Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: this is going to end up over 200 chapters isn't it? I really REALLY need to start thinking about merging the chapters...

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Every sound in the room was swallowed up whole by Ryou's startled exclamation. Before whipping around to look at the target of Ryou's focus. Where Honda sat, his head in his hands. The casual brown leather jacket, the plain t-shirt and blue jeans he wore were all typical 'Honda wear'. His cane sat next to him, jutted out as was the norm and the notebook that was a part of his life now sat on his right, flat and unopened.

Nerves that had been heightened by the shooting relaxed into confusion as the teens turned to look at Ryou. Who had yet to express any further emotion than outright shock.

"I mean we were just thinking he was smart with card games. But he literally manipulated 'all' of us into this. He got Kaiba employees to keep Mokuba here safe from potential shooters. Us in a limo to the hospital instead of all over the city confused. Just what are we compared to him?" Honda asked the room in general.

'Wait...' Anzu thought as she looked over at Jounouchi, then glanced at Malik. Yet was Malik even able to transcribe all of what Yugi said fast enough for Honda to... too... "Honda? Can you ummm?" She asked softly.

"Hear you?" Honda asked before lifting up his head to look at her.

"Wait... That wasn't loud enough..." Jounouchi stammered in confusion. He walked over and picked up the notebook, flipping quickly through the pages. The last series of transcribed notes were from the limo on the way to the hospital.

"Kaiba can heal people... that was Yugis' ace in the hole. The deciding factor of him taking that bullet was that Kaiba could heal him." Honda stated, looking expectantly up at Isis. She even looked pleased with his awareness.

"Yes, Set was taught a healing magic and that power has since grown. But one that now comes at the cost you're experiencing. In those ancient of times Set often supported me as a healer of sorts, he wasn't this powerful back then. Still it was possible for him to heal stab wounds and other severe injuries. As compared to now as you can clearly see that its no longer the case, for it has caused him to..." Isis gave a small gesture towards where 'Set' was.

"You... you can hear us?" Jounouchi asked in an anxious voice as though Isis hadn't spoken, his gaze locked on Honda.

"I was walking after all of you, like how its been. Didn't have enough time to warm up my knee for a brisk walk... which is about all I could do at the time." The statement put attention to the injury, and seeing it bent at a rough ninety degree. Something Honda hadn't been able to do since...

The hallway was long, white with large tile floors, in the distance he could see a janitor working away on stains of blood. Isono had been nice enough to point and hold up the fingers needed for Honda to know what floor to go to. Now he trekked towards the elevator, annoyed that he was forced to go so slow, yet grateful he wouldn't be there to get the initial reactions.

The elevator numbers climbed when a sudden feeling of peace overtook him, everything just felt... Loud...?

The air was filled with the sound of a voice paging a doctor, punctuated by a painful wracking cough that just... Honda turned to find the source. It was a much older man who stopped, by his side, was a concerned nurse. Yet even as he stopped coughing he righted himself, his expression one of amazement.

Honda stood there as a flood of sound crashed upon him. Phones ringing at the nurses' station, shuffling sounds of paper, televisions distantly played a game show. Rolling carts rattled along, while chatter from the station was punctuated by a sneeze. 'I can... I can hear...' Honda thought, his hand releasing his walking cane as he covered his ears. His vision became rimmed with un-shed tears as he realized he could 'hear'! As clear as he could before the incident.

And nothing felt as wonderful to listen to than the workings of a hospital.

"Hey, your cane!" a young nurses' aide walked around from the station and approached him, she bent down to pick up his cane. Drawing his attention back to his knees and how they felt. The distant echo of pain that hinted perhaps at a pulled muscle. But nothing that would send him to the floor.

"Thanks," he bowed his head before brushing his hand across his eyes. Needing to hide the tears as he could only thank whatever force had healed him. Around him he could hear a few exclamations of delight. Comments fast and loose about feeling better, even the old man who had been coughing sounded elated.

Honda turned and made his way to the elevator, more closer to running than he had in months. That crippling agony now gone, causing him to move normally. Not send him to the floor, or numb him as it sent him sprawling to the ground.

"I felt giddy, just hearing the click of the elevator button, or the loud beeping of the elevator. I didn't know what to make of it, so I just went looking for you guys. Then we heard the doctor and welp," Honda gave a slight shrug. Just before Jounouchi managed to grab him by the lapels and give the guy a hard shake.

"You didn't say anything?!" Jounouchi demanded, a superfluous response perhaps, no one was really in any state of mind to process what was going on at the moment.

Anzu turned her gaze away from the guys, recognizing Jounouchis' own excitable behavior. Honda getting his hearing back was grounds for celebration, but Yugi...

"When I came to Yugi, to speak of the visions I had we spent a great deal of time trying to find the best solution. I searched every possibility, but time itself appeared to be reaching a bottle neck. We we heading into a point in time where I couldn't see beyond. Dealing with the shooter and Setos' business intrigue appears to free up my visions. It might be easier to explain it by describing it as too many threads attempting to fit through a single hole." Isis explained as she went to sit next to her younger brother.

"It came down to trying to get Seto to use his magics, a chance that both Yugi and I are well aware of the difficulties. In any other possibility Seto wouldn't cast the spell, in fact there was a chance that he wouldn't have used it for Yugi either." She confessed, as Jounouchi, having released Honda and returning to his seat, openly gaped.

"Wait, you're saying he knew that this might not work?" Jounouchi asked, startled even if there was irony that someone who depended on Luck would be shocked.

Out of nowhere, Ryou began conversing with Isis in Egyptian, maybe Ancient, Anzu couldn't tell. His voice was low, serious and yet whatever they were discussing was enough to earn a startled expression from Malik. He didn't interject, sitting quietly by his sister, while something interesting clearly was being discussed. Whatever they discussed was enough to earn a terse nod from Ryou of consent before Isis returned her attention to the rest of the room.

"There really was nothing else we could do, any other method would either get someone killed or sensationalize our situation." Isis smoothly resumed, "I could see that Seto will recover before the KC Grand Prix. We just don't have access to Mahaado's powers is all."

"Well that's a relief, I can imagine this isn't going to look good on the company otherwise. I don't know how good Mahaado was as posing as Kaiba, but now there's literally 'neither'. Of course what type of company would brush aside the fact that their CEO was nearly assassinated." Malik admitted as he sat back on the couch. "Should be some protocols regarding stuff like this. I can't believe that the whole hospital thing is going to stay quiet though. How can anyone 'not' hear about what Kaiba did?"

All eyes went back to Isis expectantly as the thought was brought to the forefront. How 'was' the hospital supposed to report Yugi?

"Well, they never got the chance to report his death so as far the world knows he's alive." Anzu noted with a few nods in response from the others.

"Yeah, save I get the suspicion that the focus would be Kaiba. If the rest of the hospital got affected the way I did, there's a lot of injured people who... well aren't injured anymore," Honda pointed out.

"So Big Brothers' healing ability has a range?" Mokuba asked, his voice subdued. Bringing the attention to the child before back to Isis.

"Normally no, it would go as directed as one expects. But I would be willing to believe that he was still reeling in shock. That he didn't care about who else was exposed to that energy so long as it was enough to save the Pharaoh." Isis answered, as Mokuba frowned and looked down at the tops of his feet.

"We're going back to the 'Yugi is a god' discussion," Jounouchi groaned as he leaned back against the couch. "Only worse, its 'Kaiba', like he needs the confidence boost."

"God?" Anzu began when Ryou shook his head.

"We can discuss that later, right now we're all exhausted. We've been through a lot today and been given a lot of information. We know that Yugi is in an intentional, of sorts, coma, Kaiba is mentally back in Egypt. All we need to do is hope he gets his head back on straight before he's expected to fully go back to work. As I recall Yugi 'expects' Kaiba to go back to work, as he mentioned Kaiba snapping back into Pharaoh mode when he's here..."

"Which shows he's going to recover fast if he's using work and school to drag himself back to us," Malik admitted. His focus dipped down to Mokuba and for that brief moment some thought clearly crossed his mind that caused him to look sympathetic.

"So we adjourn this meeting until later?" Honda asked looking about at the others, "I haven't figured out how I'm going to explain this to my parents."

"Figure out? What's to figure out your parents are going to be elated!" Jounouchi exclaimed as he got a flat look in answer.

"Do you know how much my medical bills are? If we had known that at one point Kaiba was going to essentially unleash a healing bomb that was going to fix everything?" Honda explained, leaving the question hanging. At the same time folding his arms as he gave Jounouchi a look.

A look that reminded them that, yes, Honda went under the knife and now had healed beyond anything modern medicine could fix.

"A bomb..." Mokuba repeated thoughtfully, "so Big Brother could have healed everyone within range..."

"Do you know what Yugi meant about changing?" Ryou asked, his voice an octave higher than before.

Isis reacted with a blink and obediently answered, so smoothly that Anzu felt like there was something that the pair had worked out.

"Well that was when Yugi wasn't fully himself, indeed his intentions to regain those lost memories are going to have an effect. The half we know will dissolve and remold with the other half that had been sealed away," Isis noted with remembered bittersweet fondness. "He had always been this toddling babe, following Mahaado and Set around. Even when he was old enough to walk and talk he was ever a child compared to us. We only lived long enough to see him ascend as Pharaoh." Isis' eyes closed and the sweetness twisted into bitter sadness. "We couldn't even keep him on the throne a moon..."

The room fell quiet, Mokuba wasn't fidgeting exactly, "So those bastards are going to stop? They're not going to try to kill my Big Brother or me anymore?"

"Yes," Isis shook off her mantle of gloom, putting once more a motherly smile on her face for the child. "Even as we speak my visions showed me the police racing to trace the shooter to his employers."

"Good! I'm going to the Grand Prix!" Mokuba replied, his chin set stubbornly as he crossed his arms.

"Yes, Yugi will be glad for your company as well," Isis agreed kindly.

'Gozoboro died of a heart attack to say nothing of how their parents both died... If Kaiba could heal...' Anzu thought as she realized why Ryou had changed topics. Gratitude that Mokuba appeared to have been distracted from pursuing that line of thought to its sad conclusion filled her. All the people Kaiba could have healed, his parents, or at least their mother could have lived. "Mai just received an invitation to the Grand Prix as well. Which will be good, need more girls."

"Well... I guess the only thing left is that Ryou is in charge..." Jounouchi finally noted, shaking his head.

"Is something wrong with Yugi's choice?" Isis inquired politely, glancing at her brother before looking at the other blond.

"Yes?" Ryou began while Jounouchi began laughing.

"Wrong? Wrong! Give this guy straight black coffee, wind him up and let him go. I can tell you by the time Yugi wakes up there won't be a cult anymore!" Jounouchi replied, eyes wide as though he had seen things.

"I need a nap, not coffee," Ryou countered with a soft groan.

"We have a spare room," Mokuba offered suddenly, going as far as to get up from his seat to lead Ryou.

The white hair teen got up without complaint and willingly followed the child. While Isis stood up as well.

"I will bring some tea and snacks up to Rashid and Set. If you need more information just knock on the door," Isis offered before following the pair.

Everyone else was left to watch the three just suddenly 'leave', when Mokuba and Ryou disappeared to the second floor. "Guys, don't bring up anything about Kaiba," Malik suddenly leaned in. The statement and sudden posture change startled Honda and Jounouchi into leaning forward.

"What? Why?" Honda asked as Anzu shook her head.

"Because we don't know how young Kaiba could have been to use that power. If he had access to this all his life he could have saved his mother and didn't. Think of Mokuba," she pointed out earning a nod from Malik.

Even as the Jounouchi and Honda nodded in sudden comprehension, Malik nodded. "We can wait to discuss anything like that when Mokuba isn't around. But I suspect my siblings will want to hang out here for a while longer for Set."

"Same, I think that's why Mokuba offered up the room like that, he needs us." Anzu agreed with the other two nodding as well.

"Yeah... You're... Yugi is playing games that we don't even have names for yet," Honda leaned back. He gazed up at the ceiling while Jounouchi nodded, leaning forward still and quiet as he did so.

It was just the four of them, four powerless, modern people trapped by association in a battle against a force of evil. Lacking magic, or just the obscene amount of brilliance and talent that others had, or a past life that gave them an experienced edge over the threat. The weight of Yugis' words began to settle into them now that there was a quiet in the room.

Yugi only getting saved because of Kaiba was already a high stakes risk, the realization that he didn't know if Kaiba 'would' save him. His survival from the shooting wasn't just a last second save by some miraculous new skill Kaiba had. Rather Yugi was actively teasing out, and bringing to the forefront skills that were lost from those who he could use.

"You know... I think we forgot somehow that the 'story' of the game is that the duelist is leading an army." Jounouchi finally noted as he looked down his hands. "Yet to think the 'general' would put himself in harms way of his 'troops'."

"Or rather, the Pharaoh puts himself in the way of the army. I get the feeling that maybe it was always meant to be Kaiba's place to be in charge, not Yugi." Honda suggested thoughtfully.

"Huh? Why?" Malik asked leaning over to look at Honda.

"Yugi was meant to be sealed away for all time. But he's here. Someone broke him out of his seal.. and who do we know would do that? If he felt something say... immense guilt?"