Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Her eyes were still searching out for a face on the figure standing behind Fred when he turned with the book in hand. From Josies' perspective, she stood in front of Fred, Catty and Monte were on her right and, now, standing. George had himself on her left near his brother, while that smoking figure still stood next to Fred. But she couldn't see his face and Fred didn't react to the presence even when he turned to face it. Which sent up alarm bells in her mind since how could he 'not' react to a human sized smoky presence?
Above them the sky suddenly erupted in thunder that shook the ground she stood on while deafening her. At least in the context of suddenly manifesting above her head when before it had been a clear sky. Josie looked up on instinct to see the stars still winking down at her so where did the thunder come from?
Cattys' scream was absorbed by most of the rolling thunder, while Monte's own voice was a blend of surprise and displeasure. "That's not funny!"
Monte was holding Catty while she stifled her scream into her hands, and while Josie was fine with running for her life. She never got the chance to even take the first step, despite the lack of clouds as she was suddenly blown off her feet! But not in that nice clean, 'ahhh we got yanked by an invisible rope to simulate being blown back weeeee' blown back. It was a messy, turbulent toss her mind barely able to register the off kilter way the wind hit her sending her flying back in a maddening spin.
Wind roared in her ears carrying the thin wailing scream that was Catty. Punctuated by a strangely high pitched, cry of 'Whoops', it was clearly not Catty's voice nor any of the guys. But the impact of the ground made the moment easily dismissed. The rocks scrapped their way into her skin, as she continued sliding back even after the impact from the wind. It was only the impact with her car that stopped her from going further. The bumper smacked into her shoulder knocking her face down even as it wedged her under it.
Wind, shoved her under her CAR.
But as insane and terrifying as that moment was, somehow she was still conscious and could still see what was going on. Which was something that she regretted..
The camp was destroyed. Catty and Monte were off to the side, with only the trees to thank for why the pair were at all visible. But the pair were also crumpled on the ground, so still they appeared lifeless. Fred and George were flattened on the ground, as though some giant had pressed down on them so hard that their legs buckled. While Travis was completely out of sight despite the fact that she had seen him stumbling into camp. Leaving her wondering and worried about where he could have been tossed and how far.
Yet she couldn't check on them, despite everyone who had come to the camp out being out cold in various places on the ground. Since John was still standing in the campsite and he wasn't alone, or even seemingly aware. As she laid there, half hidden under the bumper of her car, she watched as the smoke moved to John. Flowing into the man's nose and ears even the mouth once it dropped open, until the smoke disappeared into John.
Fingers then began to flex, hands twitching while the head swayed side to side.
'What in the actual hell...' Josie thought was she looked John over to see something else in the campsite now. It was hard to see, the unnaturally strong light from the campfire was illuminating 'something' but it was brown and black...
"I don't know what was said... It was... unreal though," Josie continued. "They started off talking, well... whoever was on the other side of John was. Whatever invaded John took time to get up to vocal speed. But... over the years I've tried to think of a way to explain how it sounded.. So the stranger was demanding and hostile the whole time. The wind picked up during their conversation, the air turned electric and with a still clear sky, it began arcing about the campsite. Whatever they talked about, he never took his foot off the gas on his anger."
"But John was different, he started off slow, getting used to possessing someone I suppose. But he sounded as though he was sticking to whatever guns he had. But the more they talked the angrier he got, it escalated into shouting. Then it just stopped..." Josie continued before frowning. "But not stopped as though they were done. Not John just... sounded like he realized something, his voice softened and he sounded... He sounded as though he was trying to calm the other person down, pleading."
"Pleading?" Bakura asked trying to process 'that' mental image, the storm references made him instantly think of Kaiba's other self. Leaving him thinking as he translated for Anzu and Malik, while giving Josie a chance to rest her throat. 'Set showed up back then, I don't know what the smoke being was, but if it came from the book. No, it couldn't have been Zorc, Set would have attacked. His need to protect Yugi is too strong to stand aside, so that smoke had to be a type of guardian for the book.'
Josie sat back watching the reactions on the pairs faces as Ryou recounted her story to them, given that Anzu was the most verbally responsive. It seemed that she and Ryou were comparing notes of sort, so she was a bit surprised when Anzu's finally spoke to her directly.
"You had it rough, at least Yugi was always there to protect us."
"You... you're not scared about any of this... even the possession?" Josie asked flabbergasted as she sat there while Anzu's lips quirked up into a half smile.
"Ryou here was possessed by an evil spirit that stuffed my soul into a figurine and later into a duel monster card. Malik made me hold a cyanide pill in my mouth and later possessed me too. Trust me you're in good com-pa... what's with that look Ryou?" Anzu asked as she noted the outright shocked look on Ryou's face before the guy sighed and sat back.
Slumping in his chair Bakura covered his face and grumbled, "I'm not going back I don't need this stress."
"What did she say?" Malik asked noticing the shift in mood in Bakura and the concerned glances that Josie was suddenly sending his way.
"Ohh just the things we did to her, the possessions, the poison attempts..." Bakura answered faintly while Malik groaned.
"Seriously Anzu?" Malik glared at Anzu who glared right back.
"Look. Its been a decade of her holding this in, and she might as well know some of the madness that we went through!" Anzu pointed out sternly. "She got thrown around, saw lightning, and a possession and somehow managed to not get locked up for being crazy. 'That' is saying something serious! She can handle this!"
"And you three are 'friends'?" Josie asked Anzu, clearly seeking clarification, while Ryou rolled his eyes and spoke in Japanese to Anzu.
"I understand where you're coming from Anzu. But you need to consider the bigger picture here. We're all stationed in Japan, give Josie too much information and this group could go looking for her. Sure Yugi saved us, but he can't be everywhere at the same time, and he sure can't come here on a dime if this group goes after Josie."
Anzu blinked before looking properly chastised, her head going down a bit and in a weak bid to save face spoke up again. "But she doesn't have the book, why go after her?"
"Look at what happened to everyone else in the group, Pandora's face got burned, he's gone mad and we're looking for Travis." Bakura pointed out as he looked up at the ceiling for a bit to get his bearings.
"They weren't connected to the book, and Travis was described as being sick and thrown back a ways. Given what's happened, what if Travis was thrown off an unseen cliff and killed out right? Everything else they remember is wrong after all," Malik pointed out as he rubbed his arms and straightened himself up.
"I can't imagine Kaiba being that ruthless, even if he's insane, he seems to have some grounded sense of trying to help others," Bakura agreed.
"I guess that should reinforce the fact that you three 'are' the right group to deal with all the madness..." Josie finally decided, her voice carried her both her uncertainty and her amazement. 'What the hell do these kids do on a regular day that Anzu is fine with everything? This sounds nuts and I actually want to hear the stories when I'm done. Maybe me and Anzu can chill and talk when this is over?'
"Pleading she said? So whoever was talking to Set, and lets be real, it was Set, tried to calm him down..." Malik noted, passively trying to drag the conversation back onto topic. "Think it could be one of his priests? All of Yugi's are here in some fashion or another, why not Sets'?"
"Because I don't think I can handle 'two' sets of Priests running around leaving us all uncoordinated," Bakura suggested, while Anzu nodded thoughtfully.
"Makes sense, if he was already hostile or demanding, anyone would probably want to calm him down once they realized how angry he was. But a priest would make more sense because they would recognize who they're facing. Anyone else probably would just see Set and think it was some strange costume or whatever. .. She didn't ever get to see Set directly did she?" Malik asked.
"Dunno lets find out," Bakura responded before turning his attention back onto Josie. "I realize the language was probably a stiff barrier, while Malik or I could probably translate it. I realize ten years and an ancient language would be difficult to recite so don't feel bad if you can't repeat it."
"Yeah well, they kept arguing, the stranger kinda has this voice that just demands, like he was ordering Not John around. Not John wasn't having any of it, and for a time they just argued, yelled it was a verbal fight I could tell..."
Not Johns' posture righted itself from its slumped posture, the smoke had clearly was adapting well enough into the body. He stood straight, his shoulders thrown back and rather proudly as the arguing continued until he stopped. His hands twitched, slightly, with those proud shoulders sinking slowly in some sense of shame. Even how he spoke adjusted slowly turning apologetic, until finally he began reaching out as though trying to explain something.
Amid the sparks of lightning and its resulting ozone, that was intensifying during the argument, Josie could see more of who Not John was talking to. Not that she wanted to as she realized. There was a wide skirt, that hung down from whoever. The fabric was deep red, frighteningly red in how it mixed with black, while a thick chain hung down around it and up the body. If not for the voice, Josie would have thought it was a woman given the skirt.
It was when that person gestured she realized it wasn't a 'wide' skirt. It was soaked in something that made it move stiffly. It brought to mind boards being bent when the chains bumped hard into the skirt. When Not John finally looked around, paying attention, at last, to the people who had been floored by the whole storm Josie finally got to see the man that Not John had been talking to, himself.
Which probably was a mistake. The stranger was covered in so much dried blood she couldn't even see his natural skin color. His hair was plastered down to his skull, with chains wrapped around him and leading off to God only knew where. But he was dressed in the way she had seen Egyptian pharaoh's dress back in school. Something that made sense given the context of how the book and the twins family seemingly dated back to Egypt.
The eyes stuck out sharply when compared to everything else was covered in blood, their vivid blue was sharp and intense. More over because it was clear no one was home, there was no empathy or compassion, awareness of what was going on around him didn't seem to exist. It was just empty of everything save that intense focus.
So of course he saw her. Despite being wedged under her car, he saw her with that same intensity... He was tall enough to see over Not John, and then he stopped being on the other side of Not John and he was in front of her. Between a single blink, he went from standing imperiously on one side of the campsite, to in front of her. The scent of blood from his clothes mixed sharply with the ozone that came from the lightning storm around them.
His gaze bore into her, for all of a moment fixated on her as though she was a threat to be taken out... Her skin tingled as lightning ran up her arms along her shoulders to ensure that she was going to have an afro of untold proportions when this was over. If she survived given that she was wedged under her car which if the gas in the tank ignited it was going to be an even bigger blast.
The tingling was turning agonizing as he stared down at her when his eyes glanced away, when something in him seemed to shift hard. The rage melted into grief his hands uselessly gripping the sides of his head while he spoke words she couldn't fathom. Amid the blood, and she was close enough now to smell it, she could see tears starting to glisten as they fell from his eyes.
Not John's voice was gentle, she could see him from behind noticing this stranger and start approaching. His hands were held out in an appeasing manner, his own expression was sympathetic for all the good it did him. The guy in blood rounded on him raging on, but now that he wasn't focused on Josie she could finally check the others. It was actually impressive how the man in blood wasn't physically attacking Not John for all the yelling that was going on.
Yet for all the noise, the lightning the dramatics everyone else remained unconscious. 'I envy all of you' she thought, 'I am literally trapped under my car but can't even understand what's being said. I might as well be out cold like all of you.' Yet while still prone under her car she suddenly realized that the tingling had stopped.
She didn't feel numb, something that was expected after a strong exposure to electricity. In fact she didn't hurt anywhere, despite being flung across the ground and being wedged under her car. Sure there was the pressure from being wedged, but not the scraping painful sensation of getting there. In fact, she could easily climb out now that she wasn't hurting any longer. If she just didn't feel so sleepy.
'Wait? Why do I feel tired?! I need to stay awake!'
Yet the ground was so nice and warm...
"When I woke up, the camp was normal. We were in our sleeping bags, the campsite looked completely typical. Tents up, cars in place, no marks as though we had been flung about even Travis was with us sleeping in the car. Healthy no less despite being the hella sick before... Who the hell can do something like that?" Josie asked, looking at the three with her as though they had the answers themselves. "We got flung about, I saw lightening being tossed, heard thunder, saw smoke beings and a guy who just 'bam' appears out of no where like he was playing a male version of Carrie."
"Not only did I see that... I've spent ten years being told that what I saw wasn't what happened. That none of that happened! I put it all as a fever dream until one day I saw on television, as part of a news story, that guy in blood again. Cleaned up of course, but now a kid who was going to be the CEO to a weapons manufacturing company? So was I going crazy? Only a few short years after that, here you are. Telling me that what I saw was real, proving that there 'are' things going on that defy logic."
'Set's gone mad, why would he manifest as though he was bathing in blood?' Bakura thought to himself as he translated the last bit for Anzu and Malik.
"So on my end, everyone else showed up 'with' John, he royally chewed them out about responsibility and traditions being maintained." Anzu noted thoughtfully, "the only other thing that stands out is that the book caught on fire and disappeared when Fred opened it."
"Set's riding a crazy train all right," Malik noted thoughtfully, "grieving huh, sounds like he's still feeling bad about what happened in Egypt. So much so that it drove him mad, which is kinda stupid. There's things we clearly don't know for him to be this obsessed..."
"Sure we do," Anzu countered, with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't enter the game is all, thousands of people 'died' when the Zorc came to the capital. For us they were NPCs. But once upon a time they were living breathing people with their own hopes, dreams, futures. Zorc took that all away, and Set didn't stop it. 'Set', Yugi's self appointed General 'did not stop the systematic murder of thousands of innocent people'. Kaiba's an ass sure, but he's no where as bad as he was when I first met him. This would break people, this would crack him and that Yugi died? Yeah there was more to the story and it makes sense that Set is broken."