Hey kiddos, hope you've all had fab weeks. This chapter we have smut, past lives, the reveal of YGO counterparts and some very bad news~

Chapter 19: The World Eater

"Father!" Nephele, his youngest, was unsurprisingly the first to lunge into his arms.

"My sweetheart," Jenzar surged, that same protective longing he felt for Atreyu was softened into Nephele as he held the excited Timer. Nephele relaxed almost immediately, excitement wanning to contentment and tilting his head back the dashing little creature flashed him one of those most brilliant smiles. He was such a Daddy's boy this sweet thing. "Oh, how I missed you…"

Nephele cooed against him appreciative to be appreciated. Beside the Timer Morphis, his anxious Knight, leant his weight more into one foot than the other and appeared to hesitate as though fighting the urge to colour fiercely.

"And what about Morphis?" Jenzar teased beckoning. "Come here you dashing lad! I'm so proud of you!"

Chuckling the Knight almost broke, unable to help himself, overjoyed on the interior at the praise and at once he had reverted to a boy. Jenzar leant as the youth ran to hook his arms round his waist and hefting the boy up held Morphis on his hip like a babe so the Knight would instead throw his arms round his neck.

"I am so very, very, proud of you." Jenzar swore against Morphis' brow. "You did magnificently."

"Not as well as Atemu!" Morphis cawed excitedly into his neck.

"Yes, well," Jenzar grinned from ear to ear. "I am stunning."

At that Morphis' lips fell apart and in his arms both Nephele and Morphis coloured viciously vermillion. They had both, all three counting Drea, spoken with him unguarded as Atemu and spoken ofhim in fact. Morphis especially seemed as if he might shrink again from a lad of ten to five as he stuttered but he caught himself then and excited suddenly cried out.

"That means you're Yami Sennen!" He beamed, bouncing in Jenzar's arms delightedly. "You and Atreyu are in Japan! I can come visit you!"

"Y-Yami Sennen?" Nephele repeated on his other arm as Jenzar cast Morphis a loving chuckle for his antics. The Timer had coloured even more deeply, fingers playing across his lips, his eyes fluttering uncertainly between Jenzar and Atreyu at the realization. "I…I dated a Yami Sennen once…"

"Oh?" Jenzar laughed. "Oh Neph, never fear, the times I have been lovers with Drea I can't even count! Never mind, you must come see us too, I should love to meet the two of you if you are both in Japan. I cannot meet Amar and Seviticus because of their Faens and the Secrecy Pact but to have you both would give me such joy."

"W-well…" Nephele batted as his own hair, perplexed and embarrassed.

"Yes! Yes!" Morphis bounced. "I'll visit!"

"Say you will Neph," Jenzar pleaded, "I am dying to meet you again properly!"

In all his excitement it took Jenzar a moment or so to catch Atreyu before him, folding his arms delicately, shaking his head with a mother's patience as another cheeky smile played at his lips.

"I-if," Jenzar caught himself jovially, "it's alright with your Mother of course."

"Second father this lifetime," Atreyu smiled, plucking Morphis out of Jenzar's arms to hold against his own chest. "Of courseyou two should come and find us. Don't be embarrassed Neph. Not even I recognised your sneak of a Father. He's a harlot. Come see us. I shall treat the pair of you."

"We must find Drea too for that matter." Jenzar affirmed.

"That may be a little bit longer," the Faen sighed, kissing Morphis brow as he brushed the boy's hair away and the child cleaved to him. "He's chosen not to attend tonight."

"Why?" The Champion baulked miserably, clutching Nephele a little closer on reflex. "It's hardly a celebration without all three of them."

"I couldn't say for sure," Atreyu shrugged gently, rocking Morphis. "I think our boy's a little embarrassed. I'd say he's discovered you are Atemu by his own means."

"Oh…" Jenzar sighed. Yes, Drea who had hoped that both dejected he and Atemu could mourn Jenzar and Atreyu creeping off into the sunset together. He had almost forgotten. That rug had been pulled away from Drea. The boy must've been upset. Their fickle, strange and perplexing Sequester with his good heart, his sultry body and his harsh tongue. Drea who was such a Daddy's boy for Jenzar and who, given the opportunity, would no doubt have liked to love him as Atreyu did.

"He'll recover." Atreyu hushed gently. "He always does. Just give him a little while. He'll come see us when he's ready. He's not skilled at letting his affections go in public. He would want to reconverge with you more privately but I do not doubt he's dying to see you again."

"Still," he sighed, "till then I shall miss him. Morph you and Neph shall have to entertain me till then."

"Aye Sir!" cried the boy.

"That's my strapping hero," Jenzar teased, plucking another kiss against Nephele's brow. "I'll return in a moment darlings I must go see Timaeus and Yusei."

"I'll manage here then," Atreyu dismissed, beckoning Nephele closer as Jenzar's arms slipped from round the Timer.

It was such a pleasure to see Atreyu with their children, his children, that Jenzar could not resist glancing over his shoulder once or twice to catch another sight of the Faen spoiling the pair of them. Those were his babes, they loved him, that was something of a special tie all its own which brought a smile to Jenzar and to Yami. He could barely detach himself from the intimate sight of Atreyu nuzzling and Morphis nestling.

"Timaeus," he greeted stern but uncharacteristically nervous as he found the Guardian. The Atlantean was by Cobalt who, spotting Jenzar, shared a quiet curt nod with the Champion who smiled back.

"Reaper Champion Jenzar Fraveous," Timaeus nodded in his turn, "you are well again?"

"Very," he assured, thrusting out his hand to the elder watcher. "I must thank you sincerely. I recall how fierce out battle was in the second life. You were under no implication to help here."

"Atlantis would have been at risk inevitably," Timaeus shrugged in dismissal but generously he took Jenzar's hand in his own nonetheless. "You are welcome."

"I apologise for our rivalry."

"Do not," Timaeus insisted gently aloof and formal, "you would not apologise for destroying Atlantis and I will not apologise for protecting it. I do not resent you or your kin. I am glad you are free. You are a good soul."

"You are a great man yourself," Jenzar promised, "thank you still. If ever there is a circumstance I can repay you…"

"I shall not hesitate to demand your assistance." Timaeus assured with a small, alluding, little smile which sent Jenzar's hackles to rest in peace. "Enjoy your family for now. They seem to have missed you dearly."

Jenzar did not regret making any promises of loyalty or fealty to these people here tonight. They each deserved his alliance for their bravery and he was so grateful. That was a feature of great power; with it came a generosity which forced Jenzar to apply it to good use. He did regret however that now revealed in his true form a wedge of history had been placed between he and Timaeus which they might never overcome properly.

Yusei Fudomakari, Jenzar smiled, the young Reaper and hidden Champion of some planet other than Earth was leant against a far wall of the coliseum as strictly as Atemu had ever seen him. Jenzar for his part remembered this young Champion even if, as of yet, Yusei did not himself. Yusei had always been such a stern presence in Sanctuary, difficult to stir to play, but endlessly good hearted and generously brave. A chivalrous soul Jenzar recalled how Yusei's valiant nature had more than once made he and Amar colour nervously as they passed him in Sanctuary off to play some game or another with Denn-Elec and Atreyu. No wonder upon recognising him Atreyu and Amar had been keen to have him tag along even if Yusei did not recognise himself. Once the boy recalled his memories as a Champion he would be truly imposing.

Who was Yusei's Faen? Jenzar struggled to recall as he approached. Ah yes! He grasped at the name: Scarlet Eisendra. Scarlet had been such a quiet Faen, with such bright cattish eyes, so knowing and seemingly wise Jenzar was not sure he had ever heard the crimson Faen speak a word to Yusei. They had always appeared to speak only in glances and expressions and the pair had only ever raised their hushed voices for the questions of their excitable siblings in Sanctuary. Such a precious pair it was no surprise that after all these billions of years, even not remembering his past yet in this lifetime, that Yusei was such a talented Reaper still.

"Yusei Fudomakari," he greeted, thrusting his hand out. "My brother."

"Atemu?" The boy blinked unaided, unpeeling from the wall with a bemused glance over his companion. "Jenzar?"

"Both," he answered, "you are sharp. The others had to be told."

"I just…" Yusei laughed weakly, taking his hand in a fearlessly firm grip. "It's something about your eyes when you look at Atreyu."

"You," Jenzar insisted, "are a strikingly, singularly, brilliant friend."

"I…" he fumbled, taken aback, "I don't know about that."

"You saved me in that maze." Jenzar reminded. "I am proud to have met you. We shall met again after this sometime I hope? Here at the Hive or on some mission? I can hope we are stationed together on the same planet soon as well."

"Yes," Yusei nodded weakly smile tugging up despite his restraint, "that would nice."

Not so far away Troy, home of the Sequesters, was tightly locked under Ammit's supervising watch in a pocket dimension along the supernatural side of the Veil and secured in an observation room amongst the multitude of magnificent glass mirrors the reunion within the Hive was tended to.

"So Cassidia is gone and Atemu Pheramora is Jenzar Fraveous," Drea mumbled darkly, nails digging into his bare forearm as he regarded the scene transpiring bellow his vision.

His Father of so many generations swept the sparkling Faen, that was so often Drea's mother, up into his arms as splendid as he ever had been and suspended observant of them in a darkened upper alcove of the universe felt Drea stomach wretch. Sequesters had access to view private moments like this, to view private places like the Hive, in the course of their investigations and observations. Hidden in a pocket dimension on the far end of the Veil Drea abused that privilege now to watch the proceedings with a critical eye.

Morphis and Nephele celebrated with the rest of the victors. Yusei the newly christened hiding Champion, Amar and Seviticus and the rest of his relative kin great and small had likewise clustered round the Fairy and his Prince in the warm glow of the newly restored order.

"And now there's no distraught Atemu for me to encroach upon," Drea mused miserably, fist tightening. "So for another lifetime Atreyu has Jenzar all to himself and Morphis will be charmed by Nephele and all will be beautiful while my waking body rots on another sphere light years away."

It was an old wound, foully dank, and struggling against it Drea tried to quell the resentment bubbling inside him. How many times had he found himself amongst peons, fools and traitors? How many lifetimes now had he wandered watching Atreyu and Jenzar rebuild the same little patch of paradise that taunted his loneliness? Wasn't Drea after all the black sheep, the bad seed, of the Fraveous clan?

"So again there's nothing left for me." He spat irritably.

Sighing he ran his hands tenderly over his face. He couldn't stand to attend the festivities. Reapers revelled too loudly for him and to watch Atreyu dance always sent a fire through his spine that wrought him raw with loathing. He loved them, all of them, desperately but to be enfolded in Jenzar's arms again for a moment and then be cast aside forgotten for Atreyu was something he didn't endure willingly anymore.

How many lifetimes had he stood beside the worst of Jenzar Fraveous? When Jenzar was reincarnated a tyrant, a murderer, or a charlatan Drea would adore him and stand beside him. Drea would let him torture Atreyu's reincarnations. He would let the Faen mourn and suffer and allow Jenzar when the brutality that crept up inside him swelled. Then, as always, Atreyu would find a way through the gap or wipe all the blood away and erase Drea's temporary claims. How many lifetimes had he and Jenzar been, not father and child, but lovers and dictators? And how many times had Atreyu cleaned, cleansed and eradicated it all with his reappearance?

That was Drea's only way to Jenzar. In no other type of life would Jenzar lean to him and always, upon finding Atreyu, in one way or another the Champion would lean away again. Whether they loved or loathed each other in the Mortal world Jenzar and Atreyu were perfectly drawn and stitched together. Even if the Faen hated the Champion inevitably Jenzar would be entrapped and devoted by Atreyu's temptations turning his focus, his attention, his efforts and most often his heart towards the Faen. Sometimes for years Drea lay in Jenzar's bed, across the eons and lifetimes, contented in ways he never was elsewise and nearly driven to madness by his paranoia eventually would remember why he could never hold the Champion as his own or keep him that way. Atreyu would always find them.

Yet he loved Atreyu, as he loved Jenzar, and so many memories conflicted in his heart of the decades where Atreyu had borne him or sired him and suckling him kissed him and clothed him. Atreyu was nothing if not a doting devoted parent. Atreyu had thrown himself before bullets and beasts to protect Drea, Morphis and Nephele when they were reincarnated as his children. Atreyu had held him to his breast when he cried, driven swords through Jenzar's incarnations, just to win Drea a little more time in the mortal coil.

Morphis too, charming and foolish sibling, every so often could find his way to loving Drea and for those brief lifetimes Drea almost tasted peace. Yet Morphis was never enough and unsatisfied by Drea's stargazing, which was innately part of the Sequester, the Knight was so often drawn to contented Nephele who would live an eternity on simple joys and innocent love. Nephele was better for Morphis, less torturous, and Drea had to consent that.

Them aside there were no others Drea could find his way to loving properly or steadily. Alive or Astral he wandered. His memories, his skills, followed him through the ages and driven by his type to know his past his soul was infected by the cruel ironies of the universe.

Even now he wanted Atreyu to tell him he was proud of his child. Even tonight he wanted to dance with Morphis, to hold Nephele like a twin to his bosom, to feel Jenzar press his lips to his forehead and tell him that he loved him even if only as kin or child. The morning would come though, it would pass, they would go their separate ways and this loneliness would creeping back return to fill the void they left in him.

"They're sickening aren't they?"

Drea twisted, hissing, and rounded on the intruder.

"Get out!" He ordered turning from the mirror that exposed the inner sanctum of the Hive. "I have no time for eavesdroppers!"

"Shame," the creature sighed, creeping closer with a casual flick of his wrist as the light of the mirror exposed more of his shape. "You're a magnificent soul. I should very much like to be your shadow."

"Shadow?" Drea murmured following the form of the intruder. "What areyou?"

This was not a normal soul…

The magic rolling off this phantom was warm, unlike the brittle chill of the Seers and their Queens. The voice which rumbled from beneath the hood of the cloaked seven foot thing was hoarse, masculine, but the resonance of it was somehow unpleasant. It extended one hand towards Drea and as the Sequester took a half a step back into his mirror saw the long, clawed, fingers clothed in tight alien blue skin. How had anything snuck into Troy unnoticed by his Supervisor? It seemed absurd when this being was so obviously a demon.

"A destroyer of worlds," it rasped, "and I would like to make you very happy. If you'll let me I should like to spin your dreams to forge a new reality."

"Oh don't mock me!" Drea seethed mistrustingly, back hitting the revealing looking glass, and began to plot his escape to raise the alarm. He would rip this foul thing to wretched little morsels.

"I would never mock you child," it assured, clawed hands extended for Drea's as it swaggered closer. "You're just what I need. The passion and the skills I need to finish my puzzle. Won't you let me make you happy?"

"Happy?" The Sequester repeated. Perhaps this beast was broken. "How?"

"I can give you Jenzar Fraveous," it promised, "if you want him. I can cease your reincarnation cycle and create a single planet external of all the current rules of the Veil where we will be truly immortal. If you'll only help me."

"You're mad." Drea scoffed decidedly. "The Faens will stop you. It's a fool's errand. Even the Seers know they'll never totally succeed. The best they can do is slow the progress. You'd have to be ridiculous to think you could change the universe."

"They won't stop me."

It chuckled, assured, in a way that Drea had never heard so clearly exposed. There was a confidence that lacked arrogance and found cunning instead. Bemused but curiously entranced, as he always had been by dark shadows, Drea extended his hand ever so gently to brush his fingers against the tips of the beasts'. He was not a boy who knew much of fear as he had spent too long dealing it to others.

"Who are you?" Drea mused head tilting as the creature delicately brought the Sequesters palm to obscured lips which pressed against it through a muslin veil hidden under the hood.

"Zorc Necrophades." It murmured. "A World Eater."

"Zorc," Drea repeated in a whisper, "and you'll give me what I want will you monster?"

"Both of us will get what we want."

A World Eater? Drea had never heard of such a thing in all his millions and billions of years. Even the magic which flowed through this entity, this phantom, was of such a different flavour Drea had no comparison for it. It was older than the stretch of Drea's memory. Something like this could only be from the first life, the dawn of time, and perplexed the Sequester did not peel himself away. It was as if scraping the bottom of the ocean he'd found some great mammoth unknown to mankind and now stared it in the face.

"To do something so powerful would require a Supervisors' magic." Drea reminded himself. "You're suggesting you have the power to defeat three Faens and the spells of a dozen or more Supervisors, gods, protecting and governing Earth and its Veil?"

"I am a sibling of the gods you serve." It hissed. "The Gate Keeper cringes at me, Third Star cries at my name, the Leviathan hums my song, Ammit and Chronos and Earth's Gaia would all like to forget me while the Seers' mother, Lilith, would love to be loved by me."

"Then what do you need me for?"

"Your heart."

Rishid drew his hands back in over his face, a wispy moan escaping as he roused himself from yet another nap, his consciousness beating him awake with the insistent prodding of a small child. He had work to do, it was a constant tingle of a thought prying at the back of his mind, and letting slump his hands back to the mattress he took another breath. He was centred but his body was still unwilling to move, haggard from a sleep that brought scarce tangible rest.

The door cracked, squeaked a little, and hotel light warped through the gap along with Marik. The younger was rather unceremonious about clambering onto the mattress and by extension onto him. Rishid could forgive the odd angles of Marik's bones, eyes fluttering, hands shoving him this way or that so the elder could contain his comfort but the smaller could sit. Marik let Rishid reposition him, as if he were some four day pup and hand settling on the elder's chest the young man seemed to be growing impatient.

"Well?" He pried whispering in some gesture of pity for Rishid's exhausted body but far too excited to be more lingeringly subtle.

"Jenzar's fine," Rishid yawned the necessities, "Trey's safe. Everything's back to normal."

"Yes!" Marik hissed fingers curling into a fist as he brought his elbow into his side victoriously. Uncontained he hollered over his shoulder at the next breath as the tide of it rose, welling merrily, inside him. "Hey Ishizu!"

Rishid groaned a little at the exclamation. Marik had always been so excitable on these matters. He couldn't find it in himself to blame his surrogate sibling for this life any more than he could find it in himself to blame Atreyu or Jenzar or anyone else for their twitches of habit. Denn-Elec had always been excitable Marik just followed suit this incarnation.

"What?" Ishizu supposed head thrust in the doorway. "Is everything okay?"

"Jenz is back in the game!" Marik explained. "Trey's safe and the Seers got their fucking asses kicked!"

"Oh thank god," she laughed in an exhale, "that's fantastic."

In an equally obscure corner of the world, not terribly far from Domino Japan but still separated by a rather vast ocean if not a time zone, Raphael had doused himself under the heat of an early morning shower. Inhaling stoutly, eyes burning with sleep, he padded into the dim early morning lush of the empty kitchen. The tiles were burningly frigid, outside mist still hung very heavy on the garden and frost bogged the grass where the sunlight had yet to penetrate near the back door. Was that a rosella chirping? He never had any memory for the sounds but the atmosphere in this country was so very distinct from Europe that the air felt tangibly lighter, sunnier, than in Germany.

He almost decided on coffee, stood with the fridge open for a moment, and concluding against it waded back across the new-house smelling carpet into the sloppy bedroom across the foyer. Valon was still tossed across his mattress. Their roommate Alister, the tedious Watcher, wouldn't be back for hours yet form his Saturday night festive and dipping in the door Raphael still wasn't sure how to be gentle with Valon when they were here in the Natural world. He nudged him, roused him a little and groaning the boy rolled.

"Wha?" He mumbled, only half receptive, and Raphael knew he'd have to repeat himself later.

"Jenz and Trey are back," he mumbled his announcement, "everything's safe again."

"Yay…" Valon moaned happy but weak. On the cusp of drifting off again he was too unconscious to actually be stirred more to curiosity and rampant chattering questions like he would later when he found his morning legs.

Raphael snorted, left him be, and mused not for the first time how the young man could be such an angel when he was almost asleep and when they were hunting but when struck by daylight was right back to being Raphael's delinquent. Lifetimes were cruel with ironies but enjoying him as he was not Raphael gave his shoulder a squeeze and left him to sleep a little longer.

Leon threw his arms up over his head, stretching the limber muscles, and let his limbs flop back against his side in the morning line for coffee. For a Monday it was strange for this place to have so many patrons but he found he savoured the wait. He was hazed from two nights of fighting and celebrating trapped in his sleeping self more than his conscious. He was usually rather quick to adjust between hunts and the mundane everyday he woke up to but on the other side of the looking glass this morning he couldn't help finding himself a little giddy.

Jenzar, handsome wonderful Jenzar, was home safe and sound. Order was restored in the universe. The day was saved yet again thanks, of course, in part to Atreyu Damestaire. Not for the first time Leon was proud to call these people his kin, his family, and gave a little roll of his shoulders half to work out the strains half excited.

He coloured ever so slightly to himself, fingering his wallet in his pocket, eyes roaming from the menu mounted on the wall back to the laminate flooring with an oddly mixed emotion of surreal happiness. Jenzar and Atreyu were in Japan. Jenzar was Atemu but more than that he was Yami Sennen!

Leon hadn't seen Yami in yonks. He'd have to bring flowers. Atreyu had always liked certain blooms in particular. Leon couldn't name them but he would remember when he saw them. He rather hoped Atreyu wasn't allergic to anything this time round. He rather hoped Atreyu's current incarnation didn't mind Leon's unknowing rendezvous with Jenzar as Yami either... He doubted any incarnation of Atreyu could ever dislike him, Leon had too much faith in Atreyu for that, and nervous, embarrassed, Leon still couldn't help that rush of energetics he always associated with seeing his long time parents again in the flesh of the Natural world.

Jaden felt the sticks crackling against the small of his back and rued agreeing on the camping trip. It was a school thing, annoyingly, and the guys wanted him there. Part of some year eleven group fiasco about getting to know each other and bonding before the final year of exams and all that shit n' stuff. Wasn't exactly like Jaden could tell his year coordinator: 'Oh yeah, by the way, I'm gonna be fighting some Seer butt Saturday night and then partying like a pro Sunday night in my dream world so, ya know, don't sign me up for canoeing or whatever.'

He gave a little squeal to himself, pulling in his arms and kicking out with his legs in the sleeping bag.

"Fucking awesome!" He murmured, unable to really restrain the joyous little whisper that trickled quickly out of him in a sigh.

His badass parents were back in the show whooping supernatural junk like super heroes again. Everything, today, exhausted or not for this school junk was fucking amazing. His class mates wouldn't get it, he knew better than to try and explain this little badge of self pride he carried with him internally but Jaden knew that Earth had just shined up its armour against some of the scariest things in the universe. With all three of Earth's Champions and Faens back in the business everyone should be sleeping safer.

That was the heroic side of it. The personal side of it was that Jaden had helped set things straight, continued making a name for himself, and more than that he had a tagline to one of his favourite authors of all time. He liked Atemu, he loved Yami Sennen's books and he was loved by Jenz and Trey. That was pretty cool. Yami Sennen had written about Jaden's world, Jaden's life, and it made the whole experience less lonely to know there were others out there louder about it than him.

Now he got to see Jenz and Trey again. Now he got to meet Yami Sennen and say: 'I've known you before! You're my old man! This is great!' and hopefully not seem like some rampant idiotic spaz machine. Then there was Trey…Oh, Trey…Jaden cooed a little, blushing to his own stupidity, but Trey was safety, inhumanly so, a mother's cuddles and guardian's security. With Trey Jaden never felt like a jerk or a fool or anything bad about himself. Jaden couldn't imagine anything better than meeting Trey in this life and knowing there was a physical person in the Natural World who loved him, protected him and would root for him like Trey did in the Supernatural.

At least Jaden hoped Trey would. He'd never meet anyone from his hunts in the Natural world. What if he was delusional still and Yami Sennen thought he was a total stalker freak? Whatever, Jaden dismissed, he was too joyous and too certain to worry about it. There'd be a convention soon, with Yami, and Jaden would punch himself in the gut if he didn't go and try to make himself known. He would try to know the fantastic people in his dreams could be real people here who loved him.

Ryou squirmed, found his feet, and sprawled on the couch gathered the blanket up closer as he pawed his face. Yami had called yesterday. Yami was Jenzar. That was all Ryou had gotten before Bakura left.

These things happened. He'd resigned himself to it. When you put two competitive soul types, especially predators, next to each other these things were bound to happen. Yugi was a Faen and Bakura was a class of human bodied Seer whatever way you wanted to word it. They were meant to get on like two cats in a sack. The only conduit which joined them was Ryou and sometimes even he wasn't quite sure why that was.

Bakura did this, vanished, and got hurt or pissed someone off or evaded taxes or looked into plane tickets to places that didn't extradite and Ryou was there. He was a Ferryman, fatally in love, but more than once he'd asked himself what was the point to it. Practically speaking he kept others safe by being a martyr but as a human being, as a soul, Ryou had to ask himself on occasion if Bakura, fucked up as he was, ever actually, really, loved Ryou in a normal human capacity. Yugi doubted it, loudly, Yugi who was a supportive and reasonable if an eccentrically independent human being had talked Ryou out of Bakura four hundred times during high school. Seers must've had an additive, some addictive substance, because here Ryou was, twenty, sleeping on the couch waiting to see if his boyfriend was coming home willingly or if he was at another damn hospital.

Ryou and Yugi never made guesses about where Bakura went. It could be anywhere. They'd heard everything. He'd been gone for three days once only to find out he'd been with a cousin, eating ice cream, and on another separate occasion he'd been stealing taxi rides and beating up guys in the park like some homeless bandit. Maybe that was a lie, Ryou never saw these things, and Bakura did have a history of exaggeratedly bold faced lies so truthfully Ryou had no idea what he did or wasn't capable of. Bakura was black water: Ryou still didn't know how deep it went and still had yet to map out the edges.

Now Yami was Jenzar. Ryou had only meet Yugi since Jenzar's disappearance in about the 1600s and he had no memory of his past lives, for the sake of his crumpled sanity, but he knew Champions had reputations. He knew how this worked. He knew Yugi might take Bakura's shit for his sake but Yami's number one obligation was to Yugi. This could get messy and apparently Bakura thought so enough to take up and leave.

With Cassidia gone a new Seer Queen would be assigned to Earth which meant whatever Seers were hiding on Earth during the destruction, like the Children of Lilith, would be assigned a new Queen. Knowing the Seers there'd probably be a power struggle over it. There always was if the Seers had an excuse to fight over anything especially since the Children of Lilith liked to claim independence from the chain of command. Bakura was good at staying out of it but that was only when it suited him. It worked for Bakura to stay on the side lines working the systems. Had Bakura found some benefit to entering the fight? Or had something else grabbed his attention?

For now there was nothing Ryou could do but wait a little, pulling his knees to his chest and watching the waters. Somehow he sensed that if he went searching right now he would find neither head nor tail of his charge. He would have to wait till Bakura re-emerged on his radar. Ryou had followed him across centuries, wanted or not, and he knew by now when was the time to start looking and when was the moment to wait watching the home front.

The Hive had been alive for them to celebrate. Fire and sweat, laughter and skin, the primal nearly savage celebrations of warrior races back from victory had consumed the coliseum and given the opportunity every Reaper peeling off duty or returning from their hunts had taken the chance to join the festivities. Reapers were like that: fought hard, partied hard. Yami may as well have been floating, sunk in a cotton cacoon in Paris, burrowed into the gooey seclusion of Yugi's bedding amongst all the traces of Yugi's scent with the Faen's slickly naked body reposed against his. As Yami came back into himself, soul returning, he could still hear Nephele laughing and see Yusei smiling. Then the Faen turned in his arms, mewled, and aware of it the Champion felt the memories of the party fade back for the new day. Till, appearing to stir more quickly than Yami himself could, Yugi unfolded the quilt back down his hips and squirmed a moment later.

"Hmm," Yami moaned, arm hooking round his waist.

"Got to get up," Yugi mumbled gently, leaning back to kiss Yami's brow briskly before shimming the rest of the way out of his groggy grip.

"Why?" the Champion whined.

"Gym," the Faen whispered, tugging the blankets back up around Yami snugly as he elaborated, "back in a bit Baby."

"Yugi," Yami complained, straining himself onto his elbow and forcing sleep out of his eyes as the Faen rifled through the dresser. "It's like…seven in the morning. Forget it."

"No," the petite lithe figure insisted languidly slipping up a taunt pair of shorts. "I'll be back in a little bit. You sleep. I'll come back to bed and make breakfast and stuff later."

"Why?" He floundered.

"Yami, honey," Yugi sighed, dragging his shirt on. "I love you and I'll come back and cuddle but I gotta go workout for a bit. I'm a freak. Blame my core."

"What do you mean?" He supposed more reasonably slumping back on the mattress as he watched his beauty dress. There was something evanescently regal about Yugi's motion of slender creamy limbs regardless of the century. Yami remembered, on the back of his lids, watching Yugi crown himself with sapphires and tighten corsets on occasion as a Queen or a King somewhere far from Earth.

"Faen Core," he explained, falling back on the edge of the mattress to slip on his sneakers. "We slept so much yesterday and I barely need much sleep to begin with. I'm pumped with energy. If I don't work out I'll be hyper and unsettled all day. There's too much gas in the tank. It's making me spaz."

"I could take you in every position known to man?" Yami suggested playfully and the Faen cackled.

"Yeah, in your dreams," he snorted, but suggested mildly. "Shower with me when I get home?"

"Hellyeah," the author baulked, "best idea ever."

"Good," Yugi laughed, "go crash. I'll be back."

"Your core always like this?" Yami inquired. "Crappy sleep and all that?"

"I go to gym every day," Yugi revealed languidly in confession, "burn five hundred calories in a session, take sedatives to crash, my metabolism is through the roof, I'm always hungry but I eat like a bird, and I can't focus unless I'm doing five things at once. I'm a pain in the ass."

"I remember," he groaned, as the symptoms came wafting back to him. "I always think you're a workaholic or a devoted mum or something and then I figure out that, nah, even when you have nothing to do I still can't slow you down."

"Sleep," the smaller insisted. "You deserve it."

"I might go get some stuff from my place," Yami decided languidly, "I didn't bring anything yesterday."

"That's okay," Yugi consented, "bring toiletries and stuff. I think it's pretty safe to assume you're going to be over for a few days."

"Few months," he snorted. "What are we going to do about my place?"

"I don't know," the Faen sighed casually, "I can't think right now. Ask me later, we'll figure it out then, doesn't matter."

"Kay," he yawned, stretching to drag himself together and up. "You sure you're okay with me being here?"

"You kidding?" Yugi laughed. "Yami, I don't want you out of my sight for the next three lifetimes. I don't give a fuck about rents and houses and dressers right now. Sides, I want to cool my core a little if I'm going to get used to not being in charge all the time anymore before we make any plans."

"Like I could ever not give you want you want," Yami teased, and smiling the Faen fell back onto the bed.

"I know," he grinned, "you're a push over when I bat my eyelashes but I've been playing big brother here and I've got to let you be a hubby again."

"Hmm," Yami exhaled heavily, contented. "That sounds awesome."

There was something beautiful about Yugi pushing off the bed, smiling, kissing his cheek and dissipating down the stairs. There was something wonderful about being a partner, equal, about having enough experience and power to protect Yugi the way he wanted to. There was also something equally bizarre in the charming way they spoke of all this. Yugi's casual flick for dialoguing about the supernatural hadn't changed at all and there was an eccentric element to that.

Was this what life would be like from now on? A mingling of managing the peculiarities of their natural habits juxtaposed with the pleasure of knowing, holding, being one with Yugi for the rest of his life? There was something so natural about how they'd shifted back to lovers, as if Yami had lived here for years, but at once he seemed to hardly know Yugi's gestures and ticks. It was startlingly new, exciting, and anciently comforting.

'Weakling.'

Yami jumped, startled, it wasn't vocal rather the word seemed to waft up from his subconscious without any permission of his own thought pattern. He could feel Jenzar stir inside him, equally confused, and bamboozled Yami tried to fathom where the parasitic non-him non-Jenzar idea came from.

'Fuck them.' It ordered sultrily with images that amounted to suggestions of the comfort to be found in dominance and the swoons of submission that could be drawn from Atreyu.

He baulked, it was graphic, totally out of his focus or input and hackles rising there was some itching excitement in his legs to follow Yugi down stairs. He kept himself grounded, the front door slammed shut, the urge faded and Jenzar's presence pushed at the third peculiar voice rather roughly as though he was smashing something unsightly into a box. There was no fear in Jenzar, just impatience, near embarrassment which Yami felt himself and with the apologetics of a child the Champion Jenzar shrugged at Yami and dismissed the voice.

"What was that?" Yami whispered.

'Don't worry about it,' Jenzar seemed to say inside him, and some memory or another niggled at the back of Yami's mind till he shrugging let it go.

Mind quiet Yami had little choice other than to slip on his pants from yesterday, drive home barefooted and pack up the knickknacks of a life. He could always come back, he knew that, he wasn't terribly worried and checking his email, finding a clean pair of jeans, rolling his shoulders Yami found a new sanctity in himself.

His house felt so… magically void. Yugi's protection box buzzed sending pulses through the space but compared to what Yami was sure he could do it felt so minor. His presence invaded this home, truly, but it was so light footed compared the strength of self in the magic of Yugi's home. He couldn't leave it like this, unguarded and naked, so driven by strange instinct Yami dumped his bag in the lounge, freshly dressed, and found the windows.

With his index finger Yami found himself moving without thought or plan, more motivated by memory, and crimson humming with life just under his skin drew sharp crosses in the panes of glass. On every pane of glass, in every window, on both floors till while he consciously felt foolishly religious some prompt from his core kept him moving. In each slashing motion of his hand he could feel the house boarding up, feel it securing like a fortress, and in a few short motions his own core seemed to triple what Yugi had given him as a shield.

What Yami, what Jenzar, could do so quickly in a few moments with little equipment was astounding really and as he threw his bag into the car Yami had to confess he did, just a little bit, feel like a badass knowing his magic would work to defend his home in his absence. It wouldn't achieve as much as the spells upon Yugi's home in the long run but Yami could already feel himself detaching somewhat from this safe, normal, place and sinking more into Yugi's world without an anchor back to the Natural world he'd been born into. The spells he'd placed on his home weren't meant for much rather just to keep him from coming back to vandalism and destruction. The spells he had placed on Yugi's home last night and would lay more of every day were bricks and mortar to his real focus: keeping the Faen safe. It took a startling priority in the forefront and background of his mind simultaneously. Yami didn't resent it, he embraced it. He could finally do something useful.

He beat Yugi home and stepping over the threshold had an odd sensation of taking in a breath after holding one. He liked this little artificial fairy grove Yugi had built. It was the kind of treasure trove a dragon like Jenzar Fraveous could nest in. Somehow the imagery and motifs of a dragon seemed more fitting in this fairy tale than a Prince. He took a seat, found one of Yugi's million strewn books and waited for the Faen to return.

"Hey?" Yugi called testing.

"Hey!" Yami replied kicking off the couch.

"This where I say: 'Honey I'm home'?" He teased.

"That's my line." Yami countered as he met Yugi playing with the front door and its multiplicity of locks.

The Faen giggled, soft, and as he leant into the stain glass of the front door Yami could see the sweat trickling down the backs of his thighs. Beads of light on warm, delectable, skin. That box Jenzar had made rattled, the Champion noticed, and Yami himself wasn't quite sure what was happening but then it crackled- slammed- open somewhere inside his head.

"Ah!" Yugi gasped, cheek pressed into the glass, as Yami bent his arm behind his back expertly overlapping the smaller body with his. "Yami!"

"What's this? New meat, are you?" He purred into the elfin ear, chuckling, tongue dragging behind the curve as he considered the Faen.

Yami felt himself squirm in his own head, half in his body half out, control over it utterly lost as the entity from the back of his conscious stole his vocal cords. Jenzar swore, Yami floundered, and that third presence inside his head held Yugi captive against the door.

"W-who?" Yugi fumbled. "You're not- Oh!"

The thing inside Yami's form, stealing his limbs, scrapped its teeth along Yugi's neck tongue lathing up a tendon as he purred into the captured Faen holding the struggling body placid.

"Jenzar and the newest body have no idea how to handle you when you're being so independent." He whispered hips digging against Yugi's arse forcing the Faen's into the wood. "Love the shorts by the way Trey."

"You?" Yugi stumbled, laughing, swearing and kicking out in a squirm against the overbearing body. "Pharaoh?I should have known you'd get out as soon as Yami and Jenzar merged back together."

"Jenzar can't hold me in a time out." The Pharaoh snorted. "I'm the one with all the teeth here. Now," he purred, "you promised our current reincarnation a shower with this hot little body."

"Yeah, promised Yami," the Faen warned firmly but still, to Yami's surprise, seemed utterly unafraid. "That offer only extends to him and Jenzar. Not you."

"What are you going to do? Tell me off?" Pharaoh laughed. "I'll throw you over my shoulder and strip you for all I care."

"Don't make me get Heba you tyrant." Yugi shot back a little tenser but underneath the nearly parental impatience was the sound of something bordered, wavering, along the cusp of amused to aroused.

"Oh do," Pharaoh moaned, hips' grinding against Yugi's trapped form illustratively. "He's always sotight when I hold him down."

Pharaoh was teasing, insulting, Heba. Yami could tell that much and locked back behind this personality in his own mind the author was forced to settle beside a frustrated Jenzar as the Champion shook his head. It dawned on him slowly, with snippets of memory flashing over his awareness, that this was one of his past lives! A personality, a version of him, between Jenzar who was the eternal, original, and core self and now when he was Yami. A past life who had hijacked Yami's body with its own particularly distinct personality and was now taking it for a joy ride to assault and insult one of Yugi and Atreyu's, past lives.

"Does Yami know I'm okay?" Yugi checked and Pharaoh snorted.

"What do I care?"

"Does Yami know I'm okay?"The Faen repeated smooth and firm.

"I'm giving him a show," Pharaoh sighed impatiently. "I don't think he and Jenzar really know how to touch you."

"Alright," Yugi snorted as if a mother who was coming through with a punishment to a belligerent child, "I warned you. I'm getting Heba."

Yami could feel the Pharaoh grin beamingly against Yugi's neck and to his fascination the author watched as the Faen became lax against the door, as if his body was empty, and then on a sharp inhale the slender form appeared to refill with life. Yami could feel this tyrant, this Pharaoh, surge with arousal as Yugi's body reanimated and with new strength started struggling.

"Get off me you abomination!"

"Your Majesty," Pharaoh cooed into what must've been Heba's neck rolling his hips into the boy,
"how is my favourite little King of Murasi this life?"

Murasi! Yami recalled it instantly as the planet where Yugi had warned Jenzar and Atreyu had gone mad for six hundred years. Hadn't Murasi been the planet where Jenzar's incarnations had been, what had Yugi called it, some demon war god? Hadn't Murasi been the planet where Atreyu's reincarnations had been a procession of wicked emperors and empresses, consorts to tyrants?

'Yep,' Jenzar sighed, chin in hand from where they were proverbially hog tied at the back of Yami's mind. 'In those six hundred years the strongest of those wicked incarnations were Heba Zaykru and the Pharaoh Drakasen the War God.'

'Will they be alright?' Yami panicked.

'They'll be fine,' Jenzar snorted, 'Pharaoh would never hurt him, not really, some past lives are just… really loud and sometimes you just can't hold them back if they have an opinion.'

'So I have to get used to sharing my body?' Yami baulked.

'Just a bit,' The Champion placated the author, 'mainly with this bastard.'

Outside Yami's temporary prison he could feel his body, feel the struggle of Heba in the Pharaoh's vice hold and hear the grasping, groaning, little escapes of venom rolling out of the Faen.

"Take your wretched consciousness somewhere else!" Heba ordered starkly. "Unhand me!"

"Why ever would I do that?" Pharaoh supposed, one hand curled tight enough to bruise round Heba's captured wrist as the thumb of its twin hooked in the hem of Yugi's shorts. "You look so ravishing. Atreyu's left you barely dressed little Queen."

"King." Heba spat as a reminder.

"With your wife, your courtiers, your human peasants maybe," Pharaoh whispered darkly, "but when you're underneath me you're whatever I want you to be. Remember?"

"I think you had best check that assumption of yours, it's dangerous," Heba warned.

"Oh? Has four hundred years been too long?" He pondered. "I think you and Atreyu have gotten far too used to ruling unattended. Shall I have to bend you over and remind this lovely new body how you answer to me?"

"Try it." The smaller rasped. "I dare you."

"Well then," he chuckled, burying his face into Heba's thick locks to inhale the pungent scent clarified from a morning of physical exertion that was heady, pheromone like, rich…

1 I haven't seen enough of GX to specify who I would pair Yusei with so instead I called his Faen Scarlet Eisendra which is a play on the 'Crimson Dragon' so you can imagine that's Jack or whoever you like.

2 Ammit- was the Egyptian composite god-beast which ate the hearts of those who were judged impure in the afterlife. In this case he's the God/Supervisor/Father of the Sequesters (the secret keepers who make sure that the secrets of the supernatural universe don't escape to the wrong people at the wrong points sometimes using violent means)

3 Troy- the Greek walled city which held off armies but was eventually broken into, brunt and sacked in the Trojan war. In This case it is also the Astral home of the Sequesters

4 Yeah… I told you some of you would hate Drea. Make no mistake there's a reason 'Drea' is one letter away from 'Dread'

5 I wanted all the astral characters to be a spread of YGO characters from across the seasons. So they are, in order:
Amar Seirramoura (Champion) = Rishid Ishtar
Denn-Elec Flenrous (Amar's Faen) = Marik Ishtar (both in a Hotel in the Middle East)
Seviticus Prodius (Champion) = Raphael
Vegas Helldreem (Sev's Faen)= Valon (both in Australia currently)
Nephele Austriamehre = Leon von Schroeder (as mentioned in chapter 15? Dated Yami)
Morphis Horus = Jaden Yuki
(Without physical forms on Earth- Timaeus, Drea and Yusei)

6 Yep, one of Yami's past lives, over than Jenzar, has just hijacked the body and with that we're about to skip into a very special change next chapter I think some of you will really like

Okay, I'm exhausted, I'm off to cause trouble. Love you guys!