DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YUGIOH. YUGIOH BELONGS TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws. Don’t steal and don’t sue.

Chapter 6

“I-I thought…”

“You thought that because we slept together, it meant that I loved you? Foolish girl.” Mahaado laughed.

“Who are you? Why are you working for him?”

Yami almost laughed out loud at this. His Court did not feel as restrained as the monsters hooted with laughter. Mahaado smirked as he held his hands in front of his chest and willed the Sennen Ring to appear.

Anzu stepped back from him. “B-Bakura…”

“Not quite…” Mahaado purred. He turned to Yami. Yami nodded. With a smirk, he let his disguise melt away, for it was but illusion…

Illusions were his power, after all…

She sucked in a horrified breath as she stared at him. The Ring clashed horribly with his black armor, but she got the hint.

“B-Black Magician…!”

“Precisely.” Mahaado pointed his staff at her squarely, and before he blasted her, smiled.

“You know, you’re a horrible lay. No wonder my Pharaoh had no interest in you.”

Her furious blush of anger and shame ended in a negative hued scream of despair. He snapped his staff back into position as he knelt before his Pharaoh.

Yuugi saw, seated as he was at the Pharaoh’s side on a small dais of ornate wood and ivory, but he paid no mind. His eyes were glazed with a mixture of need and want.

Neither was beneficial to humanity’s survival.

For when the light was no longer able to shine truth, it was a dire time indeed.

The gods watched this all with amusement. They knew of the Shadows, and they begrudged their Horus nothing.

After all, Earth would have been worse without his intervention.

So it was really for the better that things were this way.

“Let me kiss you.”

“Of course, my Pharaoh.” He did not bother to ask where Yuugi was. Yami had a lovely cage of gilded silver bars that he kept his new possession in. It was mainly for display purposes, of course.

He was not quite jealous any more.

They did what they had to do after all, even if it violated the sanctity of their bed, and truly… that was all that mattered.

Besides Yami had given him life. His soul lived because he was bound to his precious Pharaoh. How could he begrudge his Pharaoh anything?

It might not be love, no matter what they said, or what the others whispered, but it made them both quite contented…

“You do know that whatever he and I have – it is nothing. It means nothing.”

Mahaado smiled. “I understand, my Pharaoh. Forgive me for what I did with Anzu…”

“Good.”

He did make a lovely pet though, dressed in sheer white linen with electrum wrapped about his wrists and ankles. And the collar, of course, was very nice. Mahaado had not voiced his question of a leash yet, but it would be interesting…

The monsters were free, and he had his Pharaoh.

Wasn’t that all that mattered?

“They’re not human.” The boy whispered. He was surprised that his disguise as the Swordsman of Landstar had worked – he had been a cosplay fan before the invasion, and he had managed to sneak into the Pharaoh’s city. “They – the ones who hold the Items… they’re not human.”

“They look perfectly human.”

“They should be human.” Mai frowned. “I’ve met two or three of them in Battle City. They were human enough.”

“They might have been then, but they certainly aren’t now…”

“Do they look odd?”

“Not precisely.” He shivered. “But monsters give off this aura, you know? Like, it’s a feeling… and it’s bad enough with the monsters but they’re like bonfires…’

“That much power?”

“Yes… and I’m worried. They were talking about a recent execution. We haven’t heard from Anzu’s group in a week… do you think they might have caught her?”

“It’s possible…” Mai sighed.

There was a knock at the door.

The people inside tensed. Taking a look outside, it was a boy with wild black hair and dice earrings.

“Duke! You’re back!”

Duke smiled, but only for a moment. That was when the room was plunged into shadows. Screams sounded.

Mahaado laughed as he felt the shadows tear them apart. Delicious…

They trusted too easily. His illusions were so useful… and he could pretend to be anyone… they would think Duke had betrayed them, though.

And so the seeds of discontentment and civil strife spread like wildfire.

“The Resistance is falling.”

“We have already won, my Pharaoh.”

“Yes, it matters little… and it may give us amusement in the future, watching their struggles.” Yami absentmindedly ran his fingers through Yuugi’s spiky hair. The boy kneeling in front of his throne purred. Mahaado didn’t glare.

What more could one ask for?

That was the way things were. Perhaps someday humanity would rise again, but now was not the time.

The shadows had won.

Ra help us all…

End Fic

Completed 4/25/06

Crappy ending, I know. *Sighs* Bunny died. Sorry! Well, it’s certainly grim! And I love Mahaado because I like loyal characters, especially uber-insanely loyal!