A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Original Beta: White Swan
Updated Beta: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: …. If you're reading this... you should thank me... I updated this like you wouldn't BELIEVE. So much better.
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Yugi's cry worked like a starter pistol, causing Kaiba to dash to the side to avoid the death ray shot to the ground where he had been standing. No matter how much posturing he did, Kaiba was well aware of the level of danger they were all in. Noa controlled the environment, he just had to will it and they would all either be blasted to pieces or frozen into place. The nuts and bolts of the matter was that Noa was merely toying with them, and he chose to do it.
Though in the end that would be fine, he had found Yugi, and the geek team followed in, because why not apparently. But Noa was only invested in Kaiba himself, which meant that once Mokuba finally managed to turn off the power, the other three would wake up. The only remaining issue would be fighting the hypnotic programming that Noa would undoubtedly employ against Kaiba. Light, sound, even now just seeing the room was feeding information into his brain.
"Are you ok Kaiba?" Anzu asked Kaiba as the trio joined up with him.
"You really can easily be led astray," Bakura grumbled shaking his white haired head in disbelief. Yugi took up the rear, his eyes busy taking in the surroundings, the cybernetic space of a computer was actually a bit fascinating. If not for the manipulation that Noa had inflicted on him, Yugi might have been more charitable at the moment.
"So you're all here," Noa commented almost lazily. Yet there was an undercurrent in his tone and posture that was a subtle threat.
"Anzu. Close your eyes..." Bakura ordered softly, his own sense of threat a near clarion call in the back of his mind.
Which was a sound warning in Kaiba's mind, even if the guy didn't use computers as regularly as Kaiba, he had enough sense to be aware. All of this information was coming through a visual and audio feed from the pods. Noa could feed the information visually or audibly at any time, so the wisest choice would be to close their eyes. Hopefully they would physically close them as well thus blocking out any other potential threat Noa could lash out at them with. Bakuras' words proved themselves a moment later when a cybernetic version of a flash grenade went off in front of them.
Noa watched as the light went off before the quartet, unaffected by it himself as he could easily lower the brightness of his own vision. Seto recoiled from the brightness, though he seemed to have begun shutting his eyes at midway. Then Noa shifted his focus to the aggravating pair and the bait that lured Seto into this world.
He felt this type of thrill in the back of his mind, a sense that worked its way through the network of wires and chips that comprised of his sentience. He knew the nature of the models used by the quartet before him. And while Yugi was, 'yes', a bit of a surprise when Noa first saw him, he was confident that he had copied their appearances correctly.
Only there were seven beings before him now with three Black Luster Soldiers that stood at the defend position. One before each person who wasn't Seto, shields at guard and sword in hand while facing Noa. Each bore a face mask making his light ineffective, if they were in the real world at least. Which was another thing, because how could they just 'appear', Noa had taken away the ability to call duel monsters into the area, the only one who 'could' call them was Noa himself. Even Seto's younger blood brother outside lacked the skill to hack into the system to allow for such a violation of Noa's programming.
As Noa shifted his gaze to take in each of the three Black Luster Soldiers his eyes fell on one more, large, change. Yugi didn't appear as a Japanese teenager anymore, despite his hair and eye color being unaffected. His skin was darker like someone around the northern parts of Africa, with his clothes just as changed. The whole attire had changed to a knee length type of tunic with golden straps around his limbs and throat. A crown even rested on his head, the appearance of nobility if Noa knew anything.
How was it possible for Yugi to change so drastically in the flash of light when, again, Noa controlled the world? Even more disconcerting was how the other teenagers faded away from the world, banished back to the living world. His programs were notifying him as he stood there that the two were being released, which was his original intention. Send the other three back with a pre made script to explain the situation in the system. Only because they closed their eyes, he wasn't confident that they had the script downloaded yet.
Thus while that would go on, he was going to take over Seto's body and begin the process of integration into the living world. Yet even as he pondered it while the light faded away his 'eyes' caught sight of something that, after so many years, managed to instill fear in him. Even as Yugi turned increasingly pale as the bright light faded and his clothes returned back to their original appearance, his shadow... didn't.
Noa wasn't sure when it happened exactly, when a shadow that should not exist on any human began pooling below the teenager behind him. What should have been, at most, a slender copy of the teen was growing... expanding. Noa's systems began tearing through all the images in its data base in a desperate attempt to understand what he was seeing. Attempting to comprehend the massive slithering winged beast or the bird beaked golden beast that were growing out and separate from this mass.
Then the names were brought into the forefront of his mind. The Saint Soldier of Stone Obelisk, The Saint Sky Dragon Osiris, and The Winged Dragon of Ra. Three monsters in the game with the highest rarity with only one card per monster existing anywhere in the world itself. With no in game models ever created by Kaiba for use in the game. As though it was never to be put into play thus never integrated despite the whole point of the Battle City Tournament. Thus no data or way possible that they could start materializing in this world.
Right?
"I can't see!" Yugi protested aloud rubbing at his eyes and attempting the blink away the spots that were dancing there. Only to see that they were down two people and began to frantically look about for Anzu and Bakura. "Anzu?! Bakura?! Noa what have you done with them?!"
Noa blinked, allowing his programmed body to hide his disconcerted reaction to the sudden changes he saw in the flash of light. "I need them more out there than I do here. Even now they're giving a pre designated script to those outside. With that, they'll be prepared for Seto's 'odd' behavior, allowing me into the living world once more." Noa answered smoothly, while a possible thought came to mind.
He was aware of what was going on in the building, aware of the floating Kuriboh. Through hacking the sound systems and microphone in the room, he had learned that the monster was being 'summoned and sustained' through Yugi himself. Meaning somehow Yugi was able to summon beings into the living world that, apparently, weren't truly alive.
If he couldn't get to Seto directly, there was a chance he could download himself into one of the Egyptian God Monsters that Yugi had. Even if they looked formidable, just looking at Kuriboh proved the child like mentality they seemed to actually have.
"How...?" Yugi asked turning his gaze back at Noa in suspicion.
"Hypnosis," Kaiba cut in with a flat, unamused voice. "So long as the eyes are open hypnotic messages can be transmitted visually, or even audibly through the headsets. Which all in all, while it 'can' be possible to put people under a type of command. Its not the same as leaving this world and returning to the living one, unlike what this idiot thinks."
Kaiba turned his full attention back on Noa not changing his disdain in the slightest. "How can a computer program with all this supposed access to information not have a fundamental clue how what you're planning works?"
"Planning 'what' exactly?" Yugi asked, recalling Anzu and Bakura's attempt to explain it to him. But when two people didn't fully understand it was often better to go to an expert. Even if it was a snarky Kaiba.
"He wants to download his identity into my body and take over my life," Kaiba answered coldly. While passingly wondering why Noa wasn't trying to fling more bolts at the pair.
"How does 'that' work though?" Yugi asked blinking in confusion, "won't that be the same as making a copy? Sure even if he somehow managed to download his whole personality into you through hypnosis, he's still going to be trapped here. There will just be two copies of the same being, one trapped here and one roaming around in the real world."
Kaiba blinked his lips curling into a remembered snide harsh grin before he broke out into a wild, amused laugh. The fact that Yugi managed to figure out flaws to Noa's plan without a degree in computer science was hilarious.
"I can delete," Noa began but the only way to phrase the sentence would be to say 'myself' which was the same as accepting suicide. "I'd be outside in the living world!"
"No, a copy of you would be outside in the living world, but you, the you we're talking to right now. You would still be trapped here," Yugi pointed out, any anger or negative emotions slowly dwindling away as he also started to see Noa's situation. There was a hopelessness to it that was hard not to sympathize. This was a computer program fighting to live beyond the confines of the cyber world.
If Noa had just become a self aware program, he probably wouldn't mind his placement here. What Bakura explained made it sound like Noa had been deprived of human interaction for ages. So maybe just being a computer but being given a voice and the ability to communicate would have been a feasible compromise. But he wanted a flesh and blood body with such a desperation it was hard not to feel for this stranger. They couldn't just sacrifice a human life to him to sate his desire.
"He's right, you'd have to download your whole program into me and that would take far more work than a few mere flashes of light or whispered words. How 'do' you convey a whole identity into a person to begin with?" Kaiba asked, in the cold confidence that his employees recognized when they approached him without seeing the bigger picture.
"I just have you set up the programs necessary to make the transfer you pair of imbeciles!" Noa snapped back, frustrated at how he never thought about what would happen to 'him', or bother to think of himself like a computer file and see the flaw ahead of time to this. But that 'would' make for a good back up plan, have Seto merely be ordered to create the set up necessary for him to take over.
"I don't think you're going to be able to do that, you made this too big, too dramatic. Even if you got to Anzu or Bakura, the rest are going to keep their eyes peeled for this stuff. And needless to say, the group I keep has way more experience dealing with possessed or manipulated individuals that you might suspect," Yugi pointed out calmly.
With Bakura, Anzu, Jounouchi, Malik, Mai and even Mokuba to an extent, as well as Rashid willingly allowing Malik into his mind. Really this was easily the 'worst' group to try such a stunt with as Yugi thought about it.
"Yet you have a way to leave here easily," Noa pointed out looking more intently at Yugi. The ambiguous statement left him confused when suddenly Noa was directly 'in' Yugi's face his hands shoved into Yugi's chest.
"Noa!" Kaiba protested reaching out to grab Noa and pull him away from Yugi when he saw something incredibly disconcerting, even for him. Noa's expression turned from grim determination to mortified horror. Along his arms gold, red and deep blue cords coiled around his arms like snakes. As they coiled around moving further up Noa's arms the programs arms began to dissolve.
Yugi didn't seem aware of what was going on anymore as his eyes turned vacant, but the colors made Kaiba think that somehow the Egyptian Gods were making their own presence known. But Noas' expression slipped from shock to grim determination, as he fought back and Kaiba could only be horrified.
"Those monsters... you can control them so I can just use one of them!" Noa growled out between barred teeth as he fought. Fighting for something he had no clue about as the reality of what he was striving for hit Kaiba.
Noa was trying to jack into a God. He had no clue he clearly, given the remark about monsters, saw Kuriboh and possibly Mahaado. He wasn't stupid so he figured out that they were more than just holograms and that they were independently thinking. But possessing a GOD?! It wasn't like he wanted to take over a random Kuriboh or some useless fairy, he was attempting a God.
How he even knew they could be connected to Yugi in such a manner was alarming. Because what Noa didn't, couldn't know was that the three Egyptian Gods were not just spirits or holograms or whatever dismissive entity that Noa thought up. They were a fractured trio of Yugi's own soul. Even Kaiba, no matter how much he wanted to reject the ancient past knew this. Those three monsters were expressions of Yugi's soul, just as Blue Eyes White Dragon was a manifestation of Kisara.
"You better let him go Noa, its not worth it. An eternity in this computer is far better than what you're going to deal with if you don't stop trying for him." Kaiba called out, the most human action he could take. He wasn't grabbing Noa and pulling him off he wasn't worth the effort. It might not even be possible anymore but that aside...
That aside, no one deserved to face the Three when They were angered.
"Not when I am so close!" Noa shrieked in protest as light and darkness began to swirl below Yugi like a whirlpool.
It was those words that the shadows behind Yugi rose before his eyes. The cords of light that had traced along them to express the nature of the cybernetic world became hieroglyphics. His vision shifted as information began to be downloaded at a rate faster than what his systems could maintain. Theoretical Egyptian history became clarified, as theory became facts through the life experiences of a single mind.
Yugi stopped being a teenager and became 10 year old Egyptian Pharaoh, nine and a prince, eight, seven, six, five, four, three and he saw Gods, two and he saw shadows that shouldn't have been there, one and he saw the world. He couldn't hear his own voice anymore, darkness opened up behind Yugi as a harsh voice hissed into his ears that he deserved this. Profane beings like himself deserved this for their desecration, hissed a voice that his systems said was Seto's yet his voice raw and cracked and insane.
"Let him go Noa! You can't fathom what he is," Seto's voice, a sane voice that held such warm human emotions like genuine concern felt like a life line.
Noa couldn't though anymore, pride had no point any longer, the desire to escape the cyber world into a world where 'this' existed was terrifying now. But he couldn't pull back his hands or his gaze. His programs couldn't identify if he was looking at a field of stars or multitudes of eyes.
Kaiba could only shake his head in disgust and disapproval as he watched the light spread itself along the floor rapidly engulfing the CEO. There was no hope left for Noa as far as Kaiba could see, the program's code was completely dismantled falling apart like a pile of wooden blocks. Something that even the harden CEO found upsetting, as he watched the remains of a program crumble away.
Around him the world became techno versions of the Book of the Dead, and Kaiba realized as the light below his feet rose up... Yugi was sending Noa home. Even if he didn't understand it himself, the letters red in the colors of Osiris were calling on powers to lead Noa to the afterlife. Instinctive perhaps on Yugi's part, the teen was way too kind, but it was in keeping with who Yugi was.
So Kaiba allowed the world to be absorbed by the light around them as he realized that the Gods were taking them home. There was a lack of resolution that he felt as the world went from bright light to darkness. Noa had come after him, yet when Noa realized the futility he went after Yugi and now? Well... Kaiba wasn't very certain on that. Was Noa erased from existence? Pushed back to square one?
Noa was a product of Gozoboro not finishing what he started, and it wasn't Kaiba's responsibility to clean up Gozoboro's mess. Yet the very least the program deserved was having a proper investigation as to what had happened. Perhaps when he was done with all the insanity of this day and the upcoming KaibaCorp Grand Prix he would put finding out about Noa on his schedule.
Honestly, it was as though the universe thought he wasn't busy 'enough' for all the stuff it tried to dump on him daily.