Chapter 3 – Revelations

---

I can't sleep.

I don't know why I'm here again. Well, it could be because they finally kicked me out of the bar. And also because I'm too cheap to get a hotel room. But I have an excuse. This is my house, dammit. Not hers. She can't stay here. I'm kicking her out come morning.

Oh, hells. Morning. Play practice with little miss tagalong. Damn and double damn. I wonder if I could keep working on this play if they fired me. Because I secretly do enjoy it. You can always tell when I like something by the way I complain about it. It crosses my mind that I may be insane. I wonder how long it'll be until someone finally locks me up. Not long, I bet. Not long.

I need sleep.

---

"Good morning, everyone."

There was a resigned tone to Kanta's voice as she entered the theater, walking a bit slower and perhaps missing a step here and there. Of course, not everyone discerned this in light of noticing the person who followed her down the aisleway.

"Whoa, baby," Joey catcalled, "She's hot! Ouch!"

"Oops," Mai murmured with a quiet laugh, "Didn't mean to hit you with that shoe." Serenity grinned faintly at the antics of her brother and his would-be girlfriend. Would be, that is, if either of them ever decided to admit their feelings for each other.

"Quiet please," Kanta's voice interrupted the squabble, a bit duller than it usually was. "Nice to see everyone here on time; now I can get this over with. This is Takara; she's going to be helping us out with the play for a while."

"For the rest of the production, actually," the girl chirped, earning a heated glare in response. A few seconds passed in quiet, during which the director was silently counting to ten in an attempt to remain reasonably pleasant. Needless to say, she was failing miserably.

"Please, feel free to throw things at her whenever it strikes your fancy. That's it; let's get to work." She stormed off distractedly, heading over to a group of girls reading through their lines.

Takara watched her for a moment before turning to beam at whoever noticed her. "Hi!" she sounded cheerfully, perfect white teeth dazzling in the soft morning light. Her hair, the pale golden color of pure sand, rippled slightly with the tilt of her head, enough to send most of the males in the room into a trancelike state.

Most, but not all.

"Ouch!"

Kanta smiled darkly, watching out of the corner of her eye as Takara rubbed her head with those perfect willowy fingers. Bakura had fairly good aim, after all.

---

Crrreeeeeeak.

The large wooden doors groaned open, a sigh in their wake from the young prince as he leaned against one for support. Before him lay his torchlit room, bed at the far end, concealed from view by a canopy of delicate white. Behind this fluttering curtain sat the upright, proud silhouette of the Midian girl, most likely even now severely pissed at him. He sighed once more, resigned to the apology, and then muttered, "Well…right."

With a sweeping motion, Yugi pulled back the draping material only to reveal one of his servants, effectively bound and gagged upon the bed, as were his two pet dogs in the corner. From each came the muffled sounds of one attempting (and failing) to communicate successfully. The prince's eyes darted about the room, searching for the girl, and fixed upon a fluttering white linen trailing out the window.

Upon closer inspection, Yugi realized that the girl had tied together a number of these sheets of fabric, creating what amounted to a rope leading from his window to the courtyard below. He leaned over the ledge, then with a shrug, scaled down the wall.

In the dim golden glow the prince's eyes sought out the girl once more; she led her camel through the shadows noiselessly toward freedom. However, Yugi's vantage point allowed him to see what she could not: she was dangerously close to intercepting the guards as they idled through the twilit walkways.

"Guards!"

The Midian girl froze, muscles tensed as she made brief eye contact with the prince, who stood with palace guards alert before him. "Prince Moses," they intoned simultaneously, half-kneeling before his figure. An awkward silence followed their words, during which the boy fumbled for something to say; confusion lined the faces of each servant as they waited in the dusk.

"Um…uh…there's a…man…tied up…in my room!" Silenced reigned still, as the guards looked up at their prince in uncertainty. "Well, look into it!" Yugi commanded, finally regaining the authoritative edge to his royal voice.

"Right away, sir!" both responded swiftly, running off in the opposite direction as Yugi chuckled in amusement. He turned to look at the girl only to find that she had run off while he was otherwise occupied. And she was fast; he had to give her credit for that.

Not entirely sure of why he was going to so much trouble over one girl, Yugi took off down the road at a run, quickly moving beyond the palace grounds and into a small section of the city that the slaves called home. Still moving at his swift pace, he came to a bend and slowed to a trot, then finally came to a halt as he peered around the outer wall of a house. Before him, framed in the bluish cast of moonlight, the Midian girl sat upon her camel, speaking quietly with two slaves.

"Please, I need water. I have a long journey ahead of me."

A young woman with wavy hair nodded and granted her the water from a small well just outside of what one could assume was her home. As she finished, the camel rose to its feet, the slave woman nodding once more to the Midian girl. "May God protect you."

"Thank you. Hut hut!"

And just like that, she was gone, becoming smaller and smaller with distance until Yugi could no longer see her. Unconsciously, he stepped further from his hiding place behind the wall, still entranced in a way that he could barely comprehend. However, a sudden shattering of pottery at his feet brought him from his stupor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," the slave girl apologized with a sort of nervously relieved laugh in her voice, gathering the shards of the jar into her arms and promptly dropping them once more, eliciting a small chuckle from the prince. "I, oh, please forgive me. I didn't expect to see you…here, of all places, at our door, mm…at last."

"At last?" Yugi inquired with a hint of confused amusement, watching the girl as she near pranced over to the thus far silent man in their doorway.

With a broad grin on her face, she drew the man into a hug, still talking at an incredibly rapid pace. "Didn't I tell you, Ryou, didn't I tell you? I knew he would return to us when he was ready!"

"Serenity, do you want us flogged?" Conversely, his voice was a hurried murmur, issued from the corner of his mouth while his eyes darted nervously to the spiky-haired prince. The girl paid him no mind, turning her attention once again to her guest.

"I knew you cared about our freedom."

Yugi now found himself undeniably bewildered. This slave was either crazy or part of an elaborate hoax. If Yami hadn't been so resistant to humor the young prince would have assumed this was his doing, some kind of payback in the form of a prank. "Freedom? Why would I care about that?"

For the first time, the smile on Serenity's face faltered as she looked at him once again. "Well…because…you're our brother."

"What?"

"They…" The girl broke off with a pained sigh, then took a shaky breath and continued her sentence. "They never told you?" Her look was pleading, as if begging him to contradict her. Forcing a laugh, the prince shook his head.

"Who never told me what?"

This seemed to throw her through a loop. She hesitated a moment, trying to piece things together, finally taking a step towards him and grasping his arms in her own worn hands. "But you're here! You must know!"

"Be careful, slave!" cried Yugi, freeing himself from her grip. Here, her brother rushed between the two, hands out in a gesture of both defense and diplomacy.

"Please, my good prince," he started, obviously flustered, "She's exhausted from the day's work." He thought on that for a split second, then backtracked, "Not that it was too much; we quite enjoyed it. But she is confused," Ryou's tone changed suddenly, becoming pointed directly at his sister, "And knows not to whom she speaks."

She jerked away from her brother angrily, tearing her gaze from Yugi and settling it on the taller boy. Her stance became confrontational as she spat the words harshly into the night. "I know to whom I speak, Ryou!" The slave girl whirled, once again directing her speech towards the young prince. "I know who you are, and you are not a prince of Egypt!"

"Serenity!"

"What did you say?" Yugi demanded, no longer messing around. He was quickly becoming infuriated. Luckily for the young woman, her brother jumped in once again, nearly dragging her away as she struggled heatedly against him.

"Your highness, pay her no heed. Come, Serenity."

"No!"

"Let's discuss—"

"No, Ryou! Please, Yugi, you must believe! You were born of our mother, Mai!"

"Stop it!"

"You are our brother!"

Yugi had had enough. "Now you go too far. You shall be punished!"

"No!" The slave called Ryou threw himself to the ground at the prince's feet, still trying vainly to keep his sister from harm. "No, please, she's ill! She's very ill! We beg your forgiveness. Let's go, Serenity." He got to his feet and tried once more to drag his sister away, pulling her from the royal and into the dim light of their tiny home. Still, however, she resisted violently.

"No! Ryou!" As she struggled, she continued her attempt to get through to the youngest of the three, desperately shouting. "Our mother set you adrift in a basket to save your life!"

"Save my life? From who?"

"Ask the man that you call 'father!'" At these words, a frozen expression took hold of the prince's face, Ryou released his sister, and the girl's voice faded, her body calming.

"How dare you…" Yugi began forcefully, furious as he had never been before.

"God saved you to be our deliverer," she overrode his voice, speaking at a conversational volume but with a striving intensity.

"Enough of this!"

"And you are, Yugi. You are the deliverer."

"I said enough!" With these words Yugi seized the slave's arm and twisted it, flinging her to the ground and bringing forth a muffled moaning noise from her throat. She looked up at him, pained, as her brother slumped against the doorframe behind her. Eyes burning, Yugi glared down at her thin figure in the pale moonlight, lowering his voice to almost a whisper. "You will regret this night."

Without another word, the prince turned on his heel and hotly stalked off down the road, heading back toward the palace. However, before he had gone more than a few paces, he stopped cold, a voice drifting into his ears. Slowly, fearfully, he turned once more toward the slave girl.

"Hush now, my baby," she crooned brokenly, voice pushing through her silent tears, "Be still, love, don't cry. Sleep as you're rocked by the stream."

Yugi turned completely, now watching her fully, as she drew herself to her knees and moved her arms expressively, eyes downward. "Sleep and remember my last lullaby," she continued, raising her gaze to meet his, "So I'll be with you as you dream."

The tune faded into the night as she offered a tiny smile to meet the prince's horrified recognition. Unable to do much else, Yugi turned and ran once more, this time in a blind panic, fear obscuring his thoughts.

---

"Now then. Is this the boy?"

Takara stalked in a half-circle around Yugi, slightly reminiscent of a lioness on the prowl. Her distance from him was just enough so as to remain out of his general awareness; however, Kanta was not so fortunate.

"I took care of it," she muttered darkly, folding her arms across her loose t-shirt, wishing she were lucky enough to be on ten-minute break with the actors instead of arguing with the blond pain in her neck. "He shouldn't have any interference in his character for the rest of the production. It's been dealt with. As was obvious in the scene they just rehearsed." Yugi flipped through his script, chewing thoughtfully at the end of a light blue highlighter before marking something softly, utterly unaware that he was being talked about. Yami leaned over his shoulder to point at the middle of the page; the younger of the two laughed slightly and poked the other on the nose with the writing utensil, earning a wicked grin for his efforts.

The blond-haired girl nibbled at her fingernail as she surveyed the pair engaging in a highlighter fight, leaning toward her colleague in an exaggerated motion of confidentiality. "He's awfully juvenile for an ancient pharaoh. The kid I can understand, but—"

"Yugi is roughly the same age of the majority of the people in this room. He is not a child. Give him time; he'll grow."

"Both defensive and off the point. Just because your partner was short—"

"Leave my partner out of it."

"You know, your problem is that you have never been able to accept—"

"I said, leave her the fuck out of this!" Various cast and crewmembers glanced up from their work, staring at the bespectacled girl. While her fits of temper were incredibly common, few had ever witnessed her enter into a full-blown rage. Even those across the room could feel the burning hatred radiating off of her form as she stormed from her prim, impassive coworker, making her way backstage in an attempt to keep from committing mass homicide. There was a slightly muffled cry—odds were that one of the stage crew had refrained from jumping out of the director's path in time—followed by the echoing slam of the back door.

Takara sighed to herself. Apparently her coworker was just as much a ticking time bomb as she had been the last time they had actually worked together. How long ago was that? Fifty, a hundred years? It had only been their fourth case as partners (a production of La Boheme in a slightly run-down old opera house); Kanta had blown up within the first few weeks of rehearsals and transferred herself from active field duty to deskwork, a position she had maintained for the next decade while Takara continued taking assignments. For some incomprehensible reason, however, administration had never reassigned either of them to new partners and they had each taken on their own cases over the years, working solo and only technically attached to one another. Now, after what had to be about eighty-three years, they were back together.

Heaving another sigh, the girl swept her long hair behind one shoulder and raised her voice to address the various cast and crew. "I have a personal matter to address. Your break has been indefinitely extended; if we're not back in a half hour you're free to leave. I'd advise you not to sneak out until it has been exactly thirty minutes at great risk to your own health. Anyway, we'll be back soon enough." With that, she took off across the stage, following her associate past the curtain and out the door.

Yugi turned to stare at Yami with wide eyes. "What was that all about?"

---

"Kanta-san? I know you're around here somewhere. Please don't tell me you're up a tree, Kanta-san, I've never been much of a climber."

"Stop calling me that. You and your bloody honorifics; we've had this discussion before, several decades ago, and I don't really care to have it again."

Takara froze in her tracks and looked up curiously. "In a tree. Of course you're in a tree, otherwise you just wouldn't be you, Mukantagara…san." She winced slightly as an acorn ricocheted off of her skull with a certain amount of force behind it, thumping loudly despite the cushion of blond hair it had to contend with. "I don't suppose you'd take a fancy to coming down from there anytime soon?"

They had situated themselves in a small, deserted patch of Domino City Park a short distance from the theater. Kanta was, indeed, perched in the higher branches of a particularly shady oak tree while her colleague squinted up at her past the deep green of the leaves.

"You do realize," Takara tried once more, earlier inquiry having met only with silence, "That we've left the cast all alone in the building?"

"Your fault. You could have stayed. Or, even better, not bothered me to begin with."

"Kanta, honestly…"

"Leave me alone, would you? I can't take the bloody holier-than-thou bullshit anymore! Now I remember why I dropped the last case we were working on together! You're a pain in the ass!" A few leaves floated serenely down from the treetops, disturbed by the violent explosion of their fellow tree-dweller. For the next few moments a particular silence reigned over the little corner of the park, a silence filled with things unsaid yet understood, things of the past and the present. Finally, as the last of the disturbed leaves gently lit upon the ground, a sigh pushed its quiet way into the air.

"It wasn't your fault, you know. And anyway, you Egyptians are supposed to believe in eternity." She turned, flipping her hair and straightening her skirt, once more adopting her polite and perfect mannerisms. "I'm going back to practice now, darling. If you don't want to come, that's perfectly understandable; I can handle everything on my own for today. Ciao, sweetie." With a twinkling of fingers, she turned on her heel and started her rather brisk return to the theater.

From the heights of the tree, Kanta scowled to herself. "I really, really hate that girl," she muttered heatedly, dropping from her branch with a practiced grace and landing in a crouch at the base of the tree. "Hate," she reiterated with a frown before rising and making her way back toward the little building at a jog, clipboard still clasped in one hand, a determined expression behind the pain in her eyes.

She'd be damned if she let her annoyance of a coworker take over her practices.

---

"Tristan, Joey, please! Anzu, no, wait, they didn't mean to—Anzu!"

Yami chuckled, a deep, resonating sound. "I don't believe they are able to hear you at the moment, aibou."

Crash!

"Joey!" Yugi squeaked, watching the boy stumble dazedly away from the door he had just collided with, violet eyes wider than usual. Tristan, who had been running for his life a mere few inches behind his friend, veered sharply to the right in an attempt to avoid the same fate; instead, he found himself unceremoniously tangled in several red-cushioned folding seats. Anzu, wildly triumphant, came to a dead stop before them in order to savor their fearful expressions.

"Thanks, Rebecca!" she called sweetly, met with a casual, "Don't mention it!" from somewhere behind the large wooden doorway. Her eyes then returned to her prey, both of which were making hurried attempts to placate the girl.

"Uh, Anzu…we didn't mean…ah…"

"You see…it's like this…we…"

"Oh no you don't!" she crowed, a slightly maniacal look in her sparkling blue eyes, "What did I tell you the last time you pulled my skirt up?"

The boys frantically took in their surroundings, searching for an escape route, but found nothing at all in their favor. Furthermore, none of the cast appeared to be paying them any mind, with the exception of Yugi, who knew better than to get involved. "Listen, Anzu, we were just—"

"You're not getting out of this one so easily," the girl shot back heatedly, balling her hands into fists and looming over them both. They each gulped noisily, staring up at her wide-eyed as she moved closer.

"Hey, Anzu, can you come help me with this costume?"

The girl glanced up, turning her head towards the wings of the stage. "Sure, Miho, one second!" she replied cheerfully, waving.

"Looks like we—" Joey started, only to be cut off instantly.

"I swear, you two, one more time…" She gritted her teeth in annoyance, fixing them each with a stare. "Don't do it again!"

As Anzu made her way backstage, the two boys stared at each other with widened eyes before dropping into faints, Yugi watching bemusedly. "Chaos," grouched Kaiba, never taking his gaze off of the laptop before him, wordlessly expressing his opinion on good leadership and the obvious lack thereof.

Meanwhile, across the room, a conversation of very few syllables was steadily taking place between two oddly light-haired Egyptians.

"Bakura."

"Marik."

"I trust you're well?"

A nod. "And you?"

"Fine."

Silence.

"So," Bakura cleared his throat, fiddling with a small silver knife as he spoke, "Find out anything about the girl?"

Marik looked up, an amused expression on his tanned face. "And you would care…why?"

A shrug. "Curiosity."

"Curiosity." Marik sounded dubious, skeptical. There was more to it than that.

Another shrug. "Her magic is somewhat of interest to me."

"Right. Her magic." His voice was now intensely skeptical, but he shook his head nonetheless and proceeded to spill the little he and Ishizu had managed to uncover on the girl, which oddly enough had its origins just a century or two shy of three thousand years in the past.

---

"Hey, Yugi."

"Ahhh!" The boy jumped approximately a foot into the air, bringing the top of his head just about level with the rest of the cast for an instant before gravity took over once more. He felt a hand upon his shoulder as his feet hit solid ground and glanced up to determine the identity of its owner. "Oh, Kanta. It's you."

"Yes," she nodded distractedly, "It's me."

"When did you get back? And where…you have a leaf in your hair."

"Never mind that," she murmured unconcernedly, "I meant to tell you. You did very well during the last scene we rehearsed, Yugi."

"Oh…" The boy seemed slightly taken aback, but nevertheless managed a polite, "Thank you," in response. Kanta nodded, still staring off into space somewhat, apparently unaware of the look of intense concentration on Yugi's face as he struggled to remember the previous scene. For the life of him, he could not bring back more than a vague recollection of events; everything was strangely blurred, as if he had been hypnotized the entire time.

"You know," her voice sounded quietly, breaking through his slightly befuddled musings, "You remind me very much of someone I used to work with, a very close friend of mine. I think you would have liked her."

Yugi's eyebrow quirked at this sudden change of topic. He was not entirely sure of how to respond, so after a moment, he gave a noncommittal sound from the back of his throat, nodding ever so slightly. A few moments further passed in silence, and, being discreetly uncomfortable, Yugi broached the subject once more. "Um…why don't you work with her anymore?"

It seemed that the boy had finally succeeded in obtaining her full attention, although now that he had done so, he wasn't so certain he wanted it anymore. The haunted, dark look that came into Kanta's eyes was almost unbearable to witness directly, and he turned away, focusing his own lavender eyes at a point on the dimly lit stage. However, he couldn't block out her reply by simply averting his gaze; soft as it was, the words still reached his ears.

"She died."

"Oh… I… I'm—"

"Don't worry about it, Yugi." She reached out and ruffled his unusual locks very lightly before shifting her hand to rest upon his shoulder, a small smile across her slightly distracted features. "What say you we rehearse the next scene then call it a day, hm?"

He smiled back, placing his own small hand over hers in a comforting manner. "That sounds good to me, Kanta. I'll go find Kaiba."

"Thanks, kid," she returned with something of a grin, slipping (for the most part) back into her usual persona. She watched him run off, eyes still somewhat less sharp than usual, watching everyone in turn. Her flickering gaze rested a second longer on Takara, then Bakura and Marik, finally settling upon Yami and Yugi as they fought to get Kaiba away from his laptop.

Stop thinking about her, Kanta. Just focus on your job. It's all about the job.

"Come on, people, let's go! One last scene, then we're out of here! Move it!"

They need you to focus.

-tbc-

a/n: Hello again, duckies. I know I keep taking forever and a day to update. My only excuse is being a senior in high school at the moment, with all the applications and scholarships and etcetera that goes with it. Apologies. I'd say I wouldn't take so long to update ever again, but that would be a lie, and I don't want to lie to you. You're nice people. But anyway. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Oh, and by the way, the italics bit at the beginning was intended to be something of a journal entry. Just so you know; fun facts and all that jazz. Anyway. Please review. Reviews make me happy. Laters.