A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: White Swan

A/N: OMG more adjusting Malik and Bakura to sound their AGES and like they're NOT fragile little flowers... How did you guys continue READING this?

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"Hey…"

Mrs. Mazaki lifted her head and focus from the cutting board onions she had been slicing at the sound of her daughter's halfhearted announcement of arrival. She left the kitchen in concern as her daughter left the small hallway and entered the living room area of the apartment. Her husband had already put all of Anzu's things in her room, since Anzu wanted to go with Yugi back to his place. The couple respected their daughters' choice, taking the suitcases and waiting for Anzu to return home. The couple had spoken on the subject of Yugi after learning of the bomb, wondering where Yugi would end up now that his only living family in Domino was gone, and what Anzu would do during this time of pain.

Part of the answer came when Anzu told them she would walk home after going with Yugi to his home. She had stepped off the plane with the Jounouchi and they doubted that he would have let her be clueless about everything. So they assumed she had been informed, hence their normally lively active daughter looked heartsick. She trudged her way through the apartment, eyes cast down, and the tears glistening in them.

"How is he?" Mrs. Mazaki asked gently as she laid a gentle, loving hand on her daughters' shoulder. That was all it took for Anzu to turn around and throw her arms around her mother's neck.

"It was horrible… Oh mom…" Anzu wept so hard that it was just as much a physical sensation as a sound while the footsteps of Mr. Mazaki served as a deeper beat as he came over in concern. "He didn't know… He just walked off as he normally did, only to get kidnapped trying to protect the Kaiba's. He spent all that time in a hateful cell thinking everything and everyone was safe. He never knew. Oh mom he never knew till they were found that his grandpa and mom were… were…"

"Oh sweet heart…" Mrs. Mazaki led her daughter to the sofa where she and her husband could bookend their sobbing daughter. She rubbed her hand in soothing circles over her daughters' back as slowly Anzu began to relate what had happened. From the time of the call to his break down at the Turtle Game Shop. Though the whole incident at the game shop she didn't mention or the floor giving out or Exodia's hand. Instead only mentioning the floor giving way and Bakuras' timely save, earning startled gasps from her parents. "You mean he went into that abandoned shop? I'm not surprised that you were scared he could have been killed!"

"You know I love you both right? I mean I know we've had our ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade you for the world," Anzu's voice was muffled as it was pressed firmly in her mother's shoulder.

"Of course we know and we both love you," her father reassured as he and his wife sandwiched their child in an embrace. 'You just wish that Yugi could have had the chance to tell his own family that before they died.'

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"I hate them…"

Malik started when he heard that as the door closed behind Rashid. Bakura was just ahead of them, his head down with his shoulders hunched forward as though he was in pain. "Bakura?" The white haired teen suddenly ran off, the door to his bedroom slamming shut. In concern he looked at his older brother and sister, both sharing that a thoughtful, sympathetic expression. Malik walked alone through the apartment, uncontested by physical or nonphysical means, as he made his way to Bakura's bedroom. "Bakura?" he called out cautiously as he knocked before entering the room.

"I hate them. They acted like they were here to help me, but all they wanted to do was kill Yugi. It wasn't Yugi's fault what happened to them, so why keep targeting him over it?!" Bakura sat on his bed, his pillow in his arms, his face absent and only his unnatural white hair framing the slate blue cased pillow. His jean covered legs were drawn up to his body, and between that and the pillow, Malik could barely see the cream colored sweater the teen was wearing.

Malik walked over, pulling over the chair tucked at the desk to sit down next to Bakura. From the moment they had parted from Yugi, Bakura had cut them all off. Despite Isis' attempt to talk to him about what happened, he walked as though he heard nothing. His eyes had maintained this constant search mode, as though he was seeing things they couldn't and trying to ignore it. Or perhaps not look insane by screaming at something that only he could see? After several attempts to get Bakura to talk to any of them, even Rashid, they had settled for just walking in silence. "Tell me what happened. Bakura, talk to me."

For a long while the only sound in the room was of Bakura's choked sobs into the pillow, Malik remaining silent. After a while Bakura's sobbing lessened and he uncurled himself so Malik could see him. His eyes were red and puffy, his nose red as he reached for a box of tissue that rested next to him. Malik grabbed the box and brought it over to Bakura as dust wafted up from the now dusty cream-colored sweater that Bakura was wearing. Bakura pushed some of his soft, white bangs out of his face, as he seemed to be gathering his thoughts. "When I led Yugi upstairs… That lady didn't want to help Yugi. I figured that if I went it would be safe, that she wouldn't let me get hurt. So I would guide Yugi which… Which…"

The fading sunlight glinted off of Malik's arm and wristbands as his shadow grew across the ground. The day was coming to a close, yet he didn't leave his spot, even to turn on a light. It was one of those moments in time where it was important to stay where he was rather than move about. Far better to listen to the white haired teen, more beneficial that Bakura have a living soul listen to his problems. For years there had been only walls to listen to Bakuras' problems, unyielding, unmoving walls that had no souls or ability to comprehend the words Bakura spoke. Where as Malik at least had his older siblings, if not his father.

"When I was a child I lived in small town in England with my mother and sister since father was always off on an dig. It had a nice little neighborhood and I had friends that I often played with. When my mother brought home Monster World I adored playing it. I love fantasy stories, tales of high adventure and the like, Monster World was a game set in that genre, but the box made everything look cute, so she got it for me. A short time later my mom… she and my sister… they…" Bakura paused, the shadows long enough to hide most of his expressions. But he seemed to have a problem with the words, and by not having them he gave them life.

"Well… I stayed alone for a bit after that; I didn't want to play with anyone or anything. So my friends, feeling that this wasn't a healthy lifestyle, they came and tried to draw me out of my self induced shell. One day they found Monster World and they convinced me to play." Through the tears Bakura wistfully smiled into the darkness that only the dead could see. "He couldn't stay home, he has no teaching license or a school that would afford to have him teach. Then there was mother, what few memories he had of the town were of her and she was gone. She was a wonderful person, so kind, gentle, with dad gone she was all my sister and I ever really had. Now I was alone in this house that wasn't a home anymore. For a time he had a nanny hired to look after me, since I was alone. My friends would come over and we'd play Monster World or talk, they good people and we had lots of adventures with Monster World. Then one day dad came home with the Ring…"

Bakura re-shifted so he was on his back, staring up at a darkening ceiling before he continued, "I didn't think I was supposed to wear it. I thought it was something you put on the wall so I did. One day while my friends and I were playing Monster World it fell off its mounting so I went to pick it up, and that was the last thing I remember of the next three hours. When…" Bakura suddenly sat up, rocking back and forth, the shadows hiding most of his expression. "When I came to, one of my friends had fallen over. All of us panicked, the other kids mentioned that the game had become more realistic that my story telling abilities got 'really good'. Peter wouldn't wake up… the doctors didn't know what happened and I didn't remember the last three hours. It happened again the next time we played only more of my friends… Every time someone came over they would end up in a coma until no one would dare come over. Ever since that trip to Egypt I've not had any black outs, I've been fine. Now I've got ghosts that I can see, that are doing the same thing as that horrible Ring! I started to feel them breaking the boards under Yugi's bed. I tried to stop him from falling; he never even looked down as the ghosts had set up the basement with broken boards. If he had fallen it would have killed him, it was like looking down a pit full of spearheads. He trusted me, Malik he trusted me!"

Malik pulled Bakura into a hug, it wasn't something he was good at and he avoided pretty much everything, but clothes, when it came to things that touched his back. Yet it was impossible to forget all the times that his brother or sister held him when he was in turmoil. So he stomached the strangeness of hugging a non family member.

From what he had heard so far it sounded as though Bakura spent far, far too many years alone. An isolation that he didn't welcome, but endured for the sake of those around him. Even when he had tried to get rid of the Ring he hadn't been able to avoid its power, now there was another power… He tucked Bakuras' head under his chin and sat in the now total darkness, letting Bakura cry his heart out with someone who wouldn't judge him for that.

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"…and this is my room." Mokuba finished as he pushed open the door to said room. It looked the same exact way it did before he got kidnapped and used to contain his brothers' impending wrath. In it's own way, it looked a great deal like Yugi's old room, and his soul room. Filled with toys and games, many of them expensive ones that Yugi would never have been able to afford to get, even with his grandpa running a game store. The walls were a stark white with a rich deep blue carpet along the floor, which was occasionally interrupted by burgundy colored rugs with various designs on them, or the rich brown of oak wood furniture, a mansion of wealth and power. The servants had all been informed to tend to Yugi as they would Kaiba or Mokuba, yet for all that Yugi just couldn't be impressed.

It was the same for Kaiba, yet different, when he had entered the mansion. Kaiba had come into the mansion with a mission; a mission; most would argue a child shouldn't have. A mission to ensure the safety and upbringing of his brother, with that in mind the size of the mansion didn't faze him as it had those who would come to see Gozoboro Kaiba. Not the bowing servants or the water fountain in the front lawn, the large field of green grass, a rare commodity in any city in Japan, impressed him. Perhaps if things had been different, Gozoboro being kinder, then Kaiba could have been able to finally be impressed with the wealth and prosperity he had acquired. Instead he held onto everything he had with the resolve of a dragon. Far to aware of how fragile wealth was, how quick the tides could turn stripping one of security or safety.

Yugi, on the other hand was still swallowed with grief. Kaiba and Mokuba had gotten over the death of their birth father enough to move on when they came here, Yugi was still in the throes of grieving. His shoulders slightly hunched forward, yet he still tried to pay attention to what Mokuba was showing him all through the house. The deaths had seemed to set Yugi back to before they had ever met, this passive timid state of uncertainty. Kaiba would have to do something about that submissive behavior, the dueling field wasn't the only place one had to be strong at.

"Stand up Yugi," Kaiba finally snapped, startling Mokuba and made Yugi visibly flinch.

"I am standing up," Yugi said softly, the softness of his voice hiding what was becoming his new 'normal' tone.

"I mean like a man; stop hunching over like someone is going to hit you," Kaiba snapped back as he began to stalk around Yugi. "Do you think this is over? That the people who did this to you, put you in this situation, are going to just leave you alone? Why? Even if this is some random act of violence you are 'not' going to be cowering like this for the rest of your life."

Mokuba didn't say anything, he knew what his brother was trying to do, he was trying to encourage Yugi, but it was something that Kaiba wasn't very good at. So it sounded harsh, cold and unkind, but Kaiba was reaching out to Yugi. Mokuba only hoped that Kaiba didn't accidentally break Yugi in the process. Yugi was hunching himself further in response, but Mokuba knew that wasn't going to appease his brother. With a slight appeasing gesture to Kaiba Mokuba left the room, understanding this was one of those things that the two older teens would have to resolve on their own.

"I told you to stand up," Kaiba grabbed Yugi forcibly by the throat and shoved the teen against the wall. "If you weren't paying attention today, let me remind you that one of your 'friends' now sports a cane to walk with. If that wasn't enough for you, at least you can hear what I'm saying because he's lost over eighty percent of his own hearing due to that attack."

"I don't want to hate anyone," Yugi replied softly, his eyes expressing his own anguish. Because he wanted to hate them, he wanted to hunt these people down and do the things that only the Other Him had done.

Kaiba had been showing, in how he took control of the situations and lead them while Yugi reeled, his own brand of friendship. For now Kaiba was mainly circling him, like one of his cherished Blue Eyes, and when he landed he'd be just as unmovable. But Kaiba found reassurance in pure power, which was something that Yugi didn't agree with still, in the end power for nothing was nothing.

"Clear your ears Yugi. I didn't say that you had to hate anyone or that you had to stop grieving over your loss. But I know that these people are either after you or were after your grandfather for something that took place in Egypt. I saw the markings on the wall in the shop; it may have been resolved with your grandfather. But if it wasn't, that leaves a lot of people you've been collecting for your little group that can end up in a morgue somewhere." Kaiba growled like one of his own Dragons.

"Personally, I don't care if you chose to live the rest of your life in this mansion with Mokuba and I. If that is your decision then that is your decision, but let's get one thing straight right here and now. I will not tolerate you behaving like a coward. If these people hurt you, then you don't run home crying about it. They see that, they see someone who isn't going to stand up for those he 'supposedly' wishes to protect." Kaiba let go of Yugi's throat as he stepped back; Yugi hadn't responded verbally to anything he had just said. But if these people come after you and my brother gets hurt in the crossfire because you won't stand up for yourself and fight back, I'll make your life an everlasting hell on earth."

Yugi didn't move as Kaiba began to breeze by, his head was down letting his bright blond bangs shield is eyes. Already he stood as tall as Kaiba and it was a miracle the guy hadn't passed out or suffered greatly from the extreme stress the growth put on him. But it had shown in the way Yugi devoured food when he was free to do so, trying to keep himself full for his body. Kaiba would have been lying if he had denied how interesting it was to see Yugi down plate after plate of food and still be hungry.

Then again it was either 'eat a lot' or 'devour muscle and organs' until Yugi stopped growing due to starvation.

"The question isn't 'can I fight' the question is 'can I avoid becoming the Other Me in the process'."

Kaiba stopped and looked at Yugis' profile in surprise. Even with his hair down now, his bangs retained their original shape. But Kaiba remembered those days when the Other Yugi was still wild. That Yugi, who had always held the Other Yugi back, was suggesting he was teetering on the brink of 'being' that way himself? Kaiba wasn't sure if he should worry or be delighted, so instead he stepped out of the room.

Allowing Mokuba to resume his 'tour' of the mansion by entering his room again and taking Yugi by the wrist. The world didn't stop for grief after all, regardless of who grieved.