Author's notes: This is probably the longest chapter, I have ever written. I really hope people enjoy it. I own absolutely 0% of anything except Hashira. Please enjoy. I borrowed a lot of quotes and ideas from MMMG's 'How did it come to this?' so please don't hate me if you notice them, I am giving her all the credit.
The next three days pass, and Honda and sometimes me, keep Tea and the occasional Vivian out of the healing chambers and Yugi was finally ready to be Atemu's servant. I am in a meeting guarding a very impatient and bored prince. I can sense something was going to happen, but with Honda and High Priestess Isis with Yugi, I'm not going to worry about it. "Something wrong Atemu?" Seto murmurs as he comes up next to Atemu, Joey a few paces behind. The two had kept their word and toned down the arguments. There was the occasional outburst, but it was usually over trivial things and not personal. "Just slightly on edge." Atemu replies in the same low tone. "Don't trust Isis to keep your new servant safe?" I say in a low voice that holds amusement. "Don't forget that Tea and Vivian both tried to get into the healing chambers many times these past three days." Atemu shoots back at me. "Your point?" Seto raises an eyebrow. "One of them may try something on the way here." Atemu frowns, not too keen about his own idea. "With a High Priestess there?" Seto smirks. "You've gotta be kidding me."
A few minutes later, my acute hearing picks up the sound of Vivian and Isis talking, then the sound of a loud thud and loud scream fills the room. "Who was that?" High Priest Karim breaks the silence. "I think that was Yugi." Ryou timidly speaks up after a few seconds. "Isis was escorting him here," Aknaudin says, "so we should split up and take all routes she could have taken to get here." "Or we could follow High Priest Mahad and Bodyguard Hashira." Joey says quickly. "Well, his item is pointing in the direction of the healing chambers." Joey says, as we all look towards the Millennium Ring. Sure enough, one of the spindles is pointing in that direction.
"Looks like we have a new feature of the Ring." Mahad says. I say, "And you can follow me, because I smell blood, and he screeching and sure enough I hear Vivian. Now let's go!"
We make it to where Isis, Yugi and Vivian are and see Vivian screeching from being pinned on the wall by magic and Yugi laying in a puddle of his own blood. "Isis what happened?" Mahad asked as he races to her side. "Vivian attacked us." Isis says quietly. "Why?" Atemu demands obviously angry. "Atemu, get me down from here." Vivian whines from her place on the wall.
"Not until we get the story." I yell at her as I race toward Yugi. "Yugi!" Ryou rushes past and kneels next to Isis, who has Yugi's head in her lap, and my hand on his left shoulder, to prevent blood flow. His eyes are closed and his breathing labored. "Is he okay?" I ask. "He pushed me out of the way when Vivian tried to stab me." Isis says solemnly. We don't need the Millennium Scales to see that Isis is telling the truth. "But he has lost so much blood, I don't know if I will be able to save him."
"Isis, my shadow magic may work in battle, but I can also heal injuries that may seem fatal." I say. Isis looks at me and I take on my shadow creature form. When the glow ends I point my horn at Yugi's shoulder. I see a faint white glow that is not coming from me and I look and see Mystic Elf and Ryou with his hands together, like he's praying. Marik says, "What in the name of Ra?" /Mystic Elf/ I say. Bakura says, "What?" I combine my magic with Mystic Elf's and Yugi's start to open and he moans trying to get up. "Yugi!" Malik and Joey yell as they race forward, Joey to kneel next to his friend, and Malik to catch Ryou, who has recalled Mystic Elf and toppling forward. "That's one crazy girl." Yugi mutters as he slowly sits up with Isis and Joey's assistance. He sees me and nearly screams. I notice it and say, /It's okay Yugi, it's me Hashira, this is just my shadow creature form, I helped heal you./ Yugi blinks and then says, "Hey Hashira, I just didn't recognize you." "Are you alright?" Isis asks. "I'm fine." Yugi answers. "How's Ryou?" "Just tired." Malik answers as he holds Ryou's sleeping form. "Summoning takes a lot out of him."
"He has a Ka!" Marik all but shouts. I transform back to human form and say, "Marik, you do know that I'm shadow creature, I can tell if someone has a Ka, since a Ka is a shadow creature, and when I met these guys," I point at Yugi, Joey, Ryou and Malik, "I could easily sense
that they all have a Ka." "Yes we do," Joey says sheepishly, "Ryou's, as just witnessed, is Mystic Elf, Malik's is Revival Jam, Yugi's is Kuriboh, and mine is the Red Eyes Black Dragon." "Why didn't you tell us that?" Seto demands. "Didn't come up in conversation?" Joey and I answer weakly. "We forget we even have Ka's until one of us is hurt or is under threat of an attack by raiders or something." Malik answers. "Why didn't you use your Ka's when you were arrested?" Bakura asks. "One, didn't think of it." Joey says. "Two," Yugi continues, "we need to be able to see who we are attacking." "Calling for our Ka to attack without seeing everything around us is dangerous." Malik explains. "We could hurt one of our friends or allies instead." "Makes sense." I say, knowing how dangerous shadow creatures can get, as Isis helps Yugi up.
"I think we need to hold a minor trial of the Millennium Items." Aknamkanon says. "We simply need to see if you are telling the truth and that your Ka's bear no threat." 'Even though I can easily tell if they are good or bad Ka's and these guys are good, but I'll let them do it.' I think to myself, as Joey stands up and says, "Yes my pharaoh." "Atemu!" Vivian screeches. "Help me!"
"Someone take her to the dungeons." Aknamkanon commanded. "She will be held there until her trial for attempting to murder one of my priests, and injuring the prince's personal servant, and for calling one of the royal family by their name without permission." "Yes my pharaoh." Joey, Malik and I say with smirks on our faces. Before anyone could blink, we get her off the wall, and are dragging her, screeching all the way, to the dungeons.
Ten minutes later, the court and the four servants were in the throne room. "Man, that girl can screech." Joey mutters as he rubs his ears. "No kidding." Malik says agreeing, rubbing his own ears. "I think, I'm going to have hearing problems for a weak. Damn my sensitive hearing!" "Let the trial begin." Aknamkanon says. Atemu standing by his left side, me standing right next to Atemu, the priests in rows of three on either side, and the members of the counsel remaining on the sidelines.
High Priest Karim stepped forward. "Using the Millennium Scales, I will judge the good and evil in your heart. First, Joey." Joey separates himself from the group. Karim holds the scales steady and they start to glow. After a few seconds, the glow fades, the bowls on either side remaining balanced. Karim nods. "There is no evil in his heart, only the desire to protect his friends." Malik steps forward, ready. Karim turns the scales to him. After a brief glow, Karim nods his head. Innocent again. Ryou walks up, clear. Yugi comes quickly, no evil. High Priest Karim steps aside, and High Priest Shada takes his place. "By the power of the Millennium Key, I will see into your souls and see if there is any existing unknown evil."
One by one, they all pass through. Only Joey and Malik have small traces, but that's because they only wanted some sweet Karma to bite the guy who put them in prison. Yugi and Ryou have none whatsoever.
High Priest Aknaudin follows quickly. "With my Millennium Eye, I will extract your Ka from you. It is painless if you don't resist." One by one, the Ka's are released from their holder's bodies. Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon nuzzles him gently. Malik's Revival Jam is going round and round and round and round Malik. Ryou's Mystic Elf watches Revival Jam being goofy with an annoyed mother look in her eyes. And Yugi's Kuriboh is taking refuge in his hair, effectively messing it up. "Aw, come on." Yugi whines, trying to pull Kuriboh out of his hair.
"Dizzy." Malik mumbles as he watches Revival Jam go round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round. Ryou giggles as Mystic Elf sighs and then blasts Revival Jam with a small bit of her magic. Revival Jam pulls itself back together before staring at Mystic Elf, who is shaking her pointer finger at him. "Typical." Joey chuckles as he strokes his Red Eyes between the eyes, gaining a deep purr. I smile, for these creatures were friends of mine in the Domain of the Beasts.
I say, "My Pharaoh, you have nothing to fear from these Ka, before they were Ka, they were average shadow creatures and friends that I would play with and they would help me in training with my abilities." Everyone gets a shocked look on their faces as I go into my shadow creature form, and the Ka's see me and run over to me. Red Eyes nuzzling me, Mystic Elf petting my fire mane(the fire that covers my body, mane and tail, while I'm in my shadow creature form, only burns those I don't trust and/or like), Kuriboh sitting on my back, like he's ride gonna ride me into the sunset, and Revival Jam trying to get me to aim and fire my magic at him, like the old days.
"Your Red Eyes looks threatening." Seto says, warily looking at the massive Ka. "Only when someone is trying to hurt my friends." Joey answers, not looking at Seto, but walking toward the, still nuzzling me, Red Eyes. "But otherwise, Akia is just a big sweetheart. Aren't you girl?" Joey starts scratching Akia under the chin, gaining another louder purr. "Akia?" Isis asks. "What?" Joey looks up. "I can't call her Red Eyes Black Dragon 24/7." "Yes you can." Seto said flatly. "Well I'm not going to." Joey shoots back. "Simple as that. You can call her Red Eyes Black Dragon if you want, but I'm calling her Akia. It's merely a personal choice." "Can't argue with that." Bakura snickers. "Shut up." Seto snaps. I transform back to human form and the Ka all return to where their masters are standing.
Aknamkanon says, "I agree with Hashira that your Ka's bear no threat. You may return them." With four brief and quickly followed flashes, the Ka's disappear. "I see no reason for you not to remain with your Ka." "Thank you pharaoh." The four say and bow. "Now, we shall resume our normal day." Aknamkanon says. "I do believe it is time for the midday meal. But Yugi, you will need to get some new clothes first." "Alright!" Joey cheers and races out the doors. "He doesn't know where the kitchen is does he?" Yugi asks. "He does." Malik replies as he races after Joey. "Unfortunately." "Uh-oh." Yugi mutters. "Pharaoh," Ryou says as he shakes his head. "Be prepared to have your kitchens emptied out."
Later in the day, we quickly found out why you need to keep Joey out of the kitchen, it was half way empty. Yugi is wearing his new servants clothes, a simple white shendyt with a crimson sash trimmed in gold, an amethyst colored upper tunic, and some new basic sandals. It is pretty simple, but Yugi loves court had regathered after the midday meal, discussing what they were going to do with Vivian, who was being held, and in chains, by two guards outside the doors. Vivian's father, Lord Wong, had not spoken in his daughter's defense. "She is going to die." Karim says. "There is no doubt about that." "I agree." Shada nods his head. "She has been disrespecting our laws for over four years now. Attempting to murder one of the high priests alone receives a death sentence." "How should she die then?" Isis asks. "Does the necklace not know?" Aknaudin asks.
"It shows a few ideas." Isis wrinkles her nose. "All gruesome." "Sweet." Bakura grins. "You're sick." Mahad says to him. "I know." "We could skin her alive." Marik suggests. "I'm bored with skinnings." Bakura complains. "Feed her to the lions instead." "You guys do know, I can call up some old shadow creature friends of mine and they can tear her limb from limb." I say with a devious smirk on my face. Atemu asks hope evident in his eyes, "You can do that?" I nod and Aknamkanon says, "I actually would like High Priestess Isis and Servant Yugi to decide her punishment." "Huh?" Yugi asks. "It was you two that she harmed," Aknamkanon explains, so you two will decide her punishment." "I'm not going to be of any help." Isis says turning a light shade of green. "Why not just throw her to the crocodiles?" Yugi shrugs his shoulders. "The nestlings are hatching, so the mothers' are going to be very protective and hostile."
A hush fell over the room. Who would have thought that the quiet, innocent one would have come up with such a gruesome idea? "That's actually a good idea." Bakura says. I then say, "I like the way he thinks, Atemu." "Yugi, have been hanging around Bakura and Marik too much?" Atemu asks. "Oi!" the two yell. "No my prince." Yugi responds. "Bring Vivian in then." Aknamkanon orders. The two guards bring in a struggling and screaming Vivian, who is dirty and looks nothing like a lady. "Unhand me you dirty dogs!" Vivian screams. "Silence!" Aknamkanon shouts. Vivian instantly fall quiet. When the pharaoh shouted, whoever was on the receiving end was in big trouble. "Vivian Wong," Seto reads the charges from a scroll, "you are hereby charged with attempted murder of one of a High Priest of the pharaoh's court, and the near successful murder of the prince's personal servant. How do you plead?" "Not guilty." Vivian declares haughtily. "Doesn't she know that when you lie the punishment gets worse?" Marik mutters in Bakura's ear. "She sees herself as an untouchable royal." Bakura answers. "She probably does know, but thinks it doesn't apply to her." "Selfish bitch." I say with a scoff. "No kidding." Bakura and Marik reply.
"By the witnesses you have against you," Aknamkanon decides, "we will conduct a trial by the Millennium Items." It is then that Vivian has the decency to look nervous. High Priest Karim steps forward first. "Using the Millennium Scales, I will judge the good and evil in your heart." Karim holds the scales steady and they start to glow. After a few seconds, the glow fades, and the bowl on the left side tilts downwards, heavily. "There is great evil in your heart. Such evil that has been lying in wait for some time." "It's not true!" Vivian screams, and the scales tilt more against her favor. High Priest Karim steps back, and High Priest Shada takes his place. "By the power of the Millennium Key, I will see into your soul and see if there is any existing unknown, darker evil, or of an unknown Ka." As the key glows, Shada gets a good look into Vivian's soul. "There is nothing but blackness, and the shape of a warrior which is her Ka."
"Dragon Lady, I always hated her." I say to the pharaoh. Shada moves aside as Aknaudin steps forward. "With the Millennium Eye, I will extract your Ka from you." As the process began, Vivian tries to resist, which results in her screaming in pain as her Ka is extracted, taking the form of Dragon Lady. "I will now seal your Dragon Lady into a sealing stone." Seto says as he holds up the Millennium Rod. "Millennium Rod, I beseech thee, seal this Ka into the stone." A flash of light later, Dragon Lady is inside the sealing stone, leaving Vivian gasping for breath on the floor. "By the power of the Millennium Necklace, I will look back into the past and project the image for all to see what happened that day." Isis says as she focuses on her necklace.
Image Projection: "Priestess." Vivian approached Isis and Yugi in the hallway. "Have you see Atemu's new ser- There you are!" "You have got to be kidding me." Isis muttered as Vivian pulled out a knife. "Move!" Vivian demanded. "I see no reason why I should." Isis said calmly as she pushed Yugi behind her. "Because that brat is hiding behind you!" Vivian screeched. "He is stopping my Atemu from noticing me!" Isis went into her own thoughts and Vivian used this distraction. "So I will get rid of him once and for all!" Vivian screamed and lunged forward, bringing the knife down and Isis out of her thoughts. Yugi pushed Isis out of the way before the blade hit her and took the blow instead. He screamed and fell to the floor as the Millennium Necklace pulsed with magic and pinned Vivian up against the wall. "Yugi." Isis bent over to him. Already his eyes had closed and his breathing had grown rougher.:End Image Projection
"By the witnessing of this event I hereby declare you guilty of all charges." Aknamkanon thunders. "You will be stripped of your title and executed tomorrow at dawn, by the means of being thrown to the female crocodiles of the Nile River." "No!" Vivian screams. "I'm supposed to be queen!" "Take her away!" Aknamkanon roars. Vivian struggles and starts shouting a string of profanities at everyone in the room, before she is gagged that is. "Lord Wong, is there anything you wish to say?" "No my pharaoh." Lord Wong bows. "I had raised my daughter to be a lady. I never expected her to do this, but she has brought her fate upon herself." "Very well then." Aknamkanon nodded. "Court is dismissed for the remainder of the day. Those who are required to be at the execution will be informed tonight after the meal."
At dinner, we find out that Yugi and I have to be with everyone going, because, Yugi was the one Vivian hurt, and I am Atemu's bodyguard. When Yugi found out he instantly paled, I get a feeling he doesn't like the idea at all. "Will you be alright?" Atemu asks later. We were walking down the hall to his chambers for the night. "Yes." Yugi answered. "I'm just not a huge fan of lots of blood." "Understandable." Atemu nods. "Well, we're here." Upon entering Atemu's chambers, Yugi stops and gapes at the huge room. "We'll give you the tour tomorrow." Atemu says. "Right now we need to rest for tomorrow morning, so I'll just show you where you will be sleeping."
"Okay." Yugi says as he snaps out of his daze. "Oh," Atemu pauses by a door. "This is where Hashira and me sleep. You'll need to wake us tomorrow morning and make sure I have my clothes and jewelry." "I understand." "Good." Atemu walks to the next door and opens it. "Here is where you will sleep. It's generally used for harem, but I've never had the urge, so I had it remodeled for you." "Thank you." Yugi walks into the room. "Sleep well." Atemu says as he closes the door. I then transform and Atemu and me go to sleep.
The next morning, I wake up, when I feel someone trip on me. I look and see that it's Yugi. I say, /Good morning Yugi, I wish you would've found a better way to wake me up./ Yugi looks at me and says, "Morning, I was just trying to get to the bed to wake Atemu up." I smirk an horsey smirk and say, /I've got an idea./ I get up on the bed, which I'm surprised can hold my weight when I'm in horse form, and I use my muzzle to roll Atemu off the bed and onto the floor. "Ai!" Atemu sits up and says, "Hashira, Yugi?" Yugi says, "You wouldn't wake up." "Why are you waking me this early?" Atemu asked. "You told me to." At the prince's blinks, Yugi lets out a small sigh. "Vivian's execution?" "Oh right!" Atemu leapt out of bed and Yugi and I are thankful to every god in existence that the prince has a sleeping shendyt on. Even the prince's legs are well muscled. "Sorry Yugi, I'm not a morning person." "You're actually a lot like Joey." Yugi says as he picks up Atemu's outfit and begins to help him dress, I transform then leave the room to leave them alone.
After everyone has gathered, we move to the banks of the Nile, near the crocodile's nesting grounds. "Vivian Wong." Mahad's voice rings out for all who has gathered to hear. "By order of the Pharaoh, you, on this day, shall be executed for your crimes against your land, and your people. Let your punishment be a lesson to all other." "No!" Vivian screams as she is pushed closer to her death by two guards. "I'm supposed to be queen! I'm supposed to rule!" 'Oh, I'm going to enjoy this.' I think myself amused by her screams. As the sun rises over the horizon, and with Aknamkanon's nod, Vivian is pushed into the river, right next to a nest of new hatchlings. Yugi turns his head away and closes his eyes as a crocodile lunges at Vivian, her screams echoing in everyone's ears. When the screaming stops, Yugi turns his head forward again, but didn't open his eyes. "Let it be known that this is what will happen to those who disobey my rule." Aknamkanon booms, and then lowers his voice. "And now let us return."
"Come Yugi." Atemu says in a slightly strained voice. Yugi turns around and opens his eyes, and while I smirk at all the blood in the river. "Yes my prince." Yugi says and we follow him back as the sun rises higher into the sky.
Author's notes: That is one long chapter, I really hope this chapter gets ⟶ 'a lot of reviews'⟵ I need feedback people or I will get major writer's block. Please Review!
