The Three Kings: Strike

Disclaimer (1): Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Studios, and TV Tokyo. Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, Arthur A. Levine Books, and Warner Bros. Please support the official releases.

Disclaimer (2): The Mist belongs to Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series. Midway Atoll belongs to the state of Hawaii. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport belongs to the state of Hawaii. Golden Gate Park belongs to the City of San Francisco. Purell is owned by GOJO Industries.

Warning: Mentions of needles, childhood abandonment by a parent, past death of minor characters, child death, near starvation, weapons smuggling, pedophilia, gore, loss of control, and skin burns.

Chapter 6: Asset

Duke doesn't know how, but the Jackals apparently have recently gained access to a military ship. Like, within the last three days. He tries not to be jealous and fails spectacularly.

"We don't technically own it," Cassie explains as she connects her charger to her laptop. They're in the guest room at Seto's condo. Duke is sitting cross-legged on the bed. It's early, the sun not yet over the horizon. "Almeida… I mean, maman just allowed us access. Or at least, she might. I've only been talking to her again for about a week."

"Maman?" He asks, poorly imitating her immaculate French, "As in-"

"Ma mère. My… mother, oui," she nods, sounding completely unused to saying the word, and pulls up the messenger system that the Jackals like to use.

"And why does your mother own a ship?" Duke asks hesitantly.

She turns to him and raises an eyebrow, "Because my father bought it for her."

Oh, right. Obviously, he rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but how?"

Cassie's eyes drop to her hands and suddenly he feels a wave of shame roll over him. Clearly this isn't something she wants to talk about.

"Sorry," Duke says. "You don't have to-"

"We don't really get along very well. She doesn't like the fact that I want to live with papa and his family," she shrugs nonchalantly. "Or that I joined the military without letting her know- which is really hypocritical of her, considering that she dumped him and I on a beech first chance she got. It's just… never mind."

Leo comes on line just then.

hey babe
hows sf?

Duke's spoken with Leo enough to know that he's probably not serious about the flirting. But it's a little different now that word has gotten around to his fellow cyclers that the Jackals are probably made up of old members of the Medjay. He wracks his brain trying to figure out where Leo might have fit into the King Commander's medley of lieutenants and captains, but can't come up with anything. He figures that, much like this lifetime, Leo could just possibly be another non-cycler just doing his best to help out in this thousand year old fight.

Cassie smiles and starts to type out her response.

jetlag sucks but everyone is so friendly
dancer sends her love
YOU MET DANCER WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK HOLY SHIT!1!
so jealous rn
probs shouldn't mention pretty boy and baby girl then
asdfghjkl;
wertlgfcxjk,werthj7653456yuj,hgfmdnsdmv,bhktruehgwbsndmf,ghitruydh
DO YOU NOT LOVE ME ANYMORE?!

Duke takes a moment to enjoy this little bit of levity in between all the darkness surrounding their war plans. He's already made arrangements to get his parents out of the country if something were to go wrong. I just need to tell them that, he thinks as his hands curl into fists.

real talk tho
i need you to contact almeida
we need a hq in the pacific ocean

Leo takes a few minutes to answer that one.

u know she doesn't like me
 she doesn't like anyone
tru
but she REALLY doesn't like me

"Why doesn't she like Leo?" Duke asks, feeling so out of the loop.

"He hacked her guidance systems last week when she refused to talk to us," Cassie admits.

use an alias
you have tons
she always knows its me
because you call her sugar mama
ok fair
you owe me tho
ty

"Leo will probably be a while," Cassie says, leaning back in her chair and spinning it so that she faced him. "So, what's this plan I hear about half of us going to London?"

"We're starting to think long term. Besides, that's all need-to-know. And since you and I are heading to the island, that doesn't include us since wizards can read minds," Duke explains. "Frankly, both of us already know too much as it is."

Cassie hums her response, nodding along, "It's just… I've known Strings for a while. He's a good kid. I'd hate to see him hurt."

"Seto won't let that happen."

"Don't go making promise you can't keep, 'cause I might hold you to them," she leans forwards, taking him in. "God, you're young. How'd someone like you get caught up in all of this?"

There's a pit lodged in Duke's throat, "I had a sister, Lindsay."

"Merde," Cassie swears. "Fuckers."

"Yeah…" And now, apparently, there's a witch living in San Francisco right now, one that's supposedly switched sides. It makes him sick thinking that they're thinking of trusting her.

"They came for me during my first tour. Tried to make it look like an accident, in case my papa brought it up with the Prime Minister," she admits. "They slaughtered my squadron, but I managed to escape. Clung to a buoy for three days before Almeida found me."

"You're mother's part of the French Navy?" Duke guesses, a little worried. He knows that Cassie's connected to the French government through her father, but there was no way that they could possibly get an official military to help them out without causing problems. Cassie puts his fears to rest when she shakes her head.

"No. She's a very rich pirate."

It's odd how that's a more comforting answer, Duke thinks.

Leo takes that moment to finally respond.

she'll do it if you spend hanukkah with her this year

"Nom de dieu, vous n'êtes même pas juif," Cassie buries her face in her hands.

"Family reunions must suck for you," Duke says.

"You have no idea," she groans, hands reaching for the keyboard.

tell her i'll do it
when you come home, i'm getting you soooooo drunk
thanks
i'll need it

"At the cost of my sanity, we have ourselves a ship," Cassie announces. "Leo should be sending over all the information soon."

"Good. Catch," he throws a USB port at her. "Give that to Leo. It's a list of some of my contacts. Maybe we can reroute some of my shipments to your mother, so that we don't have to move them ourselves."

"What are you getting brought in?" Cassie asks.

"Weapons mostly. We knew that the wizards were planning an attack on us, but we had no idea when. I was planning to have some stuff brought in for two days from now, but they decided to come a little early," Duke sighs. His phone alarm goes off. He sighs. Usually he wouldn't do this in front of someone else, but this was Kisara. They'd been through enough together after the war for him to not trust her, "Hey, look. Can… Can I tell you something?"

"Of course," she straightens up, looking attentive.

"So… I'm trans."

Cassie blinks in surprise, "Oh."

"The alarm was so that I remember to take my next dose of T, so… uh, do you mind…"

"Do you want me to leave?" She asks.

"No, it's fine. I just need to take off my pants," he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Figured I should warn you before I started to strip."

"Thigh injection. Right," she nods. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Kit's in my bag. You mind grabbing it for me?"

Cassie nods, heading over to his backpack as Duke wrestles his jeans off and kicks them onto the floor.

"Delatestryl?" She asks for clarification.

"Yeah, that's it," he says and she brings it over. He loads his dosage into the needle, takes a deep breath, and stabs it into the meat of his upper thigh.

"How long does that last?" Cassie asks, sitting down on the edge of the bed, watching as his lowly pushes the plunger down.

"A week," he answers.

"Do you have a plan in case the fighting last longer than that?"

"I can take the needles with me. I've got enough to get me through another two months. If we're there longer than that… well, there's this gel thing I have in case of emergencies," he winces a little as he removes the needle. "It's a lot more expensive, but it'll have to do."

"Does it work alright?"

"Should. Never had to use it before. Just have to be careful not to touch anyone after applying it," he says, remembering what his doctor had said. "I shouldn't have to use it anyways, only if we're there for longer than two months."

"Here's hoping that won't happen. Hey," Cassie grabs his jeans off the floor and hands them to him. "Thank you for trusting me."

He nudges her with his elbow, "Thank you for… you know…"

"No problem," she says, resting her chin on his shoulder after he puts his pants back on. "You been in many battles?"

"More than you'd think," he answers, remembering all the wars he'd fought in over all his cycles. He thinks about how often he'd seen Kisara riding off with the Medjay during her reign, off to deliver death or life, harm or help. Deuel had always been more of a guerilla fighter to Kisara's warrior.

"God, you're so young," she whispers.

"We're all young," Duke sighs. "War makes fucked up adults of us all."

"I'll drink to that," she snorts, miming a toast.

"Salut," he murmurs, nodding along. "Come on, let's get back to work. We're wasting daylight."

Atem sees the text coming in before it pings on her phone. Bakura, ever the light sleeper, jolts awake.

"You didn't sleep," he says groggily, turning over and burying his face in the collar of her shirt.

"Not used to the mattress," she says, and it's mostly the truth- Bakura's bed is pretty uncomfortable.

"You need to rest. You were literally two different people a few days ago," he reaches through her and grabs her phone so that she can't. "Besides, you already know what it says." His legs wrap around her waist, trapping her in bed like a human cage. "Sleeeeeeeep," Bakura draws the word out for four whole seconds.

"Read the text. We've got to get going," Atem says, but finds it difficult to will herself away from him. He's warm, she thinks.

"Fuck," Bakura swears when he does, sounding impressed. "They work fast."

She hums in response and forces herself to detangle her limbs from Bakura's body. Atem stretches, arching her back. Her shirt had rode up in her sleep, exposing her stomach. When she looks back, Bakura is staring. He offers her a smirk.

"Sorry," he says around a toothy grin, obviously not sorry at all. She rolls her eyes at him and sits up, tugging the shirt she's wearing back into place.

Atem has been living with Bakura since The Turtle Game Shop burned to the ground, eating his food and sleeping in the same bed. And as much as she thanks him for it, she does miss wearing her own clothes. She tugs at her hair again as it falls into her eyes. Maybe I should do something about this as well.

She'd worn her natural hair long and proud all throughout her life, even though the style of the day was to shave it off a wear a wig. Her mother had encouraged that she wear it long, helping her to care for it in between helping Shimon rule the country and teaching Atem how to do the same. And when it eventually turned red after she'd taken on the mantle of King, Atem wondered if her parents had known more about what her future held than they'd let on.

"Up. Come on," she says as she rolls out of bed. Bakura throws back the covers and reaches onto the floor beside him to grab his own phone.

As Atem heats up the leftovers they'd scooped from Seto's place last night in the microwave, Bakura boots up his laptop and opens up the email Duke and Cassie had sent out a few minutes ago.

He lets out a low whistle, "My father's an idiot."

"Which one?" She asks, placing a steaming bowl of General Tao's chicken in front of him. Immediately, Bakura picks it up and starts to devour it.

"Both. But in this moment, definitely Ryou's," he clarifies around his meal. "He used to call non-magic cities 'mudswamps'. And yet, here they are… building these. All this never fails to amaze me, I swear."

He spins his laptop and lets her see the manifest of the Cerulean. It's impressive.

"How in the world did the Jackals manage to get their hands on something like this?" Atem wonders out loud.

"Let alone one that they can position wherever they want. It's incredible," Bakura scrapes the bottom of the bowl, trying to get as many of the scraps of his meal as he can. Atem turns back to the microwave just as it beeps, telling her that her breakfast is ready. He continues to read, "Full medical bay, can travel at over 30 knots, houses up to five hundred people… And Duke is saying that pirates have this thing?"

"Apparently," she says, using her powers to tug at the visuals on the screen so that she can see them with her back turned. She opens the microwave and tries to touch the bowl inside, but it's too hot. Shaking her hand and wincing, she hunts for another fork. Bakura's kitchen is a mess. "Can you guess how far off of the coastline wizarding control over the Mist can go?"

"Less than a mile. We could shut it down entirely if we find whatever it is that's anchoring the spell. We'd need to be on site for that, unless you can knock it out at a distance with your powers," Bakura says.

"I'll take care of that then," she nods, fingers running down her stomach to where the Puzzle lies cloaked in the Mist. Only if necessary… she tells herself. "So if we bring the Cerulean to at least three miles off the coastline, that will be just over the horizon."

Bakura pulls up the satellite images of the island, located with the help of the Jackals, "Around here?" He points to a location between the island's coast and Midway Atoll, a small spit of land that was part of a national wildlife refuge that he immediately calls up the Wikipedia page for and scans through it. "We should probably circle the island itself, so that people don't guess where we are."

Atem finally deems her food cool enough to take out of the microwave and begins to eat, "The real question is: how are we going to get all our people onto this thing? I figure that we can all catch a flight into Honolulu and have our transformers shuttle our people to meet the Cerulean off the coast, but that's a lot of people we're planning to move. That's a lot of tickets to buy. Do we even have access to that kind of money?"

"I don't know…" Bakura frowns, "That's really something we should know. We should get on that."

"Gods, I know," Atem sighs, sitting down across from him at the table. She offers him a small smile, "It's so different now. At least, back then, we had some idea of what was going on."

"Speak for yourself. You and the King Commander, you guys had some kind of actual throne to move onto, or at least a version of it. I had to do everything from scratch."

And isn't that the truth. Bakura had absolutely no training, no official hierarchy, no court or advisors or anything to help him to acclimatize to his new found position as King once he'd been thrust into it. The fact that he'd been able to do anything at all during the two short years that he'd ruled, let alone as much as he had, was nothing less than astounding.

"Never thought we'd end up here, though," Bakura says and then snorts. "Hell, never thought I'd make it past twenty some days."

"Some of us never did," she comments, trying to make it seem bland. But it's not.

Atem is eighteen years old. Eighteen, in the same way that Bakura is twenty-one, that the King Commander had been nineteen, trapped at those ages for the rest of their lives. They're so, so young- even though by the standards of their time they'd been adults for years. She'd died a child.

"I'm glad we made it, though," Atem says, finishing her breakfast and reaching out to hold Bakura's hand. "We barely had time for this, before."

"Ruling is a busy business," Bakura rolls his eyes.

"So is planning a battle," Atem runs her free hand through her hair. "Once the Cerulean is in position, we can use their-" she looks at the manifest again, "-Sekhmet guard us, is that a…? The fact that they have a military-grade helicopter genuinely terrifies me." Atem continues on, "We use those to drop your team in from above."

"We take out any guards on sight. Keep it as quiet as we can. Once the electronics are back up again, you'll land with the second wave," Bakura zooms in on the satellite photo sent to them by the Jackals. "East side. It's… pretty fortified."

Except, Bakura looks almost sick when he mentions it. Atem rubs her thumb against his. He seems to deflate, shoulders sagging, "I, um… I died there."

"I'm sorry," she whispers. And she gets it, terribly and intimately, because the last thing in the world that she wants to do is return to Hellman Hollow.

"It's fine," Bakura says gruffly, but he doesn't let go of her hand.

Touch means something to them, maybe even more than it does in other relationships. Atem remembers the King Commander, a touch-based telepath who'd gone years without skin-to-skin contact out of respect for the privacy of others. The level of trust that the three of them had in each other, just to touch, was incredible.

And then there was what Bakura and her had to work through. They should never have been allowed to touch in the first place, let alone breathe the same air as each other. Atem had always been aware of their differences in class somewhere in the back of her head, but she knows that for Bakura, it had been terribly, horrendously blatant from the moment they'd become aware of each other's true identities.

So she holds on, gives what comfort she can. He is my equal, she thinks, spitting in the faces of all those who'd ever thought otherwise, herself included. I love him and we are worthy of each other.

"We'll get inside. Joey and Duke will lead their team to the prison levels. Cassie and Amanda will hold the cliff and the Jackals provide our escape from above," Bakura says, continuing to grip her hand. "You and I… We need to go after Pegasus. But… there's something else."

Atem frowns, "What?"

Bakura swallows hard, "They have the Eye and the Spellbook."

The bottom drops out of her stomach, "What…? Why haven't you told anyone?"

"For the longest time, it was because I thought everyone already knew," Bakura explains. "And then the invasion happened and we've been so busy since… it's a shitty excuse, but I literally just haven't had the opportunity to bring it up. But we need to go after them. Because-"

"Divine weapons don't work on each other, so we're the only ones who stand a chance," Atem's throat tightens. "And if what we felt the night I came back is what we think it is, then someone has certainly started using the Eye."

"You're shaking," Bakura says.

"The last time we pitted these weapons against each other, it wasn't exactly enjoyable for anyone involved," Atem's voice is a little shaky. "And if it comes to actual battle-"

"We'll be okay. And we both know that it's not the fighting that you're worried about."

Atem has to look away, unable to keep eye contact. Bakura pushes his laptop aside and comes around the table, pulling her into his arms.

"Fuck Aknadin," he spits. "Fuck him and fuck the Eye."

"Seth used it after Aknadin. He didn't do too bad with it," Atem feels obliged to point out. "I just hate the thing. I hate it. I hate what it does. I hate everything about it." Rage boils in her stomach, bubbling up into her throat, "I'm going to rip it out of his pedophiliac skull and bathe it in Purell before I give it to Seth."

Bakura takes a moment to respond, but when he goes, he says something that shocks her to her core, "I wouldn't trust anyone else with it."

Atem pushes her face into his neck, breathing him in. She doesn't say anything, fingers fisting in his shirt. And then, the thought occurs to her, "What are we doing with Kitamori?"

She steps back and Bakura lets her go, breathing out slowly and running his hand through his white hair. His scar shifts as he winces, "Amanda's got control of her, but…"

"You think we should take her with us." It's not a question.

"She knows the island better than me; I didn't exactly get a lot of time to move around as either the Spirit or Ryou," Bakura explains. "And she's strong. Maybe not enough to fight someone with a divine weapon-"

"No normal human is. They were made to help us combat gods," Atem interrupts.

"But she's strong enough that I won't be surprised if she's able to shake Amanda's binding spell. And if that's the case, we're probably the only one's powerful to take her down without risk," Bakura says.

"You think she might actually betray us?"

"She's going to betray the last of her wizarding allies eventually, so I wouldn't put it past her," Bakura tells her. "It's insurance, if nothing else."

"We need to move out tomorrow, no later," Atem says. "There's a few things I want to do before we leave."

"Like what?"

She motions towards her hair and tugs at her- his shirt, "I really could do with a change."

Tea Gardner, Green's girlfriend, sits at the kitchen table, typing away on her laptop. From what Reiko understands, she's trying to buy hundreds of muggle- no, non-magic dollars worth of airplane tickets. Reiko is slightly concerned about the fact that she's might have to board one of these things, because there's no way that the mages are going to let her apparate to Hawaii, even with Green's control over her.

"I mean, the Jackals are lending us the money because Leo is apparently loaded," Gardner explains when Green asks how she's doing. "It's just there aren't enough seats available on such short notice. There's no way we could land one of the Jackal's helicopters locally without raising some eyebrows from the actual military, considering the weapons payload on them." She runs her hands frustratedly through her short brown hair.

"What are the chances that we could just, I don't know, buy a plane?" Green suggests.

"That would be simpler, wouldn't it?" Gardner sighs.

"So?" Green moves in close, wrapping an arm around her girlfriend and pressing a kiss into her hair. Gardner smiles ruefully.

"Anyone who's willing to sell us a plane on this level of short notice is going to sell us crap," she says. "And I'm sure that we'd like to, you know, not drop out of the sky thirty minutes into the flight."

"If you can get us a plane, I'll make some deals upstairs after I finish up talking to Monthu. Maybe get us a blessing or two. Seshat has always liked me," Green smiles. Reiko's eyes widen.

She's known, theoretically, that Green had the ability to channel gods into her body, but the idea that she might be able to witness it is both terrifying and incredible all in one. Should I be here, if she's going to do something like that? Would be being a witch hurt her chances?

But even as Reiko weighs the pros and cons, she can't help but wonder: how could Green connect with the gods with them, at best, sealed within the divine realms, or at worst, dead?

Gardner leans back into her hold, "Seshat? Not Thoth? I thought he was all about math and building and stuff? You know, an engineer like you?"

"He is, but he's kind of stuck up."

Reiko lets out a low, exasperated laugh, because of course Amanda Green would think that about a god.

Gardner gets someone named Duke on the phone and starts talking about where they could buy a passenger jet on short notice. Green moves off to the side and starts rifling through her fridge for… herbs?

Oh. Reiko realizes that Green is about to start casting some kind of spell. She looks around the room, feeling awkward.

"Do you want me to leave?" She asks and Green jumps.

"Oh my god, you're so quiet! I almost forgot you were there!" Green gasps.

Gardner scoffs, "I didn't."

"Well good for you!" Green sasses her back, "Excuse me while I restart my heart."

Gardner just rolls her eyes.

"Do you want me to leave?" Reiko asks again, fingering the rope around her wrist. It binds her to Green's will, but she's willing to bet that she could break it if given the opportunity to study it. Except, one of Green's first orders was that she couldn't do exactly that, so that's not going to happen. For now, at least.

Green pauses to think it over, "No. I mean, it's best not to lie to the gods. Hiding you would just piss them off. If Monthu doesn't want to bless our campaign, then I'll find someone else."

"You… can do that?"

Green shrugs, "One of the advantages of what Emeric and Helga Hufflepuff did at Camelot is that those in the divine realms don't get to be picky about who they help anymore."

Reiko keeps her expression schooled and doesn't say anything that might make Green question her about that. She's knows too much about why Hufflepuff and her husband did what they did and even though these mages are her allies now, there's no guarantee that they'll continue to be afterwards. She might tell them later, if it's necessary, but for now… no.

Besides, she doubts that the mages are telling her everything about them as well. Reiko thinks about Atem and Bakura, the two strange looking mages who were apparently in charge. There's something about them and she can't put her finger on it, but it's almost familiar. Not to mention that they've seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

And then there's Atem's strange comment about people living in the city being over a hundred years old. At first, Reiko had thought that the girl had been talking about people like Green, who somehow remembered their previous incarnations. But now she's not so sure.

She thinks about Helena, about what the Head had considered to be her part in the Department's grand plan, and refuses to react.

"Monthu? That's-" Reiko wishes that she'd brought her notebook, the one with all the Ancient Egyptian gods in it, with her. It'd be really nice to reference right now, "-He's a sun god, isn't he? From Ancient Egypt."

Green hums in acknowledgement, "He's also a war god. And he likes Mokuba, so I really doubt he'll turn me down."

"Mokuba… Liang? Seto Chen's half-brother?" Reiko just feels lost. Why would a sun god like him?

Green pulls a peppery-smelling bundle of herbs from her fridge and starts to rummage through a drawer in her kitchen, grabbing a white candle. She lays her finds on the counter and opens a cupboard door, revealing several bottles of what looks like oil.

"Just to let you know, if you ever run into either of the Kaiba brothers, don't ever comment on the fact that they're half brothers," Green warns as she pulls down one labeled Road Be Clear.

"Why?"

"Because it's rude," Gardner says before going back to her phone call.

"Because they don't like it," Green says, a little kinder. She grabs a pack of matches and her wallet, tucking her ingredients under arm and moves to sit down on the floor of her living room in front of a small altar.

Reiko kind of wants to get in closer, just to watch something that few wizards have ever had the opportunity to witness. Green seems to notice and smiles, motioning for her to join her on the floor. Reiko fights down a blush - Amanda Green is still startlingly, unfairly attractive - and kneels down next to her.

"You've never seen a Spellcaster work before, have you?" Green asks and Reiko shakes her head, "Well, first time for everything. Can you grab a piece of paper from the coffee table over there? And a pen? There should also be some incense in the drawer there. Grab a stick from the box labeled Fir, okay?"

Reiko does what she's told, regardless of the fact that she doesn't really have much of a choice. She hands Green the incense and the paper, noticing the bright green colour that the girl has painted her nails with, sees the golden lines on her thumbs that look like fireworks. Reiko's never had her nails painted before. She thinks that if she ever did, she'd want them to be red.

Green scribbles some words down on the paper, sets the candles into holders onto the altar, and pulls a twenty dollar bill from her wallet. She places the herbs on the table and starts to mutter.

"~Open my mind, open my heart, to all the strength that lies within. Do not let fear halt my quest. Do not let doubt cloud my mind. I have the power to bring about change. I have the ability to possess all I desire. Steady my hand. Strengthen my resolve. Allow what I now begin to reach its natural conclusion. I ask the power of Monthu, War God of Thebes, the Swooping Falcon, and Lord of Djerit. Remove all obstacles to my goal. Make my dream reality. Make my wish come true.~"

She holds one of the incense sticks in front of her, eyes closed in prayer. Reiko watches as the tip begins to glow ember hot, smoke wafting into the air and filling the room with a earthy pine scent. Green gently places the stick into a cone conveniently located on the altar before anointing one of the candles with oil from the jar.

"~I call to Monthu, He Who Kills The Enemies Of Ra, for wisdom and guidance. Look favourably upon my request as I light this candle. My intentions are not entirely selfish. I ask only for a good and happy life. I have tried all other avenues and feel the only way to achieve this is by asking for your assistance in attaining my goal. May my request be granted. May all good things come to pass.~"

"This is an Ancient Egyptian spell casting method," Reiko comments as Green rubs oil into the pieces of paper from before. "You favour these gods in general."

Green hums again and drops the paper onto a dish on the altar table, "They've been with me all my lives."

"Mala Pukar was from India. The high priestess that wielded the staff you took from the Archives was Aztec. Where did you learn to follow Ancient Egyptian rituals?" Reiko watches as she wraps the twenty dollar bill around the stems of the herbs - black pepper plants, Reiko notes, able to tell what they are now that she's up close. Green places the bundle in front of a quartz crystal on the altar. Reiko straightens, her mind catching up, "Just… how long have you been cycling?"

"A very, very long time," Green sighs, then laughs. "The staff was from when I was called Mazatl. I made it in the hopes that I could break through the seal and start to speak with the gods again. It works a bit too well these days. I almost can't handle it anymore."

"You lost control in the Archives," Reiko realizes.

Green nods, "Good thing Sekhmet can be controlled with wine. Bakura got her to drink it. Do you mind if I continue my spell, though?"

Reiko nods and Green begins to chant again.

"~Ill will surrounds my friends and I, causing pain and hardship. Make the evil forces dissipate and scatter. Turn the bad to good. Make the difficult easy. Help remove the blocks which have been set in our paths, so we may bring our people home.~"

She picks up the oils paper, saying the words she'd written down, "~As this paper burns, protect all those that I love.~", and lights it using the candle flame. She drops the burning paper back into the dish. Then she moves to one of the book shelves lining the walls and picks up a framed photograph that seems to change the picture every ten seconds. Reiko recognizes some of the faces - Matthew Jacques, Tea Gardner, the Kaiba brothers, Bakura, Yuugi Mutuo and then a group photo of thousands of bodies sitting on a hillside - but others she doesn't. Green carefully places the frame on the altar next to the dish, touching the faces of her friends gently.

"~Now my spell begins. May my magic find its mark.~"

The candles and incense go up in flames, burning down to their bases at an alarming rate.

"~My spell has been cast. May nothing stop its course.~"

Mazatl the Aztec, Mala Pukar, Amanda Green, Reiko thinks, then remembers the names her research had uncovered after she'd put together that someone had been using Mala Pukar's abilities a hundred years after her death. Now she just needs confirmation.

Green says the last few words of her spell, "~My spell is now complete. May the result be all I desire.~"

"Manika Lapa, the girl from Latvia . Manerva from Gual. Mummu of Babylon," Reiko says bluntly and watches as Green's shoulders stiffen. "I can go on if you want. Your sequence is easily trackable, if you know what you're looking for."

"What of it?" Green asks, her voice low and dangerous.

"Names have power, power that connects right down into our souls. And the letter 'M' is far too common in your names to not be a coincidence," Reiko barrels forwards.

"What. of. it? " Green asks again. Sand seems to collect around her arms and Reiko knows that she can't do anything to stop it, not while Green has her bound. But then again, Green could just order her silence, which she hasn't done yet, so Reiko thinks that the Spellcaster might actually be interested in her answer.

"You use Ancient Egyptian methods to cast your spells. You said that a 'nuclear bomb of magic' helps you remember your previous incarnations," Reiko pauses for dramatic effect. "You're High Priestess Mana, aren't you?"

Gardner thinks she's sneaky, but she really isn't. Reiko ducks below the baseball bat the girl swings at her head, spinning around to face her, and disarms her in a flash. She's about to strike back when she hears Green- except, that's not Green at all, whisper, "Stop moving."

Reiko freezes in place as the robe binds her in place, unable to twitch. The baseball bat clangs at it hits the floor and Gardner backs up frantically, eyes wide and staring over Reiko's shoulder. She drops to her knees, head down in submission.

Reiko Kitamori knows what's behind her and she is terrified.

"Little witch," Sekhmet addresses her, her breath boiling hot as it rolls over Reiko's skin, making it bubble, red and raw. The goddess's voice would cripple her had she not been ordered to stay still. "You are playing with forces you cannot hope to understand…"

Reiko couldn't respond even if she wanted to. Sand coils around her neck and squeeze ever so gently. She's reminded suddenly of when Atem forced her against a wall, choking her with a single hand, of Helena after the rare times Reiko had failed in her duty.

"I would burn your heart and eat it. I would gorge on your blood and feast on your smoldering flesh. I would make you answer for the crimes of those who murdered me," Sekhmet threatens. "But I will not."

Reiko sees the goddess grinning out of the corner of her eye, her cruel grin dripping red between her razor teeth.

"Do you want to know why, little witch?" Sekhmet asks and Reiko finds her tongue.

"Yes," she answers and she doesn't know if she's lying or not.

"Because I see the battles your will cause, the blood you will spill. I see the hunter you are," Sekhmet voice sounds like a war. "Look at me, girl."

Reiko's head turns and her body shakes as she stands before the goddess. Sekhmet is eight feet tall, her body a mass of twisting golden sand. Her eyes are glowing amethysts, imbedded in a head shaped like a lioness. There's a sash around her waist, soaked red in the blood that flows down her inner thighs.

She's beautiful, Reiko thinks. She's horrifying.

Sekhmet laughs, throwing her head back and splashing the ceiling with blood. Her bare chest heaves with her mirth, her back arched in ecstasy. Then, suddenly, the goddess looms over her and presses her forehead against Reiko's, forcing her to stare into the gemstones that form her eyes.

Reiko can't move. The goddess wraps taloned claws around her arms, holding her in place. Sand and heat and wind fill Amanda Green's apartment. I'm going to die.

"Seth is laughing at us, little witch," Sekhmet grins, her mouth wide enough to swallow Reiko whole. "It would figure that my chosen would be born amongst my enemies."

"What?" Reiko whispers.

The goddess doesn't answer, just swoops down and presses a bloody kiss to Reiko's mouth. When she pulls away, the goddess whispers, "Mine," once more before the sand collapses around Green's body and the temperature in the room drops nearly a hundred degrees.

"Amanda!" Gardner lurches forwards, pushing past Reiko and throwing her arms around her girlfriends, whispering softly to her. Green nods slowly, almost drunkenly, before fixing her eyes on Reiko.

"You've been blessed," she states. She smiles ruefully, "I'm sorry."

"Have you…? Are you… 'blessed', as well?" Reiko asks, shaken to her core. A goddess of slaughter just called me hers.

"No. Gods just like me," Green says as Gardner helps her to her feet. "But my sister was."

Sister? Oh Merlin, Reiko's heart hammers in her chest. She's talking about the Lady Pharaoh.

"What happened to her?" Reiko asks finally.

"She died," Green states. "She died and she took almost all of our family with her." And then, oddly enough, Green chuckles and the laughter of Sekhmet echoes around her room. "But then again, my family doesn't make a habit of staying dead. Get some sleep, okay? We ship out tomorrow."

And as she watches Gardner carry Green into her bedroom, Reiko Kitamori realizes that she is probably in over her head with these people.

Hello again!

I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: Tz342, Moonfirekitsune, BalaaSweetSlaughter, green lilah, dragomira, CrimsonStrawberry17, Rita Mu, and Dana Sto Helit. You guys are awesome!

I really like how Atem addressed the dynamic of touch between her, Bakura, and Marik, because it shows a lot of how they would have had such a solid foundation of trust for their relationship to work, as well as hinting to, when we get to the Ancient Egypt arc, the first few times we see Atem interact with her boys, she's going to be ridiculously classist.

Atem, in canon, goes through a massive transformation arc from amnesiac demon who won't let Yugi fight his own battles to a caring and trusted friend who is a better and more wholesome person than he was before. In the Three Kings Series, we are seeing Bakura and Atem at the very end of their emotional development - hell, we see all of the cycling characters at the end of their arcs. Showing them at the beginning is going to be very interesting, considering what we know they will become.

Until next time,
AlcatrazOutpatient