Faded
By Evil Windstar
Summary: After the death of Pharaoh Atemu, Seth's disgrace begins. Left for dead, his life renews from the ashes as Mathias helps him live again and love once more. S/J Mpreg.
Pairings: Kaiba/Jounouchi
Warning: Spoilers, I guess. Yaoi. Mpreg.
Notes: Setting in, obviously, ancient Egypt. At the prologue, Seth's lady/Seth's beloved is Kisara, the blonde woman in his arms in front of the tablet of a Blue Eyes White Dragon. I have no idea what role she plays in the real anime/manga, so I may be wrong in my assumption that Seth sacrificed her, or his father forced him to. Anyway, with her out of the way, I bring Mathias, Jounouchi's Greek past self.
Disclaimer: Don't own them.
Prologue
A sudden impassioned cry echoed throughout the obelisks holding the ceiling, the reverberations making its way to his cell. It made the hairs on the back of his neck raised up at unearthly shriek of his pharaoh cousin. Then a blazing light, much like the beam of power his dragons would burst out to his enemies, blinded him for a few seconds and deep within his heart; he knew what happened to his beloved cousin and what fate awaited him. Nothing but the best of deaths for the High Priest Seth of Pharaoh Atemu. Nothing but the cruelest of fates for him.
The thought of death did not frighten him. He faced death head on at an early age when his mother died by fire. He gave countless sacrifices to the gods, death by his very hand though he never thought he would have to give his beloved's death for the satisfaction of the gods he worshipped. There, he believed, began his downfall. He listened to his mentor, his father, to commit the highest treason, usurp his cousin from his rightful throne and take it for his own.
And he was so close in achieving that goal before he realized that he was being used. By then, it was too late, he was too far to turn back and ask for forgiveness. He had released the gods from their unnatural prison, and set the Black Land up for destruction and chaos. He was the cause for the devastation of homes and countless deaths. In the moment of truth, he finally discriminated of the scene before him; his and his cousin's respective monster were fighting high above them. His Blue Eyes was swirling with grace and sheer power as it flew the air, snapping at the empty air where the Dark Magician once was. It was a long, draining war between them but in the end, Atemu's monster triumphed over the darkness of his own monster.
Oh how his cousin looked at him, with wide sadden eyes as they dragged him away to the cells down below. There was already forgiveness and love shining in those blood-ridden depths. Knowing he had betrayed that sacred trust between them, it was more than enough for him to accept his doom.
He was here, chained to the wall by iron that bit into his wrists and ankles to await his death sentence. It was nothing compared from what others suffered because of his foolishness, in his eagerness to console himself in the most selfish way. He had lost his beloved, but now others had lost far more than he. Some their lives, and others their entire family and he was the cause of that. Blood, blood on his hands and soul for all he touched was doomed to die, himself included.
They found him with his head high and proud, despite having blood on his hands, and the soldiers were infuriated at the sight of him unbroken. They grabbed him roughly by the scruff of his neck and dragged him with chains and all to his fate. And nobody could deny the silent tears that fell from his eyes as they passed the unmoving body of his pharaoh cousin. The attendants were reverently, carefully picking up the pharaoh's body, and taking it to the place where the proper burial preparations would begin, an honor that should have been his if he hadn't done what he had done.
Atemu's queen wept also. She raised her reddened eyes to meet his own as the soldiers escorted him outside. And he could not bear the accusation, and the despair, in those eyes, so he tore his eyes away from her and stared ahead of him. His steps did not falter as he marched to meet his fate.
He slowly climbed the stairs, the soldiers behind him, his hands tied and the chains on his ankles making climbing risky business. The platform was set and the rope was ready. His hands were tied behind, he did not fear this.
With the queen on the pharaoh's throne, they heralded his death to be brought by strangulation of rope, to be hanged in front of public. He got no privilege that should have come to his rank; he was to die a traitor's death.
He closed his eyes and prayed to the gods to ease his way to the Afterlife. But no answer came to him, the gods were silently. And that, hurt far more than being chained. He raised his eyes to the heavens, mouthing unsounded words to the skies, asking for forgiveness. Far above, he saw a black phantom circling over him, wings spread wide to catch the warm thermals. Other shadows joined the black one, around and round they went. The vultures were waiting.
The executioner slipped the noose around his neck without any protest from him. He was oddly calmed, peaceful, knowing he would join his lady and cousin soon. The heralds declared to the masses in front of him that his death would be now and the gods could only judge him now. But the words the heralds uttered did not reach his ears. They were muted, silent, the words flying by his ears.
Everything was going so slowly as time seemed to drag by. Everything was so quiet. Why?…
He felt the floor beneath him give way, his feet now kicking for something solid to stand on. The noose tightened, effectively cutting off his air supply. He gasped out loud, slowly choking as the noose pulled against his neck. His eyes were going blank and he began to struggle, trying to free his hands.
He gratefully welcomed the blessed darkness as the fringes of death gripped him in its icy claws…
Chapter I: Fallen from Grace
He laughed gently, more like a soft whisper of happiness than a great shout of joy, but a laugh nonetheless. His eyes were glistening like light reflects on pure water and his face was kind and gentle. You could have not known the horror that beheld him moons ago, of being violated so. But it was in the past and he could only be happy with his only companion in the isolated parts of the Black Land.
The small dragon thrust its snout in his face, chirping softly for food. Mathias held its dainty face in his face, caressing its baby face and briefly touching its razor-sharp needle teeth that were like a kitten's. "My little one, be patient. I shall feed you so enough."
Behind him there was a bag of small pieces of desert deer meat. The pieces were small enough for the little dragonet to not choke on them because it would, no doubt, try to gobble it all up. So he fed it in the manner its parents would do if they were still alive. The dragon parents would tear of small chunks from the steaming body of their fallen prey and throw it into the air for its dragonet to catch. It was game, and it taught their young that everything comes with a price. The dragonet had to work to get fed.
As he threw the chunks of meat into the air and the dragonet would falsely try to use its too-weaken wings to rise into the air, he remembered how he found his small companion. It had been a few moons back.
He was guiding his herd of sheep through a small pass of the great mountains when all the sudden the sheep started to bleat fearfully and as hard as he tried he could not make them move. He discovered that sheep could be quite stubborn creatures when they wanted to be. He set out to investigate what was the cause that created such fear in his sheep. He walked towards the crest of the hill and nearly screamed out in horror on what he saw.
A great carcass was steaming under the hot sun. It had been stripped of its great hide and the eyes had been carved out. The rows of teeth that made it such a formidable predator were gone. The once marvelous beast was dead. And right next to it was another dead dragon, the same thing had been done to it.
He mourned the death of the dragons. They had been the last of their kind. No more would he hear the deadly roars of the dragons as they screamed out their triumph. No more would he see the glorious wings spread out in the air as they rode the thermals. The line of the great dragons was dead.
He bowed his head in respect for them, knowing man had killed them because no one else could bring these marvelous creatures down. There was no other creature on earth that would need the dragon's hide, eyes, or teeth. The only reason that the meat had not also been taken was because its flesh was too tough to digest. But he on the other hand, he needed food and he could not let such a bounty go to waste, despite how the dragons have met their end.
He had began to carve out meat when he heard the shrieks of his sheep, screaming out their terror. He ran to them, praying to the gods that he could fight off whatever it was attacking his herd. To his surprise, he saw a ball of black and white rolling on the ground. The sheep was blindly kicking at its attacker and it was soon out of its grasp. And Mathias realized why his sheep had survived. Its attacker had been a dragonet that had not yet grown its teeth. The baby dragon had been barely born because its small wings still had the sticky film from the egg and he knew if the film was not taken off, the wings would never be able to spread for flight.
He cautiously approached the baby, making soft snuffing noises, much like he had heard the mother dragon encouraging its young as they broke out of their eggs. The dragonet hissed at him as he walked to it; but once it heard the noises, it stopped and cocked its head, puzzled as to the fact why such a strange creature was making the noises its mother would make. It mewed to him as Mathias continued to snuff, it collapsed on the ground and opened its jaws.
As all babies when they're born, the dragonet was hungry and rightly so. It had been born in a time when its parents were dead. It had been born alone, no mother dragon had greeted him and taken off the irritating film of its wings so it could spread its wings to dry. It chirped softly to Mathias and he cautiously reached out a hand to touch its snout. The baby thrusted its face into his hand once it was close enough ad he touched the soft silky skin between its nostrils. He rubbed it and he began to feed it with the meat he had carved out of its parent. The dragonet greedily gobbled it all up and chirped louder for more food. Mathias eagerly fed him more, liking the feel of young, tender tongue licking his palm. He was needed.
He threw another piece of meat into the air and the dragonet rose into the air, beating its wings furiously to get higher. He laughed once it crashed into the ground, legs splayed and wings tangle. He helped it untangle itself and the little one grinned at him and chirped. It saw a butterfly pass by and it began to follow it with its nose like a curious puppy. It snapped at the butterfly and grew puzzle when the butterfly flew higher in the air. It mewed sadly at Mathias and went off to entertain its baby mind with other amusements.
He snorted in laughter as he shook his head and did his own chores around his humble home. He did not have much, but what else would he need when he had his baby dragon loving him? Though he was going to have to teach the young one to hunt so it could feed itself because there would be a time when he wouldn't be able to do it.
He had yet to name the dragonet, not being able to find a suitable name for it. He wanted a name that would describe it and give its future a bright shine. Oh how he wanted to be able to ride the dragonet into the skies and escape his fate of banishment.
As the sun went to its nightly rest, he was done and grew curious when the dragonet did not come back home, because by this time the little one would be insisting to be fed immediately. He went outside and followed the tracks. He grew even more worried as the path led to where he had found his dragonet, in the middle of the mountain pass.
He whistled to it, hoping it would be heard. It echoed as the sound waves vibrated against the sides. He was relieved when he heard an answering snuff in the deepest parts of the mountain. Oh gods! What was the dragonet doing inside the darkest cave?!
He felt an immense fear as he toed the line of fading light and eternal darkness at the entrance of the cave. He closed his eyes and tried not to heave as he remembered. He recalled the ragged breaths behind him, the rough hands handling him. He again felt the hot shaft invading him, tearing at his insides as he screamed, begged his assailant to let him be. His screams had never reached beyond the darkening night and only his dragonet had heard his distress. The screams of both human and dragon were in unison as the man killed him from the inside. When he was thrown inside, broken and left for dead, after a while his little one had come to him, blood on its snout as it shoved its face into his face.
The dragonet laid right next to him and spread its little wings over him, covering him and giving him warmth. It licked his face and gave a sorrowful chirp to him. It had tasted human flesh and had its first kill. That was all Mathias knew.
His disgrace of being violated so. His fear of the unknown, of darkness had a real cause. He was afraid, but he had to save his dragonet, his life. It depended only on him to protect it. Taking a deep breath, he plunged head-on to save it. He was immediately surrounded by the darkness and he forced himself to forget everything but focused on his ragged breath and his dragonet's growls… Growls? Curious now, because the little dragon would not be growling if it was in trouble, he traveled cautiously across the cave, using the growls of his little one to guide him. He carefully put one foot in front of the other, waving his hands around, hoping he would not crash against a wall.
His foot touched something soft on the ground and the growls immediately turned into purrs. He went to his knees and began to touch around. The dragonet rushed to his side and nuzzled his face, churring into the crick of his neck. He softy caressed the snout of the small one and then directed his attention on what his dragonet had found.
Mathias experimentally began to explore, tracing the features and gasped out loud once he realized what it was. A human! He immediately pulled his hands away and put them in his lap. He frowned, puzzled what to do. His dragonet butted him on his shoulder, making insistent noises and making a whirlwind of noise with the constant flapping of its wings.
"Shh, little one. What should we do with him?" Mathias questioned out loud as he experimentally started to brush his fingers over the face of the fallen human. "Most importantly, how did he get here?" He frowned again as he encountered matted blood on the hair of the fallen one and some of it was still wet on the forehead. "Eh, seems this fellow met a bad end," he put one hand over where the heart would be and not surprised to find it still beating, faint as it was, "Come on, little one. Help me carry him."
The dragonet grunted softly when he gently laid down the human across his back. Curiously the dragonet nipped at the human on its back and growled softly at him. It "hphm"ed and walked towards the mouth of the cave. Mathias trusted its eyes more than his own in the cover of darkness.
The moon was shining softly once Mathias stepped out of the cave, breathing in deeply glad to be out. He turned to his dragonet and petted on its head. "Let's go home and be careful with him. I'll give a reward once we're there." It chirped enthusiastically and bounced up and down, hitting the human's head constantly. "Whoa! Calm down, you're hitting him." He laughed gently and walked home with his dragonet in tow...