Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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It was almost like walking down the halls of KaibaCorp to the child. Everyone who worked at the hospital backed up when his Older Brother stalked through. Their heads bowed in quiet humility, patients were stuck waiting as Kaiba passed with confused expressions written on their faces. News outlets had managed to barely keep Kaiba's name out of the press, only because no one had been able to nail him to the event that took place. But all it really took was established, respected doctors to bow in respect to Kaiba to say 'he did something massive'. And there was only 'one' massive event to earn 'this' degree of respect to a non medical personnel.

Because the respect that his Big Brother received here was from performing a miracle. For bringing the dead back to life, at the cost of becoming a complete stranger...

"Big Brother!"

Finding his brother the way they did in America had been one thing. Surprising sure, but Yugi had been with him. But the image of his brother sitting in the room, back straight, arms and ankles crossed. It could have been his brother just in a foul mood, save for all the blood. From the flecks and smears on his face down to his shoes, that white business suit did nothing, but show off all the blood Yugi had spilled.

Spilled to protect his Big Brother.

But his mind didn't register that as nothing more than a passing thought, instead he focused only on reaching his older brother. The hospital meant nothing, the colors just bland pale streaks that passed by as he ran. Dashing across the floor, he clamored up the generic couch and threw himself into his brothers arms...

Big Brother stiffened.

In that moment when he fully expected Kaiba to open his arms and hold him, as the only person Kaiba 'ever' held... He didn't. Instead he heard, gasped out behind him, Isis saying something that he didn't understand. Only then did his Big Brothers' stony posture ease at all. That was when he slowly uncrossed his arms and allowed Mokuba to climb in.

But it wasn't his brother. It wasn't Kaiba, rather it was his past life self, a past life self that didn't have siblings. Who's concern was more for Yugi than for the kid that just climbed into his lap. Now they were back again in the same hospital and it was all Mokuba could do not to grab his brothers' hand. Again, because of Yugi.

Because Yugi took a bullet to protect his Big Brother from Corporate backroom dealings. Because Yugi convinced Isono and Fugata to leave Mokuba at home where he was safe from any potential extra bullets. Because Yugi chose being in a coma for them, when he could have just had Mahaado catch the shooter.

'Should have just dumped them in the Shadow Realm,' had been a thought Mokuba had carried multiple times. Vicious as it had sounded, it would have been easier just to find all the bastards and throw them all there! Then his Big Brother wouldn't have snapped so far into the past, and his big brothers would be home. Not here where, once again, someone was after Yugi.

"Mokuba?" Anzu's softened voice broke into his thoughts, distracting the child into glancing up at her. She had a gentle, reassuring smile on her face and her hand was extended out in offering. "Its going to be ok."

He reached up and slipped his hand into hers, even as he set his mouth in a resolute straight line in a silent reply. 'Yeah, its going to be ok, Big Brother is here and he'll protect us. No surprise shootings and plans that he doesn't know about!' Anzu's hand was warm around his hand, and when his mind wasn't filled with worries about his brothers. Maybe then he would be able to remember to appreciate her presence.

For now, he just allowed himself to be distracted by the uproar his brother could cause at a hospital. Watching as the elevator they rode once before loom in the distance while the shadows of the Blue Eyes White Dragons danced about the walls. He couldn't tell if they could enter physically into the real world and his Brother just couldn't summon them in full yet. The way Yugi couldn't summon Mahaado or Kuriboh fully originally.

Their presence was a comfort to Mokuba, they sailed across the walls with the type of ease that was found among birds. Wheeling along gracefully, they were the length of an arm, but it wasn't as though they could fit their massive presence in the room. Then all Mokuba would have seen was probably just a hallway of shadow, given their size.

In fact, as Mokuba watched, he found himself a bit curious if anyone else 'could' see the Blue Eyes floating about. If not the doctors and such than his Big Brother and Anzu, 'oh but they'd look weird if they were visibly following the dragons around, wouldn't they?' It was fine for Mokuba though, his youthfulness forgave his wandering gaze.

The hospital hadn't changed in the seemingly brief time since Yugi's arrival. There was clearly new addition of a security station on the floor. Almost comically stuck to the side, and there mostly to protect Yugi from the news and media reporters. But the stations were unmanned at the moment understandable given the situation in the upper floor.

"Think the elevator will let us get up there?" Anzu asked, needing to fill the silence and also concerned. "You didn't give us a lot to work with..."

"The elevators will be fine by now, or should be if this hospital is worth anything. The power was only cut to Yugi's floor and by now..."

Kaiba punctuated the statement with a jab to the elevator button that presented itself so nicely now that they had arrived. Further into the hospital he went, the more the air felt alive, almost electric as though he had stepped into a server room. On the one hand, he had to wonder if it was coming from the massive storm outside, on the other. He almost passively wondered if it was Dios trying to escape its confines and manifest.

Which given the hospital security already had the man in question in custody. There was no reason to give in to that aspect of himself. Just go upstairs and interrogate the man, if anything it was the only reason he could think of to try and summon Mahaado. Going after Yugi all but screamed that it was this group. Meaning that normal human methods would possibly be ineffectual at interrogating this would be assassin.

The elevator pinged its way down until the weighted sound of it coming to a stop before him momentarily interrupted his thoughts. It opened up revealing a pair of nurses in the middle of idle chatter. Chatter that was swallowed up the moment they caught sight of Kaiba standing before them. Perhaps if he had been less in shock and more aware at the time, Kaiba might have passingly recognized their eyes and place at the surgery.

But they didn't forget him clearly.

How could they?

How could anyone forget the sound of swinging doors being flung open with such power, as it interrupted the long single note of a heart that stopped beating? The stomping foot steps or the sight of those heavy chains of light. Slung low into the ground, latched into the arms and carrying a book into the hands that they were shackled?

How did one forget the face of someone who brought back the dead whose heart had be cut open and failed? Or the moment that they realized that the flesh was 'mending'! Everything knitting back together right before their eyes! While the bits of metal that had yet to be removed were spat out in rejection of the natural order?

This was no young man. This was a God made manifest!

Eyes down cast they lowered their postures and quickly stepped out of the elevator making way for Kaiba and his little group. Leaving Anzu and Mokuba a little weirded out as they followed Kaiba and watched this little display. From laughter to... fear? Were they scared of Kaiba? It was a little disconcerting given all the awe from everyone else to this. Even as the pair crossed the threshold into the elevator, the image was strangely haunting.

"Big Brother? Do you know them?" Mokuba asked finally, breaking the silence in the elevator once the doors had sealed shut and the floor button pressed.

"No."

That was that.

Sealed in the elevator, the seconds felt like agonizing hours as they ascended to the floor that Yugi was on. It was that moment, between the second and third floors that she realized that this was 'it'. Just a bone weary stoic, young adult CEO, an anxious soon to be eleven year old kid and herself, about to come across another one of this 'mysterious groups' after Yugi. Suddenly she realized how much she missed the idiotic chatter Jounouchi and Honda could be counted on to have. The Other Yugi's steadfast confidence or even Kaiba's normal arrogant confidence was completely absent.

Never had she felt so lost without them either.

Hell even Ryou would have been appreciated, as he ebbed and flowed between youthful mousiness to lethal calm. The point being that she felt 'safe' with him around now that the Ring was gone, or even Isis and Rashid down...

'We should have waited for them,' Anzu thought ruefully as the elevator finally pinged and slumped into its stop. The doors were retracted to allow the trio to step out onto the recovery floor that Anzu had seen earlier that day. The same painting greeted her with the Blue Eyes White Dragons' shadows gliding as shadows across it before weaving off into the direction she took to go see Yugi.

"Lord Kaiba! We didn't realize..." A doctor sputtered the second Kaiba fully stepped out of the elevator.

By the trio's right was a group of security officers, and members of the hospital staff, all surrounding a male nurse. A male nurse who had his hands behind his back in the way of handcuffs!

Realizing who she 'must' have been staring at, Anzu dropped her hand down and gripped Mokuba's shoulder. Pulling the youth back with her even as she found herself studying the man. He wasn't 'old', his hair was dark yes, but his eyes were rounded, in a European or American shape. Yet if she didn't look directly at his eyes, she figured he easily could pass as one of the nurses. Right build, and height, nothing but the eyes stuck out.

"This is the man?" Kaiba inquired, his voice low and unamused as he studied the stranger before him.

"Yes, he was found with a knife... the alarm at the nurses station... it just went off on its own..." A pale and nervous fellow, how was he even a doctor to start with, answered, he rubbed his hands together as though trying to stay warm.

But again he was attempting to talk to Kaiba, so perhaps the CEOs' presence just sucked all the heat out of the poor man's area. He was actually a bit of a wormy looking fellow, hunched over a bit, his coat hung a bit off a bony frame. 'Maybe he's a researcher? A lab tech senior?' Anzu was left to ponder as her gaze shifted to the other doctor, and this one she 'did' recognize.

Dr. Iijima, Honda's doctor, before Kaiba fixed 'that', was taller than his fellow doctor, but he was someone that Anzu recognized. He was a more solid built man compared to his fellow, while the three security officers were forgetable. Just paper pushers that took up a job really, and Anzu 'really' needed to believe that Yugi was safe.

"What language do you speak?" Kaiba asked the man before him, his voice sharp and his English impeccable.

"W... what?" The mans' voice was slurred, his gaze holding only a momentary awareness hinting at something. But the word was in English, not that it meant all 'that' much, what with it being the language of choice in a number of countries to learn.

Couldn't be alcohol, not that and able to get up here... 'Damn it, do I seriously need to drag Maha-ado out of his tablet?' Kaiba was forced to wonder as his mind ground through all the possibilities in that particularly short list. Hypnosis was the only possibility, since going after Yugi would require more self awareness than what Kaiba was seeing before him.

The man's gaze was unfocused, captured by every slight bit of movement... Which shouldn't have been much unless he was able to see Blue Eyes. He wasn't battered by any sign that Kaiba could see, so it wasn't as though he was roughed up. Could it be possession? There was no large Item on his person from a visual standpoint. But was it possible that he had been possessed, possibly willingly even?

"Once the storm is over we'll have the police come and escort him to jail, Lord Kaiba," Dr. Iijima informed the teen his eyes a bit downcast. "We humbly apologize for this, we have no idea how he even got as far as he did." His brown eyes were sympathetic yet they held a slight wary expression. It wasn't unrealistic to believe a hospital 'wasn't' haunted, they had mentioned the alarms went off 'on their own'. In essence, one of Bakura's little ghostly assistants had apparently pushed it.

So it wasn't one of Kaiba's own little faction of problems trying to silence Yugi or finish the botched job either.

"Feel like telling me who sent you? Or do I get to find out on my own...?" Kaiba asked the man in English. It was about as close to a threat as he could make. Between Bakura's past experiences and current ghosts and calling out Mahaado? There was a large room for interrogation tactics that were banned by Geneva Convention standards that he could use.

They didn't even have to find an excuse to take the man out of jail!

Meanwhile Anzu was all manners of concerned as she stood there. Her English was good enough to follow the conversation, such as it was, rather unimpeded. There was a shiver that went up her spine as Kaiba talked, given the subtle threat to his words. And she could 'tell' it was a threat, this was a guy who at one point allowed his little brother to get poisoned! Right at that moment he was tired, and generally speaking done with everything.

She just had to recall what Mahaado was willing to do to bullies at school who came after her. The horrible scratches that Yugi got in the beginning when the spirits were still getting to know Ryou... There were 'lots' of ways to make the man suffer if Kaiba was the least bit motivated, or maybe unmotivated to stop having happen.

Mokuba tugged on her hand suddenly, the gesture enough to cause her to look down at him in concern. The child's gaze was worried and anxious, "Hey Anzu does the storm feel funny to you?" He asked, frustrated that there really was no way they could have a private conversation. But while Mahaado hadn't been giving outright 'lessons' on demons...

A ground shaking roll hit the hospital floor, the hospital trembled, sending vibrations up through the soles of Anzu's shoes. Low humming that wasn't there before swamped her ears even as they sank into silence. The lights dimmed out before cutting off completely, while emergency lights ignited into life. Then before her gaze could even adjust to the sudden sharp contrast of light and dark, the emergency lights went off as well. Snuffed out within a blink of the eye leaving her that an absolute darkness. While down the hall the nurses at their stations cried out in alarm.

Not just silly fears of power outages either. Everyone could hear the mounting alarm as life support systems, visible at the station went down, computers were off, and while Kaiba may have accidentally saved a lot of people when Yugi got shot. He didn't have the strength or motivation to go that buck wild again.

"Its a demon," Mokuba muttered, tugging at Anzu's hand with quiet urgency. "Big brother Mahaado said so. 'If a demon is getting summoned and there's no ritual to be used, expect a power drain.'" The boy recited quietly as Anzu dropped to her knees before him. "He said natural storms could feed a demon but..." Mokuba shrugged and uselessly tilted his head towards his older brother.

Only the flashing lightning outside allowed her to see his action at all. But that was fine, the message was simple, 'this storm isn't natural'. It was something that Kaiba created and therefore whatever was being called, couldn't use it. In fact, given what Ryou and the others suggested, his storms had the adverse affect on demons! So why summon one here, where a Kaiba created storm was happening and 'Kaiba' was at?