A/N : Hey! I wanted to get this next chapter up sooner but I've had my Birthday recently so have been dealing with the terror of 22. This chapter has taken some doing. I think I re-wrote it around three times before I was happy with it. Anyway, as ever I really do love hearing your feedback and/or any constructive criticism, so feel free. Xx

Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter 24

I've been sat here, for almost an hour, trying to think of what to write. I have so many things I'd like to write about, but there's not enough

My name is Hina and I destroyed the world

God damn it this is so hard! I've never found words easy. I've never found the actual process of writing easy. So why did I decide to put pen to paper when it can only end in disaster and frustration? God, I want to scream so badly right now. Let me see if I can get this right. I want to get this right. I want to explain my actions, if not for myself to read back on, but for anyone who may discover this worthless bit of writing.

My name is Hina. I live in the Palace of all palaces in the King's City. I'm a slave girl. Or at least I was. After time, I sort of became more like toy, a thing to play with and torture. For some reason, the King was, I dunno… drawn towards me? I guess that's the right way of saying it, but I'm not sure. It was likely because of my big mouth or my refusal to play the role of obedient little slave. I drew attention to myself.

I didn't always live here, in the Kings City. In fact, I don't think I've been here for more than a year, probably a lot less, although I can't be sure. Time here doesn't seem to exist for me. Days blur into weeks, weeks blur into months. I used to live outside this stone imprisonment, in the ruined city of Domino. It was there that I met Osamu and the rest of the only family I can remember. There were twin brothers, Ichiro and Jirou, a younger girl called Aiko and a boy who barely ever spoke called Sho. Then there was Momoko. Momoko, or Momo as we called her, was strong. As a young child, probably younger in mind than in body due to the lack of education and knowledge, Momo was everything I wanted to be when I grew up. She was perfect in my eyes, always acting so independent and nothing ever seemed to scare her.

Momoko was the last one to be taken, leaving just myself and Osamu behind. It was then that I think I truly grew up, when I truly understood no one can live without fear. Winter was always tough on the 'outlaws'. We had survived several before this particularly horrible one, but each year they just seemed to be getting worse. We'd spent weeks in preparation for the cold that could quite easily kill us. We would gather anything we could, blankets and clothes, sagging mattresses and cushions. Then we'd find a hideout, maybe an old basement or a tiny pocket beneath a crumbled building with enough room to camp out and start a controlled fire. It wasn't easy and it was dangerous. If it wasn't bad enough, hiding under a building that could collapse on you any minute, staying in one place for a long period of time made it easy to be caught by the Guards of the Kings City. We lived off making food, attempting to make bread out of anything we could, but most of the time it was disgusting and inedible. Quite often, in fact more often than not, we lived on small animals that we caught. They didn't taste much better, but it was how we survived. Momo was older than me and she helped teach me the basics in writing and reading along with Osamu of course. In fact, it's down to them that I can write this story now. Anyway, food was scarce most days, but in winter, it was a rarity. So we pulled everything together weeks before we needed it, collecting together month's supplies of food and water, collecting anything and everything we could in the hopes of keeping ourselves alive for the cold period. Things had been bad before, but this was worse. We barely got enough, but Osamu thought if we were careful, we could survive on it, at least until spring. It was going to be tough, but we could do it. So when the time came, we barricaded ourselves away, under a pile of rubble, which had fallen in a way that left a smallish sized gap beneath it. We'd filled the space with material and anything to try and block the cold out. The sides of this stone hole had been plastered with mattresses which curled around. The gap we were using as a door would be covered by a metal car bonnet, held in place by rubble and smothered from the inside with the most weathered and sagging mattress we'd been able to find. Pillows and moth eaten cushions scattered across the floor apart from in the centre, where the stone was left bare. It was where I'd been given the task to construct a circle of stones high enough to keep a fire under control. Towards the back of this den was a smaller space, barely half a meter wide, this spot was completely unprotected from the elements and that was where our food and drink supply was kept. Momo said the cold would preserve it longer. Despite the struggle we'd had pulling all this together, I liked it in there. It was warm at night, with the fire gently flickering, letting of a warming glow.

I don't think it was even a month after moving in to it that Momo made a sudden shocking announcement. I was sat cross legged on the floor, an open book perched on my knees, as Osamu sat with me, helping me to read. Momo had been listening, but she'd lent back to check the food supply and when she turned back round to us, her face was stony and serious.

"There's not enough to last," She whispered. I closed the book and looked up at her. I felt Osamu go rigid next to me.

"We thought there would be, if we were careful," He spoke the words calmly, not letting his fear show. Momo shook her head at his words.

"We need to try and gather more, before the worst of the winter really sets in," She had said quite calmly. I remember thinking she was just trying to act tough, like always. Stubborn Momoko, never letting her fear show. How wrong I'd been…

Anyway, it was quickly decided we were to go and venture out into the cold, so we wrapped ourselves in coats and jumpers, wrapping fabric around our head, hands and feet, preparing ourselves for whatever was waiting for us outside our nest. Osamu wanted to leave me here, to make sure I was safe, but I insisted on going and Momo insisted I should too. Eventually Osamu agreed. I know he wanted to do it for my own safety, but I was scared of been alone. When the entrance was cleared and we stepped outside, it was to be greeted by immediate chill. I squinted all around us and took in the billowing dark skies, which were barely visible through the thick and plentiful flurries of snow. My feet, concealed inside boots that were several sizes too big for me, were already covered up to my ankles in snow. We needed to be quick if we were going to do this.

"This is suicide!" Osamu shouted over the noise of the wind which scattered the snow everywhere.

"We need to do this!" Momo replied. I couldn't see her face, but I knew she'd be wearing her usual determined expression. She set off before we could say anything and in the fear of losing her, we chased after her. We walked on for what felt like forever. The snow seemed to get deeper with every step I took and the cold, it was unbearable. I was afraid to breathe for the fear that every time I did, I'd inhale enough of the sub-zero atmosphere to freeze my lungs solid.

"We need to go back!" Osamu shouted. I could feel his presence behind me, ready to help me if anything were to happen.

"We can't!" We heard Momo shout back as she forced on, the snow battering against her, trying to push her back.

"We'll die if we don't!" Osamu roared back. I glanced around as we continued walking. Visibility was awful, and it was getting worse. This was becoming a full on blizzard.

"And we'll die if we do!" She replied. I gritted my teeth and forced against the cold that bite at my entire body, threatening to destroy me. That was when a bright light slashed across the sky, cutting everything in half. I screamed out, terrified. Osamu grabbed me and held me tight as the loudest sound echoed across the sky, a great petrifying grumbling roar that rolled across the vast clouds with such authority.

"We need to get out of here!" Osamu yelled. He leapt forwards, still clutching onto me as the whirling wind seemed to intensify in its strength as if been egged on by the thunder. Snow was tossed back up from the floor where it had barely just touched down. Everything was denser now. We could barely see anything. Osamu grabbed a hold of Momo and pulled her back. When she turned to look at him, there were tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," She whispered and even over the sounds of a storm in its full rage, I still heard the regret in her tone. Osamu let her go and turned on the spot, still holding me against him.

"Where are we?" He demanded with urgency. I felt the fear in his words.

"We're at the wall," Momo whispered and pointed behind her, in the direction we'd been walking. It was as if the weather wanted us to see as there was a sudden break in the clouds of snow, revealing a huge stone wall, standing very high, with big heavy wooden doors. It was barely a quarter of a mile away. I'd never seen it before, but I knew with a horrible certainty where we were.

"No," Was all Osamu could whisper. It was the entrance to the Kings City. All the people who had abandoned their right to freedom just for the promise of food lived there. The ones who craved power and those too weak to defy the bastard who'd enslaved the earth.

"I'm sorry," Momo repeated, "But they promised we'd be given food, that we would be safe. If we carried on out here, we would die!" She cried out as the wind picked up again.

"You've doomed us all!" Osamu shouted back as another piercing light lit up the heavens.

"I couldn't leave you behind to die! Either of you!" She spoke, her voice cracking. We stood facing off for what felt like eternity.

"I would rather die than enter that place!" Osamu growled back. Everything around us was white now, covered in snow. It seemed to go on forever. Osamu was still holding me close to him, my head resting on his chest, my face burrowed against him, not wanting to see.

"I won't let you!" Momoko shouted back as the roar of thunder shattered overhead sending my heart into over drive.

"It's not your decision!" Osamu shouted back, taking a few paces away from her, pulling me with him. I glanced back at Momo. There were lights moving in the distance behind her, I could just make them out through the curtains of snow. Osamu seemed to have seen them too and had figured out what they were. The guards were on their way.

"This is your last chance. Come back with us!" He shouted hurriedly.

"Osamu…" Momo cried out his name, real anguish in her tone.

"I'm sorry too, Momo," He replied. In an instant he turned away from her, his hand grabbing onto mine, but he didn't move. In a split second, he let go of me and ran back to Momo. I couldn't see what he was doing through the blizzard and it wasn't until later on that I figured it out. When he returned to me, his face was hidden but I could tell he was crying. Without a word, he grabbed a hold of me once more and began to run. It was as we ran that I glanced back at Momo, stood in the blistering cold and I heard her voice shouting after us, but it was quickly tossed away into the wind and soon afterwards, she disappeared completely.

Three had become two.

To be quite honest, I have no idea how we made it back through the storm, let alone find our hide out. All I know is somehow, against all the odds, we did. When we reached it, the snow had fallen so thick and fast it reached my knees. We hurried back inside just as another lightning bolt flashed across the sky. I don't even know how it was possible for it to thunder at the same time as snowing, but it did. Once inside, we stripped our coats and jackets off. It was mildly warmer in here, the fire still going, but barely.

"Sit," Osamu instructed and I did, getting as close to the fire as possible. He hurried to a collection of fire wood we'd gathered together and grabbed a handful. He then began to build the fire up carefully as he sat next to me. When it began to roar happily, he sat back, his face expressionless. We sat in silence for a long time before he spoke.

"When the storms settled, we need to move." He spoke. I glanced sideways at him.

"Why?" I asked, shuddering.

"Because Momoko believes she is doing what's right, she'll have told them right away where we are. I doubt they'd come out in this storm and they might already believe we have died in it, but even so. They still might come." He replied his tone as dead as his expression.

"Momo… she wouldn't…" I whispered, my voice trailing off as tears choked me.

"She would." Was all he responded with. And that was it. The next day we moved out of the hide out, taking as much of the stuff with us as we could, knowing it would be too dangerous for a return visit.

So there you have it. The story. Part of my past, probably the part that made me as stubborn as I am today. The only person I ever trusted and could ever trust was Osamu. Everyone else got taken away or left. Which brings me to now. For as long as I can remember I've been living this war, this hell. The earth in shackles is all I've ever known. I must have hit my head or something to have completely forgotten before the days of darkness, but it doesn't matter. Me and Osamu eventually got captured while attempting a heist to rescue people as they were been brought to the Kings City in cages, treated like animals. We did it, but I was caught and that got Osamu captured too.

I was brought to the palace as a slave, where I met a man called Joey. I also saw another 'side' to the King, a gentler, softer side. A side that wasn't even him, but a boy hidden underneath, pushed aside and forgotten. His name was Ryo. He told me if I wanted to save the world, to free it, I would have to find someone called Yugi. So, I tried. I tried to find Yugi, I spoke to Joey about it and he recognised the name. The name seemed to trigger of something in his mind. Before whenever I'd asked about the time before the war he seemed to have amnesia, but at the mention of Yugi, he remembered. Yugi was his best friend. So he urged me to try and find him. After that, I just couldn't seem to get anywhere. Every single time I tried to do anything, the King blocked my path. I've been beaten, had my hair hacked away, I've been whipped; I've been tortured both physically and mentally. I can't take it anymore. So, I decided not to. Joey got taken away from me. I don't know where he is and he could be dead for all I know. I'm done. I failed and I know that. I know I could have saved the world, but I can't do it. I refuse to put myself through any more suffering and I'm sorry for that.

The King has developed some sort of infatuation for me and if I go along with it, maybe I won't have to live in fear anymore. Maybe life will be less painful. Maybe I might be able to mellow him, make his reign less harsh. I know that still means the world is in chains, but if I can loosen that shackle, that's at least something, right? I am so, so sorry that I failed you. I hate myself for not been strong enough, but I need to escape the pain. It's selfish, I know, but I refuse to put myself through this anymore. So, my reader, whoever you might be. I want you to know I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're not free. I'm sorry your family isn't free. I'm sorry the world isn't free. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my pathetic failures. I know I'm not worthy of forgiveness, but I still ask for it. I pray for it.

Hina.