What if Bakura hadn't been in Kul Elna when it was destroyed to create the Millennium Items? This is a story of how different his life would have been if he hadn't known who destroyed his village.

I decided to put up chapter one of this new story I'm writing. I'm up to about chapter four, but I thought I should see if people like it before I do any more~!

Before I start, I'd just like to say that some of these facts probably won't be exactly right (eg. Character ages, when things happen, how things work etc.) Mostly because I couldn't find the info anywhere. If there's an extreme difference, please let me know! I'll try to smooth it out, but if it's too important then I guess I'll just have to leave it for the sake of the story :(

I'm going to leave Bakura's name as Bakura, since I don't think Akefia was his actual name :/ I'm not sure – it wasn't in the English dub...what was it in the Japanese version? Anyway, I'm used to it being Bakura so Bakura it stays :D

Okie dokies :D I'll get started! I hope you like it ^.~

The village was burning all around them, but the men paid it no mind as they picked up the golden items that had once been the thieves in the village of Kul Elna.

The Pharaoh's brother, Akunadin, turned to face the rest of his men. "Nobody is to breathe a word of how these were created to King Aknamkanon."

As the men murmured their agreement, they placed the newly formed Millennium Items away. Akunadin looked over the remains of what had been Kul Elna. "Alright, everyone move out," he said, mounting his horse and leading the party out of the smoking village. "We must be back at the palace by morning."

They rode without speaking for only a minute before one of the men called out. "Master Akunadin - up ahead!"

Akunadin pulled on the reins of his horse, which stumbled to a stop beside the object that had alerted the man. Akunadin dismounted and bent to see what it was.

At first glance in the dim light, it appeared to be nothing more than a pile of rags, with a bundle of white cloth on one side, but as Akunadin gently nudged it, it rolled over to show a tiny tanned face under a mass of unusual white hair. "It's a boy," Akunadin said so that the rest of his men could hear.

The boy, who couldn't have been older than five or six, had clearly fainted; his breath came in shallow gasps, and his face and clothes were filthy from having collapsed in the sand. Judging from the state of the clothes he wore, he must have been a peasant.

Akunadin got to his feet. This child must have come from Kul Elna; it was the only reason why he would be out here in the desert alone at night, so close to the village. Since the villagers had been nothing but petty thieves, Akunadin wouldn't have put it past them to simply leave a child somewhere whenever it suited their needs. Maybe the boy had escaped the village before it was completely destroyed.

At first, he was prepared to leave the boy there; the last thing he needed was somebody asking questions about Kul Elna. He may even have seen what happened, and if the Pharaoh ever found out the truth of how the Millennium Items had been formed, he would refuse to use them to protect the people of Egypt. Without offering the unconscious child so much as a second glance, Akunadin made to remount his horse.

But then an idea occurred to him. Slowly, he turned around to face the boy again. "Men, before we take the Millennium Items to Aknamkanon, we must ascertain that we are able to use their power, would you not all agree?"

"Yes, Master Akunadin." The assent was unanimous.

Akunadin bent down and gently lifted the boy; he weighed almost nothing. "We shall use this boy as a test subject for the power of the Millennium Items."

A gasp ran through the men. "Master Akunadin," said the man who had first seen the boy, "are you suggesting that we use the Items on a child?"

Akunadin turned to face him. "Don't you see? This boy was from a village of thieves; there will be some form of Shadow Creature growing in his heart from such a life. If we are successful, we will be able to expel this creature from him before it grows beyond his control - we would be helping him."

Without waiting for a response from the gathered men, he carried the boy away from the horses and left him on the ground, beside a giant stone. "Bring me the Millennium Items."

There was a scuffle among the men to follow Akunadin's orders, and the Millennium Items were brought to him. Remembering the ritual in the ancient scripture, Akunadin began with the Millennium Key.

He held the golden ankh up to face the boy. The men looked on in wonder as it began to glow. Akunadin gasped as he saw into the child's heart.

He could see another presence there; a Shadow Creature, small, as he had expected in such a young child, but a Shadow Creature nonetheless. It was a winged man, with a body that tapered to form a snake.

Akunadin didn't have to place the Millennium Eye within his own head in order to use its power to extract the tiny creature in the boy's heart; he held it up and it too glowed.

The boy, unconscious before Akunadin, suddenly convulsed. His sun-tanned skin began to glow also, and he threw back his head. Everyone looked on in awe as clouds of what looked like smoke rolled from his mouth into the air above them. And then, from the cloud of shadows, there formed the creature; it was small, since its host had little evil in his young mind, but with the terrifying potential held by all creatures to grow stronger as the darkness within its host's heart grew.

The Eye dropped to the sand as Akunadin grabbed the Millennium Rod. This would be the hard part.

He pointed the Rod at the Shadow creature, and beams of yellow light spilled from the Rod and enveloped the Shadow Creature.

The scripture had read that the Shadow Creature must then be sealed inside a stone tablet, but Akunadin was forced to use the giant rock beside the child. He turned, pointing the Millennium Rod at the stone. Shadows flowed through the Rod and into the stone, and when they cleared, an image of the Shadow Creature was etched into the rough surface of the rock.

The boy, still unconscious, collapsed face down in the sand.

Akunadin gathered up the Millennium Items. "We have freed the boy from the Shadow Creature within his heart before it grew enough to consume him. We shall take him back to the palace."

"What shall we tell the Pharaoh, Master Akunadin?" one of the men asked.

Akunadin looked at him. "The truth; we found the boy unconscious on the way back to the palace, and carried him back...but no more. Later, we shall return here and move the Shadow Creature-" He gestured to the rock "-to a more permanent home, in a stone tablet, as it was meant to be. Now come; we have many miles to cover still and this child needs food, water and a place to rest. When he wakes, we shall find out what he knows about Kul Elna and act accordingly."

As two of the men gathered up the small, white-haired boy, Akunadin remounted his horse and took off for the palace once more, the others in pursuit.

Okay, here's my logic; Bakura's only five, so Diabound hasn't had enough time to grow to be all nasty and evil like he is in Season Five. That's why they were able to trap him in a stone, which they weren't able to do in the series. And as for the stone...I couldn't find a good enough excuse to have a proper tablet in the middle of the desert. XD

Don't worry; I didn't just 'kill off' Diabound in the first chapter as an easy excuse to make Bakura a 'good guy'...please don't flame me for that :'( He has more significance later.

I've probably made Akunadin out in this chapter to be a little more evil than he actually is...XD Please don't hate me~!

Anyway...what did you think? Chapter two? Please let me know :D

~IA