It was the mad laughter that filled the room that startled him out of his insane revelry. A laugh laced with agony, hidden under a veneer of malicious intent, and growing louder and higher as Yami swung around in alarm, the eye of Horus still lighting his forehead.
His heart slithered to mute, paralyzing panic when he saw the glint of blade in the shadows, the familiar ice-colored eyes, the tilt of the arrogant head, and the white garments over the slim body stained with his own blood.

Seth emerged from the darkness, his head cocked and eyebrow raised in amusement, as he nudged Yugi's cold body with a toe, and tipped the face over for better viewing. Yugi's face was slack, the jaw and eyes open wide, the violence against him clear in the purple handprints that crowned his throat. Seth wiped away some of the tears and saliva from his boot on Yugi's torn sleeve, before he turned back to face Yami.

"Well done, my Pharoah. I cannot believe that you could commit treachery to rival mine, but this..." Seth swung the bloodied dagger in a wide arch over Yugi's body. "To murder a child, who was pleading for his life? A child you were charged with protecting? I wonder what Ra would have to say about his precious annointed now."

Yami gulped, and could only stare, stupidly at the horrible vision before him. "Seth?" He mouthed in a whisper, shaking his head in desperate denial.

"You are dead!"

Seth narrowed glittering eyes, before giving a regal, wry snort of amusement. "So are you. By my own hand, if I recall correctly. You were an easy kill, you know. Held down by four, drugged into submission before hand, and tied up as well."

Yami felt the cold blade grace his throat in a teasing bite as Seth smirked to see the tears. "It was not honorable, was it, Pharoah? You were such a sheltered, spoiled child, hidden away from the world, and existing in a lie of mercy and kindness. I know that it was Isis who made the final blow.
Running the dagger through your still beating heart, as an act of mercy, yes? But it was I who made you suffer. It was I who made you long for death, if only to escape that pain...that delicious, agonizing pain."

The blade flashed silver, danced over his old scar, and Yami shuddered to feel its tip gently slicing through the buckle he wore to hide the mangled flesh. The hidious voice continued, as one hand slid up the back of his neck, then in a mocking swirl down his trembling spine.

"But, I am not here for that now, my Pharoah. No, not that. Not yet." It was a hissed promise, as Yami heard tongue glide over bared teeth, behind him.

"I will return to collect on that, my Pharoah. You have my word. But for now..." Yami felt the blade flick over his neck, as the old wound throbbed in answer.
Blinding agony came searing back as his knees gave way, and his useless hands latched over the wound. He felt the warm scarlet trickling through his hands as Seth raised the blade and eyed the dribbling gore with satisfaction.

"This is enough, you see. To know now that even after 5000 years, you still cringe and cry and cower whenever you think of your last moments. It is pleasing to me."

Yami could only cower and tremble, his eyes darting stupidly from Yugi's splayed form, to Seth's horrific manifestation. "You were banished to the Shadows! This cannot be!" He murmured, the fear giving way to complete stupor, as he could only stare wide-eyed and transfixed.

"It is what it is, my king. Tell me. Does your mind have the ability to convince your eyes they are lying?" The velvet purr and the dagger flicked in emphasis, as Seth lowered his ice colored eyes to peer down at Yugi's body. "Truly, Pharoah, I did not know you had this amount of evil in you. Did you feel relieved that you no longer-excuse the expression-had to choke back your anger? Did it not feel liberating to give in to that sheer power of rage?" Seth whispered in a smug growl as he glided behind Yami, his voice dropping even lower, "Did you not feel the same godlike strength pulsing through you that I felt when I ended your pathetic existance in Egypt?"

Yami only looked up at him, his jaw trembling, his eyes nakedly raw with a savage realization, as he looked down at Yugi with dawning horror.
"What have I done?" It was a harsh whisper, as his eyes wildly swung from Yugi to Seth in aching guilt.

"I see that death has made you stupid, if not blind, my king. So, allow me the privledge of enlightening you. You murdered an inocent child in cold blood. You violated your own integrity by slaying the one whom Ra charged you to protect, and you killed a close friend, just as you strangled the Priestess Isis in a savage act of depravity that I can never hope to rival. Oh, yes..." Seth smiled in satisfaction to see Yami's involuntary flinch of anguish.

"Oh, my king, how pathetic you have become. Parading yourself about as deliverer, and savior, groaning so nobly under the twin burden and sacrifice and honor. Laboring in the lies you tell yourself in the mad effort to deny that you are nothing but a depraved monster. Tell me, my king. What sort of punishment would be more fitting to a murderer than to have him sealed away so that he can hurt no-one else?"

Yami's face crumpled, as he shook his head in negating, pleading denial, as he felt the truth shatter all around him, the shards of all he thought he was scattering across his breaking heart. "Isis was my friend! I would die before laying a hand on her!"

Seth sniffed in distain, and shook his head with a chuckle. " You did die, my king. And you did far more than lay a hand on her, I promise you. You choked the life out of her, just as you did to this child, now. She was mourned as a goddess, and entombed with all honor, you know. I wonder what she would say to hear the Pharoah she served so devoutly disgracing her memory with such a lie from the lips of her own killer!"

Yami slid bonelessly to his knees, as he buried his face in fingers clawing through his hair. Seth watched with glee as he sensed the spirit's tortured breaking, the brutal sway of Yami's rocking as he babbled through his sobs, "I didn't do this, I didn't kill anybody, Ra forgive me, I did-"

"Yess..."Seth purred as he lay a mocking hand over the Pharoah's hitching shoulder. "What guilt you must bear, Yami. What unclean deeds you must suffer for, now."

"May I be forgiven, Ra help me!" Yami choked out, still rocking in his mindless lurch. Seth reached down, caressed the quivering chin, and tipped it upward so he could look at Yami directly. The swell of compassion in those glittering blue eyes offered such redemption, as he whispered in a soft, soothing tone. "Oh, my poor Pharoah. There is no forgiveness for those who kill...unless..." The insane, desperate hope that rose to Yami's eyes was satisfying to Seth, but sickening, as Yami gripped his arms in a fierce plea. "What can be done? What can I do to erase this, and make it right? I will do anything!"

The evil that came across Seth's hungry, calculating mouth as he stared down at the king was masked by a comforting smile. "It is possible, Yami. You must simply remove the taint of evil from your own savage deeds. It is only by purging the past that you can alter the future and make this right."

Yami gulped. "How does one do this? Please, tell me!" Seth's face melted into glossed over rapture, as he extended the dagger to Yami's outstretched and eager hands. With a finger ghosting over the scars across Yami's neck, he forced the bright blade into Yami's hands, whispering,
"You must end this yourself, my Pharoah. End your torment of guilt, and rid the world of your evil. Sacrifice yourself for your mistakes, and maybe then you will find the forgiveness you so desperately seek!"

With a prayer, Yami raised the blade to his throat, the point poised and already drawing forth blood. His arm was drawn back in a wide arch, as he braced himself to plunge it through his quivering neck. Seth's cackle wafted through the strange roar in his ears, as he swallowed, and closed his eyes. He thrust the blade forth.