I'm back! Sorry for the long wait since my last update! I had major writer's block for all of my stories...but going to an anime convention helped cure that ^_^

Thanks for following this story so far and reviews are welcome as usual :)

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Pegasus followed me silently, surprisingly calm in his movements. I wondered what gave him the confidence to follow me, but I decided I would deal with that later. I needed any act of confidence to fool the Tomb Keeper's Clan. The millennium key was throbbing against my chest almost painfully and it took a great deal of my self-control to keep from unleashing the tendrils around me once more. Sure, it would have been good for intimidation, but I no longer trusted myself.

"Your proof will be arriving shortly?" Odion demanded, his eyes glinting.

I looked down at him with a disdainful expression. Between the real threat that he posed and the constant urgings of the millennium key, I was losing my temper fast.

"We can always question him for the truth," Shadi murmured softly.

"His lie will result in his death," Odion said in a voice that suggested to me that he would be happy with that option.

I resisted looking back to Pegasus, but was silently glad for his company now as Shadi pulled out the millennium balance.

"Do you, Seto Kaiba, swear that Ishizu is your lawfully wedded wife?" Shadi asked in a commanding voice that reminded me so much of Ishizu. The millennium balance glowed in return.

"Yes," I replied curtly, feeling the pressure from the millennium balance.

As the word left my mouth I was suddenly assaulted by a series of false memories—Ishizu in a wedding gown by my side, her eyes glowing with a yearning and a free happiness that I had never seen in them before... another time her olive-colored body entangled in mine…later her eyes fierce with pride as she held a child in her arms—and I stifled the gasp that rose to the surface. What was Pegasus doing to my mind?

The balance stood still, and I watched it with an almost detached curiosity, as if it was not my life on the line. After what seemed like an eternity, Shadi nodded.

"He does not lie," Shadi confirmed. I relaxed imperceptibly.

"We shall see. The betrayer has his tricks, I am sure," Odion replied.

I tried to calm the anger that bubbled to the surface. While they were wasting time to prove my lies, Marik was still on the loose with Ishizu under his control. And the child…

"The intruder's messenger has arrived," a clan member announced.

I spun around to face Roland, my eyes sharp and cold—clear in my message that I meant business now.

"The documents you requested sir," he said.

"Here," I said, handing the documents to Odion without bothering to look at them myself. He snatched them from my hands with the ferocity of a wild animal and glanced through the contents. His frown deepened confirming that my trust in my subordinate had been well placed.

"He is…hers," he managed finally.

A roar erupted through the tunnels—a roar that I realized was a roar of approval. Shadi came towards me and knelt and was followed in suit by the other Tomb Keeper Clan members. I felt a surge of power and allowed a small smile to appear upon my face. I had acquired another asset—another form of power and I reveled in it.

I could see from their faces that they accepted me with a blindness I was unused to. I earned what I had become—but this was different. I was accepted simply because of what I claimed to be. Such blind devotion—was precisely the weapon I needed now.

I turned to see Odion kneeling as well and knew my success was complete. A chanting began, a chanting that echoed within my mind and felt familiar somehow. The echoes of power—the power I had received when I rose up against the man I had sworn to protect. The pharaoh…

"The initiation ceremony will begin," Pegasus muttered in my ear.

I blanched when I realized what it would entail but nodded as if unconcerned.

"I will be immobilized for a bit after. I want you to use the clan in my name to track down Marik," I muttered back to him.

"Of course," he said, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him bow respectfully and then disappear into the crowd of chanting clan members.

I took a deep breath and then nodded to Odion. His gaze was conflicted, but he was as much as my man as any would be. His vows made it such.

He led me into a large chamber with a raised platform of stone. Without prompting, I stripped my shirt off, exposing the back that would contain my seal. I raised my hand to silence the clan members. I felt a tremor of pleasure as they all fell silent at my command.

"You are mine as I am the pharaoh's," I cried out. They repeated the single phrase with a unified roar.

Then in the ensuing silence, Odion pulled a hot metal rod from the flames and held it up for all the clan to see. The chanting began once again as the rod approached me and I willed myself to watch as he brought the rod closer to me.

"Do it," I hissed as his eyes searched me.

And as the rod seared into my skin I howled an inhuman cry. I shuddered as Odion pulled the rod away, grimacing at the smell of my burning flesh.

"He who is worthy of the leader of shadows will endure the flame!" Odion cried out—and for a moment I thought I saw a flicker of pity in his eyes.

And the rod burned into my flesh once more. Sweat erupted onto my skin as I tried to keep from crying out; blood seeped from where I had bit my inner cheek. The pain was consuming—more than anything Gozaburo had inflicted upon me. This was pure madness.

My back arched as the next series of burns were placed upon my back and the pain spread through my skin like anger boiling to the surface. Marik—Ishizu—Gozaburo—the three faces revolved in my mind, fusing with the pain I was feeling with the deep sense of betrayal.

I snapped my eyes open in shock. Betrayal? By whom? I did not trust by principle. Pain was a necessary indication that I was alive—that I was strong. That I would endure.

Pain was the reminder of the retribution I would inflict in return.

Pain would become my protector…