Full Circle, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Yu-Gi-Oh! and all its characters, are the legal and intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi and any entities he has granted legal rights to. I claim no rights at all with my story. I greatly admire Mr. Takahashi for the amazing story and characters of Yu-Gi-Oh!

The ancient Egyptian concept of "ma'at", referenced in the story, expressed in a very basic way is this: there is an order to the universe, and each person is responsible to increase ma'at, and maintain the order, by performing "right actions". Going against ma'at disrupts order and willfully creates chaos.

Full Circle

Prologue

I am desert asp, I am desert asp, I am desert asp... I won't lose myself, no matter what. My hatred is enough to sustain me -- I chew it down and renew it in a circle within myself. Hee, hee! A never-ending circle, that's what I've become... Power mine to use and chew, gnawing on my own tail, power -- a food sweetened with hatred, the only food I'll ever taste again...

Oh? An audience. It's been millennia since anyone has thought to talk to me. My story? Heh, no one wants to hear my story. Very well then...

Coil One - Deathbirth

My name... A thing of no importance now. If I did not believe the gods had no use for me before, I certainly do now. So, my name is a piece of trash thrown spitefully into the wind as most of the rest of me was. I had been known once, as Desert Asp, though even that was not my true name. I would hide in the shadows and wait, patiently, for my prey, strike once, swiftly, and slither away. On those rare occasions I was caught, no cell or shackle could hold me. Slippery, like a snake, I would work my way free, dart away, and hide out in my lair until I could venture forth safely again.

I was successful enough to have a good life, for a thief, attracting other thieves and becoming their leader. During that time, I found one woman I favored more than others, and with her I had my only child. The worthless woman died giving birth, and the child himself was almost as useless as his mother. He could learn nothing but the most basic of thieving skills. The only use I had for him, then, was as a distraction. The boy was comely, if nothing else. A pretty face and soft voice do much to distract those well-meaning fools I used to prey upon. Hmm. I guess if I look at him in that way, even my worthless child, Bakura, was good for something. At least he was a good tool in my hands. Heh, still is, I suppose.

That day... We thought the soldiers had come to round some of us up, as they used to, to cart back to the city for some labor or another. A trial -- the king attempting to placate his masses, the ones we preyed upon -- some punishment. A few of us, perhaps, would lose our lives, or hands, we were thieves after all, but that was the way of things. We never denied ma'at. We just didn't follow it too well. Heck, if the gods cared for us at all, our purpose in ma'at wouldn't have been thieving, as the simple things, necessary to life, would have been ours by right. Eh, who am I kidding? Honest work was never something I wanted. I reveled in being a thief. Still do.

But that day. That horrible, horrible day...

Soldiers everywhere, screaming, yelling, shouting -- dragging us out of our homes and hidey-holes; flickering torches dispelling the shadows we could have used to hide in and escape; the flames used to prod and goad... We realized we weren't being put in shackles and chains to march back to the city for trial, justice and punishment -- no, we were herded below our town, into a chamber of horrors...

Gold, so much gold. I'd never seen that much pure gold in a single place before. And fire, and heat. Punishing heat. It was their pinched faces that told us what would happen. Their eyes held a tight, determined, vaguely horrified gleam. Their expressions were identical masks of distaste as if they were forcing themselves to do something they did not want to do. Then...

Children, women, men -- all of us forced, goaded by pain or lifted bodily and hurled into that vat of molten gold. The sounds of those dying before me, bubbles and hisses as their bodies were literally dissolved into the gold, and their screams, screams of rage and agony, mortal screams ending in gurgling hisses -- they ring, ring, ring eternally in my mind, for I no longer have ears of my own to hear with...

First my flesh, that pain too awful to bear, burning all thought away, leaving only my body to try to understand its own destruction, my blood boiling -- becoming nothing more than a wisp of steam and an indescribable odor until there was nothing left to smell with, nothing left to see with, nothing left to hear with, not even anything left to feel with until...

Molten gold dissolving bone. That had to have been that final, unending, surging, wave of pain; my bones dissolving, becoming one with the gold until I was only a puddle in the vat of liquid gold mingling with other unjustly sacrificed lives and souls; ka and ba rent apart so violently -- trapped -- imprisoned in ensorcelled gold, denied forever any sort of reunification of self, any sort of judgement, or justice, or life after death, robbed of everything but that golden existence of evil magic, torment and power.

Yes, power. Power and magic -- magic darker than any shadow I'd ever hidden in, darker even than the spaces between the stars -- magic full of evil, and blackness, and death, touched me. Somehow it grabbed me, what was left of me, and forced me back onto myself, closing me in an endless loop of power, hatred and fury. A serpent biting its own tail, eternally swallowing and disgorging itself, a ring of ever-cycling power.

Yes. When the magic swirled away that is what we had become. Golden objects of power to serve as playthings for the king. The others sacrificed along with me -- did their wills escape this final torment? Were they able, in some part, to achieve the judgement and afterlife? I knew there were the people of my village; fellow thieves, and their women and children, sacrificed along with me; and also some soldiers from the palace bound together with us into that magic and power -- trapped forever in shapes of gold. I could tell that's what these other presences with me had once been, but they, what they really are, their wills, those are gone. Did they escape? Or were they destroyed? Deprived of even the right to be devoured by the god as their just punishment for a life ill-spent? Were they simply -- used up in the ritual that destroyed us?

Perhaps that's how it was supposed to be. Perhaps I am the special one. Maybe my will is too strong to be dissolved. Perhaps one of the priests (I remember each of their faces with an awful clarity) stammered across a word of that evil ritual and thus, freed my will to still be my own, though everything else I was is gone...

Only I am here. Of the others only power and hatred remain. Mine is the only will. Turned back upon itself in a circle, trapped, running endlessly the last moments of life, suffering forever from that ignoble end. I was -- I am Desert Asp! How dare they treat me, me, in so casual a fashion?

Revenge. What care I for justice? What care I for the others? Revenge. Only revenge I seek. I will -- steal it. I will find a way, I always do, to slip this prison and once free, vengeance shall be mine.

Coil Two - Rising

The one who first laid hands upon the Ring, him I hate most of all. Akunadin. He was the one driving the others. His voice led theirs in the ritual that stole our lives from us. I remember their grasping, eager hands reaching and seizing the items of gleaming gold they had sacrificed us to create.

Power surged through me, incredible power, bound up with my hatred and the hatred of my thief-kin, but I had no way to release that power. No way to express the hatred I felt, or lash out at those who did this to me. No, those lessons were still for me to learn.

Some evil, perhaps sealed away by the gods, perhaps created with the ritual that robbed us of all, rose up, seemingly through me, almost as if I had become a -- a focus through which it could express itself. My will railed against this latest abuse as that evil overwhelmed me.

It reached out and grabbed the wretched priest Akunadin. Suddenly at one with that potent evil, I knew it wished to crush the vile priest and free itself from the stone tablet restraining it.

Such swift revenge was not to be. The priest suddenly claimed one of the items, crafted of the very life-force of the people of my village, and shoved it into his own eye. Somehow, with the power he gained, he wrest himself free of the evil apparition. Akunadin grabbed the Ring I had been forced to become, severing my connection to the evil that could have claimed my revenge, and fled. Whatever strange senses I still possessed, that permitted me to understand my surroundings and what was happening to me, whirled away toward darkness, and I knew no more.

When some semblance of self returned to me, I was in the keeping of a weak-willed man. However, I was weak too, in those early days, and unable to do much to gain my revenge.

I coiled around his heart waiting, learning, growing.

Coil Three - Duel

The second one to wield me -- now he was one who could have brought me my revenge all on his own, if I could have just possessed him, as I do my worthless child now.

From the moment I touched the Ring, I knew. Not the why and wherefore of it, not yet, meditation and study would bring me that specific knowledge; but the bloody knowledge of its making, the evil that went into it, I knew.

When I told my pharaoh, he was horrified. By that I knew that he had no prior knowledge of how the Items were made, or the precious elements, with costs far higher than gold, that went into them. Knowing that he would pass the Puzzle down to his child upon his death, he permitted me, unworthy as I am, to hold the Puzzle and touch it with not only my hands, but also my magic.

I was reassured to sense only a mere bit of evil in the Puzzle, residuals from its making no doubt, and not the personal, ravening evil of my Ring. While my pharaoh, my prince's father, yet lived, I hastened to learn all I could of the evil my Ring contained, hoping thus to understand the lesser evil in the Puzzle. I plan to find a way to seal the evil of the Puzzle so that it will never touch the pure heart of the prince. My prince holds such dreams of light for all of Egypt. I want nothing to dim those bright dreams...

Foolish. So foolish. He can't hear me, not yet, his will is strong enough to drown my voice, but my evil worms ever closer to his heart. His magic is a bastion he yet hides behind, but he, himself, weakens it. The other Items, they are as nothing compared to me. They hold simply the impersonal power of my village's people, and the guards sacrificed along with us. They don't hold a will, as my Ring does. This fool doesn't seem to know that. No, wait. I think he knows, but still, wishes to protect someone else. Stupid. He needs all of his strength to protect himself from me. Still, if he weakens his power, I can wend that much closer to his heart. The closer I get, the more I claim. Once I'm close enough...

"Mahaad" will be no more, and the Desert Asp, the Thief King, will finally have his day of revenge!

I know what I must do. Bakura, this defiler of the pharaoh's tomb, holds an evil that is all too familiar. I know not how this is possible, as he has never even touched the Ring. Yet, somehow, his evil resonates in perfect harmony with it.

I've performed all the steps of my desperate ritual save the last one. I'm afraid. I leave behind everything; my family, my friends, my apprentice, my life, my pharaoh; and I may gain nothing but a dark, self-inflicted death. But, if my heart is pure, I should gain the power needed to destroy the evil I sense coiling within the Ring and the same emanation of evil somehow existing in the heart of the thief, Bakura. With my sacrifice, I may be able to protect the light shining within my pharaoh so that the bright world he envisions may dawn within his reign.

This plays out better than I had hoped! My worthless child has found a creature of darkness, a powerful creature, and brought it here to challenge Mahaad. Cut off from the full strength of his own power, by his own design, the cowardly fool will have to turn to the Ring to save his life. At that moment, he will be vulnerable. Once Mahaad is my tool, I will be able to accomplish anything. How would the pharaoh know his most trusted friend has become his worst enemy? Even if he did, how would he be able to shield himself from Mahaad's full power? Yes, I will tap and release the full magical strength Mahaad blocked, and I will turn it upon the pharaoh. His short reign will end in a bitter betrayal. It is only fitting, after all. We might have been only thieves, but his father betrayed us. He killed us for selfish gain. It is satisfying to use the power of one of his precious Items to orchestrate his son's downfall. Sweet revenge will soon be...

Now! While my son deals with the useless trap Mahaad set upon him, I can act. I reach for the bit of my soul in my child, take control, and -- ah! Now, jump up, turn the trap upon Mahaad, rattle him, harry him and he should panic... Yes! His inner strength falters -- just once more and his power shall be mine to control!

I cannot believe this fool! He reaches down to me using the power of the Ring, the very power he feared enough that he diminished his own magic, to release the full might of his magic. How can he hope to keep me from his power when he uses the power of the Ring -- my power -- so? His devious mind has always been closed to me, so he may yet be planning something, but, I cannot afford to let this chance slip by.

Yes! Surge forward -- reach! Take! Seize! I have always been and ever will be a thief -- I am the King of Thieves! I am Desert Asp! With Mahaad's power in my control I will strike down...

"My soul will be your servant forever!"

What foolishness is this? No! This, this cannot be. This cannot be happening! A blaze of light and shadow, a baptism of death, and the power I crave growing, expanding so greatly, so suddenly, that I cannot contain it -- breaking my circle upon it, freeing itself from me, escaping from me -- breaking me as it breaks free to leave my will stunned in its wake until...

A hand touches me and centers me. By that fact alone I know who holds my Ring now. As part of the task I had set for him to complete, to insure his obedience, I placed a part of myself, a piece of my very soul, within him. Bakura, my worthless child, holds a shard of my fury-driven soul. It is he who caught my Ring.

He'd been busy while I'd been trying to take control of the foolish priest, Mahaad. My child has grown and toughened from the whiny brat he once was. I can't risk his soul strengthening enough to battle mine, so I bond my Ring to him. This way, no matter what distance, no matter what his will might be, my Ring will always find the way back to him. My Ring will always allow me to control Bakura.

What? What insult is this? Mahaad -- yet lives? No, just a remnant of his power, battling against Diabond as a ka-monster. Such trivial things are beneath my notice...

What? Diabond -- is defeated? And the ceiling caves in upon us? What perfidy is this? I must protect Bakura and keep him safe so that he can live and work toward my revenge!

Curse Mahaad! What on earth did he manage to do? Time for pondering that later. I doubt he could have escaped the cave-in he brought down to crush my son. After all, he no longer has the power of my Ring. Bakura does, so all is not yet lost.

Still... I would have preferred to use Mahaad as my tool of revenge. It would have been fitting to use the dark power I sensed in him, and turn it against his pharaoh, but, ma'at took that prize from me.

Perhaps it is time I started to think of a way to take something away from ma'at.

Coil Four - Planning

Though Mahaad's power has been taken away from me, perhaps, with the tools I do have, my Ring and my child, I can fashion a revenge against ma'at, too. What do I care for such lofty things?

The evil I sensed from the stone tablet where the Items were formed is strong. Is it strong enough to vie against ma'at? Perhaps, perhaps...

With all of the Items, could I release it? That is a dark power -- no, an evil power that puts even Mahaad's magical might to shame. If I release it, and command it... I can swallow up the sun. I would be able to devour the light. I could plunge the world into darkness, into evil, and chaos, until it is no more. That would complete my revenge.

Against the priests...

Against the pharaoh...

Against the people who sneered at me because I was a thief...

Against the gods who did nothing to help us...

Against ma'at who determined this would be my fate...

Against my child who is worthless to this day...

I'm too weak now. I will have to sleep. I must grow. I will have to wait, in the shadows, unregarded, unrecognized -- the Thief King, the Desert Asp -- waiting for the proper time to strike. I will send more of my soul, more of my power, coiling around my child's heart. Bakura has duties to perform, duties to set my master plan in motion. He should like the first one.

A child. He must have a child. I'll make certain the child is vigorous, for part of my soul will pass into it. And that child must have a child, carrying that bit of my soul, and my plan, further into the future. I don't know how long it will continue, but I will keep skipping forward through time, through the generations of Bakura's family, thousands of years, if that is what it takes, until someday, one of them finds my Ring.

On that day, my soul complete once more, I will awaken, and return. My power should have grown enough by then. I will dig up that dreadful chamber under my village with my two hands (well, the two hands of the descendant fortunate enough to become my new vessel) if I must. I will seek the other Items. Even now, I can sense them -- and those who hold them. I will find the Items. I will claim them all. I will place them, each one in the proper place in the mold that first created it. I will release the hatred of my village from within the Items. I will summon the evil buried within the tablet. I will destroy the world!

Sorrow for my child, Bakura? Don't make me laugh! That one was ever useless, soft, stupid, and weak. It's fitting that he is now only a vessel to carry my will, setting the stage for my revenge. Sorrow for the thousands of years worth of descendants who will carry a bit of my hatred in their hearts, mindlessly and unwittingly doing whatever it takes to bring my revenge back to me? Why should I care for them? What are they but pawns in my hands against this ultimate punishment game I bring to the pharaoh?

So, this is the shape of it. A ring, the Ring, aptly named for the millennia I will patiently wait for my revenge -- the revenge I now send into the far-flung future, to come full circle, back to me, catch me up with it, and bear me to my final victory.

∞

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Author's notes -

Yami Bakura is the character from Yu-Gi-Oh! I dislike the most. I always felt sorry for Bakura and wondered if the evil in him was, originally, a separate entity from him. In this alternate universe story, the evil in Bakura is the insane force of his father's will and hatred that remained when the village of Kurelna was sacrificed to make the Millennium Items. Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed it!

Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get.