A/N: Heeey everyone! It's been a long time, ne? Well instead of working on what I should be, I started a new story. Ha. I remind you that this is going to be fairly AU, meaning that I'm not really going to follow canon. I'll try to keep the characters as close as possible to their established personalities though. Anyway, enjoy~

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the characters. I never have and never will. If I did the series would have gone... well... something like this story. So no sue!

It's Never Too Late
Prologue
Ryou's Journal

Entry Number One
October 5th

I keep having a re-occurring dream. But it isn't like normal re-occurring dreams; it's never actually the same. The only thing the remains unchanging is who is in it. I don't exactly know who it is, however.

What I do know... is that he looks like me. Almost like a twin, but not. He has a wild appearance, nothing at all like my tidy and unruffled one; his shorter hair stuck out as if he didn't know how to tame the snowy locks almost like mine. His eyes, instead of the deep brown of my own, were almost crimson. His skin was probably four shades darker then my own, and there was a scar under his right eye. His clothes didn't match mine either.

It looked like he stepped out of an old foreign film based in Ancient Egypt.

He looked dangerous too, like he had been on the wrong side of a knife before and survived to tell the tale. It was almost as if he was everything that I'm not. Not in a good way. A darker me maybe?

...Okay, maybe he doesn't look all that much like me. Cut me some slack. I'll still refer to him as the other me. So there.

He didn't seem all that bad...

The other me didn't speak, he only stared at me, as if he expected me to do something. And that's all this last dream was; him staring at me. It was unnerving, yet comforting at the same time. He looked so terribly sad as he looked at me with an almost yearning expression.

I've told my father about it, but he said that it was nothing important. That it was just my mind trying to remind me to do something I had forgotten. I don't think it's that though. He wanted me to do something for him, but he never once told me what.

Am I going mad?

Ah, no matter. I started school yesterday. It wasn't so bad I suppose. Girls swarmed my desk as guys glared at me. This is usual though. They'll get used to me being there and I'll practically disappear.

Not literally, but they'll stop noticing me so much.

I moved, by the way, since father told me that it wasn't healthy for me to remain in the house we shared with my mother and little sister.

...They both died when I was younger. After that happened, my father began to work harder and was rarely home. He doesn't come home much anymore; he's in Egypt on some dig. He does his best though.

He sends me money to live on every month, and he pays all of the bills. Sometimes he sends me things too! The last time I spoke to him (When I told him about the dreams) he said that he's sending something in the mail and that I should be getting it in the next few days.

I'm so excited! I wonder what it is.

-R.B

Entry Number Two
October 8th

The other me spoke last night. It was startling; I waved to him, something I'd never done before, and he spoke! His voice was rough, like he hadn't talked in years. It was also odd; he had an accent that I couldn't quite place, though I liked it.

I remember most of the conversation we had, but only because it was so short. It went like this:

"Are you waving… at me?" The other me asked.

"Er… I suppose that I was," I replied though the shock.

"Oh..."

"Who are you?"

"...I don't know…"

Then I woke up. He seemed very hesitant about everything, and he didn't seem to know who he was. It seemed so real, well except for the fact we were floating in a void of blackness. Just... the interaction with him felt so... I don't know. I really don't know what to think about this.

I'm not going to bother my father with it though.

Oh! I got that package yesterday! Turns out he sent me this really old Egyptian pendent. He said in the letter that when he saw it, that he thought of me. Kind of strange considering that I'm not Egyptian.

Anyway, the pendent looks like it's made from pure gold and it's very heavy. It's a circular shape with a triangle that has the eye of Horus in its center in the middle of it. There are five dangling cone like shapes that are about an inch apart that start of each side and go downward and on the top there's a ring that has a thick rope tied to it.

Despite it being heavy, I've taken a liking to wearing it. So I've decided that I'm never going to take it off. Except for to sleep, that would be rather painful to lie on. And in the shower, I don't know what would happen to it if it got wet like that.

It's a beautiful pendent all in all.

I wore it to school today, but I wasn't really brave enough to wear it over my shirt; so under my clothes it went! At first it was a bit strange feeling against my skin, but eventually it was comforting.

I wonder why that was.

-R.B

Entry Number Three
October 11th

I woke up crying this morning. Something that I hadn't done since Mother and Amane died all those years ago. What caused this you ask? (Well, youdon't ask, you're a book. But whoever reads this might.)

The other me showed me his memories. It's sort of a surprise that he had them last night, when he didn't before. Something strange must have happened.

It's getting really hard to keep believing that this is all just a figment of my imagination. The images he showed me; it was almost like a movie playing.

Except for I was there. I was watching everything unfold, but I had never been to Egypt before.

He showed me his childhood and how the Pharaoh destroyed it. How only he survived his village's massacre because his mother told him to run and hide. How he witnessed every murder, every rape, and every dismemberment of his friends and family. How he saw that their souls were used to create seven golden items that would have the power to take control of the world.

The other me showed me when he was captured and turned into a slave and what he had to endure during those times. How he became a master thief and escaped. How he vowed to get revenge on the Pharaoh's son, because the Pharaoh himself had died.

He showed me how he raided the dead Pharaoh's tomb and drug his mummified corpse back to his son in the palace, just to mock him and get him angry.

He showed me how he faced off against six Priests and the prince turned Pharaoh. He showed me how he managed to get one of the items; he had told them that all of the items were his, and he would get them back.

I watched as the other me, the thief, murdered the priest he had gotten the item from.

In the end however, he didn't get his revenge. He didn't get all of the items. He didn't get to kill the Pharaoh.

He lost.

The other me was killed, and his soul was locked away in the very item he stole.

Then I saw bleak, black loneliness. Regret. Sorrow. Anger. Hatred. A swirl of negative emotions festering until madness consumed him.

Then it faded away, and all that was left was the two of us in the darkness. It was all so sad; I had begun to cry in the dream. The other me had looked shocked at this, but then he smiled; it didn't look like a true smile, it looked bitter and forced. He spoke then, his voice less rough then it had been the night before.

"You cry the tears that I can no longer shed, for my heart has turned cold and icy." He told me.

With those words echoing in my mind, I woke up. I cried for a good twenty minutes before I picked up my journal to write.

Was it all really just a dream?

Wait... I just realized something. That item he was sealed in, in the dream… it's the very same one that my father sent me from Egypt.

This is getting a bit spooky.

-R.B

Entry Number Four
October 19th

I've started to have memory black outs. It's rather alarming when I wake up in strange places I've never been before.

The other day, I woke up standing in an alley with a bloody knife in my hand. I don't know what I was doing, and frankly, I don't want to know.

School has been getting harder, due to the black outs. They tend to happen without any warning what so ever. I'll be in the middle of a lesson, and then suddenly I'll wake up at home, or in some strange alley. I even woke up walking once.

I'm starting to get scared.

Those dreams with the other me happen every single night now. But he looks more like me now. His skin is pale, and his hair is long. It's startling.

They don't take place in darkness anymore. There's this... room we're both sitting in. It's hard to explain because sometimes it changes. I think there might be two rooms.

One looks a lot like my room; books cover the light blue walls, pictures of my small family, little knick-knacks, a beanbag chair or two to sit in, a bed, a desk, and a picture of the other me. That last item confused me for a little while, but then I realized that the room probably symbolized my mind.

If that's the case, then the other room must belong to the other me. It's darker in that room; blood splatter on the walls, weapons of all sorts scattered everywhere, mountains of obviously stolen treasures, a rather large bed, and various other things the other me seemed to hold dear. The room looked like a mix between modern and ancient Egypt.

We've started to have conversations. Sort of. It's more like he tells me things and I respond.

I'm starting to be afraid of this other me. He's dangerous and he knows it. He isn't afraid of making sure that I know it too.

He hasn't hurt me yet, and I don't think that he intends to. Though that doesn't change the twinge of fear when I think about him in my waking hours... however many that may be anymore.

I think I should go see a doctor about these black outs before I really hurt someone.

I would never forgive myself if I hurt someone...

You know... The other me hasn't given me a name to call him yet.

Perhaps I'll ask him tonight if I remember.

-R.B

Entry Number Five
October 27th

He told me to refer to him as 'Bakura', saying that his real name isn't of any consequence. He told me that he was a part of me now, so it was only fair that he got to use the name too. He never calls me by name though, when he does call me. The other me calls me things like 'boy' or 'kid'. Once he even called me 'Landlord'. I didn't like that last one, so I told him not to call me that. Chances are he won't listen though.

The black outs are getting more frequent, as are the conversations between Bakura and myself. I can't remember them most of the time though, only when he deems it important, do I remember. It's startling that he can control my memories like that, hopefully it's only if he's involved.

Bakura looks like me now, even if he does look wilder and more dangerous. He has proved to me that he can look and act like me if he has to. How many times has he already done so? I'd rather not think about that.

It's been three weeks since all of this started. Since I first saw the other me. He had looked so sad then, but not anymore. Now he just looks angry.

I think he might be planning to do something horrible that I won't be able to stop...

Ah yes, I went to the doctors a few days ago. They said there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, that I was physically and mentally healthy. I don't believe them.

Something is seriously wrong with me.

I think it's this ring's fault.

His soul was inside it, that much I know for sure. Maybe if I got rid of it, he would leave me alone.

Maybe...

-R.B.

Entry Number Six
November 16th

I'm scared... No matter how many times I tried to get rid of the ring, I would wake up and it would be here, beside my bed like nothing happened. I threw in a lake. I buried it in the ground. I gave it to someone I didn't know. I threw it as far as I possibly could into the local park. Still, no matter what I did, it would be back whenever I woke up.

I guess I'm stuck with it.

And Bakura.

At least the blackouts have died down a bit. I've been finishing homework and staying in classes. I'm able to do normal things for the first time in weeks. Though because of previous things that happened, I have yet to make any friends. A lot of girls still like me though, oddly enough.

Bakura has learned to talk to me while I'm conscious now, and he's stopped causing the blackouts. Maybe he realized that he was really screwing up my life by just taking over my body like that. Yes that's what was happened. He told me himself.

When I do talk to him while I'm unconscious, he talks about getting his own body. I don't know how he could do something like that, but I told him that I would help.

I'm tired of him being in my head.

I wonder what it would be like to see him face to face?

Perhaps I'll get to find out.

-R.B.

Entry Number Seven
November 30th

I learned in the library that there is this scroll that can grant a lost soul their own body. The problem is that the location wasn't mentioned. According to Bakura though, it's probably in Egypt.

I think it might be at the museum that recently opened an Egyptian exhibit. It obviously wouldn't be in the display, but I think that it might be in the archives that lie below the museum.

Since I told Bakura that I would help, I have to now go on this wild journey to find this scroll. Not only that, but whatever else that might be needed for this to work.

So this will be my last entry for a long time. If not indefinitely. I don't know where the journey is going to take me, or if I could get killed.

Or if Bakura is going to kill me once he gets his own body.

One can never be sure.

Well, at least it won't be boring.

-R.B.

-End Prologue-