as Yugi got up from his chair and walked to the door that Bakura was hiding behind. "But he will get worried."

"Bakura? Please don't hide. I'm not angry," Yugi called out through the open crack in the door.

"Why not? You should hate me after everything I've put you through. The soul stealing in Monster world, the soul injected into the cards duel in Duelist kingdom, Battle City from start to finish… How can you not hate me? Now I have spirits that are acting out with murderous intent," Bakura countered, his voice slightly muffled and utterly miserable as Yugi slowly opened the door.

Bakura was facing the wall leaning on it while Yugi walked up to him before gently placing his hand on Bakura's shoulder. "I'm not just anyone though, I'm the guy who got his soul sealed into a Monster Tamer figurine, my Dark Magician card, and nearly killed on several other occasions. Come on, I dressed my other self up in black leather and tricked him onto a date with Anzu! If he had been a bit more homicidal, he would have just not bothered about his memories and killed me outright!" Yugi smiled at Bakura as he turned the white haired teen around to face him. "We might as well accept magic isn't going to leave us even if the Items do. So you're going to have to stop avoiding life and join the rest of us."

"Yugi," Bakura looked down then walked away. "You are far too kind and forgiving. But I remember far too much darkness to return to the light."

Yugi watched Bakura go into one of the rooms leaving him in the hallway of the boat when Mokuba walked up. "Yugi? My Big Brother called, it's time for us to go home."

Looking down at the black haired kid Yugi gave a soft faint smile, "yeah let's go home."