Ryou: 'SJ doesn't own YGO, but she does own Anjil, Shahi, and Jonathon.

WSJ: ^__^ Wai! Brood and Zutso-koi are coming to my house for Christmas!!! *dances around* Yay! *stops dead in her tracks* Oh no! What am I gonna get them for Christmas?! What to get Zutso-koi... What to get Brood-chan... *runs off to ponder*

Okay, there was someone who asked about Yugi's appearence in the last chapter... That was past Yugi. Not present Yugi, who did go with Lobsang. ^_^ Jus' clearing that up.

()()()()()

All Saints' Night

Chapter 4 -- Giving It Up

The first thing he noticed was sand, and the second was the almost unbearable heat on his back. He pushed himself to his hands and knees and extablished his sence of balace before even trying to open his eyes. When he did, he gasped. He was home!

Bakura scrambled to his feet, kicking sand in every direction. He stared in awe at the wide blue river ahead of him, and the spralling stone buildings on the other side. Thebes! Or Luxor, as it was called in the twenty-first century. This was where he'd been born and raised! But, how...

A startled cry off to the left of him got his attention, and he turned in that direction. Someone was racing across the sand, several other someones chasing after him. Bakura blinked, and his jaw dropped as he recognised himself, his wife Anjil cradled in his arms as he ran from the Egyptian guards.

Neither past-Bakura, Anjil, nor the guards seemed to notice him, and ran right past him without a second glance. Without a thought, Bakura followed them. He caught up with himself in the shade of one of the bigger buildings, the guards seemingly off their trail.

Past-Bakura gently set his wife on the ground, and she cried out in pain again, clutching at her swollen belly.

Bakura gulped, remembering what came next. He stood just behind his past self, but still neither past-Bakura, nor Anjil took any notice of him. Bakura desided that that was because they couldn't see him.

"Anjil, meri," past-Bakura asked desperatly. "Are you all right?"

Anjil looked up at him, her long blond hair falling into her eyes. "I-I do not know Bekhura, but the baby comes."

(WSJ: If you've read VotH, you'll have already known that Bakura's name in Egypt was Bekhura. So from now on past-Bakura is Bekhura, and present-Bakura is Bakura, okay?)

A paniked look came over Bekhura's face. "Anjil, I don't know the first thing about child-birthing!"

Anjil groaned slightly as another contraction shook her frame. "You must find some way, or the babe and I will both perish to Osirus!"

"Sunu, I need a sunu...." Bekhura muttered, looking around with wild eyes, fear for his beloved gripping his heart.

(WSJ: All the Egyptian I use is translated in the end notes, so skip down there to see it.)

"Tenre lives near here," Anjil said, and Bekhura snapped to attention.

"You would risk our freedom like that?" he snapped.

"Do you see any other way?" Anjil countered, glaring at her meri.

Bekhura sighed, shook his head, and bent to lift his wife from the hot ground. She groaned slightly, and Bekhura shifted his grip, trying to make her more comfortable. He then started off to the man known as Tenre.

When he reached the appointed house, he glanced either way and then shouldered the door open. Although he already knew all that would happen, Bakura could not help but follow them inside.

Tenre stared at Bekhura, and then his gaze hurredly shifted to the woman in his arms. "Set her down on the bed Bekhura," he sighed, standing up to gather his instruments. "I will see to her and the child."

Bekhura nodded thankfully. "I thank you Tenre. I shall pay you generously from the very next tomb we rob."

Tenre shot him a look and set his jaw. "Make no mistake Bekhura, it is not for you I do this." He gestured at Anjil. "It is for my sister. And I will not take any part in your spoils. It is better I do my work for free, then be paid from stolen goods."

Bekhura shrugged. "Suit yourself, brother of my wife."

Bakura, who was lounging invisibly in the corner, smiled slightly as other memories of his brother-in-law came flooding back. Beating him in swimming races in the Nile, daring him to slap the High Preist on the butt as he walked past them, the time he and Jonathon had pushed Tenre into the Queen's bathing pool, while they stayed safely conceiled in a bed of rushes by the pool's edge.

Bakura's face abruptly darkened at thoughts of his twin. He snorted as he thought of Jonathon and Pegasus, wandering the Shadow Realm as he'd left them two months ago. Not that they didn't deserve it...

Here Bakura paused. Just why did he hate his brother so much? Standing here, in the corner of Tenre's house, he could easily see the bond between said sunu and Anjil. So why was it that he and Jonathon could never get along?

He could almost grasp it, on the very corner of his mind... But he couldn't remember. No matter how hard he tried.

A soft cry brought him back to Egypt, and he stared in slight awe as Tenre handed the small baby girl to Anjil, although he had seen this scene before. Abruptly Bakura felt a tug on his heart, and tears stung the corners of his eyes, dispite himself. His daughter, Shahi....

He watched with a kind of detached sadness as Anjil and Bekhura exchanged glances. "We cannot keep her," Anjil said quietly.

Bekhura shook his head. "You're right. Here, I shall take her where she shall be loved." He picked up his newborn daughter and stole out of the house. It was common knowledge that Pharoah Yami had been unable to get any of his wives pregnant, and desperatly needed an heir. Bekhura knew that his little daughter would be well cared-for at the palace, and Anjil was right. No child should grow up in the desert with tomb robbers for parents.

Bakura did not follow his past self, already knowing where he went. He stayed, instead, to gaze for a few more precious moments on his wife, his beloved Anjil. How he missed her in Ryou's time...

The white-haired ex-yami felt tears prick his eyes, and realized they were running down his face as well. This was the third time he had cried in little over five thousand years. The first had been when he'd first seen Ryou after Ushio's beating, and the second just when he'd realized that Ryou's mother was his Anjil reincarnated, the third now, as he re-witnessed the birth of his daughter.

There was a particularly hard jerk in his heart, almost as if it were trying to pull its way out of his chest, and then Bakura was suddenly back in the alley, staring at Yami.

"What happened Pharoah?" he growled, trying to regain lost composure as quickly as possible and praying to every god he could think of that Yami wouldn't notice the tears on his cheeks.

Yami looked vaguly puzzled himself. "I do not know, I-" The Pharoah paused as beside Bakura, Ryou groaned slightly. The white-haired teen then jerked into a sitting possition, his unseeing eyes wide. He let out a strangled cry and Yami put a gentle hand over his mouth, causing Bakura to stiffen. "You're safe Ryou," Yami said quietly. "Don't worry, you're back in our time, where you belong."

The white-haired hikari jerked away, and Yugi, who was behind his yami, blinked in surprise. "Ryou?"

"Y-You betrayed me!" Ryou gasped, tears streaming from his pale eyes.

"Betrayed you?" Yugi asked, clearly puzzled. "I just saved your life!"

"You left me!" Ryou insisted, a white aura beginning to appear around him, much to Bakura's horror. "You left me alone with that monster! How could you do that, how could you watch me moan and wince the next morning, and pretend you didn't know? How could you do that and still dare to call yourself my friend!?"

If they'd still been connected through the Ring, Bakura would have tapped into his hikari's thoughts to see what the hell he was yelling about. As it was, he felt almost helpless. Yami and Yugi had backed into a corner of the alley, both of them clearly terrified. Ryou was levetating at least two feet above the ground, and the aura was twice as bright now.

Bakura leaped to his feet and ran to his aibou, grabbing him by the arm. "Ryou, stop-"

Ryou turned his face toward him, his face devoid of expression and his blind eyes wide. He looked extremely freaky, even to Bakura's eyes. Ryou grabbed Bakura by the collar, easliy lifting the taller boy off his feet. With a burst of psycic energy, he sent his yami flying into the brick wall. It was obvious he had no idea what he was doing.

There was a dull crack as Bakura hit the wall, causing Yami's and Yugi's eyes to widen further, if that was possible. Bakura slumped to the alley floor with a soft groan, holding his ribs with both arms and barely concious.

That taken care of, Ryou turned the full force of his wrath upon the Motos. "How could you!?!"

With one burst of white light, everything went dark.

()()()()()

meri -- beloved

sunu -- physician, doctor

Osirus -- duh, Egyptian god. More specifically, Egyptian god of death and the underworld.

WSJ: O_O;; I'M SCARING MYSELF!!!!!!!!!! *runs away to hide*

Ryou: *sweatdrops* If you're a fan of Gundam Wing, go check out WSJ's story Cross of Gold, especially if you've heard the song of the same name by Micheal W. Smith. 'SJ worked really hard on it, and she'd like reviews. It's kinda angsty though, and it's got a really weird twist at the end...

Chapter 5: Ok, you've been wondering for two chapters what happened, and here it is! Just how exactly did Yugi save Bakura and Ryou's lives? And what happened to Kuroi? What's this 'Web of Time' I keep talking about? ^_^ All will be answered in chapter 5! Well, except what Ryou did to Yami and Yugi...

God bless minna-san!