A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: I attached the first few paragraphs here to finished out the four pages and a bit of more thoughts …

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He watched as the pair left, before turning to face the stairs in the distance. The stairs that would bring him back to the next floor, and the unfinished funeral from all those ages ago. His final act as a High Priest and General for the Pharaoh, before he took the crown for himself. He never did manage to finish the Last Rites. The Rod, whose very purpose was to push away 'distracting' emotions couldn't hold back all the feelings that came with the funeral. Thus he intentionally distracted himself, went back to the kingdom and let the finishing acts be done by another. Cowardly perhaps, but it saved his sanity back then to turn his back on everyone.

But Mahaado said that he had severed everyone out of his pride, that he would have to humble himself and fix this. Only how was Kaiba supposed to do 'that'? He never did anything to sever anything from the other priests, so how could he mend it? If anyone had severed anything it would have been the High Priest after his death. Perhaps Mahaado it was the Priest, the General haunting the Hotel that would have done it if anyone had.

And how did you convince a Spirit to undo what he had done? Or more importantly, convince Kaiba that the place was haunted. The second Kaiba realized what he was acknowledging, he tried to shove that belief out of him. It was frustrating to be sure, nothing hurt as much as that room, the memories, the missing pieces of his own soul. He had staunched those wounds long ago, and yet somehow here in this hotel he had finally been given a path to resolution. The emotional equivalent of prying off old bandages to a wound long since healed. Leaving him wanting to cry over so much and yet unable to do so.

The question remained though, how was Kaiba supposed to force some spiritual remnant of himself to restore the others' abilities? Clearly it was an illusion created by Mahaado, but if it was Kaiba causing it to have this particular personality, it was clear that the intention was for Kaiba to deal with the past. Leaving him with the question of 'how' was he able to do this to himself?

It was pretty clear that the intention was to say that Kaiba was at war with himself. Made worse by the fact that now he had enough memories to piece things together on his own. At least enough to know that, if he was willing to admit it, that he was probably trying to warn himself of some danger. And that was the knife twisting in his back right there, the call to arms some distant part of his soul was giving him. Yet knowing that he would just fail all over again and he couldn't deal with a second failure.

Which probably explained why the General was clearly insane. One dose of failure was clearly too much already. Besides Yugi had his new Circle already up and running, clearly the only thing he needed was a bunch of cheerleaders. So long as he had the support of others he wasn't going to lose to anyone. Replacing Kaiba with that mutt.

…

That would be a cold day in hell.

The world swam before his eyes with his sense of balance giving out on him, and his knees finally folded on themselves leaving Kaiba on the ground unable to catch himself. For a moment he distantly wondered why he fell, but distantly he recalled that he 'had' been stabbed by the General. In fact he had been stabbed repeatedly by a good number of knives.

He'd been struck by A Thousand Knives in fact.

In his deteriorating awareness he found his thoughts going back to when all this horrible night began. So that meant he must have called Mahaado when he reached the hotel and the Magician began setting everything up. He was at his limits though, he had lost so much blood and there was a faint alarm bell ringing in the back of his mind. As though to remind him that this 'illusion' was threatening to take over his own body. Reminding him that this was impossible because he did not call Mahaado until the Knives flew. Such behavior also being far out of the range of things Yugi would do even on a whim.

Like pages torn from an ancient tome tossed to the ground and no matter how easily Kaiba could have reassembled the book normally. This was not normal.

It tore at him as the world turned blurry and dark on the edges of his perfect vision despite his flawed eyes. If he only had more time, or not been stabbed repeatedly, Kaiba was confident that he could figure out Mahaado's cryptic message. Restoring the abilities the others had was all well and fine in theory, but if they were born without the genes necessary for them to use those abilities in the first place. How could Kaiba fix that?

How could he fix from the failure three thousand years ago when his plans were torn asunder by the Pharaoh? He couldn't put them back together again, when his incompetence, his vanity, his pride was the very thing that took all their lives? Sharp blue eyes turned to the ground he was kneeling on, as a drop of water splashed against the back of his left hand. Followed by one on his right, and before he knew he was fighting back a choking sob. Lifting up his hands, unable to ignore how they trembled he hid his face as he wept.

The memories were so real at this point, vivid like a pulse of a heart as his teen years in the palace came back. Rough housing with Kalim, discussing law with Shada, learning strategy with Asim, meditation with Isis... Each one of his dear friends dead and gone and back again and now his memories were so fresh and vivid. The idea of Isis and Kalim now Rashid looking at him in friendship, even now.. How could they not hate him?

Pulling back his hands and letting his arms rest uselessly on his lap and he could see Yugi dead in his arms. A burned out husk from the attack he took when he spent the last of his life force sealing away Zorc and himself in the Sennen Items. The guilt of knowing that Atem died because of him, because Atem believed in him. Was confident he would return to lead the army, and instead he came back possessed.

Yet somewhere in all the grief, shame and futile frustration of the past and what was happening in the hotel, Kaiba found his inner flame. As those emotions churned into a firestorm of anger, an anger that those in the business world was well accustomed to. The anger that made him scrub the tears from his face before bracing himself to stand up.

Kaiba, Seto knelt before 'no one'.

This just wasn't going to work if he planned on getting back into that room. Rage could only sustain him for so long, after that he was going to pass out. The human body only held so much blood and despite Mahaado's effort to heal him. Kaiba just felt too light headed to be confident that he could hold out long enough for help to arrive.

'When this is all over will I fall over dead? I've lost more then I can afford, so what is holding me up now?' There were limits that the human body could endure, surely Kaiba had surpassed that by now. Maybe his 'past' already had killed him or maybe all of this had been one long wish fulfillment dream and Noa actually took his body and this was his last 'hurrah' before disappearing forever.

"Lose to the Past? Lose to someone who has clearly gone made?" He spoke out loud, mainly because there was a comfort to the sound of his voice. A living voice, as opposed to the unliving voices he was surrounded with. It helped strengthen his waning physical strength for the trial ahead of him. He would only live in the moment itself, forgetting the past and abandon the plans for the future.

For now his focus would be just reaching that room again. More than likely it was still retaining the funeral illusion, but how to reach there without Set getting to him first? Could he fight? Was there enough left in him to face a physical confrontation? His gaze went to the injured limb, the fingers flexing and moving easily. Mahaado may never have been a healer, but he could still do good work when ordered.

But it didn't change the situation, Kaiba needed a way to beat Set. He couldn't remember how far he had gotten into the ritual before he had given up. Before he found other things to distract himself with that didn't make him have to face those he failed. He barely recalled what Set had said about why he was doing this. But if this was Kaiba's own subconsciousness trying to communicate with him, then there was a message.

In order to protect Yugi, Set wanted to be released, in fact he mentioned freeing himself once before to free Dios. It took a moment before Kaiba remember about sealing the Shadow Games. After Atem died, Set forbade the summoning of Ka. So far the only ones who had been doing any summoning was Yugi and Kaiba himself. Then again could they have been able to summon, might that have saved Yugi's family?

He closed his eyes and willed himself to do what he had not done of his own violation in years. He called out Dios. The very act of its manifestation felt both familiar and alien to him, having never summoned Dios of his own volition in this life time. As though this being simply walked out of him, his Ka stood before him, or at least emulated standing before him. There had been a time when it was less refined, just bulk muscle, the basics of everything, it's focus was power. Had the Rod warped it into that? He didn't know and after all these years he didn't care. Now it stood in full armor, a helmet covered it's copy of Kaiba's face. But it symbolized the darkness that lived within Kaiba, after all it was now called the 'Black' Luster Soldier for a reason. Regardless, it was needed to create the Dragon Master that was fused with Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Summoning, something that Set had outlawed for the sake of the keeping the Shadow Games out of the hands of anyone else. Yugi couldn't touch Mahaado, but Yugi could touch Kuriboh, hell he'd seen the furball sitting on his brother's head once. Those like Mahaado and Kuriboh were sealed within stone in Egypt, underground among Malik's clan.

The other's should have awakened as Kaiba had, even if not by the same reasons. They all had the same task, summoning their Ka would have only helped them. So what stopped them, what held their Ka in check to the degree that they didn't feel it? Kaiba turned his steps towards the stairs leading back to that room. "I severed everyone from their powers?"

Black Luster Soldier followed him as he walked, as silent for all his armor yet Kaiba could feel the spirit's presence in the back of his mind. He pushed aside the fact that Set had all three Blue Eyes White Dragons serving him. As much as it would pain him to fight his own dragons, he'd do it to regain them.

How utterly ironic for him though, to be walking through this expensive piece of architecture hunting down things from his past. Being locked into rooms to see things he had long since forgotten over the ages. The Rod had certainly been a devastating item to have ever held, yet why did it not affect the previous wielder? In fact, as Kaiba walked along, he found himself wondering what was so different about the old Circle and the new one that caused such vast differences. Even the High Magician, for all his cruelty and arrogance, put the Pharaoh above his own life.

Using the handrail to help him, he climbed up the stairs towards the next floor intending to keep his ears peeled for any danger. Only exhaustion half way up the stairs made walking up too difficult, and instead took to leaning against the wall to try to stay on his feet. Only there was nothing to sustain him awake as he slipped to the ground. The distant sound of a dragon's triple song of roars was all he could hear, as the world turned black on him.

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He didn't know how long he had been out, but as he rolled onto his side his eyes focused on a sight that he knew hadn't been there before. Kuriboh was staring at him from the wall, as though the furball was part a moving wall paper. He slowly pushed himself back to his feet, while the Kuriboh's eyes following him. He was light headed and fell to the stairs again in exhaustion, the stairs to the next floor looked to be swaying in his vision.

"There's not much time left for me."

He began pushing himself to his feet slowly, using the steps and the wall to help him. Beside him Kuriboh blinked before scooting across the wallpaper back towards the first floor. He didn't even turn to watch at the furball, his focus on the upper floor as the Kuriboh disappeared. Set standing at the top of the stairs or at the doorway to the room he needed to reach was what Kaiba was expecting. However; all he saw was an empty hallway.

He couldn't understand why Set would leave it unguarded, after all wasn't the intent to take over Kaibas' body? But he couldn't stand there and just think on it, he was going to pass out again from the blood loss. For better or worse he had to get back into that room and end this game. He dragged himself against the wall moving towards that room again.

The wall felt of stone, even the wall across from him looked more stone then wallpaper. One would have thought the stone was pressing up against the wallpaper. At least if Kaiba 'could' think, since at this point he was dancing on autopilot. He was about to count how many doors down he was before trying to make it across the hall to the door he needed to get to. Only to notice there 'were' no other doors, where a door had been was a slab of stone that covered the entrance. The light in the hallway bore a gold with red tint hue that caused shadows to flicker and dance about.

He took a breath trying to calm his rattled senses before pushing away from the wall. The shadows on the wall were beginning to dance on the edge of his vision. How long did he have left before he went under? He was so tired it was next to impossible to keep his eyes open. He literally walked right into the door to the room. His hand stumbled for the doorknob that was somewhere near his right hand.

He 'twisted' the knob, more like just slipped his hand along the surface and hoped forced would cause it to turn. But it didn't move, instead sliding back into place. Not that he could do anything about it, he just didn't have the strength to try anything else anymore. The only reason he didn't slide to the ground at that point was because his knees had locked into place.

So why did the door click open from the other side? For a moment he forgot about Set, of the danger his past was to his personal safety. Only the confusion of why the door would open at all registered in his brain. The door swung open, revealing the ancient room once more the flames throwing shadows against the wall. A wall of black, gold, and orange swirling in his vision the way paint mixed when pouring down into a drain.

The hotel was as silent as a tomb, an eerie reminder considering the whole situation as it was. As the door opened all Kaiba could see was the darkness of a tomb, and the pale white of the fresh linen that Mahaado wore. But it swam before his eyes as flames reflected off of the gold of his rank and station. The long dead magician's gaze was oddly sympathetic as he moved forward and caught Kaiba into his embrace, easing the CEO to the ground. But Mahaado didn't let go, and for the first time since Ancient Egypt Mahaado felt warm as though he was alive. While all around Kaiba, sound began to slowly return in the soft fluttering of feathered wings, the creak of armor, yet not a single sound of a breathing person other than his own.

He closed his eyes and let them rest for a moment, until he realized the yawning chasm of unconsciousness was getting closer. Forcing himself to open his eyes, out of pride, he looked up at the magician holding on to him. It had been so long since they had been friends, too long to know each other well enough to communicate without words. Or perhaps it was just what he thought, and yet not the truth.

Mahaado, no longer the child, but a man again appearing as a seventeen-year-old once more. Yet when did he revert back to his true appearance, was it Kaiba? If Kaiba was the reason for the child appearance than shouldn't the magician look like child. And if Mahaado was restored to under Yugi's control than why could Kaiba touch him? For once there was too many thoughts and questions that Kaiba could no longer answer in his state of mind.

Even if Kaiba was forced to remember every single event that happened back in Ancient Egypt, there was a vast amount of time between those days and his modern life. The Pharaoh died sealing away the Sennen Items, something 'had' to have happened to allow it to be active in the modern world. If that was Yugi's birth, how did Yugi, who clearly 'was' a reincarnation and not just a vessel, escape the seal?