Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"Isis!" Anzu struggled to smother her scream by covering her mouth. Her being frozen in horror as she watched Suprias' shield shatter in unnatural silence. The act brought out a pained shriek from Isis that mingled with Anzu's horror. Wicked looking was the sword that had shattered the shield, and Anzu found herself suddenly taken with sympathy for the newly created Emperor. The hilt produced what could easily been viewed as rose bush stems. Twinning around the spirits' hand forcing it to hold a blade it wanted nothing to do with.

Nether happy, or comfortable, the spirit tried to flex open its fingers and drop the blade, its fingers straining against the bindings. Instead of being stretched out the stems constricted about its hand, the thorns digging into his flesh until it pierced skin and drew a strange liquid that the newly named 'Emperor' had never seen before.

What did he know about 'blood' after all?

He was newly named with only the one who created him directing him to attack. The voice came from above, a greater being than he was, something beyond a mere ruler. A voice who sent this sword, a weapon to fell the dragon. Yet the sword hurt his hand so he swung his arm out trying to use the force of the effort to fling the sword away.

At the same time there were all these spirits traveling around his feet while the dragon went on the attack. Irritation was a new emotion that he found as he blocked the snapping jaw of the dragon with the blade. Blue Eyes' mouth snapped around the blade but the sword held strong against the dragons' bite.

Blue Eyes released the blade, its face twisting a bit in displeasure. Jaw opening and the tongue flicked about as though it had tasted something bad. She saw the Emperor trying to get the sword out of his hand. She didn't feel comfortable attacking directly when he had a sword that tasted strange to her. Even if she tried to go for the arm that was holding the sword, it left her exposed to his free hand.

Were Emperor the size of a normal human she wouldn't care, her scales were far away strong enough to protect her. But Emperor was large enough that a sword thrust from him was going to be a serious problem for her. So she began circling the hospital, eyeing the Emperor as she tried to figure out a good place to strike him at.

"Is Isis ok?" Mokuba asked, though his gaze was more fixed on Blue Eyes and noting how she kept moving her mouth. It made him think she tasted something gross.

"She'll be ok, she's not fighting alone," Anzu replied with the quiet confidence she didn't really feel. She would have felt more assured if Yugi would say 'something'. Granted back during duels when Yugi wasn't the one dueling he was generally quiet. Yet now he observed things with...

When Anzu looked at Yugi, from the corner of her eye, he was invested, but there was a touch of coldness to it. Clinical observation, but not of the duel, she expected him to be watching the battle, be it the fiends, the spirits, or even the Ishtars and Kaiba. Only he wasn't, she couldn't tell what he was looking 'at' but it wasn't what was in front of them.

"You... you're really here?"

Relief and awe were in equal measures from behind them, while Anzu turned to find Jounouchi and Honda standing in the doorway. There was a hint of white and blond behind the pair indicating that both Ryou and Malik had arrived as well. Presences that were much needed, but Anzus' greater focus was on the front pair.

Jounouchi was in shock as the reality of the moment settled in. Yugi had turned from the action in front of him to look over at Jounouchi and Honda. He was leaning a bit against Anzu, dressed in a hospital robe yet standing up. Awake and aware after so many days of seeing him sleeping on a hospital bed.

"Trust you to wake up when there's a duel going on," Honda teased in good nature, his gaze shifting to take in the chaos behind Yugi before settling back on the duelist.

"Well I told Seto to wake me up, but instead it was Ryou and Malik," Yugi answered breezily, an easy shrug and a smirk on his lips. "Though I suspect that if it wasn't so dark down there to start with, the nurses would have tied me to the bed..."

Ryou's sigh was carried away on the steaming breeze of the roof as he pushed to the front of their little quartet. "Its good to see you awake again, any chance you can take over as being group leader?" He asked, but wasn't surprised when Yugi's quiet gaze fell on him before shaking his head against the idea.

'The words of the God who shapes reality at his whim.' Ryou thought to himself as he thought of things Yugi could and would be willing to say. "We need to talk later," he noted before walking over to try and coordinate the spirits better.

As Yugi nodded with quiet understanding, both Jounouchi and Honda grew worried, "Hey Yugi? What's wrong man, why aren't you saying much of anything?"

Both teens grew disconcerted at the silence, when Malik behind them opted to remind them of that one 'little' issue. "He's a God remember? Anything he says can and will have effects on the very laws of reality around us."

Both teens blinked as that 'reality' came back to the front of their thoughts, while Yugi expressed his sympathy with a wane smile.

"A god? Yugi's just Yugi what are you talking about?" Anzu asked in disbelief and confusion, she looked between Yugi and the others. Waiting for the laugh, the explanation for what they were talking about. Sure the word had been tossed about in conversations, mostly about Kaiba's ability to heal Yugi from dying and the storm in Colorado. But 'Yugi'? "Right?"

Yugi looked at her with this patient expression on his face, and the guys were looking more conflicted and awkward...

"Right!" Mokuba replied, "Gods leave, but you said you wouldn't leave us!" Mokuba pointed out in stubborn determination as he looked up at Yugi. "Say something!"

Yugi lowered his gaze, looking down at Mokuba with a gentle smile curling his lips, "I remember." He extended his hand and Mokuba snatched at it instantly, wrapping his smaller hand around Yugis' own giving hand. The boy's fingers tightened with determination to keep Yugi with them, as though his small hands were enough to hold Yugi to the here and now.

Jounouchi tore his gaze away from Yugi and saw Isis in the distance trying to push herself to her feet. Rashid didn't look all that great either, but it gave Jounouchi a direction to move forward in. So he moved off, seeking to push and angle his way to Isis' side and bring her back to the group in general. The fiends on the field were being mostly blocked by the help that Ryou had been able to enlist. But it was still a rooftop filled with fiends, undead spirits and a huge Duel Spirit with a sword in his...

'Holy, is that sword tied to its hand?' Jounouchi realized causing him to pay a little more attention to his surroundings. Perhaps it was from seeing how the Duel Monsters looked in the game, how they easily reacted when a weapon was 'equipped' to them. He had never seen a monster forced to have a weapon they didn't want and were actively trying to rid of.

Swinging the sword with irritated carelessness, the Spirit was enough to make Jounouchi more cautious as he side stepped attacking fiends. 'Well the lore of the game 'was' that it was a war...' he mused as he took in the 'design' of the 'fiends'. That was probably what got him the most.

These were grotesque in their own way. When Pegasus created the game, he was marketing it to both kids 'and' adults. So even 'scary demons' had to be made with a harmless tilt to them, and it was at that moment that it hit Jounouchi.

No part of this was a kids game anymore.

These fiends weren't the cutesy big grin fiends that were painted by Industrial Illusions artists for a card game. Where ever these fiends came from? Wasn't a place were kids were meant to play. These fiends were mottled skin or maybe those were just open sores, the skins were of various pale hues of beings that never lived under the sun. Pale with scabby pinkish sores covering their bodies, their claws weren't curled like a cat or eagle. Rather they were twisted almost in a corkscrew sort of way and they were mostly bipedal.

Their limbs were just a little longer than their torso so they swung their limbs as they lumbered along. Gapping mouths were full of sharp pointed teeth that were either jutted out as canine teeth or revealed when they opened their mouths to bite. 'Gods damn, and these three have been fighting alone this whole time?' He found himself wondering in awe as he finally skirted his way around to Isis and grabbed her arm.

She gave a startled yelp of surprise as he picked her up bridal style, "sorry, but I need to get you safe out of here."

"Well, I'm not complaining," she admitted as she settled against him.

Memories of the sparring matches came to mind, but Isis had only recalled once being hit so hard with an attack like this. Well it was stronger, but it was the final one that killed her. "The demon is here Jounouchi. He's trying to test Seto's boundaries, and there's not much else we can do against that right now. Mind the Pharaoh, no matter what, do as he says; the lives of the hospital occupants could very well be on the line here..."

'Shit shit shit!' it wasn't something Jounouchi wanted to hear. "They've already started evacuating the patients, but the ICU and CCU..." He explained as a pair of toothy shoes chomped their way onto a fiend that jumped at the pair.

"Big Brother..." Mokuba whimpered as he looked over at Kaiba. The coat that Kaiba wore hid most of the fatigue his brother clearly was experiencing, filling Mokuba with dread.

Yugi held up his hand, while under Anzu's observation she watched as a green inked card suddenly burst into life between his fingers. She gaped as he pushed himself to stand on his own and turned towards them, motioning towards Malik and her while holding the card out for them to read.

"Rain of Mercy?" Anzu asked and was rewarded with Yugis' approving smile as he brought his hands into a prayer position.

Maliks' eyes widened in awe as he realized what was happening even as Anzu and Mokuba expressed increasing confusion and worry.

"But aren't all spells Mahaados? Unless you summon him we can't use this?" Anzu pointed out.

Only for Yugi to shake his head against that and pointed to Kaiba. He held the card in his hand and repeated the prayer gesture of his hands.

"Yugi say something! Explain this to us!" Mokuba demanded in frustration as Honda reached over and patted Mokuba on the shoulder.

"Rain of Mercy is a healing spell, if we pray and direct it towards Kaiba we should be able to get it to work." Malik explained and was rewarded by Yugi nodded with a slight twist of the lips.

"Then why not say that?" Mokuba demanded yanking on Yugi's hand once he got a hold of it.

"Because he wants us to make the choice I suspect, if he tells us to do it, we'll do it because he said so." Malik answered and wasn't the least be surprised by the startled expressions on the pairs' faces though Honda didn't look as shocked.

With that Yugi nodded with an approving smile on his face and apologies in his eyes unspoken while the pair looked at him in complete confusion. But before they could bombard the duelist with questions Malik opted to take over. "Meaning we need to decide if we want to use it, we're not magicians after all. We'd be tapping into Kaiba's strength to use it and he's clearly getting tired. We drain him too much and we lose Blue Eyes."

The trio blinked at a loss before looking at the card still in Yugi's hands. "And if he said it... we would be forced? You can't force someone to do something against their wills... normally..." Anzu replied as she reached out and quietly took a hold of the card itself. There was the occasional mind control type cards after all.

"Right now we can't risk doing anything that would help the demon," Malik pointed out with concern as he looked over the roof. Jounouchi was carrying Isis back to them, and that bothered him immensely to see her unable to walk. Rashid was still fighting along with the spirits, but for every fiend taken out another replaced it.

Yet there had to be a reason why Yugi wasn't summoning on his own. Mahaado had A Thousand Knives, Kuriboh could kinda shield them. Yet both spirits were not to be seen and if talking to Yugi at all put them in danger there was no way to find out just why.

It was all wrong though.

"Can you tell us if Blue Eyes is ok?" Honda asked as he lifted his gaze to the dragon in the sky. "A status report is just a report after all you're just reciting facts," he pointed out.

Blue Eyes didn't appear to be in pain, but she was occasionally moving her mouth with a grimace. Yugi looked about at all the fiends, the souls that possessed the deck Bakura was using and what his priests were doing.

He pulled out the small orb he had been carrying in his mouth before bothering to speak. "Things could be better," Yugi admitted slowly.

"Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but if we were to say... Invoke your power, is there anything you could readily hand over?" Bakura asked, a hint of tightness to his voice from all the power he was already expending to allow the spirits to possess his deck.

For which he got an answer in a worryingly pleased laugh from Yugi, "field cards and equitable weapons and items... Just remember what the costs mean."

"How can anyone forget," Bakura asked. 'Fiends and my spirits would draw strength from the same field cards, it would be a waste to use one that merely elevates Blue Eyes though...' he mused as he watched the Portrait moving across the field. The knife he had on him wasn't drawn yet, a weapon of last resort really. 'I know you're here... and I don't care why you decided to try this stunt now. But I'll figure out a way to stop you.' He thought with rather intense viciousness towards the Demon.

Useless perhaps, the demon might not be able to sense his thoughts. But he recognized the demon's presence and its distance. Bakura glanced over at Kaiba in quiet concern, given that it was Kaiba's shields that were keeping the demon from coming closer.

"What about Multiple?"

Mokuba's rather innocent question startled Bakura into blinking and realizing the child had a point. Why 'not' Multiple?

"I can do that, yes," Yugi replied, filling Mokuba with pride as he saw that pleased smile on Yugi's face. Confirming that the child had come up with a useful idea, and produced a card the way he produced Rain of Mercy.

"And technically that card doesn't cost anything right? Just Multiply a single Spirit and even if it dies it won't cost the person!" Jounouchi realized as he put Isis down with Malik at his sisters' side, concern clear in his eyes. "We could slap that onto Blue Eyes, have a bunch show up and Blue Eyes could back off and stop acting like someone stuck peanut butter on the roof of its mouth."

"Thank you for that mental image of my Big Brothers' signature card, Jounouchi!" Mokuba huffed in offense.

"Forgive me, I didn't want to believe that the demon could hurl a blade with such force at such a distance," Isis muttered.

"Wait, its 'outside' the city limits? Like its fully manifested itself?" Malik asked urgently and in clear alarm his posture becoming defensive.

"Manifested?" Yugi echoed before shaking his head with a shrug. 'I can't tell you though, there's too much danger in doing so. At least until I figure out a good way to talk and not put things in stone.'

Yugi felt his heart crumbling into pieces as he stood there. So many of his friends were here, many of them never having fought like this before and didn't know how. His priests were doing what they could as was Bakura but they were ill prepared. 'I can't risk this, this is a hand I can't play, you have a right to make your own choices and I want you to make them...'

But wrong choice or bad luck could just as easily see them all dead in a matter of moments. Leaving Yugi with all the truths that weighed down on him more than the Puzzle around his neck.