Author's Notes: This IS a shorter chapter, however!

I can't exactly makes these last few chapters any longer without combining them. So, please don't get too angry with me! Its hard enough dealing with my poor couple separated and captured.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Akefia now stood in the Throne Room, shackled and bleeding lightly from his nose.

"Akefia," the Pharaoh grinned from his chair, the shadows masking the top of his face as he looked down at the man in front of him.

"Oh, mighty Pharaoh," Akefia mocked, bowing his head slightly as he attempted to match the grin blaring down at him.

"Its been too long," the Pharaoh spoke, rising from his chair and slowly descending the few steps between them.

"I agree, we should have gotten together a long time ago," Akefia spoke, malice dropping from his words.

"Hm," the Pharaoh smirked in response, before nodding to the two guards, each holding an arm despite them being shackled together behind him. Kicking the back of his legs, Akefia fell to his knees in front of the Pharaoh as he stepped closer.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Although I am glad that you so foolishly fell into my plans, it's not quite good enough. Tell me, where is your crew and more importantly, where are the pieces you and that whore stole from me?"

Akefia began to laugh, crescendoing so loudly that the Pharaoh closed the space between them by grabbing his throat one handedly in an attempt to stop the noise that mocked him so callously.

Still, Akefia laughed, making eye contact which coldly reflected the fate that laid before him.

"If you think that you will ever find those pieces, you are sadly mistaken," Akefia sneered.

The Pharaoh removed his grip from his throat, only to punch him across his face. Akefia took the punch well, licking his bloodied lip in enjoyment before giving the Pharaoh the other side of his face.

"Try again," he grinned.

Atem's eyes narrowed as he punched him, not once, but multiple times, the guards doing their best to hold him up as their King lost himself momentarily in anger. Once he had exhausted himself, he took a breath and stepped back as he examined the bloodied face in front of him.

Still, Akefia grinned.

"You are lucky to be alive, and yet you sit there mocking the only person who can set you free," Atem spoke in a hushed tone.

Akefia responded by spitting a thick splatter of blood over the Pharaoh's shoes and the floor in front of him.

"You would also mock the same person who is capable of letting that whore live another day," he said in the same tone, a slight smirk appearing on his lips.

Suddenly Akefia's countenance changed, although the Pharaoh was the only one skilled enough to catch it.

"Where is she?" Akefia asked after an agonizing moment had passed between them in silence.

The Pharaoh smirked more brazenly before turning around to return to his throne.

"You are such a fool," he said as he sat down. "Had you not concealed yourself better when you visited your little whore that fateful day, my guards would have never recognized you as they were leaving that pathetic village. Although they were not smart enough to figure out where exactly your little hiding place was, it only took a few moments with that old woman to get the information I needed," he smiled.

"You killed her?" Akefia asked, obviously angered from his story.

"Yes, choked the old bitch until I saw the life leave her eyes. That idiot village probably just assumed it was simply old age when they found her. You have this funny way of turning my faithful pheasants into traitors. Although she had no idea who you really were, she still betrayed me by helping you and this little whore live in a fantasy world-" he stopped short to examine his Millennium Puzzle for a moment before continuing.

"Did you really think that that girl would be able to live out the rest of her days, caring for your bastard child while you roamed the countryside, free from my jurisdiction?"

Akefia began to struggle against the guards holding him back, his anger coming to surface as he was forced to kneel in front of the man who stood for every injustice committed against him.

"Take him away, I have better ways to fill my time," he spoke cruelly as Akefia was dragged away.

"MARK MY WORDS PHARAOH, YOUR RULE WILL END WHEN YOU ARE BANISHED TO THE SHADOWS!" Akefia screamed out, freezing the air around him as the Pharaoh felt the slightest twinge of fear at the man's words. Surely, the only people who could banish others to the Shadow Realm remained in the Palace, no pheasant, no thief could possibly understand the complicated magic used to accomplish such an endeavor.

…

As Akefia was thrown into the small confinement cell, consumed by the darkness around him, he couldn't help but curse his own stupidity. If he could go back in time, he would have done everything differently, he thought disdainfully to himself.

My Amunet, what are they doing with you?

Anger was mostly filling Akefia's veins, but he couldn't escape the amount of panic searing through him as well. Amunet could hold her own, but Akefia knew that the need to protect their unborn child was more important to her than anything else.

Akefia could have made it to that window when the wielder of the Millennium Ring had first yelled out, if the other council members had not all sprang into action so quickly. Although Akefia was fast, he was no match for the Millennium guardians who summoned their monsters out of thin air.

"Mahad, is this-"

"Yes, this is the Thief King, Akefia,"

"What will the Pharaoh do to him?"

"I can't say, I only know that the Pharaoh will be pleased to know that we will have finally rid the country of such evil," the man wielding the Ring spoke.

Akefia smirked, his hair covering his eyes as he opened his mouth to speak,

"You pathetic imbeciles, you need to look no further than a mirror in order to see true evil," he said before beginning to laugh.

"Silence!" the High Priest yelled.

"Touched a nerve, did I? You all serve the devil himself and the instruments of human suffering at his disposal, yet you foolishly believe that these items you possess are for good? You are all sadly mistaken. How unfortunate.."

"You are wrong thief, these items were forged to rid the world of evil such as yourself, the Pharaoh only seeks the end of all evil-"

Again Akefia laughed, only this time it melted into a cold cruel stare at the faces that stood before him as he was lifted by two guards.

"Then why kidnap a pregnant woman?" he said coldly as Mahad ordered the guards to bring him to the Throne Room. At his words, the wielder of the Millennium Necklace gasped and held her hand to her mouth, looking away in painful remorse. Akefia eyed the woman's reaction carefully, and it was to his understanding that not only did the Pharaoh have her in the Palace somewhere, but some cruel fate had befallen his beloved Amunet. Try as he might to distance himself from such thoughts, he could not help the pain that seemed to consume his body and clench his muscles involuntarily.

Not knowing how long he would be in confinement for, Akefia laid on his side and moved his legs expertly through his cuffed arms behind him. Sighing in relief, he moved his hands to his face and felt his nose. Allowing a short lived chuckle to escape his lips as he mumbled to himself, "Couldn't even break my nose, Pharaoh.."