Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: One more arc, just ONE MORE FILLER ARC to process and we can start the MAIN story! ….. Just don't look at how old this fic is...
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"So what exactly is the point in a demon who can't beat Yugi?!"
It was a good question, demanded in outrage and disappointment with whatever apprehension or fear suppressed.
"We have invested a great deal of time and resources in this demon, and we expected more from what is proved to be a failed product."
"Is it a failed product though? Yugi would already know who we are and respond accordingly, however; he hasn't. But it would go against his personality if he did."
The poker table was thick solid oak, the table top was covered rich red felt, the lines marked in gold. Smooth polished wood slots held the chips and a deck of cards ready for a game, large enough to hold eight people but only three showed up today. The remaining seats woefully empty while their usual occupants were busy at their duties, both legal and illegal.
"None of the Mages know the ritual to create the items?" The questioning man asked as he sat at the dealers seat. He played with the cards in front of him, anxiously shuffling and cutting them over and over.
"No, it would appear that we need the original. Though we have yet to find the original tablet for the Dark Magician," the doubter answered his sleeves rolled up. Three people were enough for a game and he wished they would just deal so he had something to occupy his time.
"Well, there's the problem, we can't just dig up all of Egypt looking for a bunch of fanatics in the off chance of finding the tablet."
"We could just let the local missionaries know there was a pagan group needing conversion..." the dealer pointed out. "But that's not my department, I mean we could just as easily rile up any other group and get a good fight going and slip in."
"Won't do us a bit of good if the tablets get damaged in the process," the investor pointed out, a red chip held up to make a point. He was a round face and just as round belly sort, his skills apparent in how fat he had gotten off his wealth. "Face it, the missionaries can't fight truth proven faith. They contact Yugi and he can very well 'prove' his presence and yoking fanaticism is a delicate balancing act. Leave it to our experts." He pointed to the seat across from him.
"Perhaps the solution is to... create a new one..." the third player suggested thoughtfully, "get Yugi to create a new use for the Items. If the demon they default summon isn't strong enough, Yugi should be able to re calibrate it to something useful for us."
"Ugh you mean we wasted those resources on kidnapping people for a demon who is so defective we have to resort to 'praying' for our success?" The investor groaned as he leaned back in his seat and tossed the chips onto the table in frustration.
Wordless the other two joined in silently watching as the chips danced, tumbled and slid across the felted table. Tossed like bones they passingly tried to find some meaning in the way the chips fell, but they weren't dice or bones. They settled down, spread haphazard across the red and gold velvet poker table surface without a message that they could see.
"Learning experiences can sometimes come at a cost, and its not 'so' bad. We have had some success in making Tablets of our own." The dealer finally spoke up, his voice introspective, "if we have to kill the larger specimen pools or not is irrelevant. Its why we picked them, the few who would care are easily silenced. And the media is in the pocket of our co-collaborators so what does it matter?"
Looking up the pair looked at the dealer with renewed interest. "Those who have wasted their time praying to their empty idols would be more than willing to convert once its revealed that the 'true' One God is here. Which binds up Yugi nicely, millions praying for wealth, power, looks, the vapid and the desperate will being a smoke screen for us. We get them on our side and they'll pray him down from doing anything against us. Then what? That only leaves Kaiba and the priests that served Yugi and his modern friends. The demon can deal with them with far more efficiency."
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"Kurrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."
Mokuba barely got his seat belt on him before the Kuriboh tackled him, its purring giving its fur a shivering motion. The little fiend even hovered low enough not to capture the eyes of the people milling about after school. Before settling itself on Mokuba's lap as it had become accustomed to before Yugi had been shot.
"Oh, Kuriboh, Yugi summoned you!" Mokubas' elated voice couldn't be mistaken as Isono made his way to the front of the limo.
Mokuba leaned over and wrapped his arms around the sizable fiend, finding comfort in the fluffy fiend and its comforting kurrs...
"I've missed you, when big brother Yugi got shot..." Mokuba hid his face into the soft fur. "I suppose I should stop worrying, Isis told me I shouldn't. That I should have faith in my elders, and I do... but..."
Kuriboh sat there a little taken aback at how Mokuba was reacting. The kid was crying and trembling and Kuriboh felt bad as Mokuba began talking about how lonely he had been.
"My Big Brother is so strong and brave, and I want to be like him, but when big brother Yugi got shot. I felt so scared and alone, without big brother Yugi, my Big Brother shut down and didn't recognize me. I don't know what Isis said to him, but he was going to push me off his lap back when we got to the hospital. And I know that's not how Big Brother used to be, Mahaado showed me, but I suppose he didn't realize he was..."
Kuriboh sat there, his claws resting against Mokuba's leg as he tried to think of a way to help. Purring could only do so much and perhaps listening 'was' considered help. But Kuriboh had been a very small child when he had been turned into a duel spirit. Complex thoughts like 'just listening that is a ton of help', were difficult. A thought 'did' come to mind... a spell he recalled seeing that one time the Pharaoh let him peek inside the Magician's spell book.
Hopeful the spell would be something simply enough for Mokuba to cast, given Kuriboh wasn't as old as his human friend. While Mokuba snuggled Kuriboh, "I feel so useless, if I had never been born Big Brother would have still been with our mom. If I hadn't been..."
Kuriboh understood things on a less complex level true, but he understood 'that'! Quickly, he wiggled himself around so he could plant his green paw on Mokuba's mouth and silence the kid. He stared up into Mokuba's watery eyes with his best 'firm, adult Pharaoh stare' before putting his paws on Mokuba's shoulders. Leaning in to try and hug the boy, though his stubby limbs couldn't perform as well as he would have liked.
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"So, this card... that huge spirit is now a part of this card," Anzu admired as she looked over the Emperors' new card. The holographic effect was interesting, the card 'felt' real, and even had an associated number at the bottom corner like the other cards. It had been so simple she could see why Yugi would be drawn to Magician type monsters in the game the way he was with toys. He could have used a slight of hand trick when she blinked, only it appeared when she wasn't blinking!
One minute empty.
Next second a card appeared whole between his index and middle finger.
Emperor sat imposing in appearance on a throne and yet Anzu started to feel... "I feel bad for it... I mean the demon was created just as a tool to be discarded. Now it has to live in a card like this... Its not right or fair, not to Emperor or Mahaado... Its like they're being punished for something they didn't do."
"All I did was fail to kill Bakura..." Mahaado began, coughed and grew silent once more.
"Fair and valid," Bakura replied patiently as he stood sat there, the comical timing enough to make him smile a bit, though he hid it behind his hand. Until he saw that look on Anzu's face and bunny mode reactivated...
"Still doesn't change the fact that its unfair, I wonder how many other people got sealed into tablets for whatever. Since the demon is aiming to have items made around the world, shouldn't it have tablets as well? Like it tried this stunt before?"
"The demon was local to Kemet," Yugi answered after pulling out the small orb again. "There 'have' been others, those that even predated my birth back then who had the power to summon. In various parts of the world and even the greater universe." Casting his own gaze up to the sky above for a moment, Yugi missed the flabbergasted expressions on both his guests faces. Then he returned to looking at them, "oh?" He paused mid word before shaking his head. "Yes, there's life beyond this world, and even some of them learned the skill as well. I didn't make 'only' human with souls after all that's boring," he smiled mischievously for a moment.
"They just didn't have the means to seal the Ka away, so they were just sprung up, curious beings from time to time."
"Until Kaiba sealed the ability to summon Ka?" Bakura inquired, and was rewarded with a nod.
"He did ensnare the world with that decree," Mahaado's voice answered quietly. "And Pharaoh would have it noted for you, that those with the power went to sleep of sorts, they did not get reborn because they could not utilize their Ka. Waiting for the day that Kaiba released those restrictions, so soon enough well into your lifetimes in fact. They should start appearing in the world once more," he finished when there was a knock on the door.
"Mr. Mouto? Its dinner time!"
The nurses' call caused Anzu to grab her sleeve as she put her wrist before her in shock. "Have we been here 'that' long?"
While she was reading the time Yugi stood up and made his way to the door, "Thank you, I can bring it in on my own since I have company."
Yugi could feel Mahaado's outrage at 'the Pharaoh' doing 'servants' work and while he wanted to say 'you are not a servant you are my priest'. That would have to wait, the nurse obliged him with that reverence that came with her gaze going down to his chest and then turning slightly to look away. 'Don't look at Seto, his ego would appreciate it,' he thought in faint amusement as he brought the food in. 'I want a hamburger...'
He started carrying the tray into the room only for Mahaado to take it from him, floating it smoothly across to the rolling table he had been using. The pair of guests watched silently as the tray moved along, before landing neatly on said table.
"So, Mahaado? You can speak with the um... copies of you?" Anzu asked feeling a need to break the silence in the room. The lid was lifted up and placed to the side, but the meal looked bland 'Note to self, bring Yugi a hamburger tomorrow.'
"Yes, Lady Anzu?"
"Have... they been talking to you?" Both guys, and the Unseen Mahaado, all turned to look at Anzu out of curiosity. "I remember what Yugi told me about how Pandora treated his version of you, and we know that this group probably has a Dark Magician or two with them. Would they use them to get to you? Could they?"
Bakura blinked in honest surprise at the suggestion, Yugi looking rather pleased at Anzu's line of thought... "I didn't even think of that..." He confessed, but unable to see the Magician he had no way to realign his line of sight.
"You would not be wrong, they have been questioned and sent to find me," Mahaado admitted with a faint indifference almost a shrug. "But I have been in my tablet and finding me may be simple, however; forcing me to go against my Masters' Will is another.."
Bakura turned his gaze to Yugi for a moment and there was this poised, yet present weighted sadness in Yugis' presence. The way it bowed to this sadness that his eyes held, warning Bakura of a darker thought. "You know who they are don't you? Everyone involved in this, all the pieces on the board, so to speak."
Yugi gave Bakura this smile that carried such bitterness and sorrow, brought back to the forefront that Yugi wasn't just powerful, he was All Knowing.
"To know our actions, and the results both short and long term, but determined to allow us to make take them. So that we can learn," Mahaado voiced upon seeing Bakura's face turn slightly green when it ran out of shades of pale to go. "Thus is the burden of Gods' love and sorrow."
"So you can't just tell us, we have to do this ourselves." Anzu observed before giving a soft sigh, "I suppose it makes sense. If we did something like praying to you, there's probably more members in this group than there are us. They could just negate what we prayed for..."
"Could just ignore them, you certainly have the right to do that you know," Bakura pointed out pragmatically as Yugi settled in to his meal.
"True, I've been ignoring over half the prayers of this world..." Yugi's voice tensed up as he said that, before he began picking at his food. "The idea of a prayer comes in many forms and functions, not just for gain. Lots of them are just 'why me' 'why this'..."
Anzu was taken aback, and a glance to Ryou showed the same shock as they saw tears forming on Yugis' eyes.
"What have you done to yourself Yugi?" Bakura stalked forward and knelt down in front of the 'teen' so they could be at eye level. "You were in a coma long enough that you long since had seen all your ancient memories, so what did you see 'after' you ran out of past events?"
A tight knot formed in Ryou's gut as he stood there as a thought, too harsh, began to form. Yugi's life as a Prince had not been incredibly long, and he had already been remembering some of it just from sleeping before his coma. So there were far too few reasons for Yugi to...
"Between the past and the present you, at best, have lived less than three decades, that's not enough to process the world as a God. As 'The' God." Bakura pointed out as he made his way back to his seat. Dropping down as though the weight of the universe had found his shoulders and demanded he get his butt down now. "You sweet, naive fool... My Gods... What have you done to yourself Yugi? We don't deserve that kind of love... or that kind of sacrifice..."
Trepidation filled Anzu as she stood there, looking between the two guys in the room that she could see. Bakura looked trapped between shock and absolute fatigue in that moment, the kind that made her wonder what they were talking about. 'What did Yugi see? Whatever it was, was it 'that' bad? Is it the group? Did he see what these people are doing? Given what they did to create Emperor I suppose they did worse to the humans they must have gathered.'
Yugi was eating, but it was more a response to the fact that there was food. His expression certainly wasn't one of awareness of what he was eating or if he enjoyed or disliked it.
"We'll beat the demon! And stop this group too! You won't have to worry Yugi, we'll figure out a way to stop them from hurting anyone else!" She offered, her tone the familiar cheer that they often heard the year prior when things looked bleak. And she was rewarded for that cheer with a thankful smile on Yugi's face, but she couldn't see Bakura's apology laced pain.
'Anzu... I don't have the heart to tell you what he did... But I think you're going to find out eventually on your own and when you do. The whole world? Couldn't be there isn't enough time, you had to pin point... But who Yugi? Who did you observe and 'what' was it? Because I can see from here what you saw was possibly the worst in us... We can't afford to have you lose your faith in us.'
"Pharaoh? I know you wish for something else, and you're changing the meal on your own... Shall I get it?" Mahaado asked, hoping to cheer up his Lord.
"Uh, that's kind of you, but unless you can make a hamburger, the alternative is that you take one and those don't get made unless someone is going to eat it... Yugi wouldn't want you to steal someone's food..." Anzu pointed out with a tentative amusement. Yet when she looked at the plate it... was changing... the bowl of rice was reshaped into a burger made of rice? So far?