A/N: After a long wait which I apologize for, here is chapter two. I really am sorry for the lack of updates but I have found it extremely hard to fit in times to write and inspiration doesn't always come at a time where I can write. So please forgive me. There is also another important note I forgot to mention in the first chapter; This fic is slightly AU. It takes place during ancient Egypt but there is not Zorc and no diabound. Kul Elna still happened but everything else with Zorc did not, it just wouldn't work with the plot I am trying to attempt. Thanks for your continued support and without further ado here is chapter 2!

Unexpected Consequences

Chapter 2: Execution

Thief King Bakura's POV

Screams filled the air as I raced through the now abandoned streets of my village, scared out of my mind.

Run Bakura, just keep running. I had to keep telling myself that as I raced towards the town's exit.

Suddenly, however, I was pulled off of my feet and held in the air by a palace guard, "Seems like we got one trying to escape!"

I began squirming but it was of no use, the guard had a firm grips on the collar of my ragged robes and he began tugging me towards the opposite end of the village; away from my only escape.

I kicked and screamed and fought to no avail. The guard had me tightly in his grasp and had no plans of letting me go.

My eyes widened as we descended down into the chambers where I had saw my family and friends herded into a boiling cauldron.

"NO!" I cried out and gave one last desperate lunge for the exit but the guard held on firmly.

"It's no use fighting kid, just give it up."

My eyes widened as I was dragged down the same path my mother, father and sister had been earlier and the guard held me precariously over the bubbling concoction, "Rest in peace thief spawn." With that he let go and I went tumbling into the boiling hot substance.

I woke up screaming and in a cold sweat, my whole body shaking with fear and tear stains on my cheeks.

Looking around I managed to take in my surroundings and get a grip on reality, not that it was much better than the nightmare.

I sighed and shook my head to try and clear it and just breathe in and out.

I didn't have much time to recover though before I heard a large number of people come tramping down the stairs leading to the dungeon.

I felt my stomach drop as I realized that this was probably it. They were coming to take me to sentencing.

Bracing myself against the chains, I looked outwards and prepared the nastiest glare I could muster. I would not go out looking like a weakling.

The first person to round the corner was that blasted high priest Seto with two guards at his flank.

Of course he would be the one to come and fetch me.

They stopped in front of my cell and Seto took out his millennium rod and pulled the dagger end free from the sheath, "Get up thief."

I don't know why I did it, but I listened and slowly got to my feet, never taking my eyes away from Seto and his two lackeys.

His one eyebrow raised in surprised, clearly he was as shocked as I was that I had actually obeyed.

The priest seemed to have been expecting a fight, and now that I hadn't given him one, he seemed at a loss for what to do next.

It didn't take him long to recover, however and the next thing I knew his two guards had swarmed my cell and began unchaining me from the wall.

Seto gave me a cold leer and his lips twitched in an almost imperceptible smile, "You're making the right choice thief. The better you behave, all the more easier and quickly your death will be." He nodded to the guards and we began the walk to the throne room in relative silence.

I kept my head down, eyes trained on the tiles beneath my feet, counting each step we took and occasionally glancing up to pick out landmarks just in case I managed to make an escape, unlikely as that seemed now.

Soon we reached a large set of double wooden doors accented with gold; the entrance to the throne room. I took in a deep breath as Priest Seto moved forward and pushed both doors open in a rather dramatic fashion.

Always with the theatrics these people.

I was walked up to the throne and shoved to my knees, where the pharaoh sat in comfort, staring down at me with a smug look on his face.

The other five guardians gathered around him, brandishing their millennium items and staring me down with firm glares.

I met each of their glares with one of my own and squared my shoulders before meeting the pharaoh's eyes last.

Atem narrowed his eyes and stood up, striding down the steps so he could stand right in front of me. "Bakura Tozokuo, King of thieves and rogues, you have been charged with the following crimes!" He waved his hand and one of his other guardians came forward, Mahaad I believe, and unraveled a rather long scroll.

Mahaad cleared his throat and glanced at me before reading the charges off the scroll in a harsh tone, "Bakura Tozokuo, you are hereby charged with the following crimes: Attempted murder, murder, robbery, rape, assault and treason. What is your plea?"

I made sure to stare the pharaoh right in the eye as I gave my reply, "Guilty on all charges your highness."

Atem gave a low and dangerous growl and pointed at me harshly, "Then you are hereby sentenced to death by exposure! So let it be written so let it be done!"

An immense silence fell over the court and even I was shocked to hear the verdict. Exposure? Now that was one I had never heard before.

The only priestess of the bunch stepped forward, her face portraying the perfect expression of shock, "E…Exposure your highness?"

Atem spared her a glance before looking back at me with a maniacal smirk on his face, "Yes Isis, exposure. I want to have our Thief King taken out into the barrens of the desert, tied to a pole and left there to die." He crossed his arms, still staring at me, "He will be provided with enough food and water to not die of starvation of dehydration, I want his death to be more gruesome than that."

"You're sick." I couldn't help it, what this man was suggesting was the most horrid thing I had ever heard of in all my years and I had heard and even done some pretty horrible things.

"Luckily," He continued on as if I had never spoken, "My dear priest Aknadin has volunteered to pick out a place and set up the structure ahead of time so we may waste not another moment before your execution."

I didn't think my stomach could drop any lower, but it did and the abrupt reality of the situation came crashing down around me.

If I had eaten anything in the past few days it would have ended up on the floor in front of me in that moment.

Atem's voice shot through my head and interrupted my frantic thoughts, "Guards, take him away to his new desert home. I want guards on him at every hour and rotate every five. I don't want him alone for any amount of time, understand me?"

A chorus of 'Yes my king' followed and I was roughly pulled back to my feet.

I didn't even bother to struggle, I was in too much shock to do anything more than stare blankly at the ground ahead of me.

This was it. This was really, really it. Who would have thought the king of thieves was mortal?

"Maybe, thief king, if you decide to give me an answer to my question I asked you oh so long ago, something else can be arranged."

I turned my head and glared at Atem, who had his arms crossed and a haughty expression on his face, "I have no answer for you, and I never will."

He gave a graceful roll of his shoulders and smirked, "Have it as you will, though you may change your mind after a few days at the stake, though by then it may be too late." He waved his hand dismissively and a rope was put around my hands and neck and I was pulled towards the exit.

I gagged as the rope constricted around my throat and the guards once again made a game out of trying to get me to fall on my face, though they continued to fail miserably.

Once we got out of the palace and into the hot desert air, the guards mounted horses and situated themselves in a square formation around me.

I knew that if I had any hope of escaping, this would be the moment, though it didn't seem likely, especially since I now had four armed guards on me instead of merely two.

I squinted against the bright sunlight as we began making our way away from the palace and capital city and further into the unforgiving sands of the desert of Egypt.

I tested the ropes that held my wrists together, but they were tight and would budge, not that it mattered since the cuffs were tightly biting into my skin, preventing any slippage.

I heaved a helpless sigh and gave up; it was no use, not with all these guards on me anyways. Maybe I would get a chance once we got to the place of execution. The guards may start to slack off after a couple of days and that would give my men a chance to come in and make a rescue attempt.

Finally, after an hour of walking, we arrived at our destination. My guts clenched as I looked up at the sight before me.

Two tall poles had been set up about two arm lengths apart from one another. A third pole was sat atop the other two and from it dangled several chains. Simplistic enough, but this seemingly harmless device would be the instrument of my demise if I didn't figure something out and quick.

I dug my heels deeply into the sand once we came to a stop and a thrust my body backwards, yanking against the ropes and chains, successfully pulling one of the guards off of his horse.

I cried out as one of the other guards slid off his horse and whipped me across the face with his spear, probably adding yet another scar to my collection.

The guard chuckled and the other two joined in, dismounting and pulling me over to the small structure.

Just then, Priest Seto, the Pharaoh and the young priestess from earlier rode up on their own horses. Great, just what I wanted, the Pharaoh and his pet priest here to mock me further.

I stumbled as one of the guards gave me a hard shove and I nearly fell into the one vertical pole.

"Alright thief, here's how it's going to work."

I turned my head and Priest Seto had that blasted millennium rod out again and was pointed it directly at me.

"Tie his hands above his head to the top pole."

Two of the guards grabbed my arms and began to pull them over my head but I refused to go down so easily.

I twisted in their grasp and purposefully fell to the ground yanking hard against the ropes, managing to knock one guard off balance and pull the other one down with me.

I heard Priest Seto let out a loud shot and more guards came rushing down on me, "Come on you imbeciles! Get him up there!"

I gave a triumphant smirk when I kicked my left foot out and felt it connect with the guard nearest to it making him cry out in pain.

"Do I have to do everything myself around here."

I felt the cold hands of Priest Seto grasp my bound wrists and the dagger end of the millennium rod was pressed against my adam's apple, "Listen thief, I have no qualms about killing you right now, but I want you to suffer. However, don't think that doesn't mean I can make your life a living nightmare before you even get up on that pole, hear me?"

I gave a low growl in my throat as response and Seto "hn'd", pulling me to my feet and hoisting my hands over my head, rod still pressed to my throat.

Several of the downed guards scrambled to their feet and rushed over to us, beginning to tie the chains dangling from the top pole around my wrists.

Seto nodded approvingly and then gestured downwards with his free hand, "Don't forget his feet."

The other two guards approached and grabbed my ankles before I could do anything, holding them down so the other two, now finished with my hands, could begin work on my feet.

I growled and tried to pull away but to no avail. Shackles were clasped tightly around my ankles and attached to small but secure hooks in the ground, effectively immobilizing me.

Priest Seto and the guards stepped back while the Pharaoh came forward, a satisfied smirk on his face, "Very nice, very nice indeed. Still, it's not quite finished." He gave me a cruel smirk and nodded to the tallest guard he gave a dark smirk in return before pulling out a large dagger and approaching me.

I didn't make any move as he approached, not that I could if I wanted to anyways, and he gave me a smile that made my gut clench.

The guard then gently scraped his dagger against my already tattered kilt and chuckled lightly, "What good is exposure if you aren't exposed hm?"

My eyes widened in shock and embarrassment as he slashed the dagger's blade downward, cutting the thin linen cloth right off, completely exposing me to the elements, and successfully shattering any dignity I had left.

Atem chuckled at my expression and clicked his tongue, "Not so tough now are we thief king."

I narrowed my eyes and decided to play their game, "What? Are you jealous Pharaoh? I knew you had to be overcompensating for something with that ego of yours." I turned my head upwards cockily, "Keep staring and memorize it so your dreams will be accurate tonight." I chuckled as Atem reacted precisely the way I planned, face paling and a dark blush grew on his cheeks.

He gave a low growl then strode up to me, smacking me hard across the face, "You're going to regret those words thief."

"What are you going to do Pharaoh? Execute me?"

"No, something better." He got a devilish smirk on his face and turned to one of his own palace guards, "Elio, give our exalted thief king twenty lashes as a parting gift from me." He then turned back to me and grabbed my chin between his fingers and thumb, giving it a harsh squeeze, "I hope your death is long and agonizing."

I scowled and spit at him, "I wish the same for your life Pharaoh."

He stumbled back and hastily wiped at his face, "Fifty lashes! And no food and drink until tomorrow night!"

With that final command he turned on his heel and walked to his horse, mounting it and looking to each of the first four guards on duty, "I don't care what you do to him, just don't kill him." He spared me one last dirty glance before riding off against the sun and back to the palace.

I scowled and glared at his back until he was out of sight. Spoiled brat was unfit for ruling a kingdom.

I was suddenly yanked out of my thoughts as a sharp pain erupted along my back; seemed like our dear Elio was fulfilling his duty.

Biting my tongue to hold back any screams, I relaxed my muscles as much as I could in order to cut back on the pain of the whip.

Not that it did much at all.

"Enjoying that thief? You only have 45 more to go!"

I bit back a scream as Elio increased the pace and force and I could feel the blood trickling down the back of my legs.

The other guards had gathered around to watch, taunting and laughing at me, but it didn't matter, my vision and hearing were dulled from the pain and blood loss already and I was beginning to lose focus.

"Ey, careful Elio, don't want to kill em' now."

I blinked slowly as one of the guards came forward and tilted my chin up so he could get a better look at my face, "I'd say he's about ready to pass out as it is."

"Well then I guess I better finish quickly then hm?" Elio's voice rang out from behind me and I felt him increase the whipping until finally the pain stopped, "There. All done." He chuckled and walked around so I could see him, the whip dripping with blood; my blood.

"Don't die on us yet thief. The fun has only just begun." Elio gave me a smarmy grin and the other guards chuckled as my vision darkened and faded to black as I thankfully passed out.