Fiore: {What, you're not going to rant about the new episode?}

WSJ: Ooooooh, you've reminded me! *Alex elbows Fiore and gives him a dirty look* Wasn't it cool!?!?! And Malik's name is Marik! Not Terrance! Yippee! *does a happy dance* The new opening (which I missed last week) was just so bloody brilliant! I especially liked the scene where it's got Bakura, and behind him we see Malik and Isis (that is Isis, right?). And the one right at the beginning where Yami floats through that stone tablet thingy! Anyway, it was soooo sugoi! I can't wait for next week! *giggles*

Elyssa: -.-; Here she goes again... No own YGO. On to the story.

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Sacrifice of Shadows

Chapter 12 -- The Lady Fate

"Bekhura,"

Bakura's eyes snapped open, and he gasped out of pure shock. He'd expected a paradice, or a firey inferno. But what he saw... Was home. He was standing on the sandy banks of the Nile River, staring in wonder at the place where he'd grown up.

It hadn't changed a bit. There was the Pharoah's palace, there were the slums where he and Jonathon had been born and raised. There were the pyramids, the half-finished sphynx that was completed and deteriorating in Ryou's day. The sounds of children laughing reached his ears, and he stared at a group of small children playing in the river, their parents sitting nearby.

"I'm home..." he whispered in wonder. "Am I really home?"

"Yes my Bekhura, you are."

Bakura stiffened, his jaw hitting the sand. "That voice," he breathed. "But it cannot be!"

A pair of long, tanned arms found their way around his waist, and soft lips he knew so well planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "But it is,"

Bakura turned in her embrace, his own arms coming around Anjil's waist. "Anjil! Oh Anjil! I thought I'd lost you forever!"

His wife laid her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh. "Never again! Never again shall we be apart!"

It was then that Bakura noticed he was dressed not in the jeans and sweater he last remembered wearing, but the long, free-flowing pants he was used to from his days as a tomb robber. The hot sand scorched his bare feet, but he didn't care. His chest was bare, save...

Bakura pulled away from Anjil in shock, his hand coming up to stroke the Millenium Ring, which swung around his neck. "Why am I wearing the Ring? It is Ryou's. He always wears the real one. Even in false form, mine was always only a copy."

"Beloved, what are you talking about?" Anjil asked, her face worried. At her anxious expression, Bakura laughed and relaxed. "Nothing my dear, nothing at all."

Anjil laughed too, and tugged playfully at his hand. "Come on Bekhura! I have waited a thousand years to hear your laughter again! Tenre will want to see you!"

(WSJ: For those of you who may have forgotten, Tenre is Anjil's older brother, a physician, mentioned breifly in ASN chapter 4.)

Bekhura followed his lover, and together they raced across the sands. Tenre greeted them warmly, and invited them to stay the night, which they did. They made love all night long, making up for the past five-thousand years apart. When the white-hot passion had faded, Bekhura lay awake, his wife's head pillowed against his shoulder, and stared up through a hole in the thatched ceiling at the stars. He sighed in contentment, truly happy.

"Bakura,"

Bekhura frowned. That name was familiar, yet he could not quite grasp from where.

"Bakura, please, you must remember."

And sudddenly, he did. Ryou and the Shadow Realm, Jonathon's death, and then his own. He gently moved Anjil off of him, and sat up. "Who's there?"

"I am,"

A soft glow began to form next to the bed, and shaped itself into a woman with long blond hair and violet eyes. Her robes swept around her, and wings arched from her back, one black-dragon, one white-angel.

Bakura gasped. "But, but you're the Change of Heart!"

The Lady shook her head. "No, the Change of Heart was molded after me. Did not you ever wonder just why both you and your hikari have such an attraction to that particular card? I am the Lady Fate."

"Lady Fate? Why do you come to me?"

"The Ring you wear around your neck was forged in me and by me. It holds my power, and my essence. The Ring is Item of Fate, or did you never bother to learn your history?"

Bakura shook his head. "You forget, my Lady, that I grew up a street rat, lived a tomb robber, died a prisinor. I had no access to such legends."

Fate regarded him with a rather bemused expression on her face. "No, I suppose you wouldn't have. I come to you with a warning. Your hikari is still in danger. The Shadow Realm still wants its revenge on him, for killing Briar-Rose and Firas, though Ra knows they deserved what they got."

"You know about them?"

Again Fate looked amused. "I am your guardian goddess. Why should I not know about things that concern you and your hikari? Especially when there are plans to terminate your aibou, once and for all."

Bakura bristled, his fists clenched. "Kill Ryou? Not while I live and breathe!"

Fate now looked rather sad, and dropped her eyes slightly. "That is the problem, Spirit of the Ring. You no longer live, you no longer breathe. You are not there to protect him. But there is a way to go back, if you are willing."

Bakura was silent, running his fingers lightly through Anjil's hair. Slowly a tear made its way down his cheek. "I just got here... Just found the love of my life... Do I go, and protect Ryou, whom is more of a brother to me then even Jonathon, or do I stay with my Anjil, and be happy forever?"

" 'Two houses, alike in dignity...' " Fate mused, and Bakura looked up at her, startled. She shook her head, smiling slightly. "Nothing Bakura. Just a bit of old poetry. Have you made your choice?"

Bakura was silent, staring down at the dirt floor. One hand was intertwined in Anjil's hair, the other rested lightly on the Ring. He swallowed hard, and then gently disentangled his hand from his wife's hair. "I will go back. Ryou needs me more then Anjil, at least at the moment." Slowly he leaned down to kiss his beloved's forehead, as his form began to fade.

"Hey Yami, did you just hear Bakura say something?"

The pharoah glanced over at Ishtar. "You heard it too?"

"An-jil..." the man on the bed muttered. "Aishiteru..." Suddenly he sat bolt upright, sweat pouring down his face. He saw Yami and Ishtar, made a strangled little 'mmrph' sound, and fell over in a faint.

All was silent for a moment as the two spirits blinked at Bakura's now very much alive but also very unconcious body. "Well," Ishtar said at last, fingering the Rod. "That was intresting."

Yami rolled his eyes. "Come on, we'll lug him down to the Game Shop..."

"What for?"

"We wanna surprise Ryou, right? It won't be a surprise if he walks in and discovers Bakura, will it? Now grab his legs!"

"Yes, O mighty Pharoah Yami sir!"

"Shut up before I whack you with your own Rod."

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WSJ: *grins* One chapter to go! I know these last few are awfully short, but everything's winding down now, so you can't really blame me. ^_^ Reviews please!

Oh yes, and kudos to all you blokes who guessed that Yami was going to bring back a 'who' and not a 'what'.

Chapter 13: Ryou gets the surprise of his life...

God bless minna-san!