Many thoughts flooded Khu's mind as he vainly struggled to get free. Seth had almost inhuman strength at this moment. Akunadin was doing this to him! Akunadin was causing him to be powerful enough to restrain the elder son and brother and to kill him. This wasn't the way Khu pictured that he would go down. For centuries he had remained with his brother in the Shadow Realm, watching him slowly go mad from Akunadin's increasing influence. Then, when Seth's defenses were completely torn down, the wretched man had possessed him again, as he had often in ancient Egypt.
Every now and then the real Seth had tried to tear free of the control. Once, after he had been engaging in his mad activities for some time and he and Khu had been fiercely arguing over what he was doing, he had looked at his brother with wild eyes and had screamed, "Brother, help me!"
That was what Khu had tried to do. Admittedly, at the beginning of this mess, Khu had vainly hoped that perhaps he could enact some plan to at last rid himself of the Pharaoh and that Seth wouldn't stand in his way. But he had known something was quite wrong with his brother. Seth had always agreed with Atemu and wished to serve him. He never approved of Khu's rebel antics. But then, all of a sudden, he had started helping him. Khu had tried to convince himself that Seth had simply seen the light and turned his back on the foolish Pharaoh. But he knew that wasn't the truth. And yet, during the ancient Egypt times, before Khu was killed, he had never really tried to look into Seth's strange behavior. He had been the foolish one—and selfish. Now he saw that he should have known better. He saw that, perhaps he did know better, but he had overlooked everything because he was so determined to overthrow Atemu and he was so relieved that Seth had finally joined forces with him. Now they were both paying for it.
Khu had first started to truly comprehend what was going on after the whole San Francisco fiasco in modern times. Seth was very ill, as was quite proven after Khu had tried to heal him with the Horse Talisman. Physically he was indeed healed, but mentally, as had gone through Khu's mind so often these past days, Seth was far worse off. When he had recruited Nuru again and had gone on this latest rampage, Khu had followed. And now it had all come down to this. One of them was going to die—and Khu wondered if it wasn't just justice being served. He hadn't been a good brother to Seth during ancient Egypt. Now, perhaps, he had to pay for what he'd done—and not done—for the younger brother he should have been watching over. He waited for the final blow, the death strike . . . but it didn't come.
Yami Yugi and the others were all watching the scene, tense, no one daring to move for fear that any sudden motion would startle Seth and cause him to kill Khu for certain. For some unknown reason, he was hesitating. Then he removed his foot from Khu's back and started to shake, gripping at either side of his head. Stunned at first, Khu slowly turned over, staring at his younger brother.
"What's happenin' to him?!" Joey demanded in disbelief, getting creeped out as he watched the high priest writhing as he fell to his knees in the snow.
Yami Yugi smiled slightly. "The true Seth is trying to get out again," he replied. "Perhaps, though he has been driven almost mad throughout the centuries, seeing his father using his body to try killing Khu will be enough to give him the strength he needs to break free." Now that he remembered the truth about Seth and knew what was actually happening to him, Yami Yugi found himself silently cheering the man on. He wanted Seth to be released from his inner prison and to once again be the friend he had been in Egypt.
Marik, sitting on one of the stone benches and still rubbing at the sore spot on his head, watched with a certain horror and empathy. He had been driven mad by his Yami and by his hatred and rage. When his Yami had tried to emerge after Rishid had been struck down, Marik had suffered just as Seth was suffering now. With all of his strength he had tried to break free from the chains binding him, only to fail. He found himself willing Seth to succeed now. He had suffered with this other presence—his own father!—for centuries, even millennia. How is my suffering anything compared to that? the Egyptian boy thought to himself.
Everyone was so intent on watching Seth's anguish that none of them noticed several men lurking in the shadows, snapping pictures of the large group and especially of the Kaibas. Noa hadn't been lying when he had told Seto about Del Vinci's men appearing in the cemetery. But what Noa didn't know was that Del Vinci's goons were being spied on as well. The vague, but obvious, sound of motorcycles approached from the north, but no one—neither our friends nor the gangsters—realized that this would be significant very soon. They had other things on their minds at the moment. The gang members soon finished taking their pictures and then departed—to continue their dirty work in the shadows.
Now Seth gave a cry of agony, magic shooting forth from his fingers without his permission. Khu snarled, attempting to make a shield, but he wasn't quick enough to escape the blow. With an Egyptian curse the man was thrown back harshly, crashing into the Pharaoh and knocking them both down.
Yami Yugi grunted, struggling to get up. Khu got over his dazedness and weakly stood, not offering help to Atemu. Instead he gripped his staff tightly, willing Seth to overcome the madman that was Akunadin. He knew that in the end, only Seth himself could do it. But he concentrated, willing Seth to have his support and all the strength he could lend. Several of the others took up silent prayers for Seth to have help.
Seth screamed again, kneeling down and grasping at clumps of snow. As he shuddered, feeling his spirit weaken once more, he began to see visions of the past. He saw himself as a young child, nearly drowning in the Nile River and then being rescued by Khu (who hated the water). He saw Akunadin always misjudging Khu and eventually disowning him. And he saw his many years of service to Pharaoh Atemu, which were interrupted by various calamities and dangers to Egypt. He re-experienced the horrors of having his father possess him, the madness of the Shadow Realm, and the way Khu had stood by for so long—at first not realizing that Akunadin was at work and later, just seeming to let it happen. Seth wasn't angry at Khu, though. They had never been extremely close, and during Atemu's reign, Khu's hatred had controlled every move he had made. His actions had really mostly been expected by Seth.
But now he wasn't going to let Akunadin traipse around in his body any longer! With determination blocking out all insanity, Seth gave a fierce warcry and forced his body to stand up. Lights, symbolizing the containment of his magic, exploded forth in all directions. Khu ducked as several headstones were clipped. The entire cemetery seemed to bathe in light for several brief moments.
Then abruptly all was still. Téa opened an eye cautiously after a long moment of silence, discovering that everything now looked the same as before. "Where's Seth?" she asked hesitantly, glancing about for him.
"Is he dead?" Joey asked with his bluntness. Marik shushed him.
Yami Yugi narrowed his eyes grimly, watching the scene as Khu limped forward to a crater in the deep snow. "Let us hope not," the Pharaoh said quietly. Seth was . . . one of his best priests and also . . . his cousin. Carefully he and the others moved forward to gather around the crater. "His magic must have melted the snow."
"Seth?!" Khu cried in frustration, reaching out to touch the younger man's shoulder. Seth was laying very still on his back, his eyes closed. Many things went through Khu's mind, none of them pleasant, in the agonizing moment before Seth's eyelids fluttered. Would this be the true Seth or . . . would Akunadin's influence still be obvious?
Slowly Seth focused, blinking at his elder brother, and then he raised up and looked about in stunned shock, as if seeing everything for the first time. "Khu," he said at last, in awe. "I'm in control again, Khu! Father . . . Father's gone!" He could barely believe it. . . . He was free again. Truly free!
Khu stared at him, as if trying to process this incredible news. He was truly gone and Seth was sane again? He studied his brother carefully, seeing the old light back in the blue eyes, and felt a tremendous weight being lifted from his shoulders. "It's about time!" he declared sternly before pulling Seth into a tight hug. Everyone was shocked by this show of brotherly love, but no one was more shocked than Seth. And if he was shocked by this, Khu's next words bowled him over.
"Can you forgive me, Seth?" Khu choked out, shutting his eyes tightly. "I didn't try to help you as soon as I should have. . . ." And then he was pouring out all of his thoughts and the reasons for his actions throughout the millennia. Seth listened, his eyes widening at points and narrowing at others. But when Khu was finished, Seth simply smiled and replied,
"That was so long ago, Khu. . . . You're not obsessed with defeating the Pharaoh any more. Before you could even think about me, you had to get over that driving rage." He laid a hand on the raven-haired man's shoulder firmly.
Khu looked down. "But you always hated my determination to overthrow Atemu," he recalled. "I should have given it more thought when you suddenly began aiding me. Instead I egotistically thought you'd finally come to your senses and realized that my point of view was correct."
Seth actually laughed a bit. "I didn't expect anything else from you, brother, while your hatred of Atemu was so great." Though he spoke lightly, Khu was certain that Seth was actually hurt—or that he had been at one time. When they were alone, they would need to have a long talk.
For now, Khu helped Seth stand and they turned to face the others. When Seth saw the Pharaoh watching it all, he dropped to his knees and bowed low. "My Pharaoh," he said quietly, feeling an acute sense of guilt, "because of me, much turmoil has been had for you and your allies. I know your memory hasn't completely returned and you most likely cannot trust me again . . ." He trailed off, staring in shock at a hand reaching out to raise him up. As he looked up, he saw Yami Yugi smiling down at him.
"Come, my friend," he said firmly. "You have overcome the demon inhabiting your body. When I was the Pharaoh, and when you were in control of your vessel, you were always loyal to me. My time as Pharaoh has ended, but our friendship doesn't have to." He pulled Seth to his feet, completely unconcerned. He knew that what he said was true and that this Seth, the true Seth—Priest Seto—would not cause any trouble.
Seth gazed at him in bewilderment at first, but when it fully dawned on him that Atemu was serious and sincere, he smiled. "Then it will continue on throughout the eternities," he pronounced as the snow continued to howl around them.
Unseen by all was a silhouette watching in a high tree, his cape and long hair being blown about by the winds. "Fascinating," he purred in a low voice before disappearing.
For Duke, the strange things hadn't stopped occurring. When the paramedics had arrived, Gabrielle's body had vanished. No one had seen it happen, but yet no one could remember having looked away long enough for it to have somehow been taken away. It was just suddenly gone.
The lieutenant shook his head in disbelief. "This has got to be the single strangest day I've had in a long time," he declared, turning away from the baffled paramedics. "Where could she have gone? Did we imagine the entire thing? Was there never really a body here?"
Duke narrowed his eyes, looking at the crimson-streaked snow. "No," he said grimly, "not unless you have another explanation for how blood got there." Gabrielle's body had definitely been there and it had definitely vanished. But this oddness wouldn't begin to make sense for a while yet—nor would Gabrielle be the only one to look as if she had suddenly committed suicide. This mystery would have to wait—however, not for long. . . .