A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: Original Beta Work by 'White Swan'
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"I don't have those backdrops either, the images are wrong. I keep all the pieces in a cabinet and that's where I had left them when I came to the docks today." Bakura tripped over his words numerous times as his eyes darted around the room. His tone unsettled from the calm albeit shy, polite way he liked to talk to a nervous one.
That fact made what looked like a simple room all the more eerie as it appeared someone had been in the room to set up everything. Rishid was the first to enter, his senses on high alert as he looked about for a possible intruder. Given the way Bakura was acting, Rishid thought that maybe there should have been something outside of the mundane. A feeling or sense of things being out of the ordinary would have been helpful. But it seemed to look and fell normal to him, yet was supposedly not normal for Bakura, the clincher being 'no one did this'.
Malik entered after Rishid, yet unlike Rishid, he didn't check the room first rather the game. After all it was the game that disturbed Bakura, maybe there was a message in it? The board depicted what looked like a small jail cell with four little figures that looked like Yugi and the missing group. Which given Yugi's hair was a feat, lets just be honest about that fact. It was as he watched that the little figure of Kaiba moved back then forth in his little cell. While outside the room that they seemed to be in another cloaked figure was roaming around. Reaching in to touch one of the figurines proved to be a mistake as a sudden sharp pain shot through his hand up to the shoulder.
Isis was passively watching her brothers check the room over when Malik tried to reach into the game. When he jerked back bringing one hand to his chest in that age-old sign of severe pain, she rushed to his side. "Malik?" Her voice was urgent as she and Rishid tried to get Malik to show his hand to them.
"It- it shocked me- I don't know I tried to touch one of the pieces and it shocked me," Malik reported his voice tight with pain. He might as well grabbed a live wire for how his arm ached, as he struggled to flex his fingers open again. Isis and Rishid looked over his hand then his arm in concern while Bakura finally, though slowly, walked into the room.
Bakura felt almost overwhelming warmth of love and endearment from the room…. Which was the only pleasant thing about the situation. The moment his foot passed the threshold into his apartment he saw something that he thought stayed outside. Sitting at the Dungeon Master spot at the table was a single Egyptian woman who dressed like Isis only not as richly.
She wore clothes that seemed to signify middle or lower class while her hair spilled down her shoulders. She turned her attention from the game to him and smiled; a very warm smile clearly directed at him. It was a smile he had seen dozens of times on the faces of other women to their own children. That welcoming, gentle smile that was warm sunshine and morning dew all wrapped up with a dawn's colored bow. Only she wasn't his mother, he died in a car crash with his sister. So who was she, and why did the smile not bother him as much as it should have?
She was looking him right in the eye, gazing at him as though soaking in his very self to be remembered fondly. Only to return her gaze down at the game before waving one hand at him, gesturing for him to join her at the table. Which he slowly, timidly obeyed, his fearful behavior not lost on the others in the room.
"Bakura?" Malik watched as Bakura walked, noting how Bakuras' eyes seemed fixated at something on the other side of the table.
"There- There is someone, a lady, sitting at the head of the table. She wants me to sit down with her," Bakura explained timidly, as though he expected to get attacked for speaking.
Isis walked over to the edge of the table where Bakura had directed, studying it for a moment, she then proceeded to move her hand through the space. But unlike Malik she didn't get an abrupt unpleasant rebuff. Rather she felt as though she was moving her hand through exceptionally cold air.
"Is she reacting to my presence?" Isis asked as she brought her hand back to her side.
"No, she's just looking at me," Bakura reported softly as he settled beside the table and looked inside. He bit his lower lip before slowly turning to look back at the woman. "Is this supposed to show me where they are right now?"
The woman smiled and nodded clearly pleased with his ability to read the intention of others. So he turned his gaze once more onto the board, becoming a strange type of spectator to something that was happening somewhere else…
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\The prison cell\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Yugi laid on his back staring at the ceiling wondering if everything would turn out ok. Mahaado had already reappeared and had immediately launched into discussing the layout of the building to Kaiba, including a docking area as the group found out to their shock that they were on a small man made island south of a larger land mass. But his thoughts kept going back to the dream that he had when he had gone to sleep the night before. Dreams of the past, dreams of Egypt that seemed to give credence to what Mahaado had said about Yugi. With those powers awake he was starting to remember the past that the Other Him had lived. Which surprised him when he saw his grandpa again.
It was a funny thing really. The way that he was a passenger in his own body as it were, while he would look at the world through the eyes of a baby. But a baby didn't think in words or thoughts, they were ruled by feelings, emotions, leaving Yugi to read and decipher those emotions into words. Creating a whole night of lucid thoughts about the royal court that existed before the Other Him.
It had been very disturbing how every single one of them caused the Other Him to be afraid. Retroactively looking at it, there was no physical reason that Yugi could figure out, his vision wasn't solid in that state. There was a great deal of distortion that came from his new eyes getting up to speed. At least that was how he passed off the double sets of eyes and arms, blowing off the different shapes for the same reason. Yet, as the few days passed and his vision started straightening out, the double images didn't fade.
There was a surprise in seeing his grandfather as a priest, at first Yugi could barely make out his grandpa's eyes. The rest hidden behind a cloth draped below the mans' eyes. The other people, either looked cold and emotionally distant in ways that made him feel a little wary about them as it frightened the Other Him. Or were filled with smiles and laughter that brightened the Other Him into smiling and laughing.
Yugi had spent the night dreaming the first few days of his life, warm and pampered by everyone, revered by everyone. Scared by a couple of people, but that was ok, his parents were there after all.
Briefly Yugi had to wonder if his own birth was treated as such by his parents. Since he hadn't seen his dad in years due to work, it left him bonding more tightly to his grandfather as a male role model than those rare calls from his father. Though in retrospect his bond to his mother, while there, wasn't as strong. Or maybe it felt that way after spending so much time dealing with the Sennen Items.
Then again he would bond with someone he had a past experience with more then someone who he didn't. He recalled his Egyptian mother, her warm eyes; she had been tired after his birth. He could still feel the heat from the room, so full of burning candles and torches as the servants and midwives fussed over him and the Queen. The sound of her heart beating rapidly after the tiresome labor was slowing down to a normal beat, lulling the newborn prince with it's soothing rhythm.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\New York City\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"\See you tomorrow\!" Anzu called out as she stepped out into the hot summer heat. Just as much from the streets as from the sun bearing down on her. She shouldered her dance bag as she made her way down the street back to her hotel room. She walked at a brisk pace her heart light as a feather as she passed by stores and cafés. Her mind still going over the complements that were handed to her by her instructor, proving that determination was a key to success.
Stopping at the light she waited with the other pedestrians while she began thinking of what she would write to Yugi when she got back to apartment. She had one more week then she was returning back to Japan. She couldn't wait to show Yugi everything she had learned!
As the light changed and she began walking across the street a familiar blond hairstyle suddenly flashed into her view. Excited at seeing a familiar face Anzu called out over the crowd.
"MAI! KUJAKA MAI!" She watched as the person stopped and began to look around. Which was a relief since long, blond, wavy hair was, while rare, still far more common here in America than in Japan. It wouldn't have been the first time she mistook a stranger for Mai.
She was right it was Mai! Hurrying across the street Anzu waved to help Mai keep a bead on the shorter darker haired woman with a smile growing on Mais' face at the sight of Anzu. Who would have thought the two would meet in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world? The older woman hadn't changed much, still supporting shorts, and a small corseted like shirt with a light jacket over it. Today the colors were blue and white, the whole outfit more risqué than what Anzu had the courage to wear. Since there were a lot of perverts in the world and she was alone in New York, with no Yugi or gang to protect her.
"Hey Anzu! What you doing here? This is pretty far from Domino," Mai asked as they finally got into speaking distance.
"I won a contest! I got a free trip to a dance school here in New York, and I've been here all break learning. But I go back to Japan in a week," Anzu explained while tugging on Mai's arm. "Are you busy? You could come over to my hotel room and have some tea or something."
Mai shrugged and let herself get dragged away, not much could be seen as having changed in Anzu. She was wearing a bit more conservative clothes, probably worried about possible rapists. The skirt went down to her knees, the top not so tight but other than that this was the same Anzu who cheered on everyone. "Have you been keeping in touch with the gang?"
"Yeah, they miss you! Yugi told me you won a tournament here in the States!" Anzu gushed happily looking up at Mai, hoping to find signs that Mai's trauma was healing. Though the gang wanted to believe that Mai had been freed from the Shadow Game, Anzu had seen enough to know better. There were still people suffering madness from the hand of the Other Yugi. Mai had seemed to carry a bit of that nightmare with her as Anzu noted in previous conversations. The hints of loneliness and a friendless existence which shouldn't have happened if Mai was 'truly' free.
"He did? He noticed?" Mai blinked in surprise.
"Yeah of course he did. You're our Friend Mai! I realize that Jounouchi was being stupid with his ego back at Battle City. But we really do care about you, no matter what you're one of us!" Anzu stated firmly with a sharp nod as though that would end any possible arguments. They continued walking along down the street talking, Anzu happy to have a familiar face around. "Here we are!" she gestured up to the hotel before walking in past the doorman with Mai in tow. "Just let me check my mail!" she called over to her shoulder as she made her way to the front desk.
Mai watched as Anzu spoke briefly with a woman who cheerfully presented the girl with a stack of letters. Anzu bowed before waving to the woman and started her walk back to Mai while rifling through the letters before stopping. As a Duelist Mai had learned how to read body language, so she could tell when Anzus' form stiffened in a bad way. In fact Anzu seemed to have forgotten that Mai was waiting for her as she began stiffly walking towards the elevators. In concern, Mai took off after the younger girl grabbing a shoulder when she finally caught up. "What's wrong Anzu? What's in those letters?"
Anzu looked up at Mai, an expression of deep worry in her eyes, she didn't answer with words rather by lifting up the letter that had caused her change.
Stamped in bright red letters read the words: Return to Sender with the Turtle Game Shops' hand written address in black ink under it.
The pair went into the elevator now worried about why the letter was returned. Since the address was the Turtle Game Shop, there was no acceptable reason why the letter wouldn't reach there. They didn't speak on the way up to Anzu's hotel room; there was nothing they could say. It was a stamped message not a written one so it wasn't as though Yugi did something. Mai was let into Anzu's apartment, shutting the door behind her as Anzu went looking for one of her prepaid phone cards. Soon she was at the phone dialing away with a worried look on her face. Joining Anzu, Mai listened as the phone began to ring only to be cut off.
"The number you have dialed is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this message in error please check the number and try your call again."