Shadows Of A Dark Past
DISCLAIMER: I forgot to put this in the last chapter. ^^; Bad SY! *smacks wrist* Okay, here it goes. I don't own YuGiOh. I do own Yamira and Nebhtari. But aside from those two, I own nothing. If I did own YuGiOh, it'd be a whole lot different....
-Alloran- And probably not for young children.
-Nebhtari- Quiet, you mangy moggy.
-Alloran- *indigant* OI!
-SY- Oh brother...anyway, on with the fic!
**************************************************************************** ***********
"Yami!"
No answer. Yugi folded his arms and glared at the door, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Yami, open the door."
"Its not locked." came a muffled voice from the other side. Yugi frowned, and gave the door a push, just to make sure his Dark was telling the truth, and true to Yami's word, the door swung slightly squeakily inward. Yugi stepped through, carefully picking his way over numerous items on the floor- an old unused set of dumbells, a discarded shirt, a pair of sneakers. Yugi cautiously manoevred around a tangle of clothing which could only be Yami's, considering the amount of studs visible, and confronted the stubbornly silent figure of Yami who was sat, crosslegged like a stoic Indian brave, on the black bedspread. Yugi sat on the end, and regarded Yami unblinkingly.
"Why were you acting so rudely when that girl came in? That miss...miss..." Yugi hesitated.
"Alitari." Yami stated, shifting position and swinging his legs over the sideof the bed so as to be next to his hikari. "Her name was- is- Yamira Alitari."
"Whatever her name was, you sure were impolite to her down in the game store." Yugi folded his arms and glared at Yami. Yami sighed.
"Its a long story, aibou."
"Do I look like I'm going anywhere?"
"...."
"Then go on."
"Alright..."
Yugi sat and listened attentively as Yami began his tale.
"Back in the days before I was Pharoah, when I was still just a child, there was a friend of my mothers named Kharish Alitari. She was a...a pretty woman, so far as I remember, dark-haired and dark-eyed like most of the other womenfolk around the palace. But I'm getting ahead of myself." Yami folded his arms and stared up towards the ceiling, concentrating. "Before I was born, about a year before, Lady Kharish went missing. She was a priestess of the goddess Isis; served in the temples in company with the mages. She was last seen at the night of the Sun Ceremony talking with Heishin. After that, she was not seen again. No one voiced their thoughts out loud, they did not dare, but the rumour and whisperes flew around the palace and the city- was the Lady Kharish dead by Heishins doing?"
"Well, was she?" Yugi asked, wide-eyed.
"Patience, Yugi! No, she was not dead. The courtswomen eventually ceased discussing it, moved on to fresher items of gossip. Everyone forgot about her disappearance and got on with their lives. After all, there were new things to talk about- the other ranking Priestess, Akhana, was with child, as was the Queen."
"Your mother, with you."
"Yes. My mother gave birth to me at around the same time as Lady Akhana gave birth to her son, or so the healers told me later." Yami smiled tightly. "Typical that I was born in company with my rival, isn't it?"
"Ak...Akhana," Yugi stumbled over the unfamiliar speech. "Akhana was Seto's mother?!"
"Yes, Lady Akhana was the mother of the later-to-be High Priest Seto. And with our arrivals and initial adorability-" he glared as he was interrupted by Yugi's snort of laughter.
"Sorry, sorry, its just I can't picture you as a baby....or Kaiba for that matter. Go on, please." he added, noticing his Yami's hurt and affronted look. Yami huffed slightly, but continued.
"Anyway, around three months after Seto and I were born, the whole kingdom was suddenly in an uproar. Lady Kharish had returned, bringing with her a two-month old girl child. Lady Kharish was dazed, confused...she didn't seem to have any conscious memory of the year in which she had been gone. But more so than Lady Kahrish's return, the child she brought was the subject of speculation. Whose was she? Some said what is she? She certainly was odd. Her hair was normal enough, a pretty shade of raven black, and her skin was as dusky as her mothers. But her eyes-" Yami paused, shuddering. "Her eyes were so strange...they weren't one colour, not even mismatched. They were unsettling, changing colours like whirling smoke, and they looked so...you have heard of a child looking like he or she has the eyes of someone older than they?"
"Yes..."
"Well, her eyes weren't even old like that. They weren't the old of an aged person, weren't even like a re-incarnated oldness. Im talking old old. " Yami paused again, staring off into near space. "Old like the stars."
"Thats....kinda creepy...."
"Yes, it was. The child was raised in the palace by her mother, but even though we shared the same roof, we rarely saw each other. She was always infallibly courteous to me, and in turn I bore civility to her, even though she always made me feel, well, nervous. But when I was sixteen, and I was being introduced to the harem girls, I came across her again. But she had changed, oh how she had changed, and I don't mean how she had changed with time. Her hair, once such a shining raven all over, had split into two hues. The right was still a glossy jet-black, but the left had become a strikingly rich violet. And she wasn't the friendly, playful girl I remembered. She had become quieter, colder, and when her gaze met mine it no longer held any of the playful challenge I remembered, only a flickering glacial fire. Not long after that day Heishin began his assault on the Palace, the day when I was sealed within the Puzzle. I assumed that the other court members were killed, lost, destroyed by Heishins attack..." he trailed off into silence, his gaze distant, as though he were watching that fateful day all over again.
"I see...." Yugi said softly. His quiet tone broke Yami from his thoughts, and he gazed at Yugi abstractly.
"So you can imagine it was quite a shock when I saw her in the shop today." Yugi could only nod silently. Now he understood, it was clear why the sight of Miss Alitari had unnerved Yami so much. He'd looked like he had seen a ghost. And maybe he had.
~Meanwhile, in a different part of Domino City~
"RYOU!" bellowed a strident voice, somewhere within the living room.
"Coming!" came the quick reply. Hurriedly, Ryou gathered up bowl, syrup, and popcorn and trotted into the living room. It looked like a bomb had hit, but one hadn't, just Bakura. He set the bowl of popcorn on the glass coffee table in front of his dark half obediently.
"Took you long enough." grumbled his tomb-robbing counterpart. Swiping up the popcorn he fell to wolfing it down with such speed Ryou half-though he would choke. But...no such luck. Shaking his head, the snowy-haired teen ambled back into the kitchen and set about making his own lunch- Caesar salad and turkey sandwiches. Unlike his yami, Ryou preferred healthy food to the junk which Bakura seemed to live on. He hummed a plaintive melody as he washed the salad, almost dropping it as a loud ring at the doorbell made him jump.
"RY-"
"Already on it." Quickly wiping his hand on a teatowel, Ryou darted to the door. He was rather taken aback when he opened it to be greeted by a young woman with two-toned hair and chamleonic eyes.
"Good morning. I am looking for Bakura."
"I'll just go...I'l just go get him.." Ryou backed away from this unusual woman and scurried into the living room. As he vanished, Yamira stared after him with narrowed eyes.
{Again, he is almost identical to his counterpart....a slight softening of the features, a more compassionate manner, but still...."}
"Errr....Bakura?" Ryou interrupted nervously.
"What?" Bakura growled, tearing his gaze from the horror movie he was watching and fixing it on Ryou.
Ryou swallowed. "Theres a...a young girl at the door asking for you."
"Huh?" Bakura blinked in puzzlement. "Who the hell..." He got up and strode past Ryou, into the hall and to the door. His eyes widened as he saw- and recognised- the figure before him. "YOU!"
"Nice to see you again, Kubaar."
"Don't call me that. And what the hell do you want?" Bakura snarled.
"Now, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Yamira raised an eyebrow teasingly, a sardonic curve to her lips.
"You're no friend of mine."
"Im hurt."
"Good. Now tell me why the hell you're looking for me, before I lose my patience."
"I wasn't aware you knew what patience was. You do know its almost the Shadow Time, don't you?"
His cold chocolate gaze narrowed. "Of course."
"Then you know what must be done."
"Yes." his voice dripped exasperation.
"Good. I will return the day after tomorrow. Farewell, Kubaar....ah, sorry. Bakura." With a flourish and a bow, Yamira turned on her heel and stepped regally down the street until she turned the corner and was lost from view.
Bakura glared after her until he could see her no more, then he stormed inside the house, slamming the door behind him, and threw himself down onto the sofa. Ryou peered cautiously around the kitchen doorway, seemingly stunned by the sudden appearance of the strange girl and how she had managed to rile his yami up so quickly. He cleared his throat hesitantly, flinching instinctively as Bakura turned a stare as cold as liquid nitogen on him.
"Who was she?" Bakura growled low in his throat, a visceral, savage sound he often made when roused, and turned his eyes back to his movie. "You wanna know who she was?"
Ryou nodded.
"Trouble."
As she stepped around the corner, Yamira flicked her gaze to the mouth of the alleyway beside her, where the silent shape of a large black canine was waiting.
//It was him?//
"Undoubtedly." Yamira sighed. "He is unchanged."
//Will that be a problem?//
"Perhaps. But not a large one." Yamira turned and swiftly stepped into the alley, beside Nebhtari. "Come. We shall go and find the others. I have just reliazed that we may well need more of the Pharoahs...aquaintances...than I thought."
//The High Priest.// Nebhtari's mental voice coloured with understanding.
"And the Pharoahs friends. Yami does not trust me. But he may trust them, if I can persuade them to believe me."
//Stranger things have happened.//
"Myself included."
//Indeed, Mistress.//
"Let us go." Yamira took a brief stride forward, meiting into the aged brickwork of the grimy wall like the shadows whose paths they traveled. Nebhtari took a lingering look around her, to ensure no-one had seen, and trotted after, both leaving no trace they had ever been there.
**************************************************************************** ***********
-SY- Okay, so how was it? And also I wanna know- would you guys prefer short chapters like this with shorter time between updates, or longer gaps between updates and longer chapters? Its your call! And if anyone can tell whats special about Bakura and the name Kubaar, I'll give you a cookie and a full set of YGO BishiePlushies!
-Alloran- *waves BishiePlush plushies*
-SY- So feedback appreciated, constructive criticism always useful, and flames....well, if you really feel you must.
DISCLAIMER: I forgot to put this in the last chapter. ^^; Bad SY! *smacks wrist* Okay, here it goes. I don't own YuGiOh. I do own Yamira and Nebhtari. But aside from those two, I own nothing. If I did own YuGiOh, it'd be a whole lot different....
-Alloran- And probably not for young children.
-Nebhtari- Quiet, you mangy moggy.
-Alloran- *indigant* OI!
-SY- Oh brother...anyway, on with the fic!
**************************************************************************** ***********
"Yami!"
No answer. Yugi folded his arms and glared at the door, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Yami, open the door."
"Its not locked." came a muffled voice from the other side. Yugi frowned, and gave the door a push, just to make sure his Dark was telling the truth, and true to Yami's word, the door swung slightly squeakily inward. Yugi stepped through, carefully picking his way over numerous items on the floor- an old unused set of dumbells, a discarded shirt, a pair of sneakers. Yugi cautiously manoevred around a tangle of clothing which could only be Yami's, considering the amount of studs visible, and confronted the stubbornly silent figure of Yami who was sat, crosslegged like a stoic Indian brave, on the black bedspread. Yugi sat on the end, and regarded Yami unblinkingly.
"Why were you acting so rudely when that girl came in? That miss...miss..." Yugi hesitated.
"Alitari." Yami stated, shifting position and swinging his legs over the sideof the bed so as to be next to his hikari. "Her name was- is- Yamira Alitari."
"Whatever her name was, you sure were impolite to her down in the game store." Yugi folded his arms and glared at Yami. Yami sighed.
"Its a long story, aibou."
"Do I look like I'm going anywhere?"
"...."
"Then go on."
"Alright..."
Yugi sat and listened attentively as Yami began his tale.
"Back in the days before I was Pharoah, when I was still just a child, there was a friend of my mothers named Kharish Alitari. She was a...a pretty woman, so far as I remember, dark-haired and dark-eyed like most of the other womenfolk around the palace. But I'm getting ahead of myself." Yami folded his arms and stared up towards the ceiling, concentrating. "Before I was born, about a year before, Lady Kharish went missing. She was a priestess of the goddess Isis; served in the temples in company with the mages. She was last seen at the night of the Sun Ceremony talking with Heishin. After that, she was not seen again. No one voiced their thoughts out loud, they did not dare, but the rumour and whisperes flew around the palace and the city- was the Lady Kharish dead by Heishins doing?"
"Well, was she?" Yugi asked, wide-eyed.
"Patience, Yugi! No, she was not dead. The courtswomen eventually ceased discussing it, moved on to fresher items of gossip. Everyone forgot about her disappearance and got on with their lives. After all, there were new things to talk about- the other ranking Priestess, Akhana, was with child, as was the Queen."
"Your mother, with you."
"Yes. My mother gave birth to me at around the same time as Lady Akhana gave birth to her son, or so the healers told me later." Yami smiled tightly. "Typical that I was born in company with my rival, isn't it?"
"Ak...Akhana," Yugi stumbled over the unfamiliar speech. "Akhana was Seto's mother?!"
"Yes, Lady Akhana was the mother of the later-to-be High Priest Seto. And with our arrivals and initial adorability-" he glared as he was interrupted by Yugi's snort of laughter.
"Sorry, sorry, its just I can't picture you as a baby....or Kaiba for that matter. Go on, please." he added, noticing his Yami's hurt and affronted look. Yami huffed slightly, but continued.
"Anyway, around three months after Seto and I were born, the whole kingdom was suddenly in an uproar. Lady Kharish had returned, bringing with her a two-month old girl child. Lady Kharish was dazed, confused...she didn't seem to have any conscious memory of the year in which she had been gone. But more so than Lady Kahrish's return, the child she brought was the subject of speculation. Whose was she? Some said what is she? She certainly was odd. Her hair was normal enough, a pretty shade of raven black, and her skin was as dusky as her mothers. But her eyes-" Yami paused, shuddering. "Her eyes were so strange...they weren't one colour, not even mismatched. They were unsettling, changing colours like whirling smoke, and they looked so...you have heard of a child looking like he or she has the eyes of someone older than they?"
"Yes..."
"Well, her eyes weren't even old like that. They weren't the old of an aged person, weren't even like a re-incarnated oldness. Im talking old old. " Yami paused again, staring off into near space. "Old like the stars."
"Thats....kinda creepy...."
"Yes, it was. The child was raised in the palace by her mother, but even though we shared the same roof, we rarely saw each other. She was always infallibly courteous to me, and in turn I bore civility to her, even though she always made me feel, well, nervous. But when I was sixteen, and I was being introduced to the harem girls, I came across her again. But she had changed, oh how she had changed, and I don't mean how she had changed with time. Her hair, once such a shining raven all over, had split into two hues. The right was still a glossy jet-black, but the left had become a strikingly rich violet. And she wasn't the friendly, playful girl I remembered. She had become quieter, colder, and when her gaze met mine it no longer held any of the playful challenge I remembered, only a flickering glacial fire. Not long after that day Heishin began his assault on the Palace, the day when I was sealed within the Puzzle. I assumed that the other court members were killed, lost, destroyed by Heishins attack..." he trailed off into silence, his gaze distant, as though he were watching that fateful day all over again.
"I see...." Yugi said softly. His quiet tone broke Yami from his thoughts, and he gazed at Yugi abstractly.
"So you can imagine it was quite a shock when I saw her in the shop today." Yugi could only nod silently. Now he understood, it was clear why the sight of Miss Alitari had unnerved Yami so much. He'd looked like he had seen a ghost. And maybe he had.
~Meanwhile, in a different part of Domino City~
"RYOU!" bellowed a strident voice, somewhere within the living room.
"Coming!" came the quick reply. Hurriedly, Ryou gathered up bowl, syrup, and popcorn and trotted into the living room. It looked like a bomb had hit, but one hadn't, just Bakura. He set the bowl of popcorn on the glass coffee table in front of his dark half obediently.
"Took you long enough." grumbled his tomb-robbing counterpart. Swiping up the popcorn he fell to wolfing it down with such speed Ryou half-though he would choke. But...no such luck. Shaking his head, the snowy-haired teen ambled back into the kitchen and set about making his own lunch- Caesar salad and turkey sandwiches. Unlike his yami, Ryou preferred healthy food to the junk which Bakura seemed to live on. He hummed a plaintive melody as he washed the salad, almost dropping it as a loud ring at the doorbell made him jump.
"RY-"
"Already on it." Quickly wiping his hand on a teatowel, Ryou darted to the door. He was rather taken aback when he opened it to be greeted by a young woman with two-toned hair and chamleonic eyes.
"Good morning. I am looking for Bakura."
"I'll just go...I'l just go get him.." Ryou backed away from this unusual woman and scurried into the living room. As he vanished, Yamira stared after him with narrowed eyes.
{Again, he is almost identical to his counterpart....a slight softening of the features, a more compassionate manner, but still...."}
"Errr....Bakura?" Ryou interrupted nervously.
"What?" Bakura growled, tearing his gaze from the horror movie he was watching and fixing it on Ryou.
Ryou swallowed. "Theres a...a young girl at the door asking for you."
"Huh?" Bakura blinked in puzzlement. "Who the hell..." He got up and strode past Ryou, into the hall and to the door. His eyes widened as he saw- and recognised- the figure before him. "YOU!"
"Nice to see you again, Kubaar."
"Don't call me that. And what the hell do you want?" Bakura snarled.
"Now, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Yamira raised an eyebrow teasingly, a sardonic curve to her lips.
"You're no friend of mine."
"Im hurt."
"Good. Now tell me why the hell you're looking for me, before I lose my patience."
"I wasn't aware you knew what patience was. You do know its almost the Shadow Time, don't you?"
His cold chocolate gaze narrowed. "Of course."
"Then you know what must be done."
"Yes." his voice dripped exasperation.
"Good. I will return the day after tomorrow. Farewell, Kubaar....ah, sorry. Bakura." With a flourish and a bow, Yamira turned on her heel and stepped regally down the street until she turned the corner and was lost from view.
Bakura glared after her until he could see her no more, then he stormed inside the house, slamming the door behind him, and threw himself down onto the sofa. Ryou peered cautiously around the kitchen doorway, seemingly stunned by the sudden appearance of the strange girl and how she had managed to rile his yami up so quickly. He cleared his throat hesitantly, flinching instinctively as Bakura turned a stare as cold as liquid nitogen on him.
"Who was she?" Bakura growled low in his throat, a visceral, savage sound he often made when roused, and turned his eyes back to his movie. "You wanna know who she was?"
Ryou nodded.
"Trouble."
As she stepped around the corner, Yamira flicked her gaze to the mouth of the alleyway beside her, where the silent shape of a large black canine was waiting.
//It was him?//
"Undoubtedly." Yamira sighed. "He is unchanged."
//Will that be a problem?//
"Perhaps. But not a large one." Yamira turned and swiftly stepped into the alley, beside Nebhtari. "Come. We shall go and find the others. I have just reliazed that we may well need more of the Pharoahs...aquaintances...than I thought."
//The High Priest.// Nebhtari's mental voice coloured with understanding.
"And the Pharoahs friends. Yami does not trust me. But he may trust them, if I can persuade them to believe me."
//Stranger things have happened.//
"Myself included."
//Indeed, Mistress.//
"Let us go." Yamira took a brief stride forward, meiting into the aged brickwork of the grimy wall like the shadows whose paths they traveled. Nebhtari took a lingering look around her, to ensure no-one had seen, and trotted after, both leaving no trace they had ever been there.
**************************************************************************** ***********
-SY- Okay, so how was it? And also I wanna know- would you guys prefer short chapters like this with shorter time between updates, or longer gaps between updates and longer chapters? Its your call! And if anyone can tell whats special about Bakura and the name Kubaar, I'll give you a cookie and a full set of YGO BishiePlushies!
-Alloran- *waves BishiePlush plushies*
-SY- So feedback appreciated, constructive criticism always useful, and flames....well, if you really feel you must.