I'm changing the time line of the story a little. This happens after Yami gets his memory back but before the Final Duel as such Yami's memory has almost fully come back though there are parts missing. Unlike in the original version of the chapter there is no need for Bakura or in this case Akefia to tell Yugi what his 'slave brand' says because he already knows. How he knows will be explain in a future chapter.

Ryka, Myra and Star are my characters and play an important role in the story. Just read through the first few sentences makes me cringe, dear god my writing back in 2013 was horrible and incredibly disjoined. I'm sorry you had to put up with that. Hopefully this should make the story far easier to read. I hope you enjoy this chapter.


Date: 26/09/18

Time: 10: 48 am – 4:19 pm

Joey, Tea, Tristan and Ryou noticed how exhausted Yugi looked. They had known he hadn't been getting much sleep thanks to Malik, but it was still worrying. Joey was more than a little confused when he saw the pained look on Yugi's face as he put the bad with the Millennium items on the ground. Malik looked at Yugi more than a little concerned, he had been meaning ask Yugi about his dreams.

"Yug you alright?" Joey asked more than a little concerned when he saw the tears in Yugi's eyes as he straightened up. Yugi smiled thinly, he should have known his friend would have picked up on something being wrong. Yugi opened his mouth to reply when a sharp pain shot through his stomach making him dizzy. He jerked when he felt someone touch him and realized it was Malik.

"Yugi what's the matter, are you sure you're alright?" Malik questioned more then worried when Yugi closed his eyes. He looked paler then normal and like he was about to collapse which really wasn't a good thing. Malik let him over to the kitchen table and pushed him into a chair and removed the Millennium Puzzle, putting on the table. He touched Yugi's forehead and jerked his hand away at how hot he was. What on earth was he doing out of bed.

"I…I'm fine…just…. got a sore…stomach…is all. Don we hav' to do the duel today?" Yugi asked answered, staring at Malik as his mind started to fog up. Ryou stared at Yugi more than a little concerned. He didn't look at all well. Ryou could feel Bakura was worried about Yugi. It was only after Atem got his memory back did Ryou finally meet the real Spirit of the Millennium Ring. Apparently, he had been dealing with Zorc and with him now gone Bakura was freed from his Prison inside the ring.

"No you don't. If you beat Atem then it will open the gate to the afterlife but that doesn't mean he has to leave permentaly. He can come and go when he pleases. You can do it you're feeling better," A smooth voice answered making everyone turn around, they were shocked to see an older, meaner version of Ryou looked a lot like the Thief King they had met in Ancient Egypt.

"Ryka what are you doing here?" Ryou demanded before he tackled Ryka much to Malik amusement. Joey, Tristan and Tea stared at Ryou and Ryka wondering what was going on. It was easy to tell the two were related in some way. Ryka somehow managed to stay on his feet when Ryou slammed into him, he was three inches taller then Ryou but that really didn't matter.

"Did you really think I pass up a chance to see my little brother when you're here and besides Kia wanted to see his little brother" Ryka replied and Ryou nodded while Yugi's friends got acquainted with Ryka and Bakura's brother Akefia, Malik wanted to tell Ryou his brother was going to be there but managed to keep it to himself. I turned back to Yugi when he groaned, his arms were wrapped around his stomach.

"You can you unwrap your arms, so I can look at your stomach?" Malik asked waiting for Yugi to comply, he gently lifted Yugi's shirt and had to stop himself from gasping when he saw what was branded on Yugi's stomach. Yugi had never had that before so why he did have it now, Malik looked up when he heard a strangled gasp behind him and saw Akefia was staring at Yugi with a horrified look on his face.

"Kia what's the matter?" Bakura asked wondering what was wrong with his brother, he looked like he had seen a ghost and was remembering something incredibly unpleasant. Akefia stared at Yugi, he hadn't known what to think when he saw the Prince outside the Palace, he looked nervous and scared like he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"h-how long have you had that?" Akefia asked, Yugi stared at him with glassy eyes, he blinked seemly confused. The brand looked recent though that should have been impossible. It would take up to three weeks to completely heal and if not looked after properly it would get infected which sometimes happened due to the branding iron not being cleaned before each use.

"Just…today," Yugi finally answered, Malik moved out of the way so Akefia could get a better look at the slave brand, Akefia gently touched the edge of the brand Yugi hissed and flinched, now that he was closer he realized the brand was infected which was usual as it usually took around 5 days to week for a slave brand to get infected, he shivered when he remembered that blood curdling scream. He had somehow known it was the Prince's.

He had told Star about the Prince helping him escape when he ran into him in the market apparently the Prince 'servant' was very sick and no knew why, he had been complaining of a sore stomach so Atem had given him time off to recover but he had come down with a terrible fever shortly after coming back from the market later then he usually would.

"It's badly infected, all you can really do is clean it with soap and water, take some Panadol and wait for the fever to go down, its going to be a very long week," Akefia replied as Bakura walked over with a bowl of cold soapy water and gently clean the slave brand, Yugi sighed when the cold cloth touched the brand, there was a faint hissing as heat was leeched from the slave brand.

Bakura wrapped his arm around Yugi's waist to help pull him to see feet but froze when he felt something warm and wet on his forearm. He pulled his arm away to see it was covered in blood, he shared an alarmed look with his brother before gently tugging Yugi's shirt up to reveal the bloody mess that was his back, he knew all too well they were lash marks from a whip.

"Yugi what happened? How did you get these lash marks,"


There done. I hope you liked this chapter. I changed it quite a bit from the original, it should make a lot more sense for one. I used some of the original dialogue but mostly made it up. I know its not as long as the original chapter, but I plan on taking this story in a completely different direction now. It heavily involves a Headcannon of mine. Don't worry chapter three will be up today if I can manage.

This chapter is 2 pages and 1,033 words. I know its not very long but the next chapter will be much longer I promise. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and alerted any of my stories it truly means a lot. For those of you who have read CECE don't worry chapter 12 is coming I just haven't gotten the time to write anything for it as I have been busy.

That story does, however have 11,544 views which is absolutely amazing. Its my most popular story. It still blows me mind away how popular it is. Over the next month or so I'll be going through and editing all my existing stories as some of them very badly need an update. Father's Love is one of them. Another story I'll be editing is Her Ore & Boat, His Hook & The Heart of Te Fiti though mostly to get back in the flow of things as I am quite stuck on that story at the moment.

Thankyou for reading, please review, favourite or alert the story, its very much appreciated.