Hello everyone! If you're reading this, then thank you so much for choosing to read my story. I know it seems more like a mystery from the summary, but that all goes out the window pretty fast. Anyway, please stick around and review if you like it! xo

One: Puzzle

The wind in the valley was blowing hard against Bakura's chest.

Almost like a warning. He thought to himself and grimaced as a rock that was picked up in the wind hit his face. It sliced him cleanly right below his eye, for which he was thankful. A one eyed thief is not the most useful in that line of work.

In front of him was a large dust storm.

He told him men to stay back, that he needed space to do what he was preparing to do. Truthfully, he didn't care if they got caught in whatever magical force he was about the conduct, but he wanted to make sure that he was the one to control it.

I would dismember anyone who tried to take this away from me. He grit his teeth. What he was planning to do took him 15 years time to plan. 15 years of dodging the lowly, insect like Pharaoh and his ignorant Priests. 15 years of forcing himself to ignore the pain and suffering playing and replaying in his mind of his family and his entire village being massacred. 15 years of letting the Pharaoh get away with brutal murder while presenting himself as a pure, just ruler.

But soon that rein of his would be over. Bakura smiled evilly. First he would harness the power he was about to activate. Then, he would steal back the Millennium items that represented the souls of those who lived happily in his village. And finally, he would use all of his power to crush the Pharaoh and send him eternally to the Shadow Realm.

Nothing could stop him now.

He stepped further towards the dust storm, knowing this was the sign of the last piece of the puzzle he was missing. He looked down at the small pieces of stone in his hands. Each one was tiny, and couldn't be more than 2 inches in diameter. They were all jagged and broken, but when assembled right, looked strikingly similar to a three-dimensional puzzle. The most intriguing detail about them, though, wasn't that they fit together. It was their color.

When Bakura found the first piece 15 years ago while looking over the ruins of his slaughtered village, he had picked up the small rock due to the fact that in the middle of the night it managed to capture light and glimmer. He had carried the beautiful little rock with him ever since, not thinking much of it.

But 8 years later, he had encountered a scroll buried with an ancient Pharaoh, which described the very rock he had held with him for so many years. What it read was vague, but it gave the hope Bakura needed to keep going to seek his goal of revenge.

It had read something along the lines of 'collect the shattered moon rocks and once combined, watch as they destroy the world.'

He knew the assuming his little rock was one of the 'shattered moon rocks' was a stretch, but he couldn't help but think that the rock he had held was special. And when he read the scroll, the words just seemed to perfectly fit the stone.

On the scroll, luckily, was a hand drawn, faded map. On the map were small indicators to where he assumed the rest of the rocks were scattered. Unfortunately, the map wasn't of Egypt, or the Egypt he knew, so he had spent his remaining years searching for someone who could discern the map and tell him where to search for the remaining pieces.

Finding a person in the city of Egypt to read the ancient map seemed easy enough, but it took the teenage thief another 2 years before he came upon anyone who knew what he was talking about.

The integral clue to his quest came late into the night when he had visited a small town near the coast. Bakura was 15 at the time, and had just stolen from a small tomb of a local lord who had died 100 years prior. While he was sorting through his new found treasures, a small cloaked figure entered his tent. He was immediately on defense. It was impossible for anyone to sneak up on the boy; he had always prided himself on this fact. So for this figure to walk straight into his tent without so much as a twig breaking to cue their entrance was alarming to Bakura.

He grabbed a small dagger from his side and got in a stance ready to attack.

"Who do you think are you, walking in here? Leave now, or prepare to be slaughtered." He growled.

The figure did not move, nor did they speak, they merely pointed to a small bag placed by the foot of the boy's makeshift bed. Bakura faltered slightly at this, he wasn't expecting such a reaction. He didn't turn his head back, awaiting an attack from the cloaked figure.

"What is it?" He bit. "I will not fall for such a basic trick, I am no fool." He narrowed his eyes.

"Stop playing criminal for a moment boy, and grab that tattered map in your bag. I am here to aide you in your search." It was the voice of a woman.

Bakura wasn't sure what to do. He hadn't encountered many people like this intruder, mostly because he was still too young to have encountered much as a thief. He was only 15, so he had only been stealing for relatively few years in his life.

"How do I know you aren't just here to kill me to steal all my treasures?" He asked, not moving.

The figure only laughed. "You are still inexperienced. A person with as much skill as myself wouldn't bother alarming you and having you on defense before I attacked. I could have killed you hours ago, when I first caught sight of you."

She's right about that. He thought to himself, cursing his lack of wisdom.

He relaxed slightly and reached for his bag.

"What do you want with the map?" He mumbled. He held the map in his hands, but refused to part with it. He might have been young, but he wasn't an idiot. He wasn't going to give up his only chance of revenge.

"I'm going to help you." The figure said shortly. "I have seen the future, and without you solving this mystery, the world can never be freed." Her voice was soft but stern. She was genuine, Bakura could tell.

"Freed?" He asked, guarded. "What do you mean by that, shrew?" His grip tightened on the map.

"Freed." Was all she replied. "Make your choice, thief. I can aid you with your journey, or leave you to forever wonder what would have become with your meaningless life without taking this chance."

Bakura clenched his jaw. He didn't like being talked down to, he didn't care who it was. Still, she had a point. He handed her the map, and stepped closer to the cloaked woman, blocking her exit.

"Don't even think about leaving." He growled. She only laughed in response.

"Watch closely, boy, as this map will now show you the way towards your destiny." She muttered some words that sounded similar to a pray and watched in shock as the old map glowed. He stepped back.

But the woman didn't let him go far. She pushed the map against his chest and before Bakura could react, it began shifting into what looked like white ooze. The ooze stuck to him and crawled up his skin, leaving a trail of burning flesh behind it.

Bakura began screaming in pain. It felt as if someone had dumped acid onto his skin. But the woman did not react, she only watched patiently.

"Let it do what needs to be done, thief, or you will never find your answers."

Bakura ignored the wretch and tried pulling the ooze off of his skin. But it did nothing but burn his fingers, melting the tips of his nails into his skin.

"What have you done, you bitch?" He roared.

The woman didn't respond for a moment. She observed as Bakura fell to the floor in agony, and as the ooze traveled up his throat and into his mouth. He resisted at first, but as it seeped through his lips he finally opened his mouth, allowing it to travel down his throat and into his body.

"You have been bonded with this quest." She said. "Now, until the day you complete this journey, you cannot stray from searching for the pieces which you are lacking. Whether you are sleeping or awake, your thoughts will be filled with the location of each piece until you have finished and solved this puzzle."

She turned to leave. Bakura reached and pulled at her cloak. "What have you done?" He coughed out. The woman paused, and then turned to look at him. Her eyes gleamed through the darkness of her cloak. They were a deep purple.

"I have given you the power to understand the puzzle you so desperately wanted to solve. You should be thanking me." She pulled her cloak away from his hands. "Go now boy, before you are driven mad with obsession. It will take you over if you don't start soon."

She left the small tent and walked a ways before meeting with a small caravan that was waiting for her. She stepped into a covered carriage and smiled. "I've put everything into motion, Pharaoh."

Bakura could feel his heart pounding. Little could cause a reaction like this from him nowadays. He had grown much older and harder since that day with the cloaked witch. But he couldn't help but allow himself to feel slight excitement at the prospect of finally finishing the quest he set out on so many years ago.

He stepped into the eye of the storm, knowing without a doubt that was where the last piece lay. It was etched into his heart and his mind. It was all he could see, feel, taste.

Amidst the sand and stone he caught sight of a tiny jagged rock, no larger than his fingernail, twinkling in the sand. Bakura looked around for a moment before reaching for it; It was so calm in the middle of the storm. It was strange that anywhere outside this tranquil zone was so chaotic.

Bakura knew that chaos well though, after all, he was the one who caused it. He grinned and grabbed the tiny rock. He took a small bag out of his trousers and dumped all the other stones he had collected in the sand with the final piece. He sat down and began arranging them together.

They fit together so easily, but this came as no surprise to the Thief King. He had seen so much in his life, not much did surprise him anymore. As he placed each small, jagged piece together, they mended in to the others, forming what looked more and more like a ball.

Finally, the final piece. He placed it carefully into the small niche where it fit snugly.

Nothing happened for a long moment, but then a deep terror clenched the thief's heart, the pain making Bakura groan in anguish. He didn't understand what was happening, there was no reason for him to be scared. And yet, this terror would not leave his heart. It only tightened and grew stronger. Bakura gasped for air.

He felt something crawl up his throat. He started reflexively coughing as the white ooze he had seen so long ago crawled out of his throat and towards the glimmering rock in the sand. It melted off of Bakura with ease and consumed the ball in seconds.

Bakura fell back into the sand and watched as the rock began to rise from the sand and into the air. It rose far above his head, to the top of the sandstorm, where it began to glow a bright white.

Before he could react, the ball burst open. He shielded his eyes from the light, it was too blinding.

When the light finally faded, he looked beyond his feet, hearing a sound.

It was the sound of a woman, coughing up sand and rock.

The Thief King was momentarily stunned. The woman who appeared from what seemed like nothing was blindingly beautiful. Her hair was as golden as the sun's rays, flowing down her back and covering her nude body. Her skin was pale white, like a newborn baby. And her eyes were the same colors as Bakura's – a light lavender with specks of gold.

She spoke, pulling Bakura out of his trance. "Thank you." She said softly.

He just looked at her, confused.

"Thank you for setting me free." She said, and crawled over to him. He watched as she pulled her body through the sand and approached him.

She drew herself as close to him as she could and smiled. And then she wrapped her delicate hands around his neck and pulled her soft lips into his own rough ones.

"You are the bearer of life." She softly as she pulled away from his lips for just a moment. "And for that, I am eternally grateful."

Hey again guys! Thanks for reading. And just a quick note: I apologzie in advance for how close this story may initially seem (in concept) to my other one, My Dear Egyptian Princess, but I assure you they are completely different. Well...except for the pairings, sorta. Haha. Anyway, I haven't written a new story for in years, so please review if you like it! And I hope to be cranking more out these out soon! xo