Miss me? I've been gone for a while and boy was it a month of chaos. Suicide, anime, and of course good boy on boy lovin'. I noticed no one seems to be posting from my Author Alert, so I suppose I should try to start a trend of posting again. One thing though... I'm working on a few different stories... And I was wondering what one I should put up. I'll have the ones I'm fighting with to put up on my profile and you guys can pic. They'll have a brief description for all my viewers. Or, hey, if you don't believe I'm capable of doing two stories at once, tell me, because I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Jou awoke the next morning with the sun climbing high in the sky and a figure over him. He yawned, smiling up to who he thought to be Seto with how blurry his slight was with the lack of sleep from the night before. The figure leaned down to him and Jou took in a mixture of what seemed to be beautiful wines and scented flowers, rather than the spicy scent of the priest's perfume or his natural musk, which he rather enjoyed.

Realising that there was no possible way it was his master, the blonde jumped up and backed away quickly to get away from the stranger, only to recognise the woman as priest Seto's wife; standing over him, smirking.

"Sleep well?" Neith asked and sat on the bed, leaning over to expose a great amount of her breasts to the slave. "I hope so, because I no longer feel like waiting, now make up your mind and decide your fate." She crawled over to him and pinned him down, kissing him deeply. Jou grunted and pulled his hands away from Neith's.

Was the woman insane, he thought to himself. Here she was kissing him in her husband's own chambers regardless of the fact that he might choose that moment to come in. That and he was rather unnerved at the magician's behaviour; Neith had an upper hand over him and she knew it.

"I can't! Seto'll kill me!" He pushed himself away from her and stood on the bed. "Neith, even if you got what you wanted, I would still end up dead! Get someone else to do it!"

Neith growled and smacked the blonde, raking her sharpened, polished nails against his cheek, actually making him bleed as though a cat scratched him. "NO! He looks at you differently than me! He takes care of you! He lets you share his bed and he lets you play with his brother! Why you and not me! His wife! I'm sick of it!"

Jou looked up in surprise at the outburst and saw Neith's pretty face contracted horribly with anger and jealousy. Before he knew it, her manicured hands were at his throat, tearing away at the simple tunic that was his only cover.

"Neith, what are you…?"

"It's not fair!" she shrieked, caring nothing for eavesdroppers or spies. She continued to claw at his garments and at one point, she managed to tear the sleeve of his outfit clear off.

Amidst her wrath, Jou shot his hands out and grabbed a wrist and pinned it against her side. "I'm sorry, Neith." He gasped, trying to avoid the other fist beating on his chest. The priest's wife had officially gone insane, but the slave couldn't help but feel for her. She was royalty only in name, her husband cared nothing for her and made the fact obvious and she was forced to watch as Seto favoured another man, a slave no less. She was an affronted soul, who was now bent on revenge.

"I'm sorry, Neith," Jou said again, his grip loosening over her immobilized hand. "I'm sorry he treats you that way, I'm sorry he makes his apathy so obvious. However, you won't achieve anything by using me…"

"Shut up, you whore!" Neith freed her hand and slapped the slave right across the face. Delicate as she looked, the pain she caused made the other slightly nauseous. Taking advantage of it, Neith fell on the blond, gripping the front of his tunic and feeling the poor fabric give. "I don't need your pity, you foreign bastard, I will conquer my own husband and you will be my sacrifice. So you'll die, who cares? He certainly won't!"

The slave's eyes snapped to the side and he saw the rod Seto used when travelling to Heliopolis. He needed a diversion of some sort so he could remove Neith off himself and find better ground in case she decided to attack again. Currently, the only thing within reach was that rod. He quickly picked it up and lunged the dagger end of it towards Neith. He did it half blindly and took moments before he realized he had actually stabbed her directly in the chest. Her angry face instantly smoothed as she inhaled quickly, bright purple eyes widened. Tears of pain and helplessness quickly coursed out of her eyes. "J-Jou... why?" She pulled the sennen rod out of her chest, blood pouring out of the wound made right above her left breast. She fell back, sobbing as the pain consumed her. "I un...nderstand now... you're ju-just like h-him..."

Jou felt himself tense up as the scent of blood filled his nose. His mind was far from grasping the fact that he had just killed the High Priest's wife, rather he was filled with a sense of accomplishment. "Neith... you're soul is corrupt... I just... I can't leave him..." He hugged the magician, looking into her clouded eyes. He had fought and killed formidable warriors, but never a woman. "He's too important... I'll never betray him... even if he did deserve it."

She gripped onto Jounouchi's chest, breathing roughly as, still crying before the once beautiful woman began to cough up blood until she let out her last breath.

-

Seto strode down the sandstone corridors quickly and efficiently as was his way. The sun had risen well above the sky, he noticed. Hopefully, the slave was wake to provide him with some entertainment. He desperately needed some after that rather inane council session this morning. As usual, it was those filthy foreigners wanting lower taxes on the products they shipped into Egypt; they never understood the fact that Egypt couldn't afford to lower taxes this year. In addition, there had been more reports from the outside that Rome was planning to annex Egypt and turn her into a Roman province.

Seto scoffed. As long as he was alive, Egypt would never become anything other than a sovereign nation, much less under those twisted barbarians. He wondered briefly if Jou knew anything about it. Perhaps he could use the slave to get inside the Roman mind, however small it might be, and straighten the deal out. The priest sighed. Yami would come to his secluded chambers in a few moments to discuss the issue, hopefully, he could get some rest before that and see Jou.

Shaking his head, Seto threw open the door to his chambers, meeting with an un-divined horrific sight.

"Katsuya! What the hell?" Seto yelled and Jou jumped up, covered in blood from the stomach down. He looked to his wife and just couldn't believe that was where all the blood came from. "G-get out! Yami's going to be here soon! Get to the fucking balcony now!" His voice was weak and in a higher pitch than usual, completely freaked out by the way his wife looked.

The blonde stood there for a few moments. He wanted to tell Seto, he wanted to tell him why he did it and what Neith was planning, but shook his head and ran off, leaping to the curtained balcony, breathing hard.

Seto looked at the situation before him. Why the hell did this happen? Quickly, he pulled himself together and grabbed the bloody sennen rod, realising how Jou killed Neith. He pointed it towards his wife. Of course it was too late, the ka was no longer there, it left the body too quickly and all he received were fuzzy images of Jou lunging forward with a golden object.

He exhaled slowly, looking down on the bleeding figure. Neith's eyes were open, glaring emptily. The priest felt no remorse whatsoever other than the waste of a ka that could have been sealed or sacrificed when she died. "I'm glad you're dead... fucking whore..." He picked up the corpse, blood running down his robes and he gripped the woman's chilling skin. "Kisara hated you too... of course... she was timid... and she was afraid of you. I guess not everyone is like her..."

Atem entered the room and stopped suddenly, seeing his cousin drenched in the blood of his wife. "W-what happened?"

Jou looked into the room from behind gossamer curtains apprehensively and saw Seto drop to one knee, laying Neith down in front of him. "I just snapped Yami... I couldn't take it anymore... she... please forgive me..." His voice was low and Jou almost couldn't hear him, but he knew what was going on despite the auditory handicap. Seto was taking the blame for him... but... why?

The Pharaoh stood still for awhile, as if he was weighing Seto, Neith and the excuse. Then, Atem quickly hugged his cousin, knowing that even though Seto seemed to have a social disorder of some kind, he always meant well for the most part. "No one will know, cousin! Her funeral will be in silence... we'll... we'll say a bandit broke in! Murdered her! Seto... all will be forgotten in time!"

"I knew I could count on you, Yami..." He looked up to the pharaoh with a slightly sadistic look in his eyes. True, everything will be forgotten in time, but just to be sure Atem wouldn't change his mind, "I'm so glad she's gone though... and... in a way... it's your fault she's dead... if you hadn't allowed us to get married..." Yami became pale at the comment before looking away. "She was a burden anyway... Yami..."

Atem looked down at the girl once known as Mai, once one of his friends until she grew up and was taught to call, and respect him as the pharaoh lordship, the god on earth. "She's not the same person as we once knew, she changed like the rest of us... she became miserable and married into misery, lived around misery... she had a chance for something better..."

"I told her to leave before getting sucked into the curse... she didn't believe in it and now look what happened..." His voice had no regret in her death, he was glad, it was over, he was free. "Now... please... let's get her to the priests... they can deal with her."

Atem nodded, not knowing what else to think, his mind cascading with so many events, and this being the newest one to lash his soul that much more. His outer appearance fooled even the closest of people to him, but it was becoming too much... he was going to shatter and this situation didn't help. He was torn between punishing the priest for a murder and forgiving his cousin for his wrong. It was one of the many obstacles he had to face as the Pharaoh. He had no choice, this was his destiny and nothing could change it.

He explained everything, the word of the Pharaoh never a lie, even if it wasn't true it was never a lie. So, of course, the head priest of the temple took the woman known as Neith into his arms, blessing her as he walked off and Seto sighed, looking at Atem. "I must go purify the sennen rod before we commence the ritual... inform the others of the... tragedy." He walked off calmly and Atem put his palms over his eyes as soon as no one was in sight.

He fell to his knees and grunted, feeling the stress over his mind too strong for the physical strength of his being. The new pharaoh was barely in reign for a year, but it was becoming too much. His body began to tremble as he brought himself into a ball.

"Yami!" A higher pitched voice called out and Atem looked up to see Yugi looking down at him with a worried expression. "Yami, are you alright?" The small boy with spiky hair much like the pharaoh asked, dropping down and lifting his head up. "I'll go get some help!" The pharaoh grabbed him and kept the boy from moving, shaking his head and smiling up at him. "Pharaoh... please... you're hurt..."

"I'm fine..." He chuckled, his eyes glazed over with a dreamy aura as he looked at the boy. It was odd, a moment ago he actually was hurt, his whole body was in pain and his head felt like it was going burst, but now he was fine... everything was alright, nothing seemed wrong now, he felt at peace. "I just... felt weird... but I'm better now." Yugi let up a sigh and helped Atem up, smiling. "I thought I was supposed to be protecting you?" The pharaoh asked, laughing at Yugi when his face turned red. "Lets go... you can watch the priests and I perform the ceremony for Ra."

"That sounds cool!" Yugi chirped and suddenly, the burden Atem carried didn't seem to be as heavy as before. His heart felt at peace for once, like this... this boy was the cure to his sickness.

-

Seto went into his room, throwing the sennen rod on the bed, storming over to the balcony and roughly pulled Jou in by his shoulders. Jou winced under the priest's vice grip, but didn't have time to lament his situation as he was thrown violently to the cold sandstone floor.

"How dare you!" Seto hissed before kicking the blonde slave square in the stomach. "I give you freedom and you kill my wife!" Bracing his body, Jou let out a cough and closed his eyes, trying to forget... or accept the pain he was going through. He should be used to this; he was a warrior, a Roman warrior. But, when it came from Seto, every lash seemed to have double the force of anything he had experienced previously.

The slave stood about half way up before getting slapped down again. He tried again, getting the same results as last time. "I-" Was all he could get out without shrinking before Seto's venomous eyes. Eyes that promised death and a rearing cobra's head, ready to strike like nothing possibly could. Seto hissed out at him, venom gushing from his mouth, ready to strike like no man ever could.

"Did you think by getting rid of her I'd favour you or something?" Seto dropped to his knees and snaked his slender fingers around the slave's throat softly almost like a caress, but quickly it turned lethal as it squeezed down to become painful while the other hand moved like an asp, striking and bruising his face. One hand squeezed down while the other hand punched at his face. "There's no justification!" The priest pressed his body against Jou's, making it all that much harder for the slave to breathe, his master blinded by rage.

Jou let out a wheeze as his air supply began to run out and the pressure on his throat was almost too much to handle, but his body screamed for more air on top of all the abuse. He believed Seto when he said No Justification. "S-she... wanted... m...meh... to be...tray... you..."

His face began to shift colours, but Seto didn't stop. Now the priest became too confused to realise his situation. His other hand joined the first on the slave's neck, but stood undecided on whether it wanted to help its companion or stop it. It was when he saw tears run down the beautiful slave's now red on red eyes he quickly released and threw his own body back.

He panted hard, trying to calm down closing his slate-blue eyes and taking one last breath before standing up, stumbling over to the slave, nearly prostrating before him. "You... don't deserve my sympathy..."

"I never asked for it," the slave said with a grunt, not questioning why his master all of a sudden stopped his assault.

Seto sighed, trying to keep himself calm and rolled his shoulders, knowing the next question he was going to ask would piss him off again, but it needed out in the open. Of course in his mind it was a question, when it came out of him mouth it was more of a demand. "You better have a damn well explanation for everything because if there's anything I hate it's when I have to lie." He muttered, his eyes filled with rage, but the rest of him just a bit tense. Obviously he wasn't really worried about Neith's death, but really the fact the he sinned for Jou.

"When I went out and you gave me money, she found out!" Jou said quickly, trying not to stumble over his words when started to feel like his tongue was ready to twist up. "Neith found out and she told me that if I didn't help her get... back at you for some reason, that she'd accuse me of thievery and told me I'd die!" He didn't bother mentioning his reward if committing such an act, because in reality, he knew he'd never really go back, Seto wouldn't let him, in fact, Seto would kill him before 'giving' him to someone else. A man who was obsessed with his possessions.

"I couldn't go through with it..." he continued, keeping his gaze away from his master's eyes. "So I killed her... and it's only really fair that... you kill me? I'll kill myself if that's it... drown in the Nile, slit my throat..." The slave's eyes became dull, thinking of all the ways he should, and probably would be punished, that's why he suggested dying now, it would be less painful. He knew his place. He saw how slaves were treated in Rome and it was probably no different here. He was already tortured enough on the inside, ever since loosing that battle and being spared, and it only seemed to get worse from there. "Just let me die quickly... please..."

Seto gazed at him for a long time, and Jou didn't bother questioning why. There was a long moment of silence, noises usually not heard from the outside made their way in, but that changed when Seto began snickering and Jou flinched. Then the snickering turned into all out laughter, but eventually it faded. "You're a fucking moron..." He whispered harshly, getting into a position on one knee, looking as though he would stand soon. "I might be a bastard, but I never go back on my word and I promised to never do to you what I did to Kisara. You won't get off easy, but you'll die when it's your time as long as I'm around." Encouraging words to the blonde, no doubt.

He stood up, towering over the seated slave and went over to the rod he had earlier discarded and closed his eyes, letting his Ka search the sennen rod for the evil that plagued it because of the murder. If he didn't purify the Sennen Item, the evil would quickly grow, being how the items were formed, and eventually turn Seto towards evil, like the sennen eye did to his father.

He searched the rod mentally from top to bottom, seeing white, looking for the darkness, but it couldn't be found. As though Jou's evil did not transfer into the item, but with such inexperienced Ka it must have released all the evil into the golden object. There was none to be found and Seto didn't doubt he missed something. There was just none and the anger had been washed over with confusion.

It didn't make sense anymore. Not a few minutes earlier did he think Jou killed the bitch because he didn't want to sleep with her and/or had much more respect for his master. Perfect sense, right? But that means there would be evil involved. Killing someone involves evil! That's how it works! No matter how valiant, murder is murder!

Of course if there was none, he couldn't expel the evil, now could he?

So he opened his eyes and turned to Jou, who was still on the ground. "You're coming with me." He hissed and Jou slowly made it to his feet, standing up straight. Seto let out a sigh as he noticed the swollen red marks on his slave's neck and walked over to him, lifting his chin to inspect them. "Your neck will probably bruise..." The priest's tone changed from a hiss to a soft whisper. "If people see these after realising Mai's death, they'll suspect something." He turned and waved for his slave to follow him. He went though his belongings, bringing out a large wooden box that had Egyptian craved into it, looking unprofessionally done, but still readable... if that's what Egyptian writing looked like that. As far as Jou knew it could be anything.

Seto opened the box that was probably imported from another country and slowly took out a beautiful gold choker necklace that would fit the whole width of anyone's neck. It had about the largest ruby Jou had ever seen imbedded in the middle. Seto scooted over to Jou and tilted his chin up, stretching his neck a bit. "Kisara wrapped a cloth around her leg, keeping the ruby with her when she was sold into slavery... she gave it to me and had a necklace made out of it and gave it back... but it didn't ever look good on her... I looks nice on you though." He put around Jou's neck, making the slave gasp as the coldness of the choker hit his wounds and the priest put the golden hook into a the hole on the other side of the necklace, keeping it together. "That should hide it."

"...Don't you think someone will get suspicious that a slave is wearing a beautiful piece of jewellery?" Jou asked, running his hands over the choker and lowered his head back to a more normal position.

"It matches, that's about all the excuse I need." And Seto was right. The gold matched Jounouchi's hair perfectly and his eyes were the same colour as the ruby was. "Besides, my wife just died, I can do whatever the fuck I want." He waved it off and stood up, helping his slave up as well. "I have a ceremony to perform today before Ra and you will come along with Mokuba." He once again led his slave on to the closet were he had placed his clothes. Both their outfits were stained with blood and unfortunately Seto had nothing but extravagant clothing, silks made in China, mostly, but he had others, of course he left those in Memphis. So he shrugged it off, figuring that it would be better than letting the boy walk around in a blood covered skirt.

He pulled out one of his most favourite tunics and threw it to Jou. "I hate this one, you can use it." Of course he lied, he wasn't about to admit he wanted to see his slave in something beautiful. "We still have time so you're wearing kohl."

Jou stripped himself of his tunic and used it to wipe the blood off his chest before putting on the outfit, a beautiful red silk, flowing piece of material if the ex-warrior had seen one. He lifted it over his head and put his arms through the holes on either side, letting the cool cloth caress his body as it slid down. Seto walked around him and tied the thick red dyed weave sting, tightening the silk around Jou's body. "What's kohl?" He asked, squeaking a little as the cloth squeezed around his body.

Seto smirked and leaned his head over Jou's shoulder so the slave could see his face. With the added constriction from the cloth and now Seto's body right up against him, Jou was feeling as though he couldn't breathe, the priest's face so close to his own. "It's the black stuff on my eyes, moron." Jou nodded quickly and Seto left him, going over a small table in the middle of the large room, and picked up a little black jar. "Come here." Jou once again did as he was told as Seto brought a tiny brush out of the jar. "Close your eyes, act as though you're looking up and keep your face straight." Seto demanded with a no nonsense tone. "It will make everything much easier."

Jou thought about it for a moment, wondering how he would do that, but when he realised how, he did so, closing his eyes and rolling his eyes back and kept his face completely level. He felt a long, cold tingling at his eyes and he resisted fluttering his eyelids even though it tickled. The ticking would stop for a bit and Jou would think it was done, ready to open his eyes, but the brush would return to his eye. The same thing for the next one and if earlier events didn't leave things so grim, he even could have let out a giggle.

When the tickling stopped completely Jou opened his eyes enough to see. "Am I done?" Seto nodded, his eyes had a curious glow the slave had never seen before. The usual harsh cobalt turned into a soft midnight blue and Seto tilted his head, looking down to the boy. "What's wrong?"

"You look beautiful, Katsuya." Was all he stated, his tone as soft as his eyes as he brushed a hand across Jou's bangs. "A bit God-like." His lips curled a bit, making a small smile and his hand ran down to Jou's pale skin to his chin, taking it between his thumb and forefinger.

Ebony on ivory.

As far as Jou could tell, Seto's mood, or personality-which ever was the guy's mental problem-had calmed down and he seemed a bit submissive. Like Jou could steal a kiss from him right now and Seto would just soften as well as smile more.

"Thank you," The blonde whispered, feeling a blush rise on his face. "You're pretty too." His words slurred slightly as he looked up into his master's welcoming eyes and there was a long silence between the two, just them gazing at one another before Jou finally spoke up. "I'd never do anything to hurt you."

"I know," He leaned over slightly, Jou's chin still between in his fingers and pressed with lips together softly, only for a second or two, but it was still enough to make Jou's heart skip a beat when feeling the priest smooth lips against his own. "Now let's go."

As Seto walked to the exit, Jou just watched him, beyond confused as usual, the only difference from anytime before is he was getting pretty pissed off that he never seemed to know that was going on. "Hey! Wait!" Seto turned and only began to walk again.

They came out of the room to see Mokuba standing outside for them. "Wow, Katsuya!" The boy squeaked, not knowing the scruffy teen could clean up so very well. He was almost jealous of his brother for having such a pretty slave to himself now, while he wasn't allowed to have one being Seto couldn't trust any thing that owned a soul and because of certain laws, he couldn't take a soul away from humans nor animals. "Why can't I have a slave?" He pouted to his brother, looking up with big shining, dark grey eyes. "A pretty one! Like yours!"

Seto ignored Mokuba, hearing what his little, thirteen year old brother said. Jou on the other hand looked at the boy oddly, wondering if he was- "Let's go already." Seto said quickly, grabbing his adopted brother's hand and rushing off, Jou following right behind him.

Creepy way to end this chapter, ne? The whole chapter was creepy really...Of course I'm a sadist, so shoot me. -dodges bullets- Eheheheh... Not funny.