If she hadn't dissed his choice of clothing, hadn't speculated loudly about his costume for the evening and that in front of her entire pack of brainless fashion slaves, who know what would have happened. But dissing him she did and now he was here, in Ethan's costume shop, looking for 'it', the perfect costume. He was going to show her!
Xander wandered down the isles, looking over the costumes hanging on their racks. Ninja, thief, mutant, devil, vampire... absolutely not! The authentic looking dress of a Chinese nobleman fascinated him as well as the gear of a native American shaman, but then he saw 'it'. The costume that would shut up Cordelia for good.
Trancelike he stopped in front of it, pressing his hands against the glassbox it was locked into. It was perfect!
"Ah, a good choice, young man. I have to congratulete you on your excellent taste."
Xander flinched, he hadn't noticed the shopowner walking up on him.
"This is a replica of the crowning garments of the first Egyptian pharaoh, Panseru. It is said that he sacrificed himself in orde to save the world from great evil."
He listened raptly to Ethan's words, his mind made up. This was the costume he would wear! Cordy was going to become green with enyv!
Xander looked into the mirror, rechecking his outfit for the last, the final time, before he went to get Buffy and Willow. Putting on the fake tanning make up had been a bitch and he really didn't want to remember how long it had taken to do apply the kohl around his eyes the right way. But the result was breathteaking.
Darktanned, mysterious and proud, wrapped in fine linnen, his upper body almost entirely bare, save for the wide collar made out of costumepearls and stones. His hair was hidden under the clothpiece of the headset, the two fins of the crown framing his face perfectly and the reversed eye of Ra in the middle of his forhead, centerpiece of the crown, was adding to his untouchable aura. The last matching piece of his costume had been a replica of the large upside down pyramid, also with the reversed eye of Ra on it, that the pharaoh was said to have worn his entire life.
He grinned, revealing teeth that looked so much whiter against the darker skin. Now he was ready to go and meet Buffy.
The next day Xander was sprawled on his bed, his hand automatically toying with the pyramid he was still wearing around his neck. His eyes were locked on the celling, but he wasn't really seeing anything. His mind was far away, in a corridor with three doors. Two, the one with the reverted eye of Ra on it and the one that looked suspiciously like one to Xander's room, were open, the last, made out of glass and steel was tightly shut, but through the glass you could see wide open steppe behind the door.
Voices were coming out of one of the rooms.
"You are not going to tell the others, are you?"
"Are you nuts? The would try to exorcise you out of me before I was finished telling them that I have a voice in my head."
Xander and another were sitting in Xander's soulroom, talking. The other was a bit smaller than Xander and more slender. His eyes were rubyred and had an exotic tilt to them. But the most unusual about him was his hair, sticking up in odd angles. Most of it was black, but the tips were deep red and several bangs at his forehead where a golden yellow. And he looked quite young, he couldn't be older than 17 at the most.
"Hey!" He said, protesting, but he smiled. His hands were busy with a rubik's cube he'd found in the mess of Xander's room.
"Seriously, why did you come back? I know you didn't have to. And now that you decided to stick around with me, you will end up in any weired situation you can imagine and a lot more. Why give up the afterlife for that?"
The boy shrugged. "I never travelled to the Western Lands. I wasn't allowed to. The sacrifice I made saved my people, but at the same time damned me to eternal awareness without a body. With you I can change that. Through you and with you I will be able to live again. So much has changed. And yet there is still darkness and evil in the world. There are so many enemies to defeat, so many battles to plan and...," he grinned, twisted the cube one last time and held up the finished rubic's cube in triumph, "... still so many games to be played."
Those that saw the original japanese first seadon of Yu-Gi-Oh already know that the name of Yuugi's dark side is Panseru.