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Rulers and Rogues	By : Khat Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 10587 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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I'm not sure if anybody's actually still reading this, but, if you are, I apologize. I had a wicked case of writer's block where this last chapter was concerned, and it only broke, finally, today. But, at least it's up, now, and I hope everybody likes the ending as much as they did the rest of the story.

******

“Yug?” Yugi tilted his head to look back towards the door. Jou stood in the doorway uncertainly, eyeing Yami as if he expected the injured ruler to suddenly jump up and attack him or something.
“The doctors are saying he’ll be fine, now.” The hikari commented, turning his gaze back toward the bed. “It’s just a matter of time until he wakes up.” This was the third day, and the first he had been allowed into the room. He had spent most of the intervening time locked away in Bakura’s suite with him and Ryou. The other hikari still seemed mostly in a daze, and it certainly wasn’t helping Bakura’s temper at all.
“Yeah, but what happens then?” The blond stepped into the room, after taking a careful glance down the hall. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to be here, Yugi thought.
“Then?” He echoed.
“Let’s face it. Nothing’s really changed. Seto promised your gramps a bunch of stuff for his help, but who knows if he’s actually going to follow through.” And when had Jou started calling Kaiba by his first name? The other slave seemed unusually antsy, even for him, wandering around the room absently. “We’re still their sl… their captives.”
“Jou, are you alright?”
“Fine! I’m fine. Why shouldn’t I be? Not like I had an ancient Egyptian priest show me my apparently destined position in life as his slave.” The last world was growled, and the other teen ran a hand through his hair. “And now I can’t get the memories out. It’s like there’s another me, and he gets upset every time I disobey, every time I say anything or do anything that he thinks is wrong…”
“It will fade, in time.” Yugi jumped, and Jou actually yelped, at Kaiba’s voice. The brunet stood in the doorway, his attention fully on the blond. “I thought I told you to stay in the waiting room.”
“I didn’t want to.” Jou muttered, but his stance looked more like on the edge of cowering than his usual brashness. Yugi just stared. Kaiba frowned, looking faintly irritated, and the smaller duelist was pleased when the blond suddenly stiffened, taking on his more familiar stubborn expression. Whatever Kaiba, or Set, if Yugi understood right, had done hadn’t broken him so badly that that had changed, at least.
The two exchanged glares for a few long minutes, while Yugi watched, wondering what they were arguing about, exactly, then Jou’s expression changed to surprise, and then to embarrassment, and he stalked out of the room. Kaiba smirked smugly and followed after him.
Yugi was tempted to follow, more to see what happened then to try to stop it, since that would probably have been futile, but a soft groan drew his attention, and he was back at the bedside in an instant.
“Yami.” He breathed, reaching out to his other half. The ruler blinked slowly at him, looking faintly confused.
“Yugi.” He murmured back. “What happened?”
“Honda stabbed you.” The smaller twin answered, feeling a little proud of how steady his tone stayed. “It wasn’t his fault, though,” he added quickly, “that monster forced him to do it. He doesn’t remember anything that’s happened the last few months, and it was a haze before that. Shadi used the key to check his mind, and he said it was a mess.”
“That’s not surprising.” Yami still sounded tired and worn out. “All that time hidden inside Honda’s mind, affecting us all. It’s probably why Marik resurfaced.” He shifted a bit, trying to sit up, and Yugi reached for the bed’s controls, lifting the head and rearranging the pillows carefully. Yami smiled gratefully.
“Lie with me, Aibou.” He murmured, the tone too soft to make it an order. Yugi obeyed anyway, climbing up to stretch out beside his soulmate, pressing close carefully. Their connection was ‘clean’ again, cleared of a gloom that that taken it over so slowly that Yugi hadn’t even really noticed it, until it was gone again. For the first time in a long time, everything seemed perfect.

******

“Actually,” Seto mused aloud as he followed Jou out of the medical room, “one of KaibaCorp’s subsidiaries has been working on a way to graft prosthetics into the nervous system.” Jou glanced back at him, still blushing faintly, but looking a little confused too, now. “I’ve heard they’ve had some very successful tests lately.” The blond opened his mouth to ask where this was going, but then abruptly decided he didn’t want to know. Not that that stopped ‘Moshema’ from wondering about it, the comment, combined with the silent discussion in Yami’s room about ‘cowering puppies’, bringing up an Egyptian-ish image of him with pointed dog ears, looking rather similar to Anubis’s, and a fluffy tail, waving back and forth slowly. Jou froze as his proper mind put it all together.
“Don’t even think about it.” He snarled, the embarrassment fully gone. He could handle the thought of himself with a plug up his ass with a tail attached to it, hell, he’d probably even like it, now, little as he wanted to admit it, but having an actual tail that he could actually move… Okay, so he might have been the tiniest bit curious as to how it might feel, now that the subject was brought up, but that didn’t mean he was going to allow it.
“And you still think you have a choice.” The brunet scoffed. Jou was going to snarl an answer, but then just turned and headed back towards the ruler’s offices. Of course he didn’t, he reminded himself with a little disgust. Seto would do what he wanted, and Jou could only hope it didn’t end up fucking him over, figuratively. Literally, that was a given.
“Settle down.” The billionaire huffed, following after him, reaching out to pull him close. Jou tried to ignore how comfortable the hold felt, making himself push away. “There would have to be many more tests before I’d try something like that on you.”
“I’m so pleased that you’d make sure it was safe before you turned me into a freak.” Jou snapped back, stalking into the waiting room and flopping down on the couch.
“If you’re just going to sit there and sulk, you can take these down to Bakura. I believe he’s in the training yard.” The slave looked up, blinking at his captor incredulously. Seto just held out the folder of papers expectantly.
“Well?”
“You’re trusting me to deliver important papers now?” The rebels were still out there, and the front gates had been severely damaged during the takeover. There were guards watching them, but it made escape a viable option. “How do you know I won’t turn them over to the rebellion?”
“Were you planning on doing so?” The billionaire dropped the folder on the couch. “There isn’t any point, they’re just reports and requests. Besides, by the time you got done arguing with yourself over it, I’d have you recaptured ten times over.” That probably wasn’t entirely wrong either.
“I’m not going to be your little errand boy.” He huffed, simply to be difficult.
“Fine. I’ll send a messenger, and find something else for you to do.” And Jou actually hesitated, considering that, before he realised what he was doing. Feeling his face flush again, he grabbed the folder and left the room, pointedly ignoring the King’s amusement.

******

“Marik, what are- Oh.” Malik sighed as he watched his ‘dark’ half, sitting on the floor, happily playing with a couple kittens and a bit of string. The yami was still deep in his amnesia. He remembered nothing of who he had been, nor who anyone else was, except Malik, who he had taken to referring to as ‘Beloved’. It was more than a little disconcerting, really.
“He’s not hurting them?” Ryou had seemed more ‘awake’ today than he had been previously, and Bakura, busy with reorganizing their military, had informed Malik that he was ‘babysitting’ today, and he’d ‘better not break him’.
Marik looked over at the other voice and smiled brightly.
“Hi! Are you feeling better? Maybe the other one will cheer up now.”
“Other one?” Ryou repeated.
“Bakura.” Malik clarified. “He’s not terribly good with names.” Ryou frowned slightly, seemingly thinking hard, before the expression dropped into his more placid one. Malik sighed, but it was a good sign. The white-haired boy had behaved more like a doll than a person the last few days, doing as he was directed and little more. Bakura swung between tender concern and outright fury with no warning, the former directed toward his hikari, the latter to everyone else.
“Come back, kitty.” Marik said suddenly, getting up to chase after the orange tabby. Malik watched him go, considering. He probably wouldn’t get into too much trouble, he decided finally.
“Come on, Ryou. We’ll go out in the back yard.” Ryou didn’t answer, though, looking toward the front of the building. “Ryou?”
“But Bakura’s that way.” He answered. Malik stared at him uncertainly.
“Why don’t you go find him, then.” He suggested, and the other hikari nodded, starting off down the hall.
They made a few wrong turns, due to the way the building was built, but, eventually, they made it to the throne room, where Bakura was growling orders at some officer. There weren’t many of those left anymore, or, well, not many who weren’t in the dungeons. This one was young, and very nervous-looking.
“Hey, Snowball, the bastard said to give these to you.” Jounouchi called, coming up behind them. “Hi, Ryou.” He ignored Malik as he passed, apparently the Egyptian was still one of ‘the bad guys’ in the blond’s book. He had to wonder how Yugi was going to respond, too. Malik had caused him more than a little grief. What was worse, though, especially now that he was out from under the demon’s influence, was that he couldn’t bring himself to regret it that much. He regretted that it had caused the smaller hikari unhappiness, of course, but not the actions themselves.
But for all the attention Ryou gave him, Kaiba’s slave might as well have not spoken, though Bakura aimed an absentminded backhand that Jounouchi dodged easily.
“You want to start something? I could take you down in a heartbeat.” That might have started another fight between the two, had Ryou not unintentionally intervened.
“Kura?” He moved away from Malik, pushing between the two would-be fighters, pressing himself against his other half. Bakura blinked down at him a moment, then the vague tension that had held him over the last few days seemed to ease.
Then Ryou winced suddenly, putting a hand to his head.
“Don’t force it.” The thief growled sharply. “If you screw it up and really burn yourself out, I’ll give you a beating you definitely won’t forget.”
“Sorry, Kura.” The younger buy murmured, cuddling close again.
Malik sighed, feeling relieved. It seemed the worst hadn’t happened, as everyone had feared, and Ryou’s half of the mindlink was returning. And Yami was awake, he had heard. Maybe everything would work out after all.

******

One year later:
“Look, there’s Daddy.” Yugi blushed as Margarita came down the hall toward him, a carefully wrapped babe in her arms. His daughter, Adelita. The thought was still a little overwhelming, even more so when her identical twin, Sara, (both children had been named by their mother,) carried by a nursemaid, was added into the picture.
“Hello, Margarita.” He greeted, glad he had papers in his hand which meant she couldn’t make him hold one of the babies. Not that he didn’t like them, of course. He wasn’t quite sure he could use the word ‘love’, since looking at them reminded him of the drug-infused circumstances of their conception, but he would admit he did care for their mother, even if her forward attitude was a bit more intense than he would have liked. He was secretly glad that Rebecca had apparently moved on to Mokuba; the thought of having to deal with two women like that was not something he liked to consider.
No, he liked the babies well enough; he was just always concerned that he would hurt them. They were so small and breakable, after all. And their great-grandfather was more than happy to fuss over them, anyway, when he wasn’t out arranging the rebuilding of various towns and cities. Honda helped with that, a lot, too, back to his pre-demon self, still with very few and muddled memories of his possession. He had returned to his pursuit of Shizuka, as well, much to Jou’s ire, although his warnings and protests usually earned him scoldings from her, now.
“We are taking the children out to the pool.” Margarita announced, allaying his fears for the moment. “Perhaps after you are done with your task, you could come find me, and we can start on some more lovely daughters. Or perhaps a strong handsome son or two?” She gave him a sly grin, and he blushed again.
“I-I think I’m going to be busy all afternoon.” He stammered. “I really need to get these reports to Kaiba…” And he gave her a quick sketch of a bow and hurried past before she could try to wheedle him into playing hooky.
It was strange, really, how easily he, how easily they all, had become used to the new world order. There was always plenty of work to be done, as the former tyrants shaped the aggressive takeover into a proper form of government, if still an aristocracy. It was actually coming along fairly well, though, admittedly, they did have two pharaohs, in Yami and Kaiba’s memories of Set, as well as the businessman’s own experiences with organizing a large number of people on a daily basis.
There were still disagreements, of course, mostly simple domestic ones, and he shook his head in amusement as he caught the sound of Jou’s voice, raised in anger. Kaiba’s mysterious comment so long ago had been right, Jou’s odd reticence had faded fairly quickly, and the pair fought as heatedly as they ever had, if far less viciously, most of the time.
“Yugi!” The hikari paused as another voice interrupted his musing. Marik. There was another surprise in the aftermath; Yugi hadn’t been paying attention in the early days, when everything was weird, but the former psychopath, though he had recovered from the damage done to him, was far from being the person he had been before. He was still a bit too fond of violence for Yugi’s tastes, but his interests ran more towards the normal stuff now, hunting and wrestling and things like that. And he had a ridiculous fondness for small animals, and not for any nefarious reasons, either.
“Have you seen Ryou and Mali?” That was the nickname the yami had seemingly settled on for his hikari, much to Malik’s annoyance. It had somewhat backfired, though; all the servants tended to refer to the spirit as Mari, though Yugi didn’t think Marik knew.
“I think they were in the throneroom.”
“No, I checked there. They went to check on the list for the food order or something.” Yugi shrugged. Malik, and Anzu, with Ryou’s assistance, once Bakura decided to give him a little rein, generally took care of most of the day-to-day operation of the palace, making sure that cooking and cleaning and general supplies were properly managed.
And handled the events, like the one that was happening tonight, to celebrate the Raising of Heaven, and Horakhty. Most people would probably remember it as the anniversary of the Last Rebellion, though. It was surprising how rumours could get switched around. Everyone knew, now, that it was an evil demon who had actually been running things, and the Four Kings, the heroes, had only been playing along until they could defeat it.
Yugi knew there would still be problems, of course, such as the ongoing disagreements about the laws concerning slavery (which was now a legal punishment for certain crimes) and the rights of slaves, (or lack of same,) and there was still a lot of reorganizing and clean-up to do. But, looking back on the last few years, life, for almost everyone, was certainly a lot better than it had been, and things were, finally, looking up.

******

And after the end of what came to be called ‘The Pharaoh’s War’ came an era of peace, as the Egyptian empire, eventually coming to a peace treaty with the last free country, Canada, thrived for nearly a thousand years. The offspring of the Four Kings and their consorts took over sub-kingdoms, reclaiming the names they had originally had in most cases, but always taking pride in being able to recount their ancestry back to the original rulers. The huge loss of life during the wars, nearly 50% of the population in some places, was also considered to be a mixed blessing, centuries later; the lessened demand on resources allowed nature to slowly recover, while scientists developed new technologies to better co-exist. Despite claims that the Kings had access to seven magical 'Sennen Treasures' that aided in their reign, there is no proof of their existence, and many scholars believe them, and their powers, to be myth.
What is fact, is that all of the Kings and their ‘Hikari’, the name given to their royal consorts, lived unusually long and healthy lives, and in all four, the longer-lived of the pair inevitably died soon after their mate. The Pharaoh himself, and his Japanese Hikari, Motou Yugi, are both said to have lived to nearly two hundred years, and history states that both died the same night, at nearly the same time, the hikari held close in his lover’s arms as they slept.
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Rulers and Rogues