"Well for some reason, never made clear to me Master Atemu's parents divorced soon after Master Atemu was born."

"Wow, any ideas, why?"

"Well Mistress Jennifer was often alone. Her husband was captain and head of the royal army. At that time, we were not really at war, just at odds, with the neighboring country of Elam Trabia. Sometimes he'd be gone weeks sometimes months at a time! Perhaps that's why the love affair. There must have been something different about her. I mean the late king used to do just about every woman he met. But he stayed with Miss Jennifer a lot longer than most people would think. It was an even-greater surprise when he insisted that they move into the castle less than a year after she had her child. Some think that since Mistress Queen Anzu couldn't it seemed conceive a child perhaps he was planning to ask the church for a divorce that personally I never believed he would, but then it happened. One year after that the queen had Master Seto. Due to complications, I didn't think it would be possible for her to have another child. Then when she became pregnant with young Mokuba, 12 years later, and after a dozen miscarriages. I told her perhaps we should try some techniques that would make her have another miscarriage. But she was adamant, refusing to do anything that might make her lose that child. She didn't care about the consequences, only the child she was carrying."

"Really, I never heard that. Did you know she'd die if she had Master Mokuba?"

"Did I know for sure, no. But I did have a deep fear of it. I told this to Mistress Queen Anzu and all but begged and pleaded with her not to go through with the pregnancy. But she told me that she wasn't going to deny this child the right to live. She said if giving her life for the kid was what it took to give him a chance to live then so be it."

"Why though knowing she could die?"

"I can't say Yugi perhaps a mothers love."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Seto was not having an easy time trying to get all the nitpicky issues out of the way. It was taking all of Seto's will power not to throttle him. It seemed the king thrived on the unimportant details. His current concern if a tree from their land lands on Seto's who takes care of it. Like Seto cared, his opinion whoever gets to it first takes care of it. He didn't see how this made any difference in keeping the peace.

Yami walked by and saw how badly things were going with this king and that Seto would be preoccupied for a while, so he felt he should go see about Mokuba and see if he's up for the traveling they planned to do soon. Just as he got close, he heard.

"Mokuba, listen to me, I-I need you to be brave and strong for me. I need you to know I love you…"

Before he could finish, Mokuba shook his head and yelled "NO!"

Yami walked into the doorway as Ryo said, "Mokuba, calm down and listen to me."

Mokuba shook his head. "No, No, Nosaka s-said the same t-thing."

"Mokuba…"

Mokuba was crying. "No, Nosaka t-told me to be b-brave before the m-man tied me up and h-hurt her."

"Mokuba." Yami called.

Mokuba turned around and seeing Yami ran and jumped into his arms. Yami held the crying child close.

"D-don't let Ryo die, big brother, p-please."

"Shh…it's okay. I'm sure the doctors are doing the best he can. Is there a problem Ryo? The doctor indicated that it was too soon to tell the extent of your injuries."

"Bakura was in earlier just outside the door demanding to know what the doctor thinks is wrong. He thinks it's possible the sword might have clipped my stomach. He said he couldn't be certain but would no more later."

Yami pulled the crying child into the room, sat down in a chair and pulled him into his lap. "Seto told me he mentioned the name Nosaka to Mokuba the other day. He said Mokuba broke down crying. We have to go to that town and we need to know if we can take Mokuba with us. I think we should know what exactly happened. We can't help him otherwise."

"You're right, you have the right to know. I guess I should start at the beginning. It all started…"

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

As Joey was riding into town, he spotted Shizuka in a park. He got off and approached her.

"Shizuka?"

Shizuka turned around. "Oh, um Joey isn't it?"

"Yeah I'm surprised, not many people know my name. Mostly I'm known as the king's pet dog."

Shizuka giggled. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Um yeah, you probably haven't heard but there was a fight in the castle a couple of nights ago."

"What does that have to do with me?" Shizuka asked.

"Ryo, he-he came back to the castle and this man tried to kill him and Mokuba. He fought him off."

"Oh, my god; is… is he all right? Is he okay?"

"From what I've heard, he's not doing too hot."

"Can you take me to him, please? I want to see him."

"Sure I can do that."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Seto had finally satisfied the king enough to get him off his back, but he still insisted that they talk through a few other issues. Seto suggested a break, what he didn't say was he was going to kill him if they didn't.

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

As King Kujaku walked around the gardens outside, he was soon confronted by Ishizu.

"Hello father."

"What?"

"I-Ishizu?"

"I'm impressed I didn't think you still knew my name."

"How could I forget?"

"I don't know maybe when you turned your back on us."

"Ishizu, I…"

"Save it father. I'll take this to mean you haven't heard."

"Heard what?"

"That Marik is dead and Malik isn't doing well. He's in the infirmary down below wounded."

"I see I suppose we should return home together with your brothers. We'll take Malik home and get him treated."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Shizuka got off of Joey's horse. "Thank you Joey, I appreciate your help."

"It was nothin' I'm happy to help."

Just as Shizuka left, Serenity came up behind him.

"Hi Joey."

"What? Oh hey sis. So how are your treatments with Yugi going?"

"Slowly but I can see a lot better than I have in years."

"That's great!"

"I know Yugi keeps apologizing for how long it's taking to complete. He says since he's new at healing he's using more healing items and spells to help. Everyday something different happens. At first, it was colors that used to blend together like blue and black are now two different colors again. Oh, I can't wait to tell you all the things he's done. I mean it may be a slow progress and sometimes the only thing different is I can see a cloud or rock I couldn't before. But it's improvement."

"That's really great sis. I still have some time off, let's go celebrate."

"I'm with you."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Shizuka ran downstairs just as Ryo finished telling Yami everything.

"I see so perhaps it'd be the best thing not to take Mokuba back there." Yami said.

"I can't say, but it might be better for him to face it with you and Seto there to help him."

Just then Shizuka burst in and ran over to him grabbing his hand.

"Oh Ryo, I just heard I was so worried when I heard."

"S-Shizuka?" Ryo asked, not sure he was really seeing her.

"Come on Mokuba, say goodbye to Ryo, we have to get going."

"Okay big b-brother." Mokuba said walking over to Ryo. "G-get well soon big brother." Then he kissed his cheek.

"Thank you Mokuba."

Mokuba smiled then turned and grabbed Yami's hand and left. "D-do you really think Ryo w-will be okay b-big brother?"

"I hope so, Mokuba. I hope so."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Later Yami saw the king leaving with Malik and went to talk to Seto.

"Seto, why are you allowing Malik to leave?"

"That king it seems is his father. He said he'd take care of him. I don't like it but if it will get that king off of my back and out of my hair I'm willing to do just about anything short of killing him to get rid of him."

Yami laughed. "Well we need to talk, I found out more about what Ryo knows happened to Mokuba."