Author Warning: This chapter covers events of the 'Day of Betrayals' from Ba-Khu-Ra's point of view and as such, this chapter could be emotionally hard to read. It certainly made both my betas cry. Both of them still liked it though, so here's hoping that you all do too.
Ba-Khu-Ra grimaced as she glanced at her hand and watched the desert sands swirl through it.
If she lost Amane, she would have no form. It would be gone, and she'd be trapped in the Ring without a way to react to anything in the living world.
Her eyes narrowed as she realised that Hanaq wasn't having the same problem. Somehow, despite not being a soul, Ishizu's incineration wasn't hollowing her out.
Which meant, somehow, she had taken control of the soul from her other personality.
The blazing A in the air meant the duel would only last two more turns. When the word 'DEATH' hovered in the air, Ishizu would die, but now Ba-Khu-Ra wasn't sure that Hanaq would go with her.
She had thought she could end this. But now she couldn't be certain…
"How are you whole?" Ba-Khu-Ra's harsh snarl scrubbed the sneer from Hanaq's face. "You should be just as fucked without your host as I am."
"The life energy is mine, the body is mine." Hanaq snapped back, "I don't need her."
"You're not a spirit, you're not a lost soul, you're not a real person, just a bad day incarnate. You shouldn't have any control over that vessel." The Thief Queen drew, "So how do you have enough control over the pieces of Ishizu's soul, that you're still solid?"
With that, she set a card in defence mode, silently cursing that she couldn't get her Ectoplasmer setup completed.
"The Shadows taught me a trick that apparently they never taught you, Thief." Hanaq snapped back, pleased to see how weak Ba-Khu-Ra was becoming and maliciously anticipating having her on her knees, begging for her life. "Seems I'm too valuable to let go."
"I thought I was too." The Thief Queen bit back, "But Zorc, Cronus, Anataura, Abaddon, whatever name it's given you? It will abandon you the moment you're not useful anymore. It won't keep its promises, it won't protect you or anything you care about. If it's in the way, it will just wipe it out. So, look forward to that. Because if my time as its puppet is done, then I welcome no longer losing everything I care about. Your losses are just starting."
"You are a common born, blasphemous, low life, murdering, treacherous piece of garbage that should've been erased with the rest of your village." Hanaq's snarl suggested Ba-Khu-Ra had gotten to her, "And I'm going to wipe you, your vessel and every last trace of you off the face of this planet. There'll be no afterlife for you!"
"I wasn't going to get one anyway, but I won't let you strip one from my host." Ba-Khu-Ra promised, wishing she had something available that could take down the Supernaturalist, but knowing that the best she could do was keep herself and her sister safe. "You won't get through my defences in time."
"You are nothing. Nothing! And your defences are as worthless as you are! I summon the Gravekeeper's Assailant!"
The figure that stepped out of Hanaq's shadow was robed from head to toe in black. It was most definitely human, but the eyes glowing from underneath the cowl were its only defining features.
Relief flickered through Ba-Khu-Ra when the system revealed it only had 1500 attack points. If it attacked first, Hanaq would have to attack with both monsters to get rid of her defence card, keeping her life points safe and giving them just one more turn to survive before their lives and their friends were safe.
"Your assassin doesn't scare me. What's it gunna do? Poke me with a dagger? I have more than enough life points to handle it."
"You can handle her, but your life points won't survive her trick. Attack the defence monster!"
The assailant lunged forward and the defence card flipped up. A semi-wrapped blue skinned, decayed monstrous mummy, whose wrappings were soaked in poison and blood, emerged from the sands. It swatted the attacking monster back with one huge hand that dripped with sickly goo, deducting 300 life points from Hanaq.
As the cruel, uncaring Egyptian sands soaked up the blood flowing from her side, Ba-Khu-Ra tried to force herself to her feet.
She needed to move.
She needed to get somewhere safe.
Except the palace was no longer safe.
And she'd never make it to the forge.
She hadn't tried to assassinate the Pharaoh.
She hadn't…
'But what if she doesn't need you anymore?'
As she collapsed back to the dusty floor, her broken right arm unable to take her weight and her head so light she felt like she was floating above her own body, she didn't have the strength to tell the voices to shut up, like she'd done for years upon years now.
'Akhenaden's execution is days away. She doesn't need you. Did you really think she'd keep you around once her reign was secure? That she would keep her word and risk her country for a thief like you? That she really loved you?'
The thief didn't want to listen. She wanted to believe they were wrong, but she couldn't. There'd always been a concern that if the Pharaoh kept her word and freed the people of Kul Elna from the Shadows and sent them to the afterlife, the Millennium Items would be weakened.
And Egypt's protections could fail.
'It would be simple to blame you for an assassination attempt and get you killed as a traitor. She's the Pharaoh, after all. Who would question her? You let yourself be played. She used you as a weapon, just like her family used your people for their items. And you fell for it.'
The darkness was encroaching on the edge of her vision and her body was going numb.
She was dying…
She didn't want to die.
She wanted to get her family out of the hell of Duat and into the afterlife.
The Pharaoh had promised.
Promised that she would help her with that…
But her men, her right hand man, had tried to kill her. In the Pharaoh's name...
'I can save you.'
A new voice. A male voice. One that was heavy with power…
'Make a deal with me.' The voice continued, 'Bind your soul to mine and I can save you and help you kill the one who betrayed you and the people of Kul Elna…'
"Wh... what do… you want… from me?" The thief gasped out, too tired and in too much agony to think about the possibility that this was a trap.
'Nothing much. I just need you to help me recover the power that was stolen from me when the Items were created. Swear to help me regain it and I'll save you and help you kill the Pharaoh that betrayed you…'
"And… if I…" She trailed off, her head spinning so badly that she closed her eyes, terror sinking in as she realised she didn't have the strength to open them again.
'Then you die here, unburied, unmourned. Your son never gets to know what happened to his mother. Your people, your family, never get the afterlife they deserve and the bitch on her throne gets to get away with everything…'
Ba-Khu-Ra tried to ask another question, but she couldn't. Her body just wouldn't respond.
She was out of time.
'All you have to do is think yes. I can still save you. Let me help you.'
She didn't want to die.
'Help me. Please.'
"I don't care that you were betrayed." Hanaq hissed out as the agony her worthless host was screaming out shivered through her nerves and made the world spin. "You were a thief, a blasphemer, a Tomb Robber. You didn't deserve to live then; you don't deserve it now!"
"You'll care when my Poison Mummy's effect kicks in, ripping another 500 life points from you!"
"What?!"
As Hanaq took a step back, the mummy let out a dry, vindictive chuckle and reached forward. From its clawed fingers flew a stream of red tinged fluid that slammed into Hanaq's chest, soaking her and making her waver on her feet as the life points drained away.
And she stepped into Kali's forge to find it in chaos.
The fires were still lit, heat still shimmered up from the metals that'd been left heating, but the work benches had been overturned, tools had been strewn everywhere and the broken and twisted remnants of the stunning wesekh collar that Kali had been working on for weeks, lay scatted across the floor.
Her eyes narrowed as she cast her gaze around, her heart beating faster, pumping blood through a body that still ached from the still healing wounds dealt by the guards and Mahad, anger pulsing through her when she followed a trail of blood, to find the body of a palace guard.
The Pharaoh hadn't just sent men to the guild hall. Her family had been attacked. Her friend's work was discarded and destroyed, and her son…
Her blood ran as cold as ice and her heart stuttered for a moment when her eyes fell upon a reed-stuffed doll in the shape of a hare that lay at the foot of the anvil.
A reed stuffed hare that was soaked in blood.
Her three-year-old son's reed stuffed hare.
Her hands trembled as she scooped it up and she clutched it to her chest. Her new position allowed her to see the blood on the anvil, and the marks in the sand told her that her boy, her precious Amt, had slipped or been pushed over and slammed into the heavy, metal anvil, possibly banging his head.
Her son had been hurt. Possibly killed.
With no bodies, except for that of the guard, she couldn't be certain of the truth of which it was, but the mess around her told her enough.
She'd been careful not to be seen around Kali, once he'd gone straight. She'd come and gone under the cover of night. If she wanted to be with her child, she'd covered her hair and kept herself indoors, where she couldn't bring trouble upon him.
The only people who knew Amt was hers was Kali and the Pharaoh, who'd promised that she would get Amt a good education and a stable job, one that could even have him working with the Pharaoh's own children in the future.
But clearly, she'd lied.
The Pharaoh hadn't just wanted to get rid of her, but she'd been so desperate to bury the truth of Kul Elna, that she'd endangered one of the best blacksmiths in Egypt in order to kill off the only other member of the Kul Elnan bloodlines.
An innocent child.
And Ba-Khu-Ra wasn't going to let her get away with it.
'You know, the Ring can locate anything you want.' Her new, demonic, ally reminded her. 'Including your boy.'
'How?!'
'Hold it up and say, 'find my son.''
Ba-Khu-Ra didn't hesitate to follow directions, only for the points to lead her outside, past the now empty stable where Kali's ugly but sturdy donkey was missing too and continued to point away from the palace.
Meaning that, most likely, Kali had taken her injured son and fled the capital, possibly heading to their safe house in Thebes.
And there was nothing left in Memphis to stop her from destroying everyone and everything in it.
Once she'd ensured her son still lived.
Hanaq trembled with the fury of a mother whose child had been injured, easily able to sympathise with the Thief Queen on this, when her own brothers had been hurt by the machinations of others. Even as her own sister screamed from her own plotting, she knew she would've done no differently than Ba-Khu-Ra, had she been in her place.
After all, what was poisoning Yugi's soul but getting revenge on the Pharaoh for the actions of her loyal cult?
Still, the Thief had made her choice and this duel needed to end, one way or the other.
And her turn wasn't over.
Ba-Khu-Ra's eyes widened in horror as her defence monster shifted further, rising from the sands to bellow at Hanaq's monsters.
"I figured, after your last monster, that you'd go for another high defence, low attack beast. "
Ishizu's wrath smirked, hiding the pain brought on by the visions she'd brought herself. She'd never envisioned that the Thief could have had a good reason for doing what she had done. Nor that she would feel bad about what she was doing.
But she couldn't let it stop her.
"My Assailant has the ability to switch the position of a monster it attacks, which means your life points are toast. Supernaturalist!"
The Supernaturalist unleashed another wave of lightning. It slammed into the golem which barely made a sound as it shattered, then consumed the Thief Queen, whose world faded into a darkness she knew all too well as her head slammed into the wall.
A darkness filled with pain and fear and the whispers of those who had been lost across the millennia.
Her veins filled with ice and her nerves shredded, causing her to writhe and scream as her limbs slowly grew colder and unresponsive. Her blood shifting to ice crystals, slowing her thoughts and movements as the end crept ever closer.
'Ba-Khu-Ra!' Amane's scream through the bond brought her back to a reality filled with so much pain she nearly slipped back under. Her form didn't want to answer her as she used the wall to drag herself to her feet. The flames had reached Amane's shoulders and Ba-Khu-Ra could barely hold herself up as her life points dropped to 650.
But she refused to fall. Not here. Not to this bitch. Not when her sister, her innocent sister, would fall with her.
And the T that hovered above her Destiny Board told her she only had to hold on for one more turn.
Just one.
'I… believe in you…' Amane's weak whisper across their bond made the Thief Queen shiver. She could feel her sister fading and wrapped as much of her energy as she could spare around her.
Her amber eyes met Amane's lightless brown ones. 'I won't let you go. I won't.'
'Just win…'
"I draw…" Ba-Khu-Ra gasped out, turning back to Hanaq. Relief slammed into her when she saw what it was. "And I activate the Dark Door!"
A huge doorway rose between her and Hanaq, one that was only one person wide, within a wall that blocked the rest of the field.
"Now only one monster can attack per turn." Ba-Khu-Ra slammed a card into defence mode, "You can't get to my life points. I win."
Hanaq gritted her teeth. Ba-Khu-Ra wasn't wrong. If she couldn't burn through that defence monster in one attack, it was all over. The Pharaoh would get away with being weak and the Thief Queen would take HER God card and HER Millennium Item and survive to torment Hanaq's brothers.
She had to end this here and now.
She HAD to.
And her draw, which sent flames shivering down her nerves and through her soul, allowed her to do it.
"I activate Rite of Spirit!"
The face down card she had played on turn one flipped up, revealing a trio of priests praying to a serpentine figure who shattered, allowing the Commandant to step back onto the field.
"And I tribute all three of my monsters, for an old friend of yours."
"Shit…" Ba-Khu-Ra took a step back as the trio swirled up into the sky, where a ball of golden light formed. She knew what was coming and it was going to suck, no matter how safe her life points were.
"Great Beast of the Sky, please heed my cry."
Hanaq's voice echoed as she chanted in the original hieratic, sending shivers down the spines of Ba-Khu-Ra, the barely coherent Amane, the reporter from Digital Duelist and everyone watching the livestream.
"Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight."
The Thief Queen felt her heart stall and her body shake as she beheld the golden phoenix of the Pharaoh. The last time she'd faced it had been on that last day, all those years ago, in Egypt.
And this time all she had protecting her was one flimsy card.
"Envelop the deserts in your glow and cast your rage upon my foe. Unlock your power from deep within so that together we may win."
Hanaq revelled in the fear she could sense from the thief, the pain and resignation of the vessel. She was going to win. She was going to do what the Pharaoh couldn't!
"Appear in this Shadow Game as I call your name, Winged Dragon of Ra!"
The armoured, dragonic bird lit the skies of Hekigan so brightly that one would've easily mistaken it for the dawn. Its feet cracked the tiles beneath the sands and the winds unleashed when it roared at its enemy were hot enough to scald.
"You still can't kill me this turn!" Ba-Khu-Ra held her ground.
She hadn't run from the Gods when they'd been wielded by their true bearer. She refused to yield here and now, to a demon-possessed, soulless copycat who cared nothing for the things she'd seen.
Hanaq's cackle just enraged her further.
"Ra will burn you and your precious vessel to ashes." Hanaq shook her head. Her hair flying wildly in the thermals kicked up by Ra's heat, "I pay 1000 life points to burn the field!"
As Ra transformed, going from a golden armoured creature to a bird of living fire, Hanaq found herself opposite the Pharaoh as she would have looked in Egypt.
"Please, Ba-Khu-Ra, you need to listen to me." The Pharaoh's pleading was worthless, like the promises she had failed to keep, "I swear on my father's grave, I never sent…"
A baby's cry cut the Pharaoh off and alerted her to the location of the child. The Pharaoh tried to dart in the way, but she was faster and knocked the ruler to the ground before lifting the fabric from a bundle, revealing a cradle.
A cradle, where a baby with the Pharaoh's eyes lay.
The child, the newborn Crown Prince from what the commoners had been cheering, gurgled at her as she reached for her sword.
Her hand wrapped around the hilt.
And she hesitated.
She'd sworn to wipe out the Pharaoh's lineage, but that'd been before she had found out her ex was pregnant. Now erasing her line meant wiping out an innocent child too…
The darkness within her shifted and her grip tightened.
But then, why should the Pharaoh expect mercy for her son, when Amt had nearly died?
Movement caught her eye and caused her to glance in the reflective surface opposite.
Where she saw the Pharaoh drawing her own sword.
She didn't have time to do more than turn and draw her own blade before she needed it to defend against the gold and bronze Damascus blade that Kali had forged for the Pharaoh when they'd thought justice was going to be served.
The hardened bronze of her dagger chipped the soft gold in the Pharaoh's blade as the Thief Queen pressed the Pharaoh back.
If she'd been in any doubt that she'd been betrayed, that the Pharaoh was responsible for everything, this last action was proof enough.
And the Pharaoh was going to die for it…
As Hanaq's life point hit 1150 and Ra's flames devoured everything on Ba-Khu-Ra's side of the field, the Thief Queen knew Azra had lied. Lied to protect the Pharaoh.
It was all over.
She had nothing that could stop the God Monster from its fatal rampage. The 5900 attack points that'd been built up would destroy her life points and kill her sister.
Unless…
"This duel is over! Ra! Destroy the Thief and protect this world with me!"
As Hanaq's screech echoed through the arena, Ra unleashed a wave of flames that consumed the field, turning the sands beneath their feet to glass and enveloping those opposite.
She couldn't just pull Amane free without consequences, but as Ba-Khu-Ra's life points tumbled she reached out with every last drop of power she had, dove between the weavings of the Shadows, ignoring the flickering images of lying to Marik and Rishid, and forced a switch with her sister, making herself the tribute instead.
Because if this was the end? If this was where she fell for good? It would not be dooming her last family member, the last of her blood, the last of the blood of Kul Elna, to eradication.
It would not be failing another sister. It would not be watching Amane burn to ash, like she had to watch Esi, her ancient sister, burn back in Egypt.
At least this way, Amane had a chance.
Unleashed by her actions, the Shadows of those she'd consigned to the darkness tore into her, ripping her apart, piece by piece. Without the demon's protection keeping them at bay, their violence allowed the flames into every crevice of her soul.
As her life points hit 0 and her soul burned away, the thief didn't hear Honda's furious, desperate, cry. Nor could she hold on to herself long enough to reply.
But she could feel the warmth of her mother's hug, followed by the drag of the dark Queen's magic, as the Nameless Pharaoh reached across the bonds forged when Ba-Khu-Ra had sealed a piece of herself within the Millennium Puzzle and triggered by the souls of those she had fought so hard for, for so long.
Agonized terror flooded back as Ba-Khu-Ra clung with every ounce of strength she had left, desperate in these last moments, not to be burned to ash.
Stronger for the help Ba-Khu-Ra had provided across Battle City, the Nameless Pharaoh was able to pull on that link, to save what was left of her friend from being consumed and yank what little of the Thief Queen remained, into the Puzzle with her and away from the all-consuming flames.
Where, strength completely spent and unable to do anything except trust the one she would once have died for, she tumbled into ashen fragments in the Pharaoh's arms.
Author Note: There's a Side B to go with this chapter, The Pawn. Also I'm not able to see any stats right now on my chapters, so I'm not sure what you all think of this series, but I'm trying to keep it up here for those of you who have followed me this long. I'm also crossposting it on Archive of Our Own where there's images to go with some chapters. Wish I could do that here for you guys.
