Wha? Me? Update early? Why that's preposterous.

I was going to wait until exactly a week had passed, but fuck that I have exams and it's a miracle I wrote over 4000 words in less than a week. So this treat is on me ;D To make up for that one time it took me 6 months to update -because yikes... (I'm such a rebel I know)

(have you checked out the MSGO blog yet? That's totally a thing you know. There's a link to it on my profile, but if you're too lazy, it's marysuegioh - tumblr - com just change the dashes to dots)

Anyway, I have a feeling you're going to like this one ;)

The scorching sun casts its rays down on the Nile river bank and the summer air oscillates through the trees and around everyone's feet. Almost all the people of Kul Elna are hard at work, even the children, who can't help but to splash around in the water while running errands for their parents.

One man, with strong arms and a jaw so firm it almost looks to be made of pure gold, picks up a basket filled to the brim with fish and hoists it up onto his shoulder. With his free arm, he wipes the sweat off of his brow and turns his gaze over to a group of children in dark linen, fighting the heat by taking turns pushing each other into the water. With a slight shake of his head, the man calls out "Sarenen! Stop fooling around and come help me out here!"

Sarenen is a young boy of ten with long, thin, bronze legs like the stalks of a palm tree. He turns to the man, his silver hair soaked to the roots with the fresh Nile water, with a huge grin on his face. "Yes, Papa!"

"Sa-ry!" one of the children calls out. Her sunkissed hands are on her hips and her face is in a frown. "You're not leaving already?" she asks.

Sarenen gives his friends a wide grin. "Sorry, guys. Duty calls!" He runs over to his father, and kneels down to pick up one of the smaller baskets; it is small enough that Sary can carry it, but large enough that his father can teach him about the strength of the men of Kul Elna.

He and his father walk side-by-side towards the village, keeping their pace slow to keep Sarenen's fatigue at bay. The village isn't very large, with a population so small that it resembles a large family in its dynamic, and with everyone down by the river, the streets are completely empty. It doesn't take them long to arrive at their home, a small hut built carefully out of clay; it isn't much, but it's enough for their small family.

His father pushes open the door and walks inside. "Ankhes, we're home!" he calls out, setting his basket down on the floor inside.

Sary scampers in after him and places his own basket next to his father's basket. He feels uneasy, like a swarm of locusts is eating at him from the inside. Something is wrong. This isn't his life.

"Mama?" he calls out nervously, following after his father, who slips into the bedroom.

His feet feel numb, walking after his father into the bedroom. He hasn't gone in there ever since…

"Mama! Stop sleeping! Mama, please!"

"Sary, listen to me!"

"Mama, I need you."

Peering through the doorway, he's not sure if he's anxious or relieved to find the room completely empty, devoid of life. His mother can't be alive; she hasn't been alive for five years.

"Sawenenenen," a small voice calls out. It sounds so young that he can't even fault it for adding in a few extra syllables to his name. A moment of searching leads him to the wall below the window where a tiny individual is sitting in a small black dress. Her coiled hair is drawn back in a long braid and her eyes are staring cautiously up at Sarenen.

"Who are you, little one?" he asks, kneeling down. His body feels heavier now as it descends and it appears he's no longer that innocent boy of ten. How old was he when he died? It seems like such an important piece of information to remember, and yet he can't even be bothered. Was he seventeen? Or perhaps closer to twenty? It doesn't really matter at this point though…

The young girl stares cautiously up at Sarenen and then hugs her dark ebony arms around her small body. She can't be more than three years old by the looks of it, so he wouldn't be surprised if she were a bit shy, however he has to remember that she was the one who called out to him, and after what seems like a small moment's deliberation, she finally opens her mouth. "Who aw yew, widow one?" she repeats, albeit less eloquently.

He can't help but to smile at her reaction and this elicits a timid smile in response. "Do you have a name?" he asks again.

"Nnn… Name. Nox." she babbles. At first Sarenen isn't sure she's answered his question until she says it again. "Name is Nox." Then with a huge grin she adds. "Name is Sawenenenen?"

He throws his head back in laughter. "Call me 'Sary'," he tells her. He can see her trying the new name out on her tongue, settling on "Sawy" in the end. "Close enough," he remarks with another smaller laugh. Nobody has called him by that name for over three thousand years and now it just sounds strange and nostalgic -almost painful.

"Sawy!" she cries out happily and she leaps forward to give him a hug. He's not sure why, but something about her seems familiar; maybe she feels it, too… Maybe that's why she takes to him so quickly.

"Big brother! It hurts!"

"Amane! Where are you?"

"Big brother! Come find me!"

Sarenen abruptly remembers where he is. He's no longer in Kul Elna… Kul Elna is a ruin now, and he should know, for he was its only survivor.

The Inbetween…

He sighs and leans against the stone wall of the cave despondently, trying to think of how long he's been trapped in here. He can't feel hunger or fatigue or any normal human urges when he's in this place, only emotions, and in his loneliness, he's dredged up plenty of emotions to keep him occupied in his solitary stay. He owes this all to the being who was once his ally and now his enemy; the dark creature that took ahold of his heart so many years ago -now, all he feels is tired and worn, like an old mule at the end of its life.

The prison's design is simple: there must always be at least one person in the cave, and therefore the last to leave it is trapped until someone else takes their place. It doesn't help that he hasn't gotten any visitors to replace him and grant him freedom -well, aside from Nox, and he isn't going to very well trap a three year-old girl in the realm between the living and the dead.

Speaking of which, what is a three year-old girl doing in the Inbetween? How does someone that young and innocent get their soul trapped, unable to move on and forced to wander the vast plains of the Inbetween on her own. Someone would have to make a deliberate and great effort to stop her spirit from entering the realm of the dead and an even greater one to grant her access to the afterlife once more. He knew this all too well, of course, having spent the greater part of the last few millennia trying to escape his own cruel fate.

However, it had been only recently that the evil spirit which has haunted him for years finally decided to cast him away to this hell. Something has changed. Is Nox a part of it? He feels oddly connected to her, like she is a part of his existence -or, in less deep terms, an old familiar, although he knows for a fact that this is their first meeting.

Nox has stopped fidgeting on his lap and he can only assume that she has gone to sleep. How troublesome…

He still sees Bakura from time to time… The boy is in and out of here more often than anyone, and Sarenen almost feels sorry for him; it's days like those when he remembers what it was like to be human, to feel pain, emotions, empathy…

"What an unusual pair," a voice calls out from just beyond the cave, the owner of which is tall man only a few years older than Sarenen himself. It isn't the first time the man has come to visit Sarenen in this desolate place.

"Ken," Sarenen greets him, although their familiarity wasn't accompanied by fondness. "Are you still searching for her?" he asks, absentmindedly stroking the bumpy texture of Nox's hair.

"Are you still trapped in the Solitude?" Ken shoots back, deftly avoiding the question and leaning against the stone outside of the cave.

Sarenen grins. "Unless you'd like to come in and take my place." He sighs. "So… you Guardians… Your job is to find people like us and send us where we belong?"

"When we can," Ken replies, sensing where Sarenen meant to take this conversation. "Your soul is linked to Zorc the Dark One… That makes you… difficult."

Sarenen grimaces, having expected an answer like that. "And what of this girl of yours?" he probes. "How do you know she is not linked to some ancient spirit of darkness?"

Ken glares at the other man and crosses his arms. "She isn't. And she's not the only one I'm after."

"She's the only one you care about," Sarenen states with a quiet chuckle. He glances down at Nox to check whether or not the rumbling of his chest bothered her, but he finds her still soundly sleeping. After a tense silence, he adds, "How old were you when she died?"

Ken clears his voice and glances away from Sarenen. "I was seven."

"How do you think she'll react when she finds out that you've died?" Sarenen inquires, finding a twisted pleasure in eliciting the Guardian's anguish.

"I-I'm not -"

"You might as well be dead," Sarenen says, his eyes now humorless and his lips set in a straight line. "You Guardians are all hypocrites. I've seen enough of you in the past couple of millennia to know."

Sucking in a deep breath, Ken pushes away from the stone wall and turns his back on the cave. He simply stands, facing the bleak landscape of the Solitude, almost as though the words he wishes to say are hidden in the colorless abyss before him.

"At any rate," Sarenen continues. "She hasn't passed through here. In fact… none of them have… save for little Nox here." At that, Ken perks up. "She's why you're here, right? You're trying to capture Nox just like the rest of them." Sarenen grins. "You're afraid to come in here, though… afraid I'll leave you in here and take the girl with me."

Ken balls his hand up into a fist and holds it against the holster of his sword. Turning around, he orders, "Or I could kill you right here and take the girl anyway."

Sarenen knows he should feel afraid, sitting defenseless and weak, but he can't help but feel invigorated at the idea of danger. He hasn't been this entertained since he tried to destroy Egypt… Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but any fight is better than none. He turns his head and looks directly into Ken's eyes. "And what if you're wrong?" he asks. "What if you take Nox, you take everyone else, and you can't send them to the realm of the dead? What if they disappear forever? You wouldn't even remember her name anymore."

He sees Ken mouth something inaudible before wincing in pain. "And what if I'm not wrong and she ends up disappearing forever?"

With a shrug, Sarenen reclines back and shuts his eyes. "The Solitude is very beautiful this time of year," he notes, and Ken looks back out at the wasteland behind him. It seems to be shaded in a gray hue and even the trees look like they're weeping. It is this part of the Inbetween that is used to trap people who lose dark games. How many other lost souls are trapped here as a result of penalty games and evil spirits? It makes him shudder to think about it; after all, the Guardians are only human…

His hands shake in the cold. His body quakes out of pain. He can't move… can't breathe… but he has to. He doesn't belong here… He belongs in the realm of the living. Not here. Not on this hard, grey dirt, surrounded by smog and weeds, the pull of death nearly too strong to resist -and he still hears her voice -

"Big brother!"

He wouldn't be able to reach her even if he could move; she's gone and he knows that now. It's funny considering the fact that she's been dead for years already. He'd laugh at himself if he didn't feel like he was dying.

God dammit! Why does this keep happening to me?

You'd think he'd have some sort of immunity by now to all the shit that the Spirit puts him through, and yet…

"Bakura?"

He looks up and feels all of his pain, every ache that he tried to keep down, resurface like a beach ball underwater. She's not supposed to be here.

"S-Serenity?" he grunts, his body convulsing abruptly, a scream ripping from his throat.

"Bakura!" she exclaims, rushing to his side and kneeling down beside him, scratching her bare knees on the rough ground. She pushes his sweat-soaked bangs out of his eyes, revealing the red, swollen skin underneath. "What's happening to you?"

"You…" he mumbles weakly. "You shouldn't be here." There aren't many ways to get into the Solitude. It's a part of the Inbetween, but a part that is well-guarded and inaccessible; it makes him miserable to think that he's been here enough times to become somewhat of an expert -at least, enough of an expert to know that if she were to try and come here, then one of the seven gatekeepers definitely would have stopped her… right?

"Wh-What is this place, Bakura?" she asks him, her voice rising several octaves higher than her natural tone. She pulls his head onto her lap and he can't deny that the cold that was meant to torture him almost feels good against his face. He'd been meaning to remove his bangs for a while, but not being able to move put a bit of a damper on that plan.

"H-Hell… It's … hell…" he replies to the best of his ability. "You need to leave." There. That seems… coherent enough, and just threatening enough to get her to leave before she got hurt. When she shows no signs of budging, he mutters, "How did you even get in here?"

She hesitates and holds his body closer, like her touch alone could heal him, and he won't tell Joey that, in that very moment, he almost thought it could. "I… don't know. You've been unconscious for so long… I thought… I thought I could find you here. So I went to sleep… and I thought about you… and how you must have been suffering all alone… and I…woke up here."

He knows what she's going to say next, but he's too weak to stop her or even try to talk sense into her. "Come with me! We'll leave together! Just like before!" Something about being so close to death makes everything funny… He wants to laugh again. Of course, he's not really going to die… at least… he doesn't think so. However, he knows this pain… it's a familiar suffering.

"Serenity… I… I can't," he replies.

"Then I'll… I'll help you… I'll carry you…" she offers, sounding more and more unsure of herself with each word that came dripping out of her mouth like sweet honey. When you're this hungry, honey isn't all that appetizing, though… "Can you stand?" Her voice is shaking and her shoulders begin to shiver. She shuffles around in place, trying to figure out how to get Bakura back on his feet, but it's futile…

… she's here.

Bakura tries to keep his eyes from closing, his vision from blurring. "Serenity, leave now!" he commands raspily -his most complete sentence yet.

"N-Not without y-you!" she stammers. Her face is turning pale. She needs to leave now.

"Please!" he pleads through a scratchy throat and cracked lips.

It doesn't take more than the flick of a wrist to lift Serenity into the air by the back of her shirt, pulling her legs right from under Ryou's head and sending him slamming back into the ground. He grunts and some sadistic voice in the back of his mind chuckles bitterly and whispers, "I told you so…"

Towering behind Serenity is the Warden of the Solitude -after all, every prison needs someone to stop the prisoners from escaping. The Warden stands at two and a half meters with a long waterfall of hair so drenched in the sticky substance of darkness that whatever the true color was, it's impossible to tell now. He remembers the Warden being called the "Widow of the Wastes" by a spirit he once came across. She certainly looks the part, her filthy hair and inky dress dancing about her like spider's legs, her limbs like ashen twigs of a long dead tree.

The Warden's face is unreadable with her lips set in a straight, thin line, and her eyes only half open; it's almost as though she does her job half asleep. Serenity can't be heavier than a leaf to the Warden, and he watches the girl's hands blindly reach for him, her legs kicking the air frantically, trying to escape. Her grunting is the only noise in the vast wasteland, and the Warden is the silent killer, fading in and out of the fog like a phantom -and perhaps she is a phantom, doomed to spend eternity in servitude.

"Wander not in the Eye of the Moon, in the footsteps of the Wicked. Fall not where their gaze lingers. Wish not for the mercy of the Solitude or solitude will find you kneeling at its altar."

"Wh-What is it saying?" Serenity breathes anxiously, trying to reach back and free herself from the Warden's grasp, but clutching at something slimy and slippery instead.

"Thus the Wicked bow to their Maker and find themselves free of sin. Thus their suffering is ended. Thus I am reborn. Thus the Maker rises…"

The Warden's voice is raspy and thick unlike anything Ryou has heard before, and her eyes seem to intensify with each word she says. The only thing Ryou knows for sure is that Serenity is making the Warden angry. "S-Serenity!" he tries to speak as loudly as he can. "Don't… fight… her." He hopes to death that Serenity has heard him, but his hopes are dashed and the Warden meets his gaze with eyes as black as her hair… No, perhaps eyes wouldn't be the right term… They are yawning holes in her face, each one emitting a black substance almost like smoke -in fact, it's coming from every crevice on her body like sweat.

He sees Serenity continue to kick, but something is different about her; she's glowing now and he prays with all the strength he has left that the Warden isn't doing anything to her. All he is at the moment is a spectator, his limbs too unresponsive to even grant him the luxury of turning his head to look at Serenity's face as she struggles. And the Warden speaks on, unaware of the heat emanating from Serenity's body, in defiance to the chill that lingered about the Warden's skin like an aura.

"The Wicked that once roamed the realms must fall, and thence the Maker, for He who cannot face the Eye of the Moon is doomed to fade into oblivion. His name -the whisper of the Solitude -forgotten on the lips of those He once damned."

"Let. Me. Go!" Serenity cries out, her heat expanding enough to give the Warden pause. "Let me go!"

The Warden's eyes narrow and for all the words she has spoken, her lips open for the first time, a chasm as vast as the void, and what come out are not words, but a banshee's screech. Ryou wishes he could cover his ears and close his eyes, but he can only do one, and it wouldn't do to shut his eyes when he can hear the horrors just above him.

The scream is followed by a yelp on Serenity's part as she finds herself getting her wish. The Warden flings her over Bakura's body and into one of the barren trees almost five meters away. Pain surges through her body as she sinks to the ground and finally gets a good look at the creature who held her captive. The Warden's mouth is still open and one solitary creature crawls out of the large hole, making its way up her face. This insect is followed by another and and another, until her face is so inhuman that to mistake it as such would be a crime against humanity.

Serenity knows she can't just sit there and watch whatever's happening, and Ryou wishes he could look away. It is then that the normally calm and still Warden begins to vibrate, her entire image becoming distorted, moving with the grey mist that blanketed the ground. It is unclear due to the sheer mass of insects crawling up and down her face, in and out of her mouth, but they can vaguely see her lips open wider and, out of them, a thick buzzing arm shoots out, coming directly towards Serenity's shivering and aching body.

Locusts! Ryou's mind immediately identifies the giant, menacing rod. It's comprised of millions, perhaps even billions, of locusts and they're all flying out of the Warden's mouth and towards Serenity's frail form. He doesn't want to look. He can't.

Serenity can sense the danger, widening her eyes as the swarm corners her against the tree and begins to cover her entire body from head to toe. He can't even see her anymore and the swarm just grows and grows, emerging almost endlessly from the Warden's body. "Serenity…" he moans, feeling a painful lump form in his throat. Why didn't she just leave? Why did she have to stay for him?

"And thence the Maker. And thence the Maker. AND THen CE T HE m AKER. thE n CEthe MAKE R. thE DAR KnEss SHALL BE TORN topi ECe S by thE ligHtand the SUN w ill FinD HI SLI GH T in THE pITS OF SOLITUDE. ONLY LIGHT. ONLY LIGHT. ONLY LIGHT. ONLYLIGHT. ONLY L I GHT. only L IGHT"

She sounds like a broken record and Ryou can barely register what she's saying, his mind rejecting anything that doesn't sound like "Serenity."

"Serenity!" he groans, trying to raise his voice over the Warden's. "Serenity!" He can't feel his throat anymore, but he keeps trying, hoping that something in his voice would defy reason and logic and bring Serenity out of the swarm of locusts unharmed. The small voice in his mind chuckles at him grimly. I told you so. I told you so.

Sarenen looks out through the opening of his cave at the sky. It never changes, always staying that same monotonous and far off grey. He's seen it change very few times in the years that he's been dead -and three millennia is nothing to sneeze at. It always means one thing, however: Someone's messing with the Warden. He smirks, watching storm clouds whirl overhead and feeling the stale wind begin to stir around him.

"Would you look at that?" he murmurs, over the sound of the blowing winds. "Two visitors and rainstorm. How exciting," he deadpans.

Ken looks startled to say the least, his eyes fixated on the clouds that look almost too black. He and the Guardians have the Warden's blessing to come and go as they please, so they have never encountered much difficulty with the Warden other than a few disconcerting glances at her from afar. She does her job silently and efficiently, but today is different. "What's happening?" he asks Sarenen.

Sarenen takes off his overshirt and drapes it over the sleeping child on his lap, shielding her from the violent winds. "Someone made the Warden mad. Weird… she's usually pretty laid back for someone who looks like she literally crawled out of hell."

"Sh-Should I go -" Ken stammers, trying to figure out just what he wants to do about this situation. Someone is clearly in trouble, but he's not meant to meddle in such affairs.

With a shrug, Sarenen replies. "Up to you, but nobody's faced her and lived. And you seem like a perfectly nice guy with a long life ahead of you." He lets out a hearty laugh and then furrows his brow. "In all likelihood, whoever she's mad at is someone completely innocent. So whoever it is, they'd better pray they've got a guardian angel because there's no way they're going to make it out alive."

Ugh, I hate locusts. I had to google them for accuracy and I got all these pictures of like 6 inch big locusts... and not many people know this but like I am deathly afraid of insects. And this isn't your average "omg ew insects" shit, like I genuinely feel panic and terror when I see them, even through a computer screen. But I also hate myself :) so I googled them anyway. The things I do for you guys. I'm going to have nightmares. (says the person who brutally mutilated and killed Arkana just a few chapters ago)

Anyway... I hope you like the name I picked out for ol' Thiefy. I didn't want to go with "Akefia" like everyone else, because I always hated the name "Akefia"? Like how did that even become fanon?

AND NOXIIIIIIEE. My precious baby. I've literally been waiting a year to introduce you to Noxie. She has existed for so long and she is just perfect. (Thiefy being good with kids is canon no matter what you tell me)

Also don't forget to check out the blog if you haven't. Send me asks. Annoy the shit out of me.

By the way, did you know that not many chapters are left of this? It's sad, but true. There's definitely going to be a sequel (or two?), but it's not going to be as unorganized and underplanned as this. [wipes tears] I'm going to miss the good ol' days of not knowing what's going on while I'm writing.