Hey guys! Well I managed to get this typed down although I'm not completely happy with it. If I ever get round to editing thisstory I'll probably change this chapter the most so far but yeah, at least it's an update, ne? Oh, and my editor hasn't checked this over, so I'll replace it later with the edited version. I just wanted to put it up since it's already later than you people normally get it.

Okay, another note for S2Teennovelist. Since you still haven't replied(probably meaning your stupid hotmail is still being an ass) we need another way to get those replies to you... any thoughts on that? ;

Okay then, let's start the chap then people! R&R!

--: 15 :--
Truth

"I can't believe he started a war!"

"Atemu, calm down and-"

"I will not calm down! Even if we do get the kingdom back, we'll have to win a war now!"

Seth glared at his cousin, "We'll worry about that as soon as we actually beat Dakuso. I'm sure that you can reason with the them about this."

Atemu sighted, "I guess. I just can't believe all the things Dakuso has managed to do in the less than two weeks he's been Pharaoh."

Seth nodded in agreement and sat down on a rock near Atemu. The small group was back at the cave where they had hidden right after Dakuso had ceased control of the kingdom, and they planned on attacking the palace tomorrow to get back Egypt from the madman turned Pharaoh. Yuugi and Jou had gone to get some food from wherever they could find it, while Seth and Atemu had gathered some information from the villagers still living in the city wearing their usual cloaks to hide their true identity.

The villagers had told them that Dakuso had started a war with one of the neighbouring countries as soon as he had fully become Pharaoh. Atemu and Seth both figured that this was why Dakuso had barely send anyone to kill them; Dakuso had needed them all soldiers for the war.

After gathering the information, Seth and Atemu had returned to the cave to wait for Yuugi and jou to come back as well so they could all eat and discuss what they had found out.

Atemu and Seth sat in silence for a while, until two voices disrupted their peace. Yuugi and Jou came into the cave, laughing and joking about things of the past. The two fell silent as they saw the somewhat crestfallen looks on Seth and Atemu's faces.

"What's wrong guys?" Jou asked, looking worriedly at both Atemu and Seth.

Atemu let out a sigh, "Dakuso started a war." he muttered, glaring at the ground as if it was Dakuso himself.

Yuugi and Jou's eyes widened, and they nearly dropped the bread and fruit they had stolen out of their arms, "What? How did he do that so quickly?" Yuugi asked.

Seth shrugged, "According to the villagers, Dakuso's first act as Pharaoh was to declare war, and then he started making up crazy laws that only benefited him."

"Great, he once again proves dat he's a madman." Jou growled, now mimicking Atemu and glaring at the ground as well.

Atemu nodded, looking up from the ground and keeping himself in check enough to stop glaring at everything, "It's probably also the reason why we barely had any killers coming after us."

"Probably… So what's da plan?" Jou asked.

"Same as it was. We go to the palace tomorrow. I always managed to sneak out of the palace and back in when my father was still Pharaoh, and he kept a pretty strict watch. I don't think Dakuso can top that if he needs every guard he can get for that war of his.

Both Yuugi and Jou nodded, before sitting down next to Atemu and Seth and leaning against their boyfriends, handing them some of the food they had collected.

After they were done eating, all decided that since they would need all the strength they had the next day, they would go to sleep. It was already quite late anyway.

Yuugi snuggled into Atemu's chest and sighed contently. On the outside he seemed completely happy with how things were right then, but on the inside he was worrying himself sick because he knew that tomorrow could be their last day on Earth. He had full trust in Atemu, and he knew the God Monsters were extremely powerful and that Atemu had been practicing with them, as Jou and he had with their Ka's. Still a little voice in the back of his head told him that it could all go wrong. Dakuso was the most powerful Mage ever after all, who knew what the madman could do.

Yuugi sighed as he looked around him, and saw all the content faces of his friends. he closed his eyes again, determined to go to sleep, and be ready to help his friends the next day. He would not let them die. He'd fight as hard as he could, and he'd help in any way possible.

"I can't believe we got in so easily."

"I told you he couldn't be worse than my father." Atemu smirked at Jou's disbelieving face.

"But isn't da palace supposed ta be safe?" Jou looked around the room they were now in. Atemu had said it had been his room before Dakuso had taken over, and that the High Mage turned Pharaoh hadn't touched a thing in the room. He curiously glanced around at all the gold statues and the large bed in the room. There was a door going to the bathroom on one side of the room, and one leading to the hallway opposite it. He'd briefly glanced into the bathroom, and had almost had to pick his jaw off the ground at the size of the room. He couldn't believe how large everything here in the palace was.

"I've been living here my entire life and I've had enough practice getting past all those guards. Most are too stupid to notice me anyway." Atemu waved Jou's comment off, before walking over to the door leading to the hallway and listening if he could hear anything on the other side. Now came the tricky part. They had to get to the throne room without being seen so they wouldn't have to waste any energy on guards; they'd need it all for Dakuso.

At hearing nothing on the other side, Atemu carefully opened the door and glanced into the hallway behind it. It seemed to be deserted, though Atemu kept his guard up, "Come on, no one's there right now so here's out chance."

Seth, Jou and Yuugi nodded, before following Atemu out of the room. Seth and Atemu went up front as they knew their way through the palace, as Yuugi and Jou trailed behind them, trying to be as quiet as they could.

As they came to a crossing, Atemu heard voices coming from one of the turns… and of course it was where they had to go to. They couldn't simply wait until the guards had passed, as the guard might take the hallway they were waiting in, so they had to find another way to the throne room, and of course hide from the guards coming their way.

"Come on, before they get here." Seth rushed into another passage as the others followed. Okay, so they needed a new way now. Seth quickly took the shortest route to the throne room, only to hear more guards, "This is impossible, there were never this many guards when your father was still ruling!" Seth growled in frustration as they again took a longer path.

After more of these encounters, it seemed that their luck had finally run out. As Atemu and Seth took a hallway that would finally lead them to Dakuso – or at least so they hoped – they came face to face with three guards that had been silently standing in the hallway. Seven pairs of eyes widened, before the guards opened their mouths and started yelling through the entire palace that they had found Prince Atemu and High Priest Seth, together with two random people who they didn't know. Needless to say, the small group was surrounded by guards in less than a minute. The only one not present yet was Dakuso himself, though Atemu and Seth could feel his presence very closeby.

"So what now?" Jou asked, leaning into the protective embrace Seth was holding him in.

"We fight." Seth said simply. It wasn't like they had a choice anyway. If they didn't fight they'd never get to Dakuso. Wasting a little bit of energy was better than being thrown into he dungeons, never to see the light of day ever again as Dakuso would surely soon come to banish them to the Shadow Realm.

Jou and Yuugi glanced at each other, before nodding mutely and grabbing their boyfriends' hands. As they received confused looks from both Atemu and Seth, they simply pointed at the items, to receive understanding nods in return.

Yuugi and Jou concentrated on their Ka's, and felt the magic from the Millennium Puzzle and Rod guiding them through the process of summoning the two monsters like always. The two boys figured that if anyone was to waste energy on this, they were the best choice as Atemu and Seth were stronger and would be fighting Dakuso more then they would.

Just as one of the guard threw a spear at them, Yuugi's Kuriboh appeared in front of the small group, and quickly multiplied so the spear wouldn't hurt its master or friends. With a deafening roar, Jou's Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared above them, and glared at every guard present with blazing crimson eyes that promised nothing but pain and suffering.

A few strong blasts and explosions were heard, and it wasn't long before the guards that had been present were all knocked out. Yuugi and Jou high-fived each other, but were interrupted as strong surges of pain shot though them, and they winced at the feeling. They looked up to see a Seiyaryu hovering right in front of them, with new guards standing behind it. The Seiyaryu wasn't the only new monster there though. A Wing Weaver and Judge Man were standing on either side of it, and looked ready to attack the little fuzz ball and majestic dragon at any time their masters pleased.

'High level summoners!' Atemu panicked. Yuugi and Jou were very good at controlling their monsters, but he had no idea if they could actually beat the elite of the elite guards of the palace… this could end really bad.

He glanced down at Yuugi to see only a determined look on his Aibou's face. It seemed like his Little One wasn't planning on giving up, and one look at Jou told him the other had the same idea.

The Red-Eyes Black Dragon let out another roar before sending a ball of molten lava at the three monsters in front of him. All monsters jumped out of the way, only to crash into one of the many Kuriboh copies.

The Wing Weaver managed to get up first, and fired an attack that not only destroyed a lot of the Kuriboh, but hit the Red-Eyes dead on, making it crash into the wall behind him.

Next was the Seiyaryu, who also fired an attack, making the Red-Eyes – and Jou for that matter – cry out in pain. Before either monster could fire again, or before the third monster could even get up, the Kuriboh tackled them, exploding at contact and throwing all monsters back.

Yuugi panted as more and more Kuriboh were killed, or destroyed themselves. He was having a hard time keeping his energy flow steady, and the attacks thrown at his Ka by the other monsters were really strong. He could already tell that this was not going to be as easy as it had seemed at first.

"We need to run." Seth said, already gripping Jou tighter to help the other to run. He glanced at his cousin to see a nod, before the other grabbed Yuugi and they started to run. The guard controlling the opposing Ka's tried to stop them, but before they could reach them the small group had already ran into a random room, trying to get away from the elites.

Atemu was just about to let out a sigh of relief when he noticed which room they had entered, and whose voice had just started speaking to them.

"Well if it isn't the brat and his little followers. Never though you'd run into the throne room like this."

'Dakuso! We ran into the throne room and…' before Atemu could even finish that thought, he felt the summoning of a monster, followed by the harsh pain of an attack hitting them all and throwing them to the ground.

In the hall, the Kuriboh dissolved, leaving only one left that fell to the ground in pain, as the Red-Eyes let out a pained roar and landed. Both monster faded away, their masters no longer being able to keep them in this world.

The guards that had been fighting the two monsters quickly entered the throne room as well to help and protect their Pharaoh as much as they could.

As they entered however, they were also hit by a new blast of magic coming from the monster Dakuso had summoned – an attack that Atemu, Yuugi, Jou and Seth only barely avoided – and were send to the Shadow Realm.

Dakuso laughed insanely as the small group scattered to avoid his Queen's attacks. Atemu and Seth were no longer holding Yuugi and Jou's hands, so he knew the two Ka's they had summoned were now gone. Yuugi and Jou were writing in pain, eyes only half open and frantically looking for Seth and Atemu for support. The blasts the Cosmo Queen had hit them with were very strong, and they weren't used to being hit directly by such force.

Seth and Atemu on the other hand had other things on their minds. Sure, they wanted nothing more than to get to Yuugi and Jou, there was just one slight problem with that: Dakuso's Cosmo Queen was standing between them and their loves, and it was fully powered with Shadow Magic coming directly from the five Millennium Items Dakuso owned.

Dakuso was fully powered with the huge flaming shadowy aura around him. The man was again laughing like a maniac while actually giving more power to his Queen, and mentally already killing the four teens in front of him. Too bad for him that his fantasy world would have to be postponed, because Atemu decided that nobody was going to hurt his Aibou without paying for it with their lives.

The Millennium Puzzle flashed brightly, the light not immediately dimming down as the force he was summoning was far greater than any normal monster could ever begin to tip. As the flash dimmed down, the three forms of Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor, and the Winged Dragon of Ra materialized in the room, destroying it with only their sheer size.

The roof of the palace was thrown off, as the walls caved and the throne room was nothing more than a ruin that nobody would ever recognize. Dakuso stared in awe for a moment, already imagining these three holy beasts fighting for him, before concentrating back on his Queen again. He let even more energy flow through the link, powering the monster up to a level that was actually equal to that of the gods.

The Queen flew up and fired a magic blast at Slifer, who cried out in pain as it crashed into Ra. Before the Queen could fire another attack however, Obelisk knocked her out of the air with one well aimed punch.

As the four monsters continued to fight, Seth smirked at his cousin, before summoning his Blue-Eyes White Dragon with a white flash from the Millennium Rod, and powering the monster with the energy from the Millennium Rod so it would come at least a little bit closer to the power that the God Monsters and Dakuso's Queen possessed.

The beautiful white dragon materialized in from of Seth and roared as it flew up and fired a ball of white lightning at the Cosmo Queen who had been about to fire another attack at Ra. The Queen flew backward slightly, before firing an attack at the white dragon who roared in pain.

Seth and Atemu, now that the Queen wasn't blocking their paths anymore, wanted to run to Yuugi and Jou as fast as they could to help their loves. Sadly enough Dakuso beat them to it, standing between Seth and Atemu, and Yuugi and Jou with a huge maniacal grin on his face. Both Atemu and Seth glared fiercely as they saw the High Mage turned Pharaoh standing over their loves, an evil glint once more present in his eyes and a smug smirk plastered to his face. The aura that surrounded him was making sure Atemu and Seth wouldn't be able to get any closer then they were now, but seemed to only draw Jou and Yuugi closer.

"Look what I found, a bunch of weaklings!" Dakuso grinned as both Atemu and Seth glared, helpless to do anything that would actually help.

Dakuso crouched next to Yuugi, pulling the other up with him as they both stood up, "So you're the brat's lover huh? I should've known he would pick such a weakling like you, he's trying to make himself seem better than he actually is!" Dakuso grinned at Atemu's enraged expression, and threw Yuugi back to the ground, not caring what would happen to the boy at the moment

Atemu saw the hurt flashing in Yuugi's eyes just before Dakuso threw him to the ground. He knew that Yuugi didn't believe a word the madman was saying, but he had still been called weak, and Atemu knew that that wouldn't be the last of it. He'd do anything to get to his Aibou right now, but he had to give all his energy to the God Monsters fighting above him, leaving barely any to get through the aura Dakuso now used as a shield; there was no way to get through and get to Yuugi and Jou at the moment.

"Maybe I should just end your pathetic existence, you did tackle me you know." Dakuso grinned as he saw the enraged look increasing on Atemu's face. The teen was now trying to get through the aura no matter what.

"What's wrong brat? Can't get through? Scared to lose someone else you love to a person you once trusted?"

Atemu glared at the man, but his eyes also showed confusion. What was the madman talking about? The only person he'd lost that he loved very much was his mother. Nobody knew who had poisoned his mother… right? Did Dakuso actually know who had done it?

"What do you mean Dakuso?" Atemu hissed, trying to calm himself enough to think rationally again, and not let his anger get the better of him. Something that wasn't really working at the moment seeing as Yuugi was still at Dakuso's mercy.

"What? You mean you actually don't know? You don't know who poisoned your mother? I thought the entire palace knew! I remember hearing the cleaners talking about it even. You mean to tell me that a cleaner knew but not you?" Dakuso taunted, knowing full well that neither Atemu, nor Seth knew what had really happened to Queen Kireira. The Pharaoh had made sure everybody who had been involved, was either killed, thrown into the dungeon, or sworn to secrecy. He himself had been the one to create the poison that had killed the beloved Queen, very pleased that he would now only have to overthrow the Pharaoh. Nobody had known, but Kireira had been the better summoner of the two royals, so she would've been the hardest to beat.

Atemu simply glared even harsher at Dakuso, this glare somehow getting even worse as Yuugi let out a whimper. "Tell me!" he demanded. He wanted Yuugi gone there, but he also wanted to know what had really happened to his mother, who had really killed her and if it really did have something to do with him hating his father so much.

"Well, my dear Atemu. Do you really want to know who killed you mother?" dakuso taunted, knowing that he was irritating the crimson-eyed teen by stretching this out so much.

"Yes!" Atemu growled out, feeling his cousin also fighting against the aura keeping them away from Yuugi and Jou. He knew Kireira had been like a second mother to his cousin, and that the other wanted to find out who had poisoned her just as much as he did. Add that to the fact that his lover was at Dakuso's feet, and you had a very good reason to get through the barrier separating them from Dakuso.

"The poison your mother was killed with was made by me, the cook is who put it in the wine which killed her. But neither him, nor me were the ones to plan her death. That was someone else." Dakuso started, smirking smugly at Atemu who, for once, stayed silent, although he was still fighing against the aura. "The one who ordered it all was your father himself. Kireira was standing in his way to raise you the way he wanted to. He wanted you to be cold and heartless like he was. To rule the country with an iron fist, and Kireira was making sure that would happen. That's why he killed her, Atemu. He killed her for you. It's all your fault!"

And that's it people! Wow, I finally got to tell who killed Kireira… It really does take me long for that kind of stuff to be revealed huh? Oh well, didn't see any reason to tell him sooner, nor any way to tell him so yeah. Anyway, hope you all liked the chap even though it's not all that good in my opinion, and R&R!

P.S.: The note that I'm still having writtersblock and that chapters might be later still counts, and will probably count until the very end of this fic. But don't worry, we're almost at the end anyway.