A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta Work: White Swan

Current Beta: me and OMG

A/N: Wow this arc was bones only... I seriously hope anyone who is new to this book and goes through this arc appreciates how much retooling I had to do.

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"…"

"… …"

"… … …"

'Damn I forgot that Isono was used to working for Kaiba.' Malik thought as he glared at Isono. The bodyguard was ever inscrutable with his sunglasses resting on his face despite it being night time.

He and Jounouchi had left the building to approach one half of the pair of bodyguards that the Kaiba's normally kept around. Isono had stood by the side of the limo, seemingly admiring the night sky. But as the pair approached the bodyguard refocused his attention onto the teens and straightened his posture. Both Isono and Fugata were big men, though not like Rashid, yet they were so easy to forget about. Malik had to actually 'think' about what their names were and who was who before he even had asked his lines of interrogation.

Then again, given his experience with Rashid, Malik didn't have much hope of getting Isono to talk about the previous Kaiba's company. At least not without bringing in Mokuba which would mean getting Mokuba to learn about the corpse in the secret room. "You know that Kaiba is hooked into the game right now and as much in a coma as Yugi, right?" he tried, which showed actual success as Isono actually seemed to tense up just a bit. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone would who want to lock Kaiba in that game with those pods would you?"

"Hmmm, not anyone who's still alive…" Isono slowly stated, his voice slow and cautious as though he was balancing pros and cons of this line of inquiry.

"Is there any way we can find out about that room without you having to tell us?" the Egyptian asked, trying to find some way around this situation.

"I need to get something… I'll be right back…" Isono replied and walked off rather stiffly towards the building, leaving Malik and Jounouchi standing next to the limo.

"Great, we wait…" Jounouchi grumbled as he stood there, crossing his arms in frustration. The air had a chill quality to it, and it was quiet now that most of the city had finally made it home. Without the traffic it had become almost painfully quiet, but perhaps that was in their minds. After all, usually when they were 'with friends' there were others to engage conversation with. Now there was a near equal balance of people in coma's hooked to pods and people who were safely awake.

And the difference between going out to be alone, and being with a group that was half comatose was sizable different.

Malik by now had grown used to Jounouchi's personality; apparently the gambler only was able to think on his feet during a fight. Any other time and well… Between the two of them, there was an inescapable feeling that they weren't doing enough, that while the others did all the fighting all they did was sit around and relax. Not that they felt relaxed, considering how many unknowns there were about the fates of those locked in the pods. It felt like an eternity before Isono returned to the pair with a folder in his hand. He didn't say anything but he held it out for Malik and then went back to where he had been standing the whole time, waiting faithfully for Kaiba and Mokuba's return.

With a backwards tossed 'thank you' the pair ran back into the building, ready for some light and time to go over the file. The folder felt thick with papers, while it held the promise of the information they needed. Thus the light of the interior of the building looked more appealing as the air was filled with the sounds of their sneakered feet pounding the pavement. The doors were nearly yanked off their joints as the pair immediately began studying the files' exterior. The desk before them would be useful to spread things out, but there was something to be said for the file itself.

Aged yellow with the edges weakened over years of being grabbed and scraped along the hands of people. The label was dirtied with age and only bore the odd name of 'Project: Defiance' along it in neatly typed letters.

Malik grabbed the seat behind the desk, opening the folder and fanning out the information so they kept nothing from getting out of order. Thus reading a timeline that began almost the second after a Kaiba, 'Noa' became the victim of a terrible car accident and left in a coma with a broken body. His father had the pods built to sustain Noa while doctors tried to heal what had been broken.

Most of the file didn't make sense to them, as they were lacking medical training or scientific understanding of what the charts and readouts meant. But it was there, between medical jargon and rows of 0's and 1's, the truth they were looking for was hinted and teased. So much so that connecting the dots wasn't difficult and in a way for anyone else what they read would have been horrifying. Reading as Gozoboro crossed the limits of fatherly devotion and strayed into the thoughts of a man who thought himself a god. And suddenly the file name made sense, for he was trying to defy the fate of man.

Kaiba hadn't been adopted because Gozoboro longed for a son, he was adopted to be the host body for Noa should Noa's own body prove to be beyond medical help. Which unto itself was an already horrifying and disturbing feeling shared by both teens, as they had both experienced being used by something less desirable. Part of the 'process' involved conditioning for Kaiba, desensitization from the world, intentional forms of mental stress to make him 'retreat into his own psyche' as a means to help ease Noa into place. Processes to make him disconnect emotionally with anyone, even Mokuba.

It was in the final clip of files that they found the end of the story of Kaiba Noa, a final end that was a mixture of tragedy and nauseous.

Noa's body couldn't be saved, someone broke into the labs with apparently the intent that Noa 'not' recover. And as a result that the body was 'damaged beyond repair'. Thus the process for the transfer was accelerated as there were signs of gradual loss of mental faculties by Noa in the machine. Signs that the child, and this 'was' a child, was losing touch with his humanity and compassion. But because someone broke into the labs and killed the body, which alone shouldn't have caused any problems, since the mind had been uploaded already to the computer by the doctors. It was what happened afterwards, what ultimately brought about the death of Kaiba Gozoboro that stopped the pair and made them have to re-read the page over and over again.

Clipped to the page was a single disc in a protective plastic sleeve. And somehow, Malik felt there was something to that disc, but there was also an issue in his mind. There was a particular picture that was haunting him just enough to make him decide to wait on the disc.

Malik had to talk to Mahaado again, there were things he had to know about. So he left Jounouchi standing there with a dark, yet thoughtful, expression on his face before rushing off to find Mahaado and hope that the Mage didn't do something like go to sleep in his own tablet while waiting. He was in luck though; Mahaado stood waiting faithfully for his Pharaoh to come out of the pod in the room with the others.

"Mahaado! I have to speak with you about something!" Malik motioned for the mage to follow him as he left once more, leaving no time for Isis or Mokuba to even register that he had appeared. The mage appeared readily by his side, still a surprise for Malik when such a thing just suddenly happened. Though nowhere near Jounouchi's natural response to ghosts.

Mahaado didn't ask any questions, rather he appeared with an expectant look on his face, as though he knew that what was to be asked of him was important. Did all the Pharaoh's servants live with such expectancy? If so, then it made Kaiba a bit easier to understand. But Mahaado was looking at him, and even though he was calm about it, he was still expecting an answer. Or rather a question, "did duel monsters come from the Sennen Items or another source?"

Mahaado looked a bit taken aback by the question, before sliding into a visibly annoyed expression. "Did you not learn of our faith while underground?" It was asked in scolding teacher tone that Malik had to actually mentally take a step back in surprise that it was even asked.

"Ka is a natural part of all of us. It was just magicians usually had the ability to manifest their Ka on their own, the Sennen Items were used to give that ability to the other priests, each Item held their own function. But the Rod was mostly used to seal Ka away when the person who was connected to that Ka proved to have an evil heart." Mahaado explained as Malik walked down the hallway towards the reception area again.

"Could someone in our day and age summon a Ka?" Malik asked, as his mind quickly began sensing a pattern.

"People are born with Ka still, regardless of the land, yet it is the training to summon Ka that you are asking about. And no, Set forbade the practice when Pharaoh died."

"Wait… I thought the Pharaoh forbade the practice?" Malik asked thrown off and now confused by what he had been taught and by what Mahaado said.

"Well yes, Pharaoh Set forbade it, not Pharaoh, Set is the one who sealed away that knowledge and created the Gravekeeper Clan, were you not aware of this?" Mahaado paused looking at Malik, who looked like someone just hit him from behind.

'Way to go Malik, you couldn't even get the right Pharaoh when you went on your revenge trip.' Malik thought to himself before hurrying along. "Mahaado what is Kaiba's Ka? Has it always been Blue Eyes White Dragon?"

"No, his Ka is Duos, a warrior with wings and a sword, it grows in strength by striking down others," Mahaado explained having had enough experience dealing with those Ka.

"Do you think Kaiba is capable of summoning it, even after all these centuries?" Malik asked thoughtfully, as he pushed the doors open to the reception area.

"Yes, it would be within his right to do so at any moment. Do you believe he has summoned it?"

"I don't know, but there may be a video that could show us…" Malik replied as he reached the desk and Jounouchi back peddled. Malik pulled out a small CD in its plastic sleeve and looked about for something to play it on. "In the files it states when Gozoboro was in his office preparing to have Kaiba brought down for the mind swap procedure when a blue being appeared hovering right behind Kaiba. Kaiba apparently was described as being frozen in place, unresponsive to the being behind him as it rushed Gozoboro, who fell back and out the window. Though possibly the shock of the attack and the fall caused the heart attack."

"That… sounds like Duos…" Mahaado agreed slowly, unsurely. After all, there were others that could fit the description since there was no mention of wings. Then again, it had been three thousand years; perhaps Duos evolved? But his Master wasn't ordering him, he could not create an illusion to illustrate what Duos looked like for the teens.

"How 'bout this?" Jounouchi asked, having found a single photo from all the others that showed the being.

Mahaado leaned over to study the picture as Jounouchi scrambled away from him. Pictures, even of himself as the Dark Magician, still fascinated Mahaado as he studied. "It could have evolved, it's... more human now… It could also be Mokuba's, but I do not sense any great power out of him at this age and it requires a strong emotion to call forth a Ka."

"The files say that whatever this image is, it scared Gozoboro right out the window. Can people without magic feel a Ka's presence? I mean, hell, I felt those monsters back when we were dealing with Yugi and the other Yugi." Jounouchi asked from behind a potted plant standing in the corner.

"If the Ka is powerful enough, then yes. It is more then likely that Blue Eyes White Dragon found a way to siphon some of its own power into Set's Ka so that it could become visible," Mahaado explained in his own tongue, forgetting that Jounouchi couldn't speak Ancient Egyptian. Not that it was a problem, as Malik was filling Jounouchi in.

"You said you could possess versions of you in the card game. Can you possess them inside a virtual reality game?" Malik asked as the gears turned in his mind. Time was ticking away from them, but instead of answering Malik, Mahaado's eyes suddenly lost focus and he disappeared from their sight, which could only mean something happened to Yugi.

The teens ran down the hallway, already hearing Mahaado's distraught voice calling out to Yugi. They tore back into the lab where they could clearly see Yugi having some form of a spasm inside the pod. Yugi was jerking and reeling inside the pod, his whole being screaming of pain and suffering. Jounouchi forgot that Mahaado was already plastered to the glass as he rushed by, shouting Yugi's name as though that would wake the teen up. Malik on the other hand, rushed to his sister and Mokuba, who were both looking at the screen. "What's going on?!"

"Yugi and Seto are fighting for some reason, and Yugi is not a proficient fighter," Isis explained quickly as they watched the life points dropping from Yugi.

"Why would they be fighting? Kaiba went in there to 'find' Yugi not beat the hell out of him!"

"As far as we can tell, Seto has been fighting a great deal of holograms of Yugi so far. It is possible that he can no longer tell which is real and which isn't. But regardless of that, Anzu and Bakura are nearing the location; we can only hope that somehow they can break this fight up." Isis explained to her younger brother as they stood watching the screen. "Also, you may be rather pleased to know that Bakura won a duel on his own, in a rather crafty manner. It seems that the Thief in him is coming out again."

"Mahaado, you never answered my question," Malik turned his attention back to the mage as he made his way over to Mahaado. "Can you put yourself in the game? Even if Yugi thinks that the game is the real world, there's got to be a way to get him to summon Dark Magician."

Mahaado snapped out of his tranced state and looked over at Malik in curiosity, "This is a game? But how? Pharaoh never explained it to me,"

And that explained probably the largest reason why Mahaado was 'still' here and not in the game. But how was he going to explain this?

"Um well the game is in the computer, the problem is that Yugi and the others are in a trance so they're not connecting to their bodies properly." Mokuba spoke up, jumping down from his chair to stand next to Mahaado. "So, you see the thing around Yugi's head? That box holds a screen that Yugi is looking at, and his fingers were controlling the movement until all this happened. So yeah, its a game, and you can enter it..."

"Oh, well I can do that, I shall go to my Pharaoh, thank you for explaining this to me." Mahaado replied before he faded out of sight, apparently to carry out Malik's wish.

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"Yugi? Why don't you call out Dark Magician? We could use the back up and it might make you feel better to see him." Anzu suggested as she walked in the road with Bakura and Yugi. Currently Bakura was in control of a Jinzo while she was still with Silent Magician Level 8, but Yugi had been so distraught he hadn't tried to use his deck.

"Maha? Do you think Maha would come out?" Yugi asked, his tone uncertain as he pulled out his deck from his hip case. He searched through his deck until he found the Dark Magician and held it out to look at it. He recalled the first time Mahaado made his appearance; the Dark Magician had turned into the Magician of Illusions. But now it was once more his familiar Dark Magician. Then again this was just a virtual reality world; how could Noa know the truth behind the lavender clad Mage? He pulled out the card and held it up, calling out to his Magician to appear before him.

A dark hole appeared before his feet and the mage rose up as would be expected of a battle mage, but instead of standing at the attack position like the others, it turned and looked down at Yugi. The awareness was there in his eyes as Mahaado dropped to bent knee, as the Dark Magician knelt before his ruler. But he found to his dismay that this form lacked whatever a computer needed to allow him to speak. So instead he could only stay in silence.

"Maha!" Yugi exclaimed as he flung his arms around the Magician. Once Mahaado appeared Yugi seemed to have found the greatest comfort and settled down.

Mahaado stood up, allowing for Yugi to wrap his arms around him, and the emotions that had held Yugi could almost be felt in the way that the teenager clung to him. He turned his attention towards Anzu and Bakura, expecting some sort of explanation, while the pair of monsters around him continued protecting the trio. Anzu took charge, explaining what had been going on in the game as well as Kaiba's departure to deal with Noa. Somewhere in the middle of the explanation they resumed the walk towards Kaiba Corp.