Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.  Who needs to stop screwing with his readers' heads.

The "Two Ladies" refers to Wadjet and Nekhbet, a cobra and a vulture goddess and symbols of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively. Kisara is the name of the BEWD chick, who causes Priest Seto to make interesting faces and do stupid, life-threatening things, and so I like her.

For Chibizoo. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're lying," he says.

A flash of white teeth, sharp against the smile.  "Lying?"

"Hn.  That's all you've ever done."  Folded arms, an impatient glare from regal eyes.

"You misjudge me.  Why should I lie when the truth will hurt you so much more?"

~~~~~

The city was decimated.  Corpses lay in the streets, covered by the timbers and mud bricks of collapsed buildings.  No children stumbled in the debris, crying for their parents; no mothers searched frantically for their families; no lovers cried out for their missing half; no men attempted to clear the wreckage and search for survivors; no animals consumed the dead and the wounded.  Nothing lived.

The Pharaoh sat upon a broken pillar and surveyed his kingdom.

One fist was clenched tightly at his side.

Around him were the bodies of the remaining five priests.  Four were nearby, seeming to form a protective if futile circle, while one was a further distance away.  Two were missing their Items.

~~~~~

It made no sense.

Now that the tumult was over, the battle fought and won--if this could be called winning--the Pharaoh finally had time to gather his thoughts.  But there was only one to be gathered:

It makes no sense.

Seto had been loyal until the very end.  Of this, the Pharaoh was certain.  For all the man's harshness, egotism, and cruelty, he had been loyal.  He had brutally tortured dozens of citizens, but had done it for the sake of the palace.  His drive had been obsessive, his tactics had been lacking any sort of mercy or human sympathy, and his plans had held no quarter for either the palace's enemies or its allies.

But he had been loyal.

Until he was not.

It made no sense.

~~~~~

The cell was the smallest within the palace walls, at the absolute end of the prison complex.  It was also the darkest, but that was of little importance.  More light would not have done the occupant much good.

Akunadin currently had only one eye to see from.

The Pharaoh had ordered his Item to be torn out once the treachery within the priest's heart had been revealed.  When the Pharaoh had called them all to participate in another practice duel, the change in Akunadin's ka was obvious--the Ankh was not even necessary.  He had been placed in the prison that night and ignored by the rest of the palace.  Only the mercy of the Pharaoh's heart had guaranteed that the guards would not conveniently forget his food. 

He had only one visitor, and only one visit.

~~~~~

Akunadin lay upon the hard wooden slab that made his bed, breath shallow.  Beneath the bandages covering the hollow socket of his eye, pus had begun to form and infection to spread.  A fever had taken him over the day before. 

The physician assigned to look at him had privately determined that the damage could be treated, and disease and death averted; but it would take time and medicine he was not willing to waste on a traitor.  And so Akunadin's illness was pronounced incurable, and taken as a sign of retribution from the gods.

However, there was enough pity in the physician's heart that he later sent a messenger to Seto's quarters to inform the priest that, through his fever-ravings, Akunadin had said nothing but his name, pleading to see him if only once.

Seto had desired answers, and so went the cramped and dim cell.

"What was the purpose of this?" he demanded, staring down at the old man.

"I wanted...the throne," Akunadin answered, slowly and with obvious pain in his voice.  The physician had decided that any sort of salve to lessen the burn of the infection would be better used on others.

Seto sneered at that, but before he could speak Akunadin continued:

"For...you."

Seto blinked.  "What?"

"It was only...by the bad timing...of my birth...that it is...not yours."

Seto's eyes narrowed.  "The fever has ruined your mind, Akunadin.  You make no sense.  Why would you want the throne for me?"

The hint of a smile crossed the ex-priest's face.  "I suppose...it is every...father's wish...to give the...world...to his son."

Reality quietly shifted itself as Seto stared down at the frail, dying old man with the crusted and filthy bandage upon his face.

~~~~~

Had he judged wrong?

The Pharaoh sat, and surveyed his kingdom.  One fist was clenched tightly at his side. 

Two Items lay at his feet, and the reclaimed Puzzle hung around his neck.  Seto was the one that had somehow regained it during the time he himself had been delusional and imagining conversations with monster-men in masks.  Seto had been loyal in his absence.

It had taken all three of the gods he could call to take down the White Dragon and split it into four pieces.

Did I judge wrong?

None of the priests had been aware of the tremendous power Seto had found, nor how long he had had it.  All they knew was that it was not his own.  Seto had bonded another's ka to himself.

Someone had been murdered in cold blood to provide Seto with the weapon that had murdered so many more in hot.  Of that the Pharaoh was certain.

What he was not certain of was how long ago it had occurred.

Had he judged wrong?

~~~~~

There was a brief hint of movement across the wasteland of the city.  He remained seated as the figure made its slow way over the rubble to stand before him.

"There you are, Pharaoh.  I've been waiting."

~~~~~

The cell door opened and Kisara looked up from the floor, staring at him with those strange pale eyes.  Seto gestured for the guard to leave, and Kisara bowed her head again.

Once the door was shut and he judged the guard to be a sufficient distance away, Seto spoke.  "There is nothing special about your ka."

Kisara did not reply.

"It is your soul itself that holds the awesome power of the White Dragon," he continued.

Kisara's head tilted slightly lower.  "So Priest Seto has told me," she said quietly.

"Do you wish to be rid of that burden?"

Kisara looked up at him, seeming to pause and choose her words.  "I...I am not even aware it is there," she answered.  "It comes as no more burden than my appearance."

Seto abruptly changed the subject, seeing that his first tactic had not gone as intended.  "Your soul is a source of power unrivaled by any ka that has ever been seen.  I want that power."  Seto looked down at her.  "I'm going to kill you."

Kisara stared up into his eyes of glass.  There was silence within the walls.

Then Kisara closed her eyes and bent her head again, strands of pale hair falling over her shoulders as she did so.  "Priest Seto saved my life.  That makes it yours now."

"Stand up," Seto ordered.  Once she did, he held out his hand.  "It will happen tomorrow, before the Pharaoh's Ra has risen and can spy on me.  You'll have until then," he continued.  "Now come."

Kisara placed her wrist in his hand.

~~~~~

The Pharaoh focused his gaze to see Bakura staring down at him, hands and smile stained as red as the robe he wore. 

The thief had a predilection for necklaces, it seemed; aside from the Ring, he now wore the Tauk and the Ankh as well.

"I'm not surprised that you still live," the Pharaoh said coldly.  "Did even Ammit find your heart too bitter to eat?"

Bakura laughed.  "Of course I'm alive.  Did you think it was over, Pharaoh?  That that mere priest was your true adversary?  Your last battle has not yet come."

The corner of the Pharaoh's mouth twisted up in a humorless smile.  "Very well, Bakura.  Bring me this adversary you speak of, and I shall fight him."

"Proud words," Bakura said, eyes narrow.  "But where does your pride come from?  Your allies?"  Bakura idly kicked Shada's body in the head.  "Your kingdom?"  Bakura stretched out his arms, a wide, vicious grin on his face.  "Where are the palace and the temple, Pharaoh?  Where are your gods now?  Where is that power backed by the slaughtered village?"

The Pharaoh stood, one hand clenched into a fist at his side.  "Enough."

"Oh, no, Pharaoh, it is not enough," Bakura answered.  "But it will be when you're dead.  This is the last battle."  He jingled the Items around his neck, then gestured a hand at the Rod and the Scales lying near the Pharaoh's feet.  "So let's begin already."

The Pharaoh gave him a cold look.  "You feel this is a place for a darkness game?"

Bakura smiled sharply, showing a flash of red-stained teeth.  "Precisely, Pharaoh.  The Items were born in blood and death--I'll bet they feel more at home here and now than they ever did in your palace."

The Pharaoh eyed at him for another moment, before a smirk crept onto his face.  "Very well."

The Pharaoh reached to his belt and removed a small dagger that he had placed there earlier.  Calmly, he lifted it up and drove it into his left eye.

He dropped the dagger to the ground, and, while Bakura was still staring at him in shock, the Pharaoh unclenched his fist and raised the Millennium Eye, forcing it into the oozing socket.

~~~~~

Blindness.  Excruciating pain.

And the scales tipped in his favor. 

The Pharaoh's pride lay in his inability to lose.  His pride had always lain there.

Costs and consequences were only secondary to the winning.

The Pharaoh forced his eye open, and reached down to pick up the Scales and the Rod.  Armed, he stared at Bakura as red and white dripped down his face. 

"Then it's time to duel."

~~~~~

"You lie," he hisses.

"No."  Sudden seriousness, the change of tone so drastic it startles.  "I don't."

"And why should I believe you?"

The tone returning to normal, sarcasm and dark amusement coloring it.  "Because I am going to tell you something."

"Oh, really."  Carefully calculated boredom to cover the unease.

"You're constantly searching for your name--but you've forgotten that you had many.  Your throne name, your golden Horus name, your name of the Two Ladies."  A flash of white teeth again.  "But I am going to tell you what you really want to know.

"I am going to tell you your birth name.  Your true name.

"And then, prince-sama--then you'll remember everything."