Disclaimer: Oh, yet another Yugioh fic. How sad. And I'm still trying to write my other stories. ^-^;;; Well, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters. Please don't sue me. I wish my spell-checker would stop telling me "Gi" isn't a word. *sigh* On with the story!

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Yuugi lay in his bed, the moonlight shining through his light blinds and onto the floor. And somewhere in his soul room, Yami lay sleeping as well, and dreaming of years long past.


A younger Yami, dressed in a plain white cloth skirt, his tanned arms adorned with golden manacles made of a harder gold than the elaborate chest plate that hung from his neck, stared up at the Pharaoh as he sat on the throne of Egypt, arguing with his councilors. It was not a very heated argument, the Pharaoh held the power of life, or death, over his subjects and so even his councilors feared to argue seriously with him. If he set his mind to something, he would get it. No one dared to stand against him, not to his face certainly. Although, there had been an exception to that once. Yami, upon hearing that one of his favorite "step mothers"[1] was to be evicted, had gone to the Pharaoh to argue in her favor. The debate had become quite heated, and Yami had ordered his father to let her stay. He remembered the silence of the court, and the resounding echo of his father's palm hitting his cheek. There had been a bruise there for a week.

Although the Pharaoh was loving with all his children, especially Yami as he was his heir, the Pharaoh had a fierce temper and would not stand to be questioned. Yami learned his lesson well, and never publicly opposed his father again, although when occasion merited he would beg with him, an action he resented but was the only way to get what he wanted a good deal of the time. Yami cocked an eyebrow to himself. Perhaps that sounded selfish, but Yami did not beg on his own behalf, rather on that of the people he would one day represent.

The Pharaoh was unaware of his growing unpopularity but Yami, who spent a good deal of time around the commoners (but certainly not mingling with them!), was well aware of it and how it would affect his own rule. His father's unpopularity would fall onto his shoulders when he inherited the throne, and that would be hard to deal with. The Pharaoh seemed to want to make himself disrespected, and almost went out of his way to ignore the populous, forcing huge buildings to be built and then abandoning them only months after they were completed, destroying future tomb sites for chariot grounds, forcing the poor farther out into the desert to farm while giving the prosperous land to the aristocracy. And, he played the shadow games. Games of war, pain, death and destruction, played by rulers for their own amusement, at the price of others. At least visibly. But anyone who had played them knew of their other hitch, they slowly destroyed the players. The strong ones could play for years without any signs, but weak willed players self-destructed in under a year, going mad and finally killing themselves- and any near them. And Yami could already see the signs of madness in his father's plans for the upcoming war.

In all the dark corners of the palace councilors, guards, musicians, artisans and any others who happened to be around discussed the Pharaoh's plans for battle. Caught up in some idea of glory he would send all his troops, every one of them, charging straight into battle leaving none for a second wave and none to protect the city. If the first attack failed, Thebes[2] would fall and the Egyptian empire would be destroyed. But worse, the Pharaoh, he who had not fought for a decade, planned to lead the battle himself, with all his sons at his side in the front line. The entire royal house could very well be destroyed within an hour of the battle's opening. Already, so rumor had it, the lesser sons were sharpening swords, many with red cheeks.

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Yami sat alone in his room, having dismissed his servants earlier. His sword and his spear lay by his low couch, shining in the evening sun. 'Why must father be so pig-headed? The councilors offer valid advice, he could win the battle easily if he planned, strategized, but instead he would throw all our lives away like so many rotten figs?' Yami had no wish to die, but it was his duty as his father's son to follow his orders, no matter what his personal opinions. 'Perhaps the commoners can sneak out of this, but we must have dignity and honor. Even if we are about to be destroyed.'

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Yuugi sat up in bed. It was morning, so the sun shining in so brightly demonstrated. 'Another day of school. How sad.' Yuugi made an appropriately melancholy face. He was smart enough to be fairly bored in most of his classes, and having Yami around didn't help. When he had first realized he could talk to Yami in his head he had been thrilled with the idea of school; he would no longer be bored as he would have someone to talk to, and the teacher wouldn't be able to yell at a conversation he or she couldn't hear. But then came the problems. To converse with Yami he had to concentrate quite a bit, giving him a zoned out look which teachers seemed to home in on. And of course if Yami said anything funny or embarrassing, he would laugh or blush accordingly, earning him questions and quite possibly detention from the teacher. No, life as a schizophrenic was not all it was cracked up to be. And then there were the dreams. Lately he had been having strange dreams of Egypt, at least he _assumed_ it was Egypt. And why would he dream about somewhere he had never been, except for the amazing coincidence that his other self was from there. 'Definitely something in that, I should talk to Yami about it. After I'm late for school.' Yuugi sprinted out of the house.

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[1] Uh, Pharaohs in Egypt would have one main wife and queen, and a whole whack of minor ones. The son he had with the main wife would become Pharaoh, if he didn't have a son with the main wife they'd use one of the sons from one of his other wives (I'm not sure if they chose by age or had a little wife pecking order worked out, or just drew lots...) in any case, we'll just say that he thought of them as step mothers, although they'd be below him in seniority.

[2] Thebes was the capital of Egypt for a long long time, including the time of Amenhotep (II at least) and the world famous Tutankhamen.

Well, there's a little introduction for you. Keyword: little. It'll develop to tell more about Yami's life in Egypt, and contain little forays back to his life (or perhaps Yuugi's) now in Japan for added humour (hopefully) and to interest those of you who aren't interested in Yami's life (after all, he _is_ dead. Or is he? No one knows...) I'd love to hear what people think, so please review and tell me! Thanks!