1990

Rishid had a hard life.

Abandoned in the middle of nowhere, found by a couple who lived underground and protected the secrets of a king from 3000 years ago, raised as a slave instead of a son.

Rishid had a hard life.

One day, when he was helping his little brother young master in his studies, the restless 9 year old asked a weird question.

"Rishid, do you know what the 'rite of the tomb keepers' is?"

"I don't, Master Malik."

"Of course you don't! You never saw my father's back! They carve the secrets of the pharaoh's memories on their eldest son's back! Next week it's my tenth birthday, he will cut me open! Why…why do I have to do this? I don't wanna!" The boy started crying, Rishid didn't know how to react.

"Master Malik, if you wish…I can take your place in the ritual."

"You…You would do that for me?"

Rishid smiled and nodded, "I would do anything for you, Master Malik."

Malik hugged Rishid, wetting his clothes with tears.

Rishid felt like an older brother.

That night, Rishid went to Ahmed Ishtar's chamber and made his wish.

"...Did Malik talk you into this?" The older man frowned.

"No, sir! This is my own decision!" Rishid said with determination.

"...You're just a servant."

"Just…just one last wish, Master Ishtar. When the ritual is done...may I…may I call you father?" Rishid asked with hope in his voice.

Ahmed's face twisted in hatred, "SHUT UP! You are not and will never be my son! If you EVER talk about my family's secrets again, I'll cut off your tongue and kill you! OUT OF MY SIGHT!" He screamed in pure rage.

The teenager quickly got up and fled in fear and sadness.

"Brother…I'm sorry…" Rishid went to bed with tears in his eyes, hurt from being useless, hurt from being rejected, hurt from not being loved.

"Rishid? What's wrong?" Isis, the only daughter of the Ishtar Family, entered his room and approached the older teenager with worry.

"It's nothing, I'm sorry." If the patriarch found out that Rishid was tarnishing his name to his own daughter, Rishid would be murdered and left to the hyenas.

"Was it father? You can tell me, brother."

"I'm not your brother." Rishid said with as little emotion as he could, but the crack in his voice contradicted his tone.

"What. Was. It?" The girl glared at him, making the tall young man feel like a kid.

Rishid opened himself, he told her about the ritual and his attempt to take Malik's place. Her frown got deeper the more he talked.

"Rishid, I know that this is a brutal ritual, I wouldn't want this on my worst enemy…but it's our duty as gravekeepers to keep the nameless pharaoh's memories alive until he returns. Your attempt to spare an innocent kid from this is admirable, but the only thing that we can do is hope that the pharaoh returns soon, hope that Malik's future children don't need this brutality inflicted on them too." Isis got up and left, leaving Rishid to his own thoughts.

"One last thing," Isis said before leaving, "It doesn't matter what my father says, you will always be part of my family, brother." The girl smiled and closed the door behind her. That night, Rishid cried himself to sleep.

The day of the ritual arrived, the patriarch took Malik and Isis to the ceremonial chamber, leaving Rishid outside. Soon enough, Malik protests stopped and his screams of pain began.

The determined teenager took out his knife, "Master Malik…this is for you…"

Hours later, Malik stumbled out of the ceremonial chamber with his torso covered in bloody bandages, his sister was supporting him on the way.

"Rishid…tell me…who should I hate for this?" He said through his gritted teeth.

Rishid raised his head, causing Malik and Isis to gasp in shock.

His face was covered in hieroglyphs carved in his flesh.

"Master Malik…I couldn't take your pain…so at least allow me to share it…with these scars…I swear my allegiance to the Ishtar family until the day I die."

"Rishid…" Isis covered her mouth, too shocked to say anything else.

Malik started crying, he tried to hug Rishid but the pain of his own wounds didn't let him. The trio of siblings wondered if their life of pain would ever change.

1992

Almost 2 years had passed since Malik's ritual, the patriarch felt disgusted with Rishid's personal ritual and refused to look him in the face ever since. Malik eventually accepted that he would carry the secret of the pharaoh forever, but that night, he was restless for another reason.

"Isis, I said that I'm going!" Malik screamed.

"Malik, please, lower your voice!" Isis hushed him.

"Don't worry, your father is asleep." Rishid entered the room.

Malik turned back to his sister, "Isis, please! If I pretend that I'm sleeping, father will never find out that I left the tunnels!"

Isis frowned, "But if he finds out, he will know that you broke the family law!"

"Don't worry, Rishid will take care of that!" The older teenager nodded, "Please, Isis…just this once! I need to see the real world at least one time in my life! It's not fair that you get to go outside and I don't!"

"Lady Isis, please, I'll cover for him. Just make Master Malik's wish come true." Rishid smiled at the girl.

Isis sighed, "Fine, we'll leave in the morning, but only for two hours! After that, we need to come back!"

Malik grinned from ear to ear and hugged his sister. Isis was having second thoughts already.

In the morning, the trio woke up early and made their preparations. Isis guided Malik out of the tunnels as Rishid stayed behind to make sure that their father wouldn't find out.

When Isis opened the door, Malik simply stared at the horizon, letting the sun bathe his body for the first time in his life.

"Sister…This…This is beautiful…"

Isis smiled at her brother's reaction and gently guided him to the nearby city.

Malik's childish reactions to everything was a heartwarming sight, Isis just wished that she didn't need to remind him to not bother random people every 2 minutes.

"Isis, what's this machine that the man is riding?" Malik showed her a magazine with a motorcycle ad.

"That's a motorcycle, a vehicle that runs on gas just like the lamps back home." Isis explained.

"It looks so fast! Like…like a mechanical horse!" Malik's smile turned into a deep frown, "Isis…I'll never ride one of those and travel the world, will I?"

Isis looked at her brother with sadness, "Malik, let's go back."

"Already? Fine…At least let me take this picture with the motorcycle!" Malik ripped the page from the magazine.

The siblings walked back to their home, but a mysterious man with cold eyes and an ankh hanging from his neck blocked their path, "Soon, the pharaoh will return," the man said.

"Who are you?" Isis stood between the man and her brother.

"Tomb Guardians, soon, blood will spill upon blood, and tragedy will tear your clan apart. That is the will of the pharaoh," he turned and left, Isis tried to follow him, but the man disappeared.

"I-Isis, where did he go? You saw him too, right?" Malik asked, confused by the man's disappearance.

"Malik, forget that today ever happened! Forget everything you saw today! Especially that man!" Isis said in a harsh and authoritarian voice.

"F-Fine!" Malik answered a little scared, his sister rarely raised her voice. He pocketed the motorcycle picture and followed her.

"That man knew who we were…who was he? And he had a Millennium Item too…" Isis took Malik back home, lost in her thoughts.

"Malik, I'll go first and you will follow me quickly and silently, okay?"

"Just a minute…" Malik walked to a collapsed stone wall and sat on it looking at the horizon, pretending that he was riding through the desert on a motorcycle, "Sister, one day, I'll travel all over the world, I'll see what no one in our family ever saw! I'll not live the rest of my life underground in the middle of nowhere!" The determined glint in his eyes raised a red flag in Isis, but she calmed herself, those were only the wishful thoughts of a kid.

"Malik, let's go." The boy got up and followed his sister, but something caught Isis' attention.

"A trap…no, an alarm! A rope tied in a contraption behind the door, so father would know if someone left…Rishid! Isis ran, Malik followed her asking what was wrong, but she wouldn't answer.

The siblings ran to Malik's room, but it was empty. They heard a painful scream and followed the sound, reaching the ceremonial chamber.

The duo found their father holding a red-hot glowing knife in his hand. In the ground, Rishid was kneeling with his back full of cauterized cuts.

"Rishid!" Malik screamed and tried to run to Rishid, but Isis held him back.

"Malik, Isis! You two broke the laws of our clan…I will punish you two! But first…" The man put the knife inside a pot with burning charcoal and took another hot knife out of the embers, "You forgot your duty as a servant? As my son's keeper?"

"I…I'm sorry…" Rishid said weakly.

"Father, stop!" Malik ran to his father and grabbed his arm, but the furious man threw his son across the room. Isis ran to her little brother.

"Now, watch, Malik! This is the pain that you gave him! This is all your fault!" Ahmed cut Rishid's back slowly, the smell of burning flesh was nauseating and the screams of pain were unbearable. Eventually, Rishid lost the last of his strength and fell, "Yes! Die you useless mongrel! Now, Malik, come here! It's your turn!"

Malik grabbed his head.

"Malik?" Isis asked her brother, but her answer was a bone-chilling laugh.

"Thank you for killing him, dear father!" Malik raised his head, his crazed eyes looking out of place in the boy's face.

"What's gotten into you, boy?" His father asked, confused with the change of attitude.

Isis started sweating.

"This is mine now!" The boy took the Millennium Rod from the display in the chamber.

"You will not touch the Millennium Items, you insufferable brat!"

"Shut up!" A shining eye appeared in Malik's forehead as he threw his father on the wall with the Rod's magic.

"M-Malik! Stop!" Isis tried to approach her brother, but her body froze.

"Stay out of this, dear sister." He said sarcastically, "You will be the first one to die, father…" Malik approached his immobile father.

"Malik! Stop! Please!" Isis tried to look away, but her head wouldn't move. What she saw next would scar her for the rest of her life.

"No…This is not my brother…This can't be my brother!" Isis closed her eyes and tried to tune out her father's screams as Malik skinned him alive. Hearing her father cutting her brother's back as he screamed was hard enough, but hearing the same boy sadistically removing her father's skin with the precision of a surgeon was way too sickening even for her.

"Rishid, you wanted to be part of our family, right? Then take this to the Duat, dear brother!" Malik dropped the skin of his father's back onto Rishid.

Rishid slowly opened his eyes.

"Y-You're alive? WHY WON'T YOU DIE?" Malik screamed and raised the Millennium Rod for a stab.

"Master Malik?" Rishid asked weakly.

This made Malik stop and grab his head harshly, as if in pain. He looked up and stared at Rishid with confusion, "What happened?" He turned around.

"Master Malik, don't look!" But Rishid was too late, Malik saw the lifeless body of his father kneeling with his hands tied in a pillar. His back had no skin and was bleeding profusely.

"F-Father? Who did this to you?" Malik tried to run to his father's corpse, but Rishid hugged him.

From the shadows, a man appeared, the same man who talked with Isis in the city.

"This is the will of the pharaoh, it was his soul that drove your father to his death." He said ominously.

"The pharaoh…this is his fault…ALL HIS FAULT!" Malik swore vengeance on the pharaoh. The hatred in his eyes would haunt Isis and Rishid for years.