Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

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Chapter 4

He had no idea how long he had been in this prison. It might have been days or perhaps years, he couldn't tell. His prison was small and completely black, there was no light, none what so ever. All he could see was black, it was driving him mad. If it had been the plan of the Romans to weaken him by this imprisonment then it had succeeded, sort of. This imprisonment in the dark had driven him almost mad. He was so desperate to get out of this hell hole that he would mostly likely do what was asked of him. But still he would not do anything which would mean that his people came to any harm. He was their Prince; even if he was a captive he would do his duty to his people and protect them. The rocking of the ship occasionally threw him against the walls of his prison. These meetings with the walls where quite frequent and not fun. The next rock of the ship, threw him rather hard against the wall. Atem put his hands to the wall, although his hands were still bound, trying to steady himself. When was this going to end? When would they get to wherever they were going? He thought of his father who, he was sure, would be going mad over this. He couldn't help wonder why, he might be a Prince but he was nothing special. The most important thing was that the Romans had no taken their land. His people were safe, as for his safety he could not be sure whether the word safe could be used to describe his position for a while. The ship lurched and Atem was thrown again into the wall, he let of a frustrated huff. He did not care for this wall and being thrown against it numerous times was not helping his relationship with it. He would very much like to punch a large hole in the wall and escape but alas the wood was too strong. Various sounds around him brought him out of his thinking. His cell may be deprived of light but he could still hear what was going on around it which had help, slightly, to ground him to reality. The voices of the men sounded excited, some even cheered. Did this mean that they were close to land? Or was this just another night where they seemed to have drunk too much? Pressing himself against the door of his cell, or what he thought was the door as the darkness made it impossible to actually find it. He tried to listen to what was being said but there were so many voices that he could not distinguish what was actually being said. The sounds of footsteps were preventing him listening to what was being said. The footsteps became louder and louder before the door was suddenly wrenched open and Atem toppled into a rather undignified heap on the ground. There was laugher around him, light poured into his eyes for the first time in he did not know how long. He squinted around; the light seemed to pierce him after so long in the dark. The soldiers seemed to be gathering things together. Now he was out of the cell he could hear what was being said. The Romans called happily to each other, some exclaimed about the excitement of seeing their wives. Hands lifted him to his feet and Atem was dragged off to the deck of ship. The cool breeze, much cooler than in Egypt, hit him and the smell of sea air overwhelmed him for a moment. Allowing himself to be led to wherever it was they were going, he took the opportunity to look over the side of the ship. Land was coming into view, the land was very green, something he was not accustom to seeing in the dessert apart from patches here and there. But this green land seemed to stretch for miles. He stared for as long as he could before he was dumped to the ground, in front of someone. Looking up he saw the Roman General smirking down at him.

"So, you survived the journey Little Rat." He spat, kicking the bound Prince, "We will dock at Ostia* in a while before journeying to Rome where you will be paraded for all to see and all to laugh at. Imagine the faces of the Roman People as they welcome a Rat like you. Welcome to Hell Little Rat."

Atem made no response, there was nothing to say. Instead he just gazed around, watching what was happening.

Within a few minutes, there were men running around as they took their positions for the ship to dock. Ropes were thrown off the sides of the ship as the ship docked. Being on his knees, Atem could not see where they had docked. He was just forced to sit where he'd been dumped and wait for something to happen. The man around him marched off the boat where they await their General for further orders. Potitus had gone back to his cabin but he returned, fully dressed in his armour his helmet atop his head where it seemed to glitter in the sun light. He smirked down at Atem before dragging him off the ship. The Prince saw a metal cage on the ground near where they were disembarking and knew was for him. He pulled away, he would not go in a cage, but his strength was nothing compared to the strength of the General meant that he could not get away. He was forced into the cage, it wasn't a large he could only sit up he was unable to stand. Potitus knelt to be on eye level with the Prince.

"You look great in there Little Rat. Now everyone will be able to see you." He grabbed the Prince's bound hands, extracted a small knife and cut the ropes surrounding the Prince's wrists, "Well now that you're locked in here, I believe it is only fair that you have the use of your hands."

With that the General walked away, barking orders at nearby officers. Atem rubbed his wrists, wincing slightly. Both of his wrists had a red rope burn from where the ropes had chaffed his skin, but he tried to ignore the pain. Looking around his saw many people dressed in cloths of different colours all craning to get a look at him. The soldiers around him were forming a long line, wagons were being brought over and supplies were being loaded on them. He was so taken up with staring around that he failed to notice a couple of soldiers approach the cage and roughly lift it into the air. Atem was thrown of balance and fell against the side of the cage. The cage was placed upon the back of a wagon and the two soldiers stared at the captive in the cage as if he were some kind of animal.

"They say that the blood of Egyptians is not like ours." One said, glancing to the other.

"Well, let's find out." The other replied, not taking his eyes off the boy.

The solider picked up his Pilum** poking it through the bars at the Prince. The Prince tried to shove himself backwards but the back of the cage prevented him got getting away. He felt his skin on his upper arm tear as the sharp point on the pilum dragged across his skin but stubbornly refused to make a sound. The soldiers seemed to be fascinated that red blood was pouring down the captive's arm. The pilum was jabbed at the Prince again a second cut appeared below the first.

"It really does bleed like us." One said.

Atem put his hand to the wound, attempting the stem the flow of blood glaring at the two soldiers. What had they expected? That he would have green blood? What was wrong with these people? The solider raised his pilum to make a third cut but the General had returned and had seen what they had done.

"Legionaries!" Both soldiers immediately turned round, standing to attention, "You were not given orders to harm the captive, you were given orders to prepare him for transport."

The Legionaries just stared at their General, not saying a word. Potitus glared at both of them, he was not really bothered that their captive had been hurt but it was more about how these two had not followed orders.

"When we reach Rome you shall be punished, now fall in."

The pair hurried away, Atem watched the pair go before looking at the General who had approached his cage. Potitus stared at the blood running down the Prince's arm, he seemed to be amused.

"Blood looks good on you, if I am honest I wish I had done that but we can't have everything."

Potitius did not wait for an answer, he walked away to mount his horse. With two of his commanders either side of him, he led his troops along the path towards the city of Rome. There were cheers from people around them; they waved as the soldiers marched past. Some called insults at the boy in the cage although they did not know who he was; they knew he was not from here. The army marched on, in perfect rhythm with each other. Leading the long line of Roman Soldiers was Potitius, he wore a smug expression. In the cage, it was not a comfortable ride. Atem was being thrown around as the wagon rocked on the ground. He tried looking around but it was hard to focus on the surroundings. For a long time the only sounds were the marching of thousands of feet and the clattering of hooves. Atem had given up trying to look around and was inspecting the wounds on his arm. His mind wondered, it travelled thousands of miles away turning his father and his home. He wished he could be with him, but he was here trapped. But, it had to be this way. He would not have of allowed his father to be captured. He would have taken his father's place, so he could not and would not dwell on why he was here. He would accept that this was his duty, he would endure this for his people.

A shout brought him out of his thinking. He didn't realise that he'd been picking at the dried blood on his arm so when they stopped he managed to rip some of the blood off and the wound began to bleed again. Ignoring the stinging from the wound, he looked around. His mouth fell open slightly as he started around. Running down the path they had just marched up were giant stone columns which arched so they all connected to each other and stretched in a straight line, lining the path they had just marched up. It was something to behold. Now that the wagon had stopped he could look around probably. He could not quite believe what he was seeing. The path they had marched up was lined with stones, which explained the rocking but he had never seen paved paths. Looking towards the city they were situated at, there were tall walls surrounding the city towered over them, intimidated them. Peering through the bars, Atem could see that the General was talking to someone. That someone was guarding the gates to the city and it seemed that they waiting for the guard to allow them to get in. The man in front of the gates stood back and the wagon lurched slightly as they began to move. There was the sound of distance cheering which grew louder as they entered the city. People lined either side of the paved path, they cheered and waved. Some threw rose petals at them, but when the people saw the Prince they jeered at him. Some threw rocks; the cage offered him some protection as the rocks bounced off the sides of the cage. Atem stared around, ignoring the flying rocks, he was in awe. The buildings stood tall, all of them looking identical to the others. In the distance he could see a circular shaped building, this one had similar arches and columns to the other he'd seen earlier but the circular shape was the main difference. The wagon stopped in front of a raised platform. Looking up, Atem could he a man dressed in fine clothes seated in a golden chair, looking down at him. Potitius had dismounted from his horse and was now standing in front of the Prince's cage. The finely dressed man was descending the stairs, he drew level with Potitius, who saluted him, and stared at the Prince.

"Who is this?" He demanded.

"This is the Prince of Egypt, Emperor." Potitius said.

The Emperor, a man named Cassius Bruttius Maximus, considered the boy locked in the cage. The boy was of slender build. His hair was not normal; Cassius had never seen such strange hair… and eyes. Bringing this boy was not what he had wanted and the Senate would not like the capture of this boy but perhaps there was a way to use this boy. The Emperor indicated to the General to release the boy. Potitius reached into the cage and grabbed the boy, dragging him out of the cage. There were cheers from the crowd at the aggressive actions of their General. The Emperor looked down at the boy, a smirk crossed his face. He raised a hand and struck the Prince across the face.

"Welcome to Rome, Brat." The Emperor spat, "There is no escape from here and you shall see the might of Rome."

Atem looked at the Emperor but before he could even think about responding he was dragged off. He was dragged them into a nearby building and down many corridors, before they entered a small room. He was dumped rather unceroimously on the floor, and one of the soldiers who had been holding him grabbed some chains that were attached to a nearby wall. The Prince who had seen this and guessed what was coming next. He tried to pull away but the two soldiers were too powerful. With the now prisoner chained the soldiers left, but not before one of them decided to give the prisoner a hard punch to the head as punishment for resisting. The prisoner crumpled on the ground, unconscious, blood running from his nose as the door was slammed shut.

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*Ostia was the closest Port to Rome itself, being around 15 miles from Rome. It was situated at the mouth of the River Tiber.

**Pilum is a javelin that Romans used before they engaged in melee.

Thanks for Reviewing: DarkManedFox (x3), Atem no koibito

Sorry for the delay, I'm working during the week and at the weekend I become this thing that only wants to lie in bed... and well I could have uploaded this earlier today but I got distracted by food...

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