{Quarter to Three}

{Chapter 7: I want to go back. }

Oooh. Whoa. Jou blinked at the two monsters. Yami, who stood ahead of him, stared shocked at them, then Jou.

"How did you summon these beasts?" Yami spoke.

The question knocked Jou out of his thoughts. "..I.. uh.." he blinked. Then stared at them once more. Then he remembered. His hands flew down to his pant pockets and felt around. There they were!

He pulled out his deck of cards. He searched through them quickly to find his Swordsman and Red Eyes. Both their card pictures were blank. He cocked his head at them. Well, this certainly was a surprise.

He walked slowly over to his Red Eyes, and poked on the scales. Yup, certainly felt real. His dragon turned it's head and lowered it to Jou's.

Jou placed a hand over it's large nose and rubbed hesitantly. The dragon let out a breath and he snatched his hand away a moment later. His gaze followed back over to the pharaoh.

"Where did you find those, slave?" Yami's voice sounded out.

"They're mine!" he yelled to him, and then tucked his deck back into his pocket. His monsters turned to look at Yami.

"No slave is allowed to participate in Shadow Games."

"I'm not a slave, you jack-ass!" Yami glared towards him.

Murmurs sounded through the room. Jou looked around, suddenly nervous. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say...

He felt a large hand against his shoulder.

'...?' he turned to find his Swordsman standing behind him. He stared up at the monster, before smiling nervously. He looked towards a furious-looking Yami.

"Sekh!" he suddenly called out, "Remove these monsters immediately!"

It wasn't a moment until Jou watched the topless high-priest stand and begin to chant. His monsters, almost immediately seemed to lose their color, and slowly fade.

"What... what are.." Jou trailed off. His monsters were gone. Oh.. perfect. He didn't feel so bold anymore.

Jou felt a sudden drain in his energy. Almost as if he couldn't stand... He wavered on his feet, but stood his ground. No falling in front of the pharaoh, now.

"Take him, Sekh," Yami spoke once more, "Do with him what you will." Sekh stood, bowed, and walked towards Jou.

Jou backed away, as Sekh advanced. Oooh, this wasn't good. He grabbed onto Jou's arm, and began pulling him. Not good at all. Isis' words rang through his mind, 'The first thing you need to do is make sure Sekh does not become your new master. You know who Sekh is, I'm sure.'

Jou looked at Sekh's face just to make sure. Yeah. It was him.

Crap.

Jou was drug out the room, and the doors slammed closed with a bang.

-_-_-

It wasn't a moment before the doors closed that Jou fell to the ground in sheer exhaustion.

Sekh merely stared at his new slave with indifference before reaching down and grabbing his arm, dragging him behind him. Jou tried to stand, but his legs felt like noodles.

Sekh had stayed silent most of the way down the halls as he dragged Jou behind him.

Jou was lost in his thoughts. He could feel a wave of depression wash over him as the memory of the girl who looked like Anzu get dragged away replayed over and over in his mind. The look of fear that was so clearly written in her face... The fact that he had caused it... Was the pharaoh always such a bastard? Yami always seemed pretty decent...

"Yes." The high-priest spoke. Jou looked up to him.

"What?"

Sekh sighed impatiently, "The pharaoh has always been a bastard."

Jou blinked. "Oh."

Sekh released his arm and stopped his moving. Jou stood up completely, his strength returning to him, and looked up to him questioningly.

"These are my chambers." He motioned towards the doors beside them. "Come."

He turned and walked into his room. Jou walked hesitantly behind him.

Jou seemed to lose his breath when he reached the inside. It was gorgeous! He had never seen such a beautiful room in his life. He stared around in wonder, before he heard Sekh's voice yell to him.

"Slave! Pay attention!"

Jou's head snapped to the priest.

Sekh pointed to a large blanket and pillows which were located flatly on the ground near the corner of the room. "This is where you will sleep. Should I need you for anything, you will need to be close. You will tend to my needs."

...When did he have time to prepare those? Jou almost went to question, but decided against it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know who's it was previously...

Once he registered what Sekh had said he stared incredulously towards him. Was this guy for real? He already seemed worse the Seto back home! Jou paused in his thoughts with the thought of Kaiba. How was he going to go home anyway? ...Was he ever going to be able to?

Jou looked to Sekh. He looked exactly as Kaiba did. He could feel the nostalgia oozing from the boy. It wasn't a nice feeling.

The need to talk to Isis again was now prodding at him but he could hear Sekh speaking to him. Best to listen to the guy.

"Because it's evening, I'll allow you to sleep but, be sure to get up before dawn." Sekh paused, and ran his eyes up and down Jounouchi, causing the teen to become suddenly very self conscious.

"Where did you receive such strange robes?" Jou looked down at himself noting his school uniform and tennis shoes. He looked back up to the priest.

"Uh..um." he trailed off. How was he supposed to answer this?

"Well?" he sighed impatiently.

"Well," he spoke finding his voice, "It was the only thing available." Hopefully that was good enough...

"I see." Sekh continued staring. Jou could feel his cheeks heat up. Why did this guy keep staring at him? He looked to the ground.

The room grew silent for several minutes before Sekh left the room. Jou sighed and moved towards his "bed". He was suddenly quite exhausted.

He flopped down onto the blankets and rested his head onto the pillow. He could feel his cards prod into his chest. He reached inside his coat and pulled them out. The first two cards were his Red Eyes and his Flame Swordsman.

He stared at them for a long moment before placing them against his chest. He had suddenly come to a realization. His cards were the only thing he had from 2003. That was it. A flashback of Yami and how the Anzu look-a-like was dragged away was the last straw. His eyes filled with tears almost immediately and he tried to hold them back. Crying never got anyone anywhere!

He bit onto his pointer finger to keep any sounds away and squeezed his eyes together. He was stuck in some weird time. And he screwed up the first thing he was supposed to do. He'd become Sekh's slave and he'd gotten some girl killed and made enemies with Yami within the first five minutes of even being there. He finally let out a soft sob. He'd never felt so homesick in his life.

And now there was really no way to get back. Jou sighed as he tried calm himself.

He needed sleep. He could figure things out better in the morning.

And so he did.

{End Chapter 7}

Ezra: *bows* Please excuse the lateness with this chapter. I was having personal problems and they got in the way of my writing. ^^;

Betty: Certainly shows! This chapter was boring!

Ezra: I know, I know. It's the next chapter everything really gets going, I just had to get this out of the way.


Betty: ...You know you want to tell them, so just do it...

Ezra: *blush* Okay! I got to go to Anime Expo!! *dances*

Betty: *grin*

Ezra: It was so much fun! *squee* ...Extremely expensive, mainly because we don't actually live in Orange County. But so fun. ^__^

Betty: Alright, alright. Review please!