2. Disruptions
It was barely 8:30am the next morning when the crown Prince was rudely awoken from his slumber by a harsh slam on his door. Growling, Prince Atemu got out of bed and pulled a black silk robe on to cover his nude body, stalking over to the door with a pissed off expression.
24-year-old Atemu is a 5'2' man with caramel tanned skin; high cheekbones; a button nose; sharp, violet eyes with hints of crimson in the right light; thick lips; well-developed muscles; and tricoloured hair shot around his head in five large spikes forming a star. The base is black, and the tips match his eyes, three blonde lightning bolt strikes shoot up into his hair while blonde lightning streaks frames his face. Three on the right and two to the left of his forehead.
Throwing the door open, Atemu was less than impressed to find his cousin fall to the ground at his feet. The cousin, Marik, squeaked and turned bright red when he saw the Prince's family jewels in all their glory under the robe. Morning wood and all. "What the hell is going on?" Atemu growled in a dangerously low tone that all knew meant a swift and painful death would follow.
26-year-old Marik is a 5'11" man with caramel tan skin; sharp cheekbones; a small nose; sharp, evil violet eyes with thick black eyelashes; thick lips; well-developed muscles; and platinum blonde hair spiking around his head to resemble the top of a pineapple. That's how he got the nickname 'Pineapple Head' from people wishing to lose their tongue.
He is often seen wearing skin-tight long-sleeved black leather clothes that shows off his muscles and leaves nothing to the imagination, the shirt being a tight muscle shirt. His shirt is tucked into his pants and a black leather belt wraps around his waist. Black knee-high boots with slight heels covers his feet and two-inch wide gold bands hugs his wrists under his shirt.
"Sorry, Atemu. We were trying to work out who would be the unlucky bastard going to wake Yami up," Atemu's other cousin, Bakura, answered. "That idiot lost the bet but still refused to keep his end of the bargain. I was just putting him in his place."
26-year-old Bakura is a 5'9" man with rather pale skin; sharp cheekbones; a small nose; harsh, evil brown eyes; slightly thick lips; well-developed muscles; and snow-white hair which is wild with spikes that defy gravity. Almost appearing to have bunny ears.
He is dressed in skin-tight black leather pants with a white and blue striped t-shirt hidden under a black trench coat that fell to his knees. Black combat boots over the top of his pants cover his feet, reaching up to his knees.
Both Bakura and Marik wear a smaller version of Yami's crown since they too are a member of the Royal family. They're just branch members but still close enough to the primary family to still be recognised if something were to happen to both Atemu and Yami.
"Against my door?" Atemu grunted, yanking Marik to his feet since the boy seemed frozen to the floor with his eyes still peeking under the robe. "Stop staring at my junk. Only Heba has that privilege," Atemu added, shoving the boy out of the room.
"Why don't you go and get Yami up? He's less likely to be pissed at you," Marik suggested as he looked at Atemu, barely managing to stay on his feet after being tossed out of the room.
"What are you talking about? Isn't Yami already up?" Atemu asked with a confused frown, finally starting to wake up as realisation dawned on him. Yami isn't awake? He's always up before the sun. Even Heba had beat him up and was already out for the day! Something wasn't right if he's still in bed.
"No… The council was waiting for him this morning, but he never showed up. They tried looking for him but had no luck. He's not answering their doors and he's not in his office. The bastards are too chicken shit to enter his chambers without permission though. That's why they enlisted our help," Marik explained. "But we don't want to go in there either. Even if he is the one who slept in."
Atemu sighed and ruffled his hair. "Let me get changed and then we'll drag that idiot out of bed," Atemu muttered, slamming the door in his cousins' face. 'All I wanted was to sleep in, but he ruined it,' Atemu grumbled mentally as he got changed, quickly brushing his hair before he left the room.
Atemu changed into tight black dress pants and a long-sleeved button-up silk black shirt with a flame orange dragon curled into a circle on his back with an orange flame in the centre. Black combat boots covers his feet. Two-inch thick gold bands are always wrapped around Atemu's wrists, and a gold necklace hangs from his neck a cartouche saying his wife's name on it. A smaller gold crown rests on his forehead between his thin eyebrows and his hairline, gold wings extending over his ears and the symbol of the kingdom engraved in the centre. The symbol of their family is the Eye of Wadjet surrounded by the Ouroboros.
Leaving the room five minutes later, the trio walked slightly further down the hall to where Yami's door was. Giving the door a knock, the trio blinked in surprise when the door creaked open. "It's open?" Bakura asked, giving the other two a nervous glance.
"Something's wrong," Atemu muttered, pushing the door open so they could enter the room. All three were on alert as they looked around the room, their eyes falling onto the bed where Yami was lying spread out across the bed with the blanket and pillows kicked off the bed. His hair was a mess and blood-tinted drool had crept out of the left corner of his lips, trekking down to just below his ear. His shirt had ridden up in his sleep to reveal a nasty bruise on his stomach, the added colour highlighting old scars across the young man's abdomen.
"What happened to him?" Marik asked worriedly. He had always known Yami to lay completely still where he slept and yet here he was, spread eagle over the bed and in such a state that it almost looked like he had been fighting something in his sleep.
"Must've been one hell of a rough night," Bakura responded with a shrug, a smirk on his face as he took out his phone to snap a photo of his dishevelled cousin. He may never have another chance to see the boy like that after all.
A yelp escaped Bakura when his phone suddenly shattered into a million pieces, all three of them turning their attention back onto Yami who had just shifted onto his stomach. The presence of an ancient magic was extremely strong in the room all of a sudden and the trio noticed that Yami's left arm had turned completely black, starting at the elbow.
"We have to leave, now!" Atemu snapped, grabbing the two as he quickly moved for the door. He barely closed the door when he sensed another outburst of the magic.
"What is happening?" Bakura squeaked.
"No time for that. We need to evacuate the palace," Atemu instructed sternly, trying to suppress the uncontrollable fear and worry brewing in the pit of his stomach.
"Tell us what is happening first. How else can we instruct the people?" Marik responded.
"It's best that they don't know. Now go!" Atemu shouted, jumping when the door to Yami's room almost blasted into them. It only stopped due to the dungeon-grade hinges that held the door after Yami kicked the door down one too many times. "Fuck! We have to go now!"
This time, Marik and Bakura actually listened to their cousin. They had always known that Yami possessed a great deal of power but had never actually seen this power firsthand. Especially not while the boy was asleep.
Atemu waited for the two to leave before he turned back to the room, gulping slightly before he ventured cautiously back to the door. Long ago, he remembered a similar incident happening. Five years ago, another person from the same family as Yami's mother, started to display similar symptoms. Then the person died and destroyed half of the palace. It would have been a lot worse if the former Emperor hadn't sacrificed himself to seal the infected away.
Just before he could enter the room, Atemu was yanked back and pulled away from door. The splintering door by just missed clobbering Atemu in the face, causing the boy to flinch as he stumbled back into a hard chest of his rescuer.
"What the hell are you doing, Atemu?!" someone shouted in his ear, the person hoisting him over his shoulder as he quickly ran from the room.
"Let me go, Seto! I have to stop him! Otherwise he'll destroy the entire palace!" Atemu protested, pounding on his third cousin's back.
24-year-old Seto is a 6'1" man with pale skin; high cheekbones; a small nose; sharp, cold deep blue eyes; slightly thick lips; well-developed muscles; and brown hair that forms a point at the back of his head, falling to his shoulders. His fringe falls to hide his entire forehead with a longer streak between his eyes. His hair is always neatly groomed.
He is often seen wearing skin-tight long-sleeved black leather clothes that shows off his muscles and leaves nothing to the imagination, the shirt being a turtleneck. His shirt is tucked into his pants and a black leather belt wraps around his waist. Black knee-high boots with slight heels covers his feet and two-inch wide silver bands hugs his wrists under his shirt.
"A palace can be rebuilt. Our people would rather have to do that than lose both of you in one incident. Besides, you're not strong enough to stop him yourself. You know that. That's why he took the throne over you," Seto reminded, not letting the Crown Prince down until they reached an evacuation point. "Help with the evacuation. We can brainstorm ideas while we get everyone to safety."
"Fine," Atemu growled, setting about helping people escape while trying to think of an alternative way to stop the damage Yami was causing. Seto was right, he wasn't strong enough to stop whatever was happening to Yami. It would kill them both and probably wouldn't save the palace in the first place.
Seto kept an eye on Atemu as they evacuated people, his own thoughts focusing on what was happening to his younger cousin. Why was Yami's family always being affected by whatever this is? Why every five years on the dot? Why had no one thought about this event occurring again? They knew five years had passed and they still didn't put steps into place to protect the people. 'What could we even do to stop this though? How would we know who will become infected next?' Seto mused.
"GET DOWN!" someone suddenly shouted as the ground shook harshly. Moments later, walls seemed to be blasted towards them and the roof collapsed down on the people trying to flee. Everyone there, including Atemu and Seto, threw their arms up in a futile attempt to protect themselves from the falling debris. But really, there was nothing they could do to save themselves from the falling building. Especially since three floors were about to crash into them from both the side and above.