Hey y'all! Sorry for the wait, having hard classes makes it hard for me to write on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I love my classes, and if they were any easier, they would be Too easy. Well, thanks for all of the follows and favorites! On the to Story!

Ouch.

Ouch.

Ouchity Ouch Ouch!

My head hurts like CRAP!

Wait, why does it hurt again?

I slightly opened my eyes, and quickly closed them again while beating back a small scream when I saw that I was at least three feet off the ground. I suspended up by my waist and hands with chains, that were at least half an inch thick.

I concentrated and discovered that the pain in my head was coming from the back of my head, where the man had hit me. I couldn't move my hands to find out how bad the bruise was, due to the chains keeping me up. Right about now I was really glad that I had sneaked on some small shorts underneath my dress earlier so that my captor couldn't see anything important.

I kept my eyes closed and regulated my breathing so that I looked like I was still out cold, though there was no one was around me. My surroundings were dank and full of noises that sounded like mice scampering around. I felt a steady light breeze blowing past my feet, so there was an open window nearby, and since the breeze was cool, it was night time right now.

SQUEAK!

I felt a ray of light land on me as a door opened in front of me. The door must not have been oiled in a while because the doors even in my country didn't squeak. I kept on pretending to not be awake, which I was very good at, given that even my father wouldn't know if I was awake or not.

"My dear princess, you shall be the one to finally return to me my favorite co-conspirator. The prince shall have no choice if he ever wants to see his precious princess ever again. But first I need to collect some evidence that I truly have you."

At that point, the man came closer and I heard the sound of metal brushing across metal, as if a blade was being pulled out of a scabbard. I felt my head be tugged backwards roughly and I fought against myself not to yelp. The man had pulled my hair and cut off a chunk of it. Ah, I understand now, I'm the only person in the whole of Egypt who has red hair, so then Atem would have no problem determining that it was me that was taken.

"This should do nicely; I shall be reunited with him very soon. Thank you very much princess for your contribution." The man just laughed manically and left while slamming the door behind him.

I slowly picked up my head from its uncomfortable position and looked about the room. It was about 50 feet long and 30 feet across and I was in the direct middle. Behind me there was this sarcophagus looking thing with holes in it that looked like things fit inside of it. Along the walls of the room were columns that reached from floor to ceiling.

This place seemed like it hadn't been seen for a decade. It was full of cobwebs and had mice running all over the place. The door that the man had come through had a golden decoration on it, I couldn't tell what it was from here, but it definitely looked familiar.

Suddenly, the door opened again and the man walked in smiling, seeing that I was awake. He was tall, probably around six feet tall, and really toned. He wore a red robe that hung open, revealing his chest and torso. He also wore tan bottoms and sandals common among the people in the town near the palace. Though the most strange features were his dark purple eyes and his white hair that fell ruggedly to his shoulder blades. To make him even more creepy was the fact that he had a scar below his left eye that looked like a T crossed twice.

"Ah, so the princess awakens." He said while mockingly bowing.

"What do you want with me?" I asked while trying to remain in control of my emotions.

"You're going to be my ransom, so that I can get my mate out your 'honey's' dungeons." The man simply explained.

"'Honey'? Who do you mean by 'honey'?" I asked really confused. He must've hit me really hard; I'm usually smarter than this.

"The Prince, duh! He's going to release my friend from his dungeon, or he'll never see you again. Got it?"

I nodded, while thinking about if Atem would really do that. If someone was in prison, then he probably deserved to be there.

"Well you can just give up on that, Atem would never put me before the safety of Egypt." I said smugly, but while hiding my sadness because this was also the truth.

SMACK!

My neck cracked as the man smacked me across the face in anger. I could feel my cheek get hot, and small tears come to my eyes, but I blinked them away. I couldn't show any weakness in front of him, or he'd take advantage of it.

I licked my lip slightly and found that I had gotten a split lip, and I got angry. "Is that all you've got?! No matter how many times you hit me, it won't ever change the truth. Pharaohs and Princes are taught to not put anything before the safety of their kingdom. Even loved ones, or friends. Wake up and smell the wine! If he has put someone in jail that means...!" I was cut off by a really painful punch to my stomach that knocked all the air out of me and left me wheezing for air.

"SHUT UP!" The man hollered at me. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK UNTIL I ALLOW YOU TO! And even then, you shall only reply in yes, and yes sir! I don't care about your belief about the prince's teachings. You shall only care about if you're going to survive my wrath for another day. Got it?!"

"Y-yes s-sir." I whispered softly.

"Good." He said and then angrily stormed out of the room.

That night I had cried myself to sleep out of pain and hopelessness, and woke up with my face tight from dried tears. All that I had said, I believed was true, I just hoped I was wrong. I had no chance of escape if he kept me up here until his 'friend' was released. Even after then, he'd probably just kill me anyway. I started to cry again, because I'd probably die of dehydration if my captor never got the clue that I needed water just as much as he did. I cried out of the bad odds of me ever getting down from these chains, the metal had already chaffed my skin enough to make me bleed. I cried and cried and cried until I couldn't cry anymore.

The next day was the same, except I couldn't cry; I didn't have enough water. I just stayed there, hanging from my chains and staring at the door so that bastard could finally give me some reprieve. I couldn't stop thinking about Atem, was he worried about me? Nah, he's got the safety of Egypt to worry about, not me. I thought in my head as a response to my own question.

I was so firm on that belief that I would never be rescued that I never even entertained the thought that Atem would come to save me.

At some point on the third day, the man finally allowed me to have about a cup of water. It felt so good, that I didn't even care that he poured about three cups down his own throat right in front of me.

The hunger wasn't as overpowering, but it was still pretty strong. At some point, I just stopped paying attention to the grumbling of my stomach. People could survive months without food, and it had only been three and half days.

On the fourth day, I heard a sound that I hadn't heard since I had first been taken here. A falcon, a bird usually used in messages between to people who were far away. I had first heard it when the man cut off a chunk of my hair for Atem. Does that mean that he had sent a reply?

He was saying that he couldn't risk Egypt for me. Even though I knew this would happen I still sunk down in defeat, my head fell forward and a few tears came to my eyes. but that's all that I allowed to escape me as I tried to conserve my water.

But then I heard a sound that I never heard before.

Horses?

What could horses be doing here?

I could also hear an indistinct conversation somewhere outside.

My captor came running down the stairs with a gleam in his eye and a piece of cloth and bunch of rope in his hand. He came up to me and tied the cloth around my mouth as a gag. He went over to the wall behind me and started lowering me down to the ground with a crank that was behind the 'sarcophagus' thing. When my feet touched the ground, I couldn't support myself and so I fell to my knees. He walked over and unshackled my wrists and tied them together behind me with the rope. He then took off the metal that was around my waist and picked me off the floor and half dragged me out of the room as I struggled to make my legs move so that I wouldn't have to be put in so much pain.

When we finally got outside, the sun was blinding. I had to lower my head slightly to protect my eyes from feeling as if they were on fire. My captor threw me unto the ground, but not far enough for me to be out of arms reach. I coughed trying to remove the sand from my mouth, and moved myself onto my knees. The man walked up behind me, grabbed my hair and put a blade to my neck. I froze, trying to not my the blade any closer than it already was. My eyes finally adjusted, and then I could see that a three people were standing in front of me. All of them, except one, were gold on their persons.

"Bakura! I have brought your demand, and now I demand that you return what you have taken from me!"

NonononononononoNO! What is Atem doing here! He's not supposed to give into the demands of a criminal!

"Ah, Prince. What an honor it is to be in your presence in my quaint little village." The man, that I now know as Bakura, goaded. I looked around and saw that the buildings around us were empty. Quaint? More like ghost town! I thought.

"Don't mess with me, Bakura! I have very little patience for your antics." Atem said with an annoyed tone of voice.

"Aw, can't the Prince take a joke?" Bakura said almost laughing.

"Not when you're holding a dagger to the throat of someone that I happen to care about very deeply." Atem said seriously.

Ummmm, excuse me, but WHAT?!

"Tell you what: give me back Marik and I'll give you back your dearest princess." Bakura offered while pinching one of my cheeks. I wanted to fight back, but I hadn't eaten in four days and the sun was making me overheat, so instead I just gave my death glare to him.

"You believe me to just give back your cohort and expect you to give me back Aku?" Atem asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, then I believe your right. Neither of us can trust the other to kill someone or not. So how about a small game?" Bakura offered.

"What game do you propose." Atem questioned as he crossed his arms.

"Look around you, what is the one thing that is special to this village alone?" Bakura started. "Scorpions. A special kind of scorpion, one that will only attack if you move. We will both put a scorpion on our hand and who ever moves will be stung by the scorpion and will be paralyzed, allowing the other to collect their person and kill the other if they wish. The person that was stung will not be able to move for thirty minutes after the stinging. So what do you think?" Bakura explained.

Atem looked at me, and I conveyed a look that said 'I believe in you'. He nodded and looked back at Bakura. "I understand, and will participate in this game."

"How wonderful! Let's begin then!" Bakura said while picking up his scorpion in such a way that it couldn't sting him yet, and Atem followed suit.

"Begin!" Both of them said, and they both placed their scorpion on their hand, while retaining their arm at a 90 degree angle.

They didn't move, or speak, or do anything for the first two minutes. I didn't either, even though when Bakura picked up his scorpion, he let go of me and removed the dagger from my throat. When the third minute started both of their scorpions started walking slowly up their arms.

At this point, they were both straining to keep their arms up, adding the thing walking up their arms, put a fear factor next to the strength. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed another scorpion near Bakura's right foot. I nearly laughed, because I had realized that every inch that the scorpion on his arm moved, Bakura shuffled his feet.

After what seemed to be a life time, the scorpion on his arm got another inch and Bakura shuffled his feet. The other scorpion saw movement and stung Bakura's foot, paralyzing him.

I stayed where I was, not being able to move out of weakness, and watched as Mahad carefully took the scorpion off of Atem's arm and put it by the other two by Bakura. Mahad cautiously walked over to me and took off my gag and untied my hands as gently as he could. When I could finally move my arms, I massaged my wrists while I mouthed a 'thank you' to Mahad. He nodded but looked confused. I stopped rubbed my wrists and slowly tried to stand up, using my arms for balance. I stood for a grand total of three seconds before my knees collapsed beneath me. Atem rushed forwards and caught me.

"Oh Aku, what did he do to you?" Atem asked more to himself, than to me.

"W-wa-ter." I managed to get out from my dry mouth. His eyes widened and he quickly told Mahad to get out a container of water. Soon, I was feeling a soft trickle of water land on my lips, and I could feel Atem's caution when pouring it.

He gave me another minute of water before he stopped pouring it, remembering that you drink too much you can throw it back up. He picked me up and placed me on his horse, leaving me there for a moment while he said something to Marik and Mahad. Mahad cut the ropes on Marik's hands and Marik ran towards the building that I was held captive in.

Atem was honoring his agreement by still letting Marik go. That's why he let him go. Atem pulled himself on the horse behind me and moved me so that I was leaning against his chest. And then we set off back to the palace.

Well that was fun! I hope you enjoyed it! I know that I shouldn't have made Aku think that Atem would never come for her, but I wanted to find a way to piss off Bakura! Because that's A LOT OF FUN! I also should've put Atem's POV, but I couldn't think of how to write through him, I DON'T UNDERSTAND GUYS ENOUGH! Anyways, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I got some really cool Doctor Who stuff, and a Firefly calendar. I love my family!

Well, until next time,

PharaohsLuver