Wow, has it really been that long? Sorry! But finally, after a long line of work: CAUGHT IN THE SANDSTORM IS NOW COMING TO A CLOSE!
No, I'm not discontinuing it: This is the last chapter! I hope you guys like it as much as the last 14 of them!
Caught In The Sandstorm: Chapter 15: "This Is Where I Belong"
Atemu waltzed up to the girl silently, as though inspecting her movements. She just stood and waited for his approach, which was obviously destined.
The young woman bowed curtly to him, though worry shone in her beautiful golden eyes. "Hello, my Pharaoh." She addressed, still bowing to him. He just waved his hand, signaling her to please rise to him. He'd never been one for the mild endearments, so why start accepting them from a fair maiden such as herself?
"Hello, ma'am. May I have this dance?" he questioned, holding out his hand for hers.
The brunette flashed a face full of horror, but quickly recuperated, taking his invitation in full. "Of course, your Highness." With that, the two danced, swaying to the music as one. The female's dress flurried around them, tripping her quite a few times, though Atemu decided to pretend not to notice: she seemed uptight about the situation as it was.
Soon, the song ended, and the other princesses clawed at him for the second chance at his hand.
The brunette disappeared into the throng of girls.
Aya pulled away from her old friend, worried that Seth had been watching. The point was to get in, kill Seth, get out, and have the Puzzle and the Rod, right? Well, Seth couldn't spot her or else the whole thing was ruined, obviously.
Fortunately, the High Priest himself had been rather preoccupied with a lustful young woman, who still couldn't get her eyes off him.
Hm, she thought. I wonder where I recognize her from. It was none other than Fauna, cooing over him like a long lost husband who'd gone away for a year.
Naturally, he still had the same thoughts about her that he had a little less than a year before, and he was trying extremely hard to escape her grasp. Aya only giggled at him as she snuck from the ball room.
Seth watched as Aya departed from the ballroom, smirking to himself. Did she seriously think she could get away with this? Sneaking into the palace for a royal ball?
He finally pried the love-sick Fauna off of him, working his way through the crazed princesses and to the doorway to the halls. His shoes clicked loudly, echoing against the stone walls of the palace.
Everything seemed in place…
He slid off his shoes, making sure to stay silent as he followed Aya's footsteps into the dark expansion deep in the castle.
"Ryou? Bakura? Where are you guys? Dear Ra, they should have been here by now!" she whispered, half to herself and half to her missing companions.
"Maybe they read the map wrong." Seth cooed, turning the corner on his prey, which spun around in fright.
She gasped at the glint in his cerulean blue eyes, then her own eyes narrowed. "Seth. What do you want?" She mentally slapped herself. What kind of question is that? She thought. I'm sneaking into the palace, and calling out to my thief friends, and I'm asking what he wants? Ra am I stupid…
Seth just chuckled. "You seriously think you can get away with this? I'm assuming you're after the Puzzle, just like your friends are. Well, I've got news for you, you're no-"
"I don't give a damn what you think!" Aya spat, eye narrowing menacingly. "And for your information: That's not only what I want. I want the Millennium Rod to reverse the spell you've put on my friends, and I want you dead!"
Aya lifted the hem of her skirt up to her middle thigh, pulling out a dagger about the size of a normal kitchen knife from its sheath. She held it at her side, the knife hanging loosely in her hand, just as Bakura had taught her. It pointed at its target with every step the female took. The hunter now became the hunted.
Now Seth had come unarmed, expecting it to still be the same defenseless Aya he'd come to know and care for. His eyes widened as he spun on his heel, fleeing into the darkness of the hallways…
Right into Malik.
"Why, hello there, Seth." Malik whispered as he caught Seth by the arm, holding him fast to his place. "It's been a while… three months, am I right? After you stole my Rod? Then, what do you do for repayment?"
Bakura and Ryou stepped out of the shadows, firelight dancing across their faces. "You turn around and shove him in a cell in the bottom of the castle so that no one hears what you'd done to poor Aya. Tsk, tsk, Priest. That's sinful, you know?" Bakura mocked, shaking his head in mock shame.
"But not before you tried to kill him just so something like this wouldn't happen." Ryou added, taking a step forward before his brother. "You may call us despicable, because we have not what is needed to survive. We do what we can and don't care what they authorities say about it. But you are the despicable one, Seth." He spat the man's name into the dirt, angered as he put the pieces together: Why Aya had run away, why she'd been with them in the first place. Now that he thought about it, it Seth didn't lust for the power Aya had, none of this would have happened. His own envy and pride had blinded him, leaving nothing but greed in his wake, leading him into his emanate doom.
"You are the one who will trample anyone for power. You're lies have webbed beyond insanity and now, we will put an end to it." Bakura finished Ryou's sentence, pushing Seth backward toward Aya.
He heard the squish as knife met skin before he felt the actual blade. Seth cried out in agony as the knife ripped through his skin, up the small of his back and into his neck. The wound extended the entire length of his torso, completely immobilizing him. The fact that Bakura was already upon him to keep his mouth shut made it a quiet kill, though still a slow and agonizing one. As the light faded from his eyes, he heard the Three Devils laugh.
"Just as we planned, huh, Ryou?" the Thief King cackled.
"No, I didn't plan this. I just relayed it to you. This was all Aya."
The smile on her face haunted Seth's last moments. "Exactly as we planned. Oh, and Seth? I hope you can still hear me."
She leaned in close to him, right up to his face as she whispered, "You know why my life is soooo easy? Because I do something about my problems, as you can see. I do something, and make amends for my wrongs."
With those last words echoing in his mind, he lost his grip on life, and faded into the never ending darkness of death.
Aya stood up from her stooped position, sighing. "I have to say, Malik, that was a nice touch you added." She turned to Bakura. "I still wish that you'd killed him."
Said white-haired thief just laughed. "Ah, but you see," he replied. "Then it wouldn't be revenge: it'd just be another higher-up down the drain!"
Aya giggled to herself at his logic, and then turned to Ryou. "You did a good job, too." She smiled at him. He returned the gesture, though it was short lived happiness as a voice came from down the hall.
"What have you done!"
Atemu watched as Seth exited the banquet, a sick smile plastered across his cousin's features. Something was off and he knew it.
"Excuse me," he murmured as he ducked away from the latest dancing partner who he'd never remember.
He was hot on Seth's trail, intent with finding out what was up, when Fauna intruded, stepping right in his path. "And where do you think you're going, you Majesty?" she questioned, poking him in the chest with her finger. "I won't let you get away again: I was this close last time, and I'll get the prince now." She held up her fingers, displaying how far she'd come from marrying Atemu before.
Atemu, however, was wondering what exactly she meant by 'last time'. "I don't know what you're talking about. There was no 'last time'." he replied, trying to get around her, but she persisted.
"Now don't try to play hard to get, it won't work. You know perfectly well that at the last ball I was to be your bride. But that other girl… Oooh! What was her name?" Fauna snapped her fingers, trying to remember the name of the girl that stole her shot at Atemu.
Once again, Atemu didn't recall ever having a ball before this. He just gave her a questioning look, eyebrow raised.
"Oh yeah! Aya." she said flatly, snapping one final time. "So, now that's she's out of the way, we can… you okay?"
Atemu stood their dumbstruck. Aya? he thought. Wasn't that the girl Malik was rambling on about? Yes, a brunette girl, he claimed, golden eyes, small figure…
Realization struck him as he recalled his first dance. "That was her." he whispered.
"Huh?" Fauna said, obliviously.
Atemu bowled Fauna over, racing stealthily after his cousin and the girl he believed to be Aya.
A cry erupted from down the hallway, but it was cut off and muffled. It only added to the young Pharaoh's curiosity as he continued his sprint after his cousin.
What could be going on? he asked himself, racing down the hallways by the light of the flickering torches. Could something have happened? No, that girl seemed to sweet to do anything of real merit… but what if? Oh, Ra, please let them be safe...
But as he turned the corner, he realized his prayer had fallen on deaf ears. The body of his late cousin lay on the cold stone floor, a pool of his own crimson blood surrounding him.
For a moment, he couldn't speak. He couldn't even hear what the Three Devils and his old friend, Malik, had to say.
"What have you done!" he cried, falling to the ground next to his relative.
The party swiveled to face the man as he looked on the body of Seth. "Atemu…" Aya said weakly.
He turned on her angrily. "No one has given you the right to call me that, thief." he spat, fury burning like a madman in his purple-red orbs.
"Look, your Majesty," Bakura stepped in, waving his arm and bowing in an exaggerated manor. "I don't know what's in your head, but that man was a lunatic. We've done this country a favor by doing him in."
"I don't care what favors you've done for this country, you still murdered him!"
"Please, calm down! Let us rationalize this…!"
The three voices blended together, all cresendoing out of control, while Malik and Aya sat cowering in a corner. Finally, Malik spoke out.
"Alrighty then!" he stated, leaning next to the dead man's corpse. "As much as I'd love to see this continue, I think it's time we wind down now."
Malik pulled the Millennium Rod out from the sheath that had fallen to the ground. Seth evidently had had it the entire time, not thinking of it until his last moments of life. Malik pulled it up and pointed it at Atemu.
A brilliant flash of light followed this, flooding the groups vision with it's blinding power. Then, the light disappeared as fast as it had come, showing a blank-faced Pharaoh in its wake.
"Hello again, Aya." he whispered. "This isn't how I imagined meeting you again."
Aya smiled. "Hello to you as well. I agre-"
"But dead is dead and thief is thief. I'm sorry, Aya. But you killed my cousin." He gave them a cold stare, knocking Aya senseless.
But… she thought, looking him in the eye the best she could. I thought… for sure that that would bring him back to his senses. That, he'd remember me for sure… But I suppose I was wrong…
Atemu spoke up, "Don't worry, though. I think I can afford a ten minute head start. I mean, it's four against, oh, I don't know, how many guards now. And truthfully, I don't want you dead." A small smile crept to his face as he looked on Seth's body. "I knew something was wrong with him I just wished it wouldn't come to this." he whispered, shaking his head.
Ryou looked at Aya, who seemed to smile. "Yes. It was after Mahado died. I'm sorry that it came down to this." Aya looked up, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.
"I wish I could correct all the mistakes we've made and set things right, but I am not a god. I can't change the course of fate nor can I tailor the past. You're absolutely right, I am a thief. Maybe I was always meant to be. Seth was right: if you hadn't picked me up, who knows what could have happened. I really might have just joined this group earlier. In any case, thanks for the head start. And, if we meet again, I hope it's under better circumstances." She tilted her head to the side and smiled brightly, her eyes closed. "Also, I hope you don't try to kill me." Atemu chuckled to himself.
Aya then turned to Ryou. "But this is where I belong. It's what I've needed all this time. I know that now." She took his hands, and smiled at him, and he smiled in return.
Bakura groaned at the sight. Just like Brother, huh? he thought. Always so soft. He took a step forward. "Okay, before this scene plays out any mushier, I think we'd best take our leave." The Thief King turned to Malik. "You coming with?"
Malik smirked. "Do I have a choice? I assisted."
With that, the quartet raced off, mounting their horses long before the guards were aware of them ever being there: Atemu had pretended to have been attacked, explaining the slow relay of information.
But, with Malik coming along, they were one horse shy of their needs.
"I'll take Aya!" Ryou exclaimed. Aya just snickered. "Fine, if I must!" she teased, getting on board in front of the younger of the two thief brothers.
They'd only gotten out with two out of three items they'd seaked, but that was enough for them… for now…
As they road off, Ryou and Aya holding each other on, Bakura glared at them and Malik looked on laughing.
Finally, Bakura spoke up as they road off into the rising sun, leaving the four to laugh in spite of all that had happened that day.
"Why in the Hell do you always get the girls, Ryou!"
THE END... for now...
Okay, that's it! I've got a sequal in the works called Desert Ruins. My friend helped me think of the storyline, and it's completely panned out! I think it will be good!
Please review: I'd really like to know if you liked the story! I really enjoyed writing it so I hope you enjoyed it as much as me!
Over and out!
---Hikari---
This story now has the stamp on it: COMPLETE!