Chapter 15

T'ea was flung against the wall, inside her all too familiar room. She backed up to her bed and stared into the piercing gold eyes of the man who was advancing on her. "LET ME GO!!!" she screamed as her grabbed her wrist. "I do not tolerate ignorance," he snarled. "Let me go back to him!" she begged, but received a sharp slap. "You've forgotten everything that he did to you" he said glaring at her.
"LET ME GO BACK!!!" she pushed past him and ran to the door and opened it, forgetting what was behind it. She stared into the pitch-blackness and backed up into Khaldun. She turned round and clutched his shirt. "See you need me" he smirked. "No...I...I DON'T!" She said backing up. Suddenly something wrapped itself around T'ea's waist and pulled her into the blackness. T'ea screamed as she felt numerous things climb onto her body and start scratching and biting he flesh. "GET OFF ME!!!" She screamed as she felt her skin break and blood begin to pour down her arms and legs. Khaldun watched as the evil creatures that appraised him tore into T'ea's flesh. He sighed and stepped into the darkness. A loud roaring noise suddenly erupted inside the entire room and into the dark hallway. All of the creatures froze and turned to their master. T'ea recognised the roar from her dreams and shuddered. "Oh god...No" she whispered. Khaldun stepped inside and growled at all the creatures that had hurt T'ea. He bent down to the girl's side, she was curled up, sobbing. He picked her up and carried her into the room, placing her on her bed. He stared down at her as her crying subsided. "Admit it" he said flatly. T'ea stared up at him weakly. "...I can't, I won't" she whispered. He bent down to her level and looked her dead in the eyes, unnerving her somewhat. "If I hadn't come and saved you then who do you think would have?" He snarled.
T'ea was silent. "Not that pathetic little kid Yugi or that blind fool Joey and especially not your precious pharaoh" He said, venom dripping from his every word. T'ea turned her face away from Khaldun's. "Look at me" he said, Turning her head so she was staring at him. "I don't feel good" she croaked, her eyes feeling heavy. "Don't you dare fall asleep," he growled. T'ea looked at him "Now say it!" he snapped. "...I-I don't need you...I don't..." she passed out, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Khaldun growled and grabbed her by the throat but dropped her when he saw that most of the bed was now soaked in blood. "shit..." he picked T'ea's limp body up, blood dripping from her limbs.

Khaldun closed his eyes and whispered something in an unidentifiable language. He opened his eyes and walked over to a spring. "...Where...a-are we?" said a small voice from Khaldun's arms. He looked down at T'ea. She was looking at her surroundings. "We are in the bathing room" he said still walking onward. "...Okay..." "When did you wake up" he asked quietly. "About three seconds ago" she whispered. Khaldun shifted her position in his arms making her moan in pain. He walked over to the pool of water and placed her down by the side of it. "Get in" he stated plainly. "...all right" she slipped her dress off and slid into the water. "Ah!" she yelped as the water stung her wounds. "Relax." He said. Khaldun knelt down behind T'ea and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"W-what are you doing?" "Trying to close your wounds...this will hurt" he suddenly placed a piece of metal near the deep gash in her shoulder. "AHH!" she screamed as she felt the intense heat on her flesh. "Stop it, unless you'd prefer to bleed to death" he snarled. "Aghhh!...okay" she seethed, tears leaking from her eyes. He pressed the metal over the broken skin of most of her wounds until she had stopped bleeding. "Now clean yourself up" he said coldly.
T'ea looked at Khaldun. He was different somehow. 'He's changed...what's happened to him..."
T'ea cleaned the blood off of her body and then got out of the water, but stumbled. Khaldun picked her up and passed her, her clothes. "I still don't feel too good." She whimpered. "Stop complaining, I saved your life so you can walk back to your room..." T'ea froze and shuddered as she felt her wounds ache at the thought of being attacked by those creatures again. The two walked over to a door that looked exactly like the one from T'ea's room. She sighed and walked through only to be met by the site of...her room. T'ea heard the door shut and turned round to see Khaldun. "B...But I thought" she looked at his smirk and frowned. "I never told you everything about our home T'ea". She snarled at him in disgust. "This is not my home, my home is with Atem" Khaldun laughed and looked down at the girl. "You confuse me T'ea, after everything Atem did to you; you still want to be with him" "I don't believe a word you say, Atem loves me he told me so" "Yes, I saw that little embrace of love you too were entangled in" he spat. "He'll come for me, I know he will" "You can't be sure, he doesn't even know where you are, and I don't plan on giving him a way of finding you again" T'ea froze as he said this. "What...you made him find me...he didn't know where I was...n-no!" she said panicking. Khaldun walked towards her, backing her up against a wall. He placed his hands either side of her body, and smirked maliciously. "He has no way of finding you and our home is hidden during the day, if he ever finds us it would take years" "You're wrong!" she said pushing him away. "He'll find me and soon!" she walked away from him and sat on a corner of her bed that wasn't soaked in blood. "You are so stubborn" he said kneeling in front of her. He put her chin between his thumb and forefinger and pressed his lips to hers. T'ea's eyes went wide; she tried to pull away but strangely felt her body going slack until she was totally motionless.
Khaldun had entered the depths of T'ea's mind and was forcing her to see her own past...but from his point of view...

Zorc suddenly fired an attack that flew straight passed Dark magician girl and Dark Magician and straight into T'ea's fire sorceress. T'ea felt a burning pain wash threw her entire body. She tried to make it seem less important than it was. She heard someone call out her name, but ignored it. She wasn't important. Defeating Zorc was the main objective here. She was in pain and could taste blood in her mouth. The others needed her to be okay, she would just be in the way if she got hurt...she knew that.

T'ea sat up and blinked twice. What had that been about? She felt so strange, unwanted...un-needed. "About time you woke up" said a voice she recognised. "Be quiet" she said. "Nice, I help you get into bed and rest and you tell me to be qui-" he was shut off with a slap to the face. "Don't you EVER kiss me again" she snarled, glaring at him. Khaldun glared at T'ea, making her shiver in fear.
"I-I'm sorry..." she whispered, the fear clearly noticeable in her expression. He sighed and gently stroked her cheek. "You enjoyed it last time I kissed you...The Pharaoh has poisoned your mind against me..." He walked over to the other side of the room and sighed. "I did care about you Khaldun, a lot but...but that was before I knew how evil you were...and how little I meant to you..."
He turned on T'ea and grabbed her arms. "Don't you dare, say that! I don't care what that bastard has told you. I care about you!" He seethed. T'ea looked at his angry expression, hiding a gasp when she saw the pained look in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around him, like she would have done before Yami had told her how Khaldun had kidnapped her. "I'm sorry..." she whispered. She suddenly felt calm as he slid his strong arms around her back.
"I missed you T'ea..." he said taking in her scent. She sighed happily as he ran his fingers through her hair. Then she suddenly realised what was going on around her. "No, stop it" she said pulling away. 'Damn it...' Khaldun thought angrily. He reached a hand out to her face and looked straight into her eyes. 'You won't beat me T'ea...surrender your mind'. T'ea's eyes had glazed over and she was swaying slightly. 'NO! Stop it, why can't I move...Yami where are you...oh god' T'ea's body fell forward into Khaldun's arms and sighed. "I missed you too Khaldun" she smiled and cuddled into his chest. 'That's better' Khaldun thought smirking. He caressed the petite girl's hair and took in her scent. "Just like back then" he muttered. "What?" she asked curiously. Khaldun looked at her for a moment. "Nothing..." he sighed and picked her up, placed her on the bed and watched her intently. She smiled at him and slid her hand into his. "I'm sorry I ran away" she said slowly. Khaldun smiled at her and placed a hand on her waist as she sat up. T'ea shuffled closer to him, so she was knelt in front of him. "T'ea...what's wro-" He was cut off but this time not by a slap, but by T'ea pressing her lips gently to his. To say the least he was taken aback. Sure he had used his mind tricks on her to calm her down but...he hadn't done this...but he was enjoying it. He smirked as she made a small noise that would suggest, she liked what was happening. Khaldun pulled away and smiled when she kept her eyes closed for a second. T'ea opened her eyes and smiled at Khaldun. "That felt nice" she whispered. Khaldun brushed some of her bangs out of her eyes but frowned when he felt how cold she was and how pale she looked. "How do you feel?" he said looking at the drying blood on the floor. "Mmm woozy...and light headed" she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. "I think you should lie down" he said, but paused seeing the now scarlet bed. He picked her up and placed her in the chair on the other side of the room as he pulled the sheets of the bed. He turned round as he heard her laugh weakly. "What's so funny?" he said confused. "Your doing laundry...you look like my mom" she said smiling. "Yeah well if I don't do it you'll be sleeping in your own blood." He said stepping out of the room.
"Nice..." she whispered and felt her head spin. T'ea suddenly heaved and found she was being sick. When she looked down she gasped when she saw that she had vomited her own blood.

About ten minutes later Khaldun was just finishing putting the new sheets onto the bed when he saw T'ea had slumped down in the chair and passed out in her weakened state. "...T'ea?" Khaldun saw the pool of blood at her feet and cocked his head to one side. He approached her and saw a trickle of blood that was trailing down the corner of her mouth. He picked her up and put her under the covers of her bed. He stroked her face and smiled. "I expected you to look different you know...but here you are still as beautiful" he whispered. Khaldun sighed and shot back. "No..." 'I have to remember that she's just a way of getting revenge...' Khaldun sighed and brushed his fingers over one of the scars on her shoulder. He had just stood there and let his servants attack her. What a fool he'd been. He looked and the sleeping girl before him. He stroked her cheek gently and looked at the blood on her lips. He leant forward and slowly licked the blood from her chin up to her lips and kissed her softly. Khaldun snapped away suddenly as he felt his craving for blood increase from the small taste he had, had. He stood up and walked over to the door and left her on her own.

-

Atem awoke the next morning the light of the sun, reflecting off of the mirror and onto his face. He felt as though he had slept for 10 minutes. Looking down at his watch he realised that this was the case. He had been up all night. He stood up straight, stretching the ache away from his stiff limbs. Sleeping at a 90-degree angle was a bad idea. There was a knock on his door and he stood up, rubbing his eyes. Several voices came from outside instantly. "Atem...you in there?" There was Joey. "Of course he is!" and Tristan. "Guys. Enough fighting!" Poor Yugi. "He started it" Those two are so stupid. "Come in" Atem said loud enough for them to hear. He heard the three walk in as he stared out of the window. He heard the door handle click and the footsteps of his three friends.
"Atem, Ishizu wants us to head out...but there's a small problem" Tristan said before being pushed out of the way by the tall brunette standing behind him. "Yugi" came the unmistakable voice of Seto Kaiba. Atem stood up and faced his previous opponent slightly shocked that he was here. "Kaiba...what do you want?" he said. Kaiba rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I go through all this trouble to look for you and that's all you can say? I guess you don't need my help then" He said cockily. "Kaiba I'm sorry...why are you here though?" "I'm not here for you. I'm here for Yugi. He beat you in your battle and proved he was the true King of games, everyone knows he's in love with Gardener even if she is a stupid cheerleader but Damnit I respect him and I'll help him" he said brandishing a set of keys. "Ishizu filled me in and it looks like you need a ride" he said, a smug smile appearing on his face. "Kaiba what's the catch?" Joey said, attempting a suspicious look. "No catch. Just you have to stay with my body guards.", "WHAT?! Why would I do that Kaiba I'm not staying behind and leaving these guys!" "Wheeler you are blind you'd just slow us down." He said walking up to the blonde. "Kaiba," Yami said stepping in the way. "Joey is as close a friend to T'ea as the rest of us, he stays with us". The two glared at each other for a moment before Kaiba laughed and backed off. "Fine, Your funeral" Yami rolled his eyes "So Kaiba how do you plan on getting us back to T'ea?" Kaiba smirked and walked out of the door motioning for them to follow him.

"You have got to be kidding me" Yugi said in disbelief. Kaiba had a HUGE S.U.V parked outside the hostel. "How the hell did you get this here?" "I have companies in Egypt...what it surprises you?" He said as Yami raised an eyebrow at him. "C'mon, do you wanna get back your dumb cheerleader or not?" Kaiba said striding, with an elegant authority, out of the room. Joey groaned and sat on the floor.
"What's wrong Jo, ya sick or something?" Tristan said worriedly.
"Ignore him," Malik said, hitching the blonde over his shoulder. "He's just mad because he wanted to hit Kaiba, but he couldn't see him."
Tristan raised his eyebrows in confusion. "How do you know that?" Malik carried him away ,shifting his weight so that he was unnervingly close to the open door. "Because when Kaiba said that Joey had to stay here, he hit me because I was stood with him and he didn't know where Kaiba was." He said as he instantly dragged Joey out the door, slamming his head on the wall.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL MALIK YOU SON OF A..." Joey's incredibly indecent profanities caused Ishizu to shut the door, muffling the sound. Atem shook his head and attempted to block out Joey and Malik's noise. For a moment he allowed his mind to return to the night before, remembering how he had been able to hold T'ea, touch her, tell her exactly what he had been trying to say all these years...and how she was taken from him while he lay there...helpless. He growled a little and shook his head, ignoring the memories. He walked over the S.U.V, his hands buried into his pockets and sighed. "So. Kaiba, how do you expect to help us find T'ea...you don't know where she is anymore than we do." Kaiba looked up at him briefly with a glare that could kill birds mid-flight.
"Yugi filled me in on the whole...temple disguised by the sun light thing...so much crazy crap happens around you people...anyway, you think my 13 satellites orbiting won't be able to trace a giant temple that reveals itself when the sun sets...don't insult my intelligence." Kaiba turned his back on Atem and continued to type on a keyboard attached to the dashboard TV screen. Atem looked up toward the sky, blinded momentarily by the sun and sighed, staring into the desert. 'I'm coming T'ea...and this time I won't let you go...'