Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Gi Oh.

Author's notes: thanks for being patient. Im not going to write very much detail of the duels into this fic because

1: im not very good at it and I don't want to quote every word from the anime and

2: because I want to get battle city out the way so the real story can begin (or the happy romantic stuff anyway)

As I said before, please be patient with me if the chapters aren't that great as I haven't seen some of these. Im going to focus mainly on Anuket's pov. If anyone doesn't like that then go and read something else. Please be kind when reviewing. Im in a bad mood and I don't know why.

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Unrequited Love

Chapter 24: A Duel With Destiny

-In Ishizu's room

The two Egyptian women sat patiently, waiting for the speaker to announce the upcoming duel. Ishizu was sitting quietly in her chair, staring out of the small round window. Her eyes were mysteriously glazed and she was deep in thought. Anuket couldn't stand the silence. She had long since finished all the Maltesers in the mini fridge and now had nothing to do apart from twiddle her thumbs. Ishizu knew how her duel with Kaiba was going to end, but she still wanted some quiet time to prepare her strategy to ensure victory.

Anuket stood up and quietly made her way towards the bed. She looked down to see Odion sleeping soundly. Apparently he had been tossing and turning until Ishizu had moved him to safety. Anuket didn't know what she had given him but it must have been a very strong sedative indeed.

She studied the markings on Odion's face and recalled the scene that Ishizu had shown her about Marik's past. The tattoo looked somewhat similar to the one Marik had on his back, not that she had seen it herself. She had seen the stone tablet that displayed the pharaoh's memory back when she had visited the tombkeepers home. Anuket had been exploring and shouldn't have gone that far into the complex. If anyone had caught her, she would have been in a lot of trouble and not only with her own parents. Mr Ishtar would have had thing or two to say as well. Anuket decided to break the silence seeing as the duel would start any minute now. She turned around to face Ishizu.

"How did Odion get these markings?" she asked out of curiosity. "It doesn't look like an ordinary tattoo"

"Odion felt guilty that he couldn't stop our father from performing the initiation. So he did this to himself to prove his loyalty to Marik" explained Ishizu.

"Oh my…I bet that hurt…" said Anuket in awe. "Odion must really care for Marik to do something like that to himself. My brother would never do anything like that for me…"

She found herself feeling jealous of Marik. There were so many people in his life that were willing to do anything to save him, despite all that he had done. And who did she have? Ipet was the one person in the entire world that Anuket knew would gladly give her life for her, but that offered very little comfort right now. Anuket was still hurting inside from the lack of trust her friends displayed earlier, even though they had made up now. She felt as though they had only done it because the pharaoh had told them to. He was the one holding this group together.

"Marik probably has more support then I do because he's a man. After all, men are superior to women in every way. All we're good for is cooking, cleaning, raising children and bedroom activities to keep the men entertained…" Anuket thought bitterly. "What a sad little life we do lead…"

Ishizu sensed the sudden change in Anuket's mood. One minute she was happy and inquisitive and now she looked saddened and depressed. The purple bruise was becoming more and more evident as it spread around her shoulder. Her arm resting inside the sling was a grim reminder of how Malik had manhandled her earlier. Ishizu felt a pang of guilt. She didn't want to get Anuket involved any more then she already was, and she most definitely never intended for her to get hurt.

"People do care about you Anuket" said Ishizu with a firm, but compassionate tone. "There will soon come a time that this will be proven to you. And you are not just some woman that can be pushed around. Not by anyone"

"What?" asked Anuket in complete and utter confusion. "How did you know what I was thinking?..."

Ishizu laughed lightly at the mystified expression on the young teenagers face. She tapped the eye symbol on her millennium necklace with a long finger.

"I saw this very conversation a few minutes ago" she explained. "I knew because I saw you admit it in my vision. It's funny, I would never have guessed how you were feeling if I didn't have the millennium necklace"

"That's weird" said Anuket, voicing her thoughts. "To think that this conversation was inspired by a vision of the future. It kind of makes me wonder whether destiny really is decided for us or if we can make our own future"

"I for one believe that we all have a role to play in life. Nothing can change that" said Ishizu returning her attention to her deck.

The speaker then announced the next duel was about to begin.

Ishizu simply sat there, staring at the cards in her hand. Anuket glanced at her with a 'what are doing still sitting there?' kind of look.

"Aren't you supposed to be dueling next?" she asked Ishizu. "Why aren't you going? Kaiba won't be very happy if you're late. He doesn't like to be kept waiting, especially when it comes to duel monsters"

"Yes, I suppose I had better get moving. Let's go" Ishizu stood up. "Make sure that you lock the door behind us in case Malik tries to get in"

Anuket nodded and picked up the key card from the small bedside table. They stepped outside and into the hallway. Anuket swiped the card in it's on the door and it locked itself. She handed the card back to Ishizu for safe keeping. Knowing her luck, she would drop it on deck for the winds to carry it Ra knows where and Odion would be stuck in that room forever. Or until it was unlocked by Kaiba's technicians.

-elevator/upper deck

The two women stood patiently in the elevator taking them to the stratos arena where Kaiba was no doubt waiting impatiently for Ishizu's arrival. She had been correct about being the next to duel and Anuket had no doubts about her winning against the ceo.

"Don't leave yourself open" warned Ishizu as the door slowly opened.

"Huh? What the hell is she talking about" thought Anuket as she stepped out after her. The cold air hit her. "Dammit I forgot to bring a coat again!"

She made her way towards her friends clutching her poorly arm. She caught sight of Malik ahead of her; his gaze was fixed on the sling. Anuket walked past him quickly to rejoin her friends. She felt his stare on her back and it made her feel very uncomfortable.

"What happened to your arm?" asked Yami looking at the ugly purple bruise.

"I dislocated it" said Anuket with a shrug, quickly regretting that action.

"How did you manage that?" asked Tristan suspiciously, his glare drifting towards Malik who still gazed intently at the young woman.

"Would you believe me if I said it just popped out of its socket?" she replied with a lopsided grin.

Joey jumped towards Malik. The guys had to hold him prevent him from going any further. Joey was trying fiercely to free himself from their grip. He wanted to rip Malik apart slowly and painfully limb from limb.

"Lemme go! That bastard did this to her! I'll kick his ass so hard it'll make his ancestors dizzy!"

"Joey calm down" said Anuket placidly "Hitting him won't make my arm any better, and…" she leaned in closer to him so her voice was no more then a whisper. "I don't want him to send you to the shadow realm too. Don't worry; he'll get what's coming to him. All the bad guy's do in the end"

Joey stopped struggling. He blushed a little at her comment. After a few second thinking, he stepped forward to see Malik smirking at him. Joey then stood between him and Anuket shielding her from view. He glared at Malik once more before wrapping his arm around Anuket's shoulders carefully and protectively, and turned his attention back to the duel laughing inwardly. He knew that this would nark Malik off a bit.

Malik's smug grin turned into a ferocious scowl. "How dare he touch her like that! Oh he will suffer great pain before he dies! The shadow realm is too merciful a punishment for him!"

Everyone's thoughts were interrupted as Kaiba began his pre-duel taunts. He liked to invoke fear in his opponents, and occasionally he spent his spare time thinking of thinking of new and original ways to mess with peoples minds. He could probably write a book series about duelist lingo. Little did he know, that this one in particular would never fall for such tactics.

"I see you finally pulled up the courage to face me. But then again, I don't blame you for stalling. I guess the thought of playing against a duelist as superior as me, is too much for the likes of you. Who are you?" he pointed rudely at her.

His opponent removed her veil and re-introduced her self. "My name is Ishizu Ishtar"

Anuket heard Malik growl with annoyance. She twisted her head around to see him with a clenched fist and baring his teeth. She smirked at him; he didn't like this at all.

"Good! He deserves a lot worse then that after what he did to Mai! The evil psycho…"

"I've come here to save my brother. For the past five thousand years an Ishtar has stood guard over the pharaoh's tomb. Only Marik turned against us and the evil inside his is even stronger now. He is my brother"

"Oh boy" said Joey bleakly. "One Ishtar was bad enough…"

"Stop it Joey, she's not like that. You can trust Ishizu, which is more then I can say for him" said Anuket, nodding her head in Malik's direction.

"True, she can't be any worse then Malik that's for sure" Tristan reasoned.

"For once your right" agreed Duke.

Anuket heard Malik growl again, this time he seemed to be swatting some invisible thing away from behind his shoulder. He settled again and noticed her staring at him. He cocked his eyebrow and put on a seductive smirk. She furrowed her brow in disgust and put two fingers into her mouth and made a gagging gesture. He chuckled darkly and made a kissing one in return. Anuket then stuck her middle finger up at him; he did the same and moved his other hand to wrap around it. He then began to slowly move it up and down, his smirk spreading further across his face.

"Oh that's just disgusting!" she said out loud catching everyone's attention.

"You started it my dear…"

Joey took his place once more between the two, cursing Malik under his breath for insulting Anuket. He didn't make a move to punch him again because Anuket wouldn't want that.

"I don't appreciate you using my tournament to solve your family issues! I organised this tournament to reclaim my place as number one duelist in the world, that and to claim the three Egyptian god cards as my own" sneered Kaiba.

"This tournament was my idea, or have you forgotten that?" replied Ishizu tersely. Kaiba was starting to get on her nerves now with his ranting and lack of faith in the millennium items.

"Whatever" said Kaiba offhandedly. "You made two mistakes. The first was when you gave me obelisk the tormentor; the second was expecting it back. That card is mine, and soon the other two belong to me. Ill have the world most powerful deck, and then you can do a favour for me. Take your hocus pocus nonsense to someone else's tournament!"

Kaiba spun towards Roland, his white trench coat flaring out behind him in the strong winds. "Let's begin this duel now!"

- after duel

Ishizu stood still as Kaiba's blue eyes white dragon delivered the final blow, wiping out the rest of her life points. As the counter on her duel disk reached zero, the holograms faded away. Anuket stared at her, how could this have happened? Ishizu said that she would win this duel, how could the millennium necklace be wrong? She was surprised though the see a smile spread across Ishizu's face. That was the last thing Anuket would do if she were in her position.

As the platform lowered for the duelists to step off, the group moved towards her for questioning. Kaiba was busy gloating about his victory over the Egyptian woman and mocking her for her beliefs. He even ignored her thanks for showing her that the future could be changed if it was wanted bad enough. Anuket wondered about many things now. Mostly though about why Malik's millennium rod reacted the way it did when Kaiba was about to summon obelisk. What made him change his mind and use his blue eyes white dragon instead?

"Kaiba was looking forward to showing off the power of his Egyptian god card" thought Anuket; unawares that someone was sneakily making their way up behind her.

Malik was making his way towards the elevator, but decided play with his future bride first along the way. As he stealthily came into touching distance, he reached out and gave her rear a tight squeeze. Anuket squealed in alarm at the unwanted physical contact from the man. She turned her back away from him and moved her good arm behind her in an attempt to stop him from doing it again. Malik laughed at her and brushed past the infuriated onlookers.

"Are you ok?" asked the pharaoh in concern as he walked over to the startled girl. He couldn't believe that Malik was still harassing her after she refused his offer.

"Yeah I'll be fine" she said angrily. "This isn't the first time he's tried something like this and I doubt it'll be the last"

"He's done things to you before? If that's true then I suggest you have someone accompany you at all times" said Yami firmly.

"Pharaoh, that really isn't necessary. I doubt anything will happen" said Anuket. She didn't want anyone following her around all day.

"Don't argue with him Anu" Tea ordered her friend. "We'd all feel better if you had someone around you. He seems to enjoy making you upset"

"Yeah and you saw what he did to your arm! Next time he might do somethin worse!" said Joey. "I volunteer to be your loyal and heavy duty bodyguard!" he posed a little trying to make himself look a little taller and more buff then he actually was.

Tristan took one look at Joey, sized him up and did the same. "Nah, I'll do it. You have to prepare for your duels, remember Joey? You can't protect her and do that at the same time! I'll look after her"

Duke forced a gap between them. "Are you kidding? I'll do it. Anuket and I don't really know each other that well. It'll be a great way for us to become better acquainted"

"I'll look after her" said Ishizu. "Malik won't touch her while she's with me. I may have been wrong about the duel, but this I assure you"

"Yes, I think that would be best" smiled Yami. He was confident that Ishizu would perform this task to the best of her ability.

The three boys who were currently having a macho brawl on the deck stopped suddenly when they found out the position had already been filled. They composed themselves and walked towards the elevator whistling nonchalantly trying to rid themselves of their embarrassment.

"Ishizu, if you are Marik's sister then can you explain to us why he's doing all this?" asked Yami

"Of course my pharaoh" nodded Ishizu. "Let us go inside and I will reveal all"

They turned to walk inside. Ishizu halted Anuket from moving with them. When they were last in line she whispered to her.

"Didn't I tell you that they would all prove they cared for you?" she smiled. "Joey, Tristan and Duke were fighting each other to get the chance to protect you. Would they do that if they truly didn't care?"

Anuket shook her head and tried to fight back the smile that spread across her features. "You did"

"And didn't I tell you not to leave yourself open?" Ishizu continued.

Anuket's head shot up, a surprised expression replaced the smile. "You knew that was going to happen?"

"Let's go inside. It's freezing up here. Im not used to these cold climates" said Ishizu letting out a shudder from the cold.

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no time for reviews today, next time yes, probably. please be kind when reiewing