The Bittersweet Fate Of A Duelist

Chapter 9

Shocked, Yugi stared at Bakura for what seemed like an eternity, unable to look away from the bitter expression of the man who had once been the ruthless and determined King of Thieves.
Bakura's milky white mane, an almost painful contrast against his tanned skin, shaded his face, but the man's eyes were still visible, motionlessly fixated on the polished floor.

Seto was the first to recover from the surprise: «Bakura, what...?».
His impulse to get up from the couch and kick the Egyptian's ass was suddenly gone, replaced by a morbid curiosity the CEO knew to be negative, but he couldn't repress it as much as he tried.
From the darkness within the Millennium Rod, Seth's presence became more and more vital on the edges of Seto's mind, and the CEO felt the Priest's memories invade his own.
A white-haired prisoner, knelt on a stone floor and immobilized by heavy iron chains bounding his wrists and ankles, flashed insistently behind the man's eyes, like images on a broken TV screen.
In an instant, Seto found himself secluded in his Soul Room, a place he hadn't visited in an extremely long time.

«Oh, you remember, don't you? The exact moment your guards led me to your feet. You, sitting on the golden throne the Pharaoh had given you with so much indulgence and generosity, wearing the heavy crown of Egypt, staring down at me, a roach ready to be finally crushed».
In a half-disdainful, half-distressed tone, Bakura lifted his eyes from the floor to lock them into Seth's deep blue ones, still wide-open due to the sudden swap of places.
The Thief King frowned, and let out a mocking laugh upon recognizing Priest Seth in front of him: «You know, for a moment back then I really hoped to see you acting like a merciless Pharaoh. I hoped for a death sentence to be announced then and there. I had almost come to believe in that frail hope, thinking about how much you would have wanted your revenge on the one who made you suffer, the one who made your precious Atem take his life and disappear».
He paused, looking down at his shaking hands, but hurried to continue: «But... no. You decided to leave me in the hands of those guards, with just an order to get me away from the kingdom and make sure I would no longer be a threat for Egypt».

«Are you implying your death it was my fault?!», Seth thundered. «What makes you think I would have wanted such a horrible thing to happen?!»

Hearing the man's voice roaring, Yugi, who until then hadn't looked away from Bakura, realized Seto's sudden change of personality, or rather, his soul-swap, and swiftly reached out to grab Seth's hand in his own: «Calm down, Seth. I'm sure he didn't mean that».

Bakura, who was about to reply ignoring Yugi's intervention, caught Marik's glance from behind the man and lowered his tone; Seth's reaction was valid, that's what those amethyst eyes were telling him.
«Fine, Yugi's right. I didn't mean to put the blame on you», he said, subsequently. «I know you had no idea about what they would do to me. I told you, I had hoped for you to be enough merciless to slit my throat then and there, but you were not».
Then he sighed, relaxing against the huge cushions of the couch: «This isn't the point. I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to help Yugi, because I know I can do something about it».

Spirits placated, Seth sealed himself back in the Millennium Rod, returning a confused and irritated Seto in his body without too many compliments and with no warnings.
Shell-shocked , Seto took a while to recover, feeling like he had been thrown in a fully functioning, turned on, not human-sized washing machine.

«Seto?».

The CEO shook his head like a cat, in an attempt to get rid of the unpleasant feeling induced by the soul exchange*, and barely smiled at Yugi: «Don't worry about me. It's you we need to think of, right now», he said, for once showing out loud to be in agreement with Bakura without first bitching endlessly about it.