A/N: Enjoy!
Note: There will be no update next week, March 8th 2013, as I am moving to a new apartment (my first time!) and won't have the time. You can check my profile for updates.
For several long minutes after Heru's announcement pierced the air, Malik did not move. It felt as though time had slowed down drastically, and now he felt no more capable of moving than he did of speaking. He simply stood there and watched Heru, waiting for the moment when the man would suddenly announce that he had been making a joke. But as the seconds ticked by and it became more obvious that Heru had not been teasing, he slowly shook his head. The movement felt strangely difficult. "No. You must be - no."
"You wanted to know and now you do," Heru replied, watching him equally closely. In spite of his best efforts, he could not help being intensely curious about this strange young boy. Malik was persistent, Heru would give him that much. Most people who were not Akefia would have given up long ago. But Malik kept pressing, kept insisting on nosing his way in until he had an answer he was pleased with, and Heru had to wonder where he had learned it from. "Akhenaden is my father, though few people are aware of that. I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourself."
"No need to worry about that. I'm not sure anyone else would believe me," Malik said honestly. "Why - no, a much better question would be how?"
Heru sighed. This was a story he had never shared with anyone, not even Akefia. At first because he had wanted it to be a secret, and then later because there had never seemed to be any point in telling the truth. Why he was bothering to tell it now, he wasn't sure. But he had a strong suspicion that it might be the only bit of information shocking enough to make Malik let him be, and for that alone it seemed to be worthwhile. After checking for a second time to be sure that no one was around, he drew the two of them further into the alley where they would not be overheard.
"My mother was a peasant," he replied at last, voice hushed so that Malik had to lean in close to hear. "Her only means of survival came from selling her body to anyone who was interested. The high priest was one such man. He partook in her charms quite frequently, I was told." His jaw tightened slightly at the thought. "Because she was so poor, she could not afford the necessary magic to prevent conception and she became pregnant. I know because I visited one of her friends when I was old enough to become curious about the truth of my background, and after a little bit of persuasion this was the story that she gave to me."
Malik squirmed, and Heru knew that he was just dying to ask what sort of persuasion tactics that Heru had been using. He didn't, though, possibly sensing that he wouldn't approve of them. Instead he said, "I'm sorry. That must have been difficult to hear."
Heru frowned a little and shrugged. Somehow that was not the reaction he'd been expecting. "I am not sure if Akhenaden is aware, whether he knew that she had become pregnant. I do know that my mother died not long after I was born. Certainly, I have no proof of his involvement." He hesitated briefly, then added, "The family I grew up with was contracted to kill her. That is how they found me. I've come to the conclusion that Akhenaden was the one who asked them to do it."
"Good lord," Malik muttered, reeling at this revelation. It was definitely the sort of thing that he could imagine Akhenaden doing. An illegitimate child, possibly one who could show up later in life and challenge Seth's position at Atemu's side - no, worse yet, a child who could possibly have a tie to the throne. Yes, Malik could see how Akhenaden would have done whatever necessary to eliminate the competition before it ever became an issue. If that was the case, the real target back then had been Heru, not his mother, and it was sheer luck that he had survived. He clutched Heru's arm tighter at the thought.
"So you can see why I was curious," Heru went on, pretending not to notice this. "Most children who are left without parents never get the opportunity to find out anything about where they came from. I wasn't sure how to approach the high priest without calling attention to myself, so you can imagine my surprise when Akhenaden contacted me for a job. When I came back from meeting with him with nothing more than a handful of cursed coins, I knew it meant that he believed I was dead. He had no idea who I really was."
"And I guess that's why you thought you had nothing to fear from him," Malik concluded. It was all making a terrible kind of sense now, and he knew that if Akhenaden found out about this it would just give him even more reason to murder Heru.
"I had nothing to fear until you and your friends appeared," Heru corrected him. "I'm an assassin and Akefia is a thief. A good portion of our lives involve evading people who wish to capture us for one reason or another. Akhenaden never would have managed."
Malik wasn't so sure about that. He knew how resourceful Akhenaden could be. But he could also see that Heru truly believed every word he was saying, and that was making him feel guilty. He let out a slow sigh and released Heru's arm. "You and I, we're sort of the same," he said quietly. "Only I think that you were luckier than I was. You didn't have to grow up with him."
It only took Heru a minute to understand what Malik was saying. His eyes grew wide. "In the future, that man is your father?" he breathed incredulously.
"Yes." Malik nodded, wondering in a fit of grim humour if that somehow made his and Mariku's relationship a little bit incestuous. Did reincarnation and souls count? "Though I have to tell you he makes a truly horrible parent, considering that he's actively been trying to kill me for the past year." He thought for a moment. "Before that, he just used to use me and my sister as stress relief."
Something had noticeably darkened in Heru's eyes. He did not look pleased. "He hit you."
"Sometimes, usually whenever he was drunk or angry. Which was most of the time, now that I think about it, but I spent a lot of time with my friends, Ryou and Yuugi - that's the pharaoh's light?" he added when Heru's forehead furrowed at the obviously unfamiliar name. "They let me stay at their houses where my father couldn't reach me, and my sister used to practically live at her office. But yes, there were times when I couldn't get away, and he would..." His voice trailed off and he made a weak movement with his hand.
"I used to wonder what it would be like to grow up with him," Heru said, and then he paused like he wasn't really sure why he had chosen to share that.
"Seth could tell you," Malik pointed out. He knew that Seth was also Akhenaden's son, though for whatever reason Akhenaden had decided to acknowledge Seth instead of trying to kill him. There were a few years between Heru and Seth. He wondered what had happened during that time to change Akhenaden so that he would think murder was the better answer. "He probably thinks that the only family he has left is Atemu. You could tell him, if you wanted."
"I have no proof," Heru replied. "I doubt that they would believe me. It is dangerous to arbitrarily accept the word of someone when it comes to royalty, and I'm certain that Akhenaden would not be willing to admit his past mistakes."
"You would never want the throne," Malik said, amused at the idea. In the future, a DNA test would have been able to prove the link between Heru and Seth with no problems. He didn't think that they had anything similar in Khemet. "My god, you'd be so bored within a week that you'd kill yourself and save Akhenaden the trouble."
Heru smirked at that. He straightened up and took a step backwards, leaving a fragment of space between them that suddenly felt like a lot more. "Now you know," he said, and his voice had gone a shade quieter. "And I will be taking my leave."
"No, you can't go! What if Akhenaden realizes that you're his son? He'll want to kill you even more," Malik said frantically. He couldn't understand why Heru wanted to leave so badly. Was he trying to hide so that Akhenaden would never find him? Or did he want to challenge Akhenaden? "I know you think that is the best way to protect yourself, but it's really not. He's… smarter than you think." He fumbled, not sure how to explain how Hafiz's knowledge of the future would be working against Heru. If Akhenaden had been able to contact him in the first place, it was safe to assume he might be able to find Heru again.
"Why do you want me to return with you so badly?" Heru asked. "I already made it clear that I was not interested in protecting you."
"I don't care about me, I care about you!" Malik felt like tearing his hair out. Why couldn't he make Heru understand? Ryou wasn't having nearly this much trouble with Akefia! "The palace is a safer place for you. Akefia, Atemu and Seth are there, and the four of you have always been stronger when you're together."
"That may be true in the future, but how do you know it's the same now?"
Malik froze, all protests dying a swift death as he realized that he didn't know. He, Yuugi, Ryou and Jou had just assumed that because it was that way in the future, it would also be that way in the past. But maybe they were wrong. Maybe the bonds of friendship, of loyalty, that existed between Yami, Bakura, Seto and Mariku were what made them strong. He stared at Heru for almost a full minute in silence, watching the smug expression developing on Heru's face as he realized that he had successfully rendered Malik speechless. And it was that look of absolute arrogance that finally pushed Malik over the edge. Suddenly furious, he pushed Heru backwards hard, slamming the man against the alley wall.
"I've had enough," he said, fighting to keep his voice from shaking. "You can doubt me and my friends all you want. But you know that I'm telling the truth. You might have a point. I'll give you that much. Maybe you and Atemu and Seth and Akefia won't make each other stronger. But there is still something to be said for having strength in numbers. Adding your power to theirs automatically gives you a better chance at survival. And I am not going to let you walk away and risk letting Akhenaden win! I need my yami back!"
Too late, he heard the raw desperation in his voice, and he realized that the blurriness in his vision was from the tears pooling in his eyes. Embarrassed, he uncurled his fingers from Heru's collar and started to take a step back, but he didn't get the chance. Heru's arms came up and gathered him carefully into a loose embrace, giving him the chance to keep moving away if he wanted to. But he didn't. That was the exact opposite of what Malik wanted. He melted against Heru's body and pressed his face into Heru's warm shoulder as the tears overwhelmed him.
Heru remained stiff for a couple of minutes before gradually beginning to relax. One of his hands came up and began combing gently through Malik's hair. "You really miss him, don't you?"
"Yes," Malik whispered, feeling completely drained. It had all just been too much, what with the disappearance and the funeral and returning to the past and everything that had happened since then. He didn't know how he was supposed to be able to cope with this without Mariku. He felt more than heard Heru sigh and the hand in his hair dropped away.
"Alright. I will return to the palace with you, but if Akhenaden does not show up within a day or two I'm leaving. I'm willing to take my chances."
"That's fair," he murmured, relieved that he had gotten Heru to agree at all. He pulled back and rubbed at his face with his sleeve, embarrassed at his show of emotion. He hadn't meant to lose control that easily. It had been a long time since he had cried like that.
Fortunately, Heru didn't say anything to draw attention to it more than he already had. He just nodded and drew his cloak more closely around him. "Come on. I know a way that we'll be able to return without being seen," he said. This time when he set off, his pace was markedly slow enough to let Malik catch up.
STGY
Waiting, Yuugi discovered, was the hardest part. It was not a concept that he was new to, but that made it no less easier to bear. On the morning of the coronation, he opened his eyes and realized that he was lying in Atemu's bed. The prince was noticeably absent, however, and when Yuugi sat up and sleepily looked around he realized that Atemu was standing by the window, staring up at the sky. For a moment, Yuugi was bewildered as to how he had ended up in Atemu's bed in the first place. He only remembered when he saw the piles of parchment that had been shoved to the end of Atemu's bed. Atemu and Seth had been studying the scrolls furiously, trying to figure out what Akhenaden's plan might be, and he must have fallen asleep at some point.
"Where are Seth and Jou?" Yuugi asked through a yawn.
Atemu jumped and turned at the same time, his eyes wide. "Oh! You're awake."
"Yes, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."
"That's alright." Atemu waved a hand and shook his head. He looked very serious. "My cousin and your friend left not long ago. Seth wanted some time to prepare for the ceremony." He hesitated briefly. "Now that Akhenaden has left the palace, that means the position for high priest is available. Normally I would choose from one of the priests, but I want it to be Seth. He is the one I trust above everyone else, especially now that Mahado is… is gone."
"I think that's a good idea," Yuugi told him. Siamun was too old to be Atemu's high priest, and Yuugi suspected that Karim and Shada would someday be reincarnated as Rishid and Shadi. Based on the actions of the two of them in the future, he wasn't wholly sure that he was ready to trust them in the past. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and stretched, wincing as a muscle in his lower back protested. "I didn't mean to fall asleep. Did you guys find anything?"
"No," Atemu said with a sigh. There were visible circles under his eyes now, the skin puffy and bruised from a lack of sleep. "Seth can't be sure. Akhenaden used to take scrolls all the time, and he wasn't really paying attention when Akhenaden took these ones. And when we tried to find and ask Akhenaden's maid for her help she was nowhere to be found."
"His maid?" Suddenly alert, Yuugi looked up sharply. That was interesting. Hafiz had always been a very private man. Malik had often complained that he and Isis had no idea what was going on in his mind. It surprised him to hear that Akhenaden would have trusted anyone to keep his rooms clean, particularly when he was plotting to kill the pharaoh. That sort of thing could have easily made the rumour mill go wild. He breathed through a strong wave of hope and tried to smile. "He had a maid?"
"All of the priests do. Akhenaden used to have several, but a few years ago he dismissed most of them. He claimed that they were interrupting him when he needed to focus, and my father decided to let him do what he liked." Bitterness suffused Atemu's face briefly before he glanced away. "Then a while back he brought a new peasant in, and the rest were sent to work in other parts of the palace. He never explained where she came from or why she was the one that he wanted to have serve him. I never thought to ask. Why? What does it matter?"
A lot, Yuugi thought. "Who is she? What does she look like?"
Atemu stared at him, brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't really know. I didn't get the chance to see her often. She spent most of her time in his chambers," he replied slowly, clearly wondering if Yuugi had lost his mind.
"Do you know someone who might?" Yuugi was trying to keep calm.
"I can call for Téa." Apparently Atemu had decided to indulge this odd whim, because he crossed to the door, opened it, and spoke to Tristan. Yuugi pretended not to notice the curious look Atemu was giving him as they waited for Téa to arrive. It did not take long. Within less than ten minutes, the door opened again and the girl slipped in. She was clearly confused, but she smiled nevertheless as she bowed deeply.
"Téa, what do you know about Akhenaden's servant? What does she look like?" In his excitement, Yuugi could not wait for Atemu to speak first. He stared at Téa anxiously, waiting for her reply. His patience was rewarded.
"She had white hair," Téa replied immediately. Her expression grew thoughtful. "And when I asked, she said her name was Amane."
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