Author's Note; Again, sorry this took so long; I was focusing on some other fics and I'm no longer working from paper on this one as I was in the start; all of this is stright from my head!! enjoy the read and plees review!! XXXXXX

Four weeks later.

As she sat on the bed of her sleeping quarters, Kisara Hirotsh was filled with dread; one of the Aralanti's most experienced mothers had just examined her. The door opened and he strode inside calmly…tanned face belying nothing as the mother in question exited, having filled the youth in on his fiancée's status. Bakura cast a glance over his wife-to-be; she didn't look at him, just kept her eyes fixated on the ground. After what felt like a silent eternity, he spoke.

"Not a virgin…"

Kisara remained silent…what could she possibly say? She just waited for him to speak again…this time in an angrier voice.

"You're pregnant…"

She nodded her head slightly, indicating the affirmative to his rhetorical question.

"Who's the father?"

To this query, the heir to the leadership shook her head, unwilling to admit the identity of her unborn child's father for fear of his safety. Bakura reacted violently…Kisara jumped as he shouted at her and grabbed her elbow, shaking her sharply.

"Who is he? Tell me, you slut!"

"Let me go, Bakura!"

"Don't you dare order me, whore!"

Kisara froze out of shock as she felt the pain of his hand making contact with her cheek…he'd never hit her before… As her fiancé released his grasp on her and walked a few feet away, the teenager placed a hand to the rosy-red flesh of her assaulted left cheek; the skin was raw and sensitive as she lightly traced a gentle finger over it. After a few seconds, Bakura turned back around, realization glimmering in his violet eyes…he spoke to her in a cold voice.

"The father…it's Kaiba, isn't it?"

When she didn't answer, and just stood, one hand raised to her cheek, the current head of the Aralanti clan smirked maliciously.

"Kaiba…that heartless son of a bitch…cold calculating bastard-"

"He was a better kisser than you ever were! And he cared about me- ahhh!"

The black-haired girl's outburst was cut short as Bakura punched her in the jaw, irrelevant of her place amongst the hierarchy of the clan; she was a woman and should know her place beneath him. She tasted blood in her mouth and spat a large wad onto the ground, muttering numerous Egyptian curses beneath her breath out of reflex of spending time with Saheed and Daknar. As he caught wind of the foul names she was calling him, the white-haired youth lost control and… As she felt her head smash forcefully against a wall, Kisara blacked-out; as she had noted all through her privileged life in their innermost workings, that the men of the Aralanti clan saw women as their subordinates and, as a result, females were treated as dispensable among them, even one so high in the structure of the clan itself as she was, Kisara was still considered below her betrothed…

"Where's my cousin?!"

Denian looked to his younger cousin's husband-to-be; he hadn't glimpsed Kisara in the better part of a fortnight now and rumours had been flying round the clan; was it true she was pregnant? The white-haired lad merely looked the other way and continued on with his duties…their marriage had been postponed indefinitely. I'm meant to protect her! The older assassin cursed himself; Kisara was his equivalent of a little sister and him being incapable of helping her at this moment in time was infuriating.

"Here…"

He blinked as Saheed's wife-to-be, Herani, deftly slipped a small piece of folded paper into the palm of his hand as she walked past. The seventeen-year-old, with her tresses of sun-bleached hair, lightly tanned skin and beautiful features wasn't keen on the clan at all; her parents had insisted upon betrothing her to Saheed since birth, as they would receive an admirable amount of fortune in return for their daughter's hand in marriage next year…but the match had proven well, upon meeting him, three years ago now, Herani had fallen instantly for Saheed and never managed to get mixed up between him and his identical brother…but she still didn't agree with the way women were treated; she knew Saheed would never beat her, but the rest of the males wouldn't give such actions a second thought. Denian waited for the teenager to be out of sight, before walking to his own sleeping quarters and opening the piece of paper, discovering it was a note, written in Herani's neat and elegant handwriting;

"Kisara is in the prisoner cells beneath our feet; I saw her yesterday and she's in a bad way. Bakura knows she is pregnant and he's not the father; he's been going down there and beating her…I haven't told Saheed yet, you've got to help her Denian."

Upon concluding the reading of the short note, his first reaction was to find Bakura and kill the bastard…but he couldn't; until Kisara could claim the leadership for herself, then he was the leader and if attacked, Denian would be sentenced to immediate death…he'd promised Sheejahri he wouldn't do something idiotic and get himself killed…had it really been that long since her death? Two years already…

Sheejahri had been his wife; they'd been married at eighteen, both of them having turned of age within a couple of months of each other and wed soon after her birthday. She'd truly been a pleasant sight for anyone's eyes; medium height, slim, tanned skin that seemed to radiate…long chestnut hair that cascaded down her back in a luxurious torrent and the most captivating amber eyes that shone with joy at all times…they'd been totally suited to one another from day one when she'd been found as an eleven-year-old, wandering the blistering sands, searching for her murdered family and some Aralanti liaison members had come across the young child and claimed her for their own, bringing the dehydrated little girl back to their extensive base. He'd been the one to befriend her and at fifteen, having not yet been betrothed to another, had proposed and requested her to marry them when they turned of age, to which Sheejahri had wholeheartedly agreed. The wedding had been a great occasion and the celebrating had gone on for days afterwards…then a few months later, it came to light that Sheejahri was to have a child…but tragedy then struck; she'd gone into labour in their sleeping quarters at full-term, and some of the experienced mothers arrived to help with the delivering, as was common practice amidst the clan of assassins…after twenty-three hours of excruciating labour…their son had been stillborn…he'd died in the womb. He was totally perfect in all aspects; dark brown hair, tanned skin, his mother's nose and his father's blue-grey eyes…but he never once breathed the air of Egypt…just lay still and listless, an empty shell of what could have been; they had named him Dahrej. But, after the tiny, lifeless infant had been born, the placenta hadn't followed…instead it had remained in Sheejahri's womb and become infected…slowly rotting inside her and poisoning her blood…she had died a slow and painful death…passing away a mere two weeks after the birth of her stillborn son; the cause had been severe septicaemia.

Though he should have been grieving his lost son and wife, being just nineteen at the time, Denian had not had that luxury; Kisara was still being trained in combat and numerous magical skills, not to mention trying to keep an eye on his troublesome brothers; Saheed and Daknar was a punishment he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy…even their parents had struggled with the twins, and they'd both died when he was thirteen…the two had been heading an assassination attempt on a Tombkeeper leader, but it had gone awry and seven had been killed, including four of their own. Until he knew exactly what to do, Denian Hirotsh would stay put and play it safe, but the second he could get his cousin to safety, he wouldn't hesitate.

a/n- did u like dis chptr? I was trying to focus more on charecter development, but I don't know...anyway plees review as that menas I'll write more!! XXXX