Patching Up the Past, Fixing Upthe Future

Chapter 1

"My husband, I'm sorry... I'm unable to bear a child..." a woman with shoulder length brown hair and regal dress looked at her husband, the pharaoh.

"Azena, it's not your fault. It's no ones." the spiky haired pharaoh told her and held her close. No other pharaoh in the past loved his wife like Atem did.

"My lord, my lady! We've brought news!" 3 fairy children flew to them.

"Dancing fairies, what is it?" Atem asked them.

"A baby girl has been abandoned at the gate! She's a beautiful girl, healthy, perfectly proportioned..." The fairies had calculated everything about the infant.

"Gyakotou Megami!" the pharaoh called. A goddess woman appeared in front of them, a goddess with green skin.

"Yes my lord?" she asked.

"Please bring the child in front to me."

"Yes my lord." she disappeared in a flash, and a few moments later, returned with the beautiful child. This child had tufts of blonde hair coming from her head, and was exactly as healthy as the fairies reported.

"My love, let's make her our child." Azena suggested.

"We can't. She's not of our blood."

"So? We can't bear a child anyway. It would mean the end of our family line if you don't have an heir.

"I suppose..."

"Then what shall we name her?" Azena was very happy now.

"How about... Azesa?"

"No, that's too near my name. I think... Shaharaze."

"It's a pretty name." Atem smiled, and she returned the gesture.

"Princess Shaharaze." Queen Azena loved the sound of it.

The child grew up quickly. But she did not become what the father had hoped. She enjoyed wearing the boy's comfortable tunic rather than wearing dresses to impress the higher-ups. This troubled Atem. She enjoyed playing sports and being a boy more than even THINKING of becoming a woman and working on her beauty. At age nine, the pharaoh decided it was time for change.

"Come, Shaharaze." he pulled her firm by her arm.

"Father, what is it?" the girl was densely confused. She was brought to her room where fitting maids were awaiting her. He pushed her in and firmly closed the door. She was scared now.

"Father!!! Father, I can't get out!!!" she pleaded to him, hoping it was some kind of jest. But her father never made jokes. She screamed at the pain of her hairs being plucked from her eyebrows and the women pulling the tight dress on her loose body.

When she came out, she was supposed to be pretty, but she came out with sadness and hate on her face that made all the maid's work worthless, bad if anything.

"Why father...?!" she cried, her eyes welling up with tears.

"You may be in your boys attire once a day for an hour, but all other times you will wear this."

"An hour?! And the rest in this?!"

"That's right. I've been raising you too loosely."

"I hate you father, I hate you!!!" She slammed her door and Atem got a furious look on his face, and retreated to his room as well.

"My love, calm down! She's fine like that! I think a nation would look up to a strong and beautiful princess such as herself even without a dress or primping." Azena stroked his back.

"Damn! Why did I ever take that child in?! She really is the daughter of a commoner, wanting to run around like that!"

"I think she looks pretty in it, and MUCH happier than she did today." Azena told him with firm eyes. Atem looked down. He never mentioned the dress rule again. Shaharaze only wore dresses when in the company of guests, and that was it. She didn't have to wear it any other time.

Shaharaze loved her mother, but had quarrels with her father often. They were close, but they never expressed it. The princess, even at age 17, still wore her boy's attire and ran with the servants. Every day, she felt the sun healing her skin and the wind making her eyes sparkle. Although she was quite the tomboy, she had enjoyed to learn doing things for women as well. She had personally requested to learn to cook, sew, draw, and she had taught herself to design clothes for the women in the palace. She was considered an idol by many. That was good enough for Queen Azena, but King Atem was still a bit unhappy, but he was quite impressed with his daughter's growth. A beautiful girl, fine-sized breasts, long, silky blonde hair (strange for Cairo), and fine paler skin.

But one day, it went bad. Shaharaze had requested once again to leave the palace, and once again, her father rejected the idea. She had never seen the world outside the royal walls, and she always yelled at her father when he would not let her out. Shaharaze heard the conversation between her parents when another fight occurred between her and her father.

"My love, are you really that afraid to let her outside the walls?" Azena cooed to him.

"Of course! She'll fall in love with the life of the commoners, and never come back! It's in her blood!" Atem looked down and shook his head.

'What does he mean...?' Shaharaze thought to herself.

"Blood, blood, that's all you say! Even if we did find her by the gates abandoned, that doesn't mean she isn't our child!" Azena pleaded to him. Shaharaze came in the quietly, and the parents looked up.

"So... I'm not even your child..." Shaharaze said quietly, and Azena and Atem's faces went white with shock. She had heard.

"Why didn't you tell me?!?!" Shaharaze yelled at them with tears in her eyes.

"Shaharaze..." Azena was starting to cry as well.

"Fine then father... I'll go to where I came from!!! The streets of Cairo!!!" Shaharaze ran off out of the palace and into the streets. Past all the shops she ran, all the people, looking at her strangely. She wondered why. Little did she know that she was about to run into her destiny, good and bad.

"Ow!" she ran into a man in the back-streets. He was in a light cloak to protect him from the sun. His shaggy dove-white hair reached down on his back, and his serious eyes could pierce lime-stone with ease. A scar crossed his cheek, and that got Shaharaze scared.

"Oh? You're not a boy? With that tunic, I thought you must be a farm boy." the man smirked and reached out his hand.

"Be quiet! It's more comfortable to run in this than those stupid dresses!" she stood on her own and dusted her clothes off.

"Why are you crying?" he gave a kind and sympathetic look. Shaharaze felt her heart softening, and she now knew tears were still running down her cheeks.

"I... I never was my parents child, and they never told me...!" she cried to the stranger.

"Oh? I'm abandoned too. Same with my brothers and sisters." he told me with a smile.

"Ryou, Ryou, who's the girl?" asked a boy about 10 years old.

"Is she your wife?" a girl about 7 giggled.

"No, we just met!" he blushed, and she did as well.

"After my mother gave birth to her 5th child, that little girl Sola, she died, and my dad couldn't take it, so he abandoned us. I've been the dad of these guys ever since."

"That's amazing... You weren't adopted?" she asked him.

"No. So you see, you're lucky you were. You have a mom and dad who care about you." he smiled kindly.

"Ryou's courting a lady, Ryou's courting a lady!" Sola and her siblings chanted.

"Stop it you guys!" he flustered, "Ah, by the way, what's your name?" he asked me. I couldn't tell him my real name.

"...Shara." I said, "Yours is Ryou, right?" He nodded.

"Oh no, I've got to go, they're probably worried about me..." I started to get up, when Ryou grabbed me by the hand.

"Can we... Meet again?"

"Why would you ask?"

"You're the only one... Who's talked to me and the kids in a long time. I'm sure they'd like it if you came again." he requested to her. She direly wanted to, but her father would forbid it.

"...Sure, I'll come again." she smiled a perfect and glittering smile to him. He was happy that she wasn't crying anymore.

"I hope to see you soon." he said goodbye.

She ran off into the gates of the palace, and when she arrived, her father was waiting for her.

"Welcome home." he smiled warmly, "I'm... Sorry, about not telling you..."

"Mm-mm, it's fine. You wanted to protect me, right?" she said joyfully. He hugged her for the first time in years.

"You can go out whenever you please to the city, but please..." he looked her in the eye, "Tell us before you leave."

"OK!" She loved her father. She came back to Ryou again and again, with her long hair tied in a ponytail so it was harder to recognize her as the princess. But then... People found out. A group of bandits had found where she was going when she was leaving the palace, and wanted to kidnap her and sell her off or get a fine ransom. She was a strong girl, and could do the work of 3 slaves easy.

"There she is!!!" A bandit yelled when "Shara" and Ryou were talking. She knew they were coming after her. She ran as fast as she could through the alleys and over fences, and the bandits followed her well, but couldn't catch up with the quick-footed princess. But suddenly, she couldn't move. A branch of an old but strong-wood tree grasped her ribbon that held up her hair. It was really tangled. If she tried to undo it, she would be caught by the bandits. But if she took it out, Ryou, the one who was special to her, would know their separation of class and might treat her like a princess, not "Shara". But she knew if she was caught by the bandits, she would never see him again. She had to believe in him. She took a sharp rock from her side-bag and sliced the ribbon in two, releasing her from the grasp of the wood. Ryou ran to catch up to her, and saw her just in time. Her long, waist-length hair fell from her bun ponytail, and waved like the ocean in the wind. He knew now. She was the princess of Egypt. She ran, but it was too late, they were catching up! She hid behind a crate of grain, and the bandits came to the fork in the road where she was. Ryou was standing right there.

"Ryou, you know I don't like to ask you for favors, but..." the bandit scratched his head, "Where'd that girl with the long hair go? She's the princess, and we're gonna get a nice ransom off her!" Ryou pointed his finger to the right. And the bandits ran off.

"So... You're the princess, huh?" Ryou held his hand out to the hiding Shaharaze. Tears welled in her eyes.

"I'm sorry...! I didn't want status to change how we talked, or whatever we did...!" she cried. Ryou went quiet.

"Why would you want to be with a commoner like me?" Ryou looked in her eyes.

"BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!!!" she cried, and before he could respond, she kissed him on the lips to silence his words. He held her tight and passionate, placing kisses down her neck.

"I'm in love with you too." he smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

"You don't care that I'm a princess...?" she quietly asked, and he stroked her hair.

"I'll make sure we can stay together." he hugged her.

The two met in secret many times. Soon, Shaharaze became pregnant with his child, and her father was angry, trying to figure out who had done this to his daughter. But someone in Cairo told her father, and Atem was furious.

"You ruffian...!!! Playing your little games with my daughter?!" He grabbed Ryou by the hair.

"Father, stop it!!!" Shaharaze screamed.

"You will pay for what you have done!!!" Atem yelled at Ryou and paid his crying daughter no mind. The next day, Ryou was brought from the dungeons, and there were other people at the executioners block. These people... Were his siblings.

"Father, don't kill them!!!" Shaharaze begged at his knees.

"Dying would be too good a punishment for this rat! He will be forced to watch his own siblings die because of him!" Atem had gone mad with the fury of his daughter loving someone he didn't know. The executioner lifted his sword to the children tied together.

"Sola!! Petra!!! Nefarti!!! Cleo!!! Osiris!!!" Ryou screamed to his crying siblings, calling for their big brother. At the moment the sword reached the children in a flash, Shaharaze remembered when she saw the children. Ryou's smiling face, the children who loved their brother so much... Those were the things she would never see again.

IT WAS DONE.

Blood flowed down the cracks of limestone, and the lifeless bodies lay there, still reaching for their brother.

Ryou's screams could be heard miles away. The princess fell to her knees crying, and Atem looked satisfied. Azena, with an angry look on her face, came to her husband and slapped him.

"Azena...!" he was shocked, and tears rolled from the womans' eyes.

"Just because she fell in love...! Look what you've done!!!" Azena pointed to all the citizens. They had hateful looks on their faces. A pharaoh who killed citizens for falling in love. Horrible.

Ryou thrashed against the guards holding him down, and they had been easily beat off by his rage. He ran to his brothers and sisters and held their bloody bodies in his arms, remembering all the times he had happily spent with them, and the tears running down his cheeks wouldn't stop. The guards caught up with him and whipped his back till blood poured from his wounds. Shaharaze couldn't take any more. She ran to his side and covered him with her own body, and the whippers accidentally whipped her once.

"Shaharaze... You're... Getting blood on your dress..." he whispered painfully.

"It's fine, it's fine, just as long as I can protect you. I'm so sorry...!" she cried, and he placed his hand to her face, and tried to stroke it gently, but his hand that was covered in his brothers and sisters blood smeared red on her face.

"It's not you... It's your father...!" Ryou winced. Ryou was not the same kind soul as he once was. His spirit was stained by hatred.

"I don't care Ryou, I'll always stay by you, even if it kills me." she kept his hand to her face. Ryou was taken to the infirmary by Azena's servants.

"Azena, what are you...?!" the Pharaoh was interrupted.

"Atem," Azena looked at him with hurt in her eyes, "We need to talk."

"Remember when you chose to marry me?" Azena asked him. He blushed a little.

"Of course. I was taking a walk through town, I saw you in the water, woring in the fields, you were the daughter of a middle class family..."

"And we fell in love. Your father was FURIOUS when he found out we were in love, but he let us do as we pleased. And look where we are now," Azena looked him in the eyes, "Your father did not kill my family."

"This is different. She is PREGNANT Azena. With a LOW class, no future boy."

"I couldn't get pregnant, but if I could, your father would have done the same as he did when I wasn't." Azena scolded him, and he looked down. He was thinking.

"What have I done...?" he buried his face in his hands, and Azena stroked his back.

When Shaharaze went to the infirmary, Ryou had left. It figured. His only family had been killed. Shaharaze decided to get to bed and rest, although she couldn't sleep well. When she looked out the window, she saw trees rustling and a... Figure of a man. She rushed to the window and pulled the curtains back, and there she saw Ryou.

"Are you all right?!" she hugged him and tears fell from her eyes, she thought she would never see him again.

"Shaharaze," he looked seriously at her with harsh eyes, "Run away with me."

"Run away...?" she asked, surprised. Ryou had reason to run. He was still under the kingdom's watch, after all (although it was not known to the couple at the time, Atem had already released the order). Ryou... Had nothing left in Cairo. His home was an old and poor ruined hut. His only family was dead. The only thing he had left in that city he now so hated was her. Shaharaze.

"Yeah, I'm going to go to join a band of rebels against the pharaoh. Tons of gangs joined together once they saw the cruelty they did to my siblings. It's even regular citizens with no desire for ransoms and such, they all hate your father. Come with me, we can wed, and you be my wife." he looked at her and reached for a kiss. Shaharaze had decided. This would be her last kiss to him.

"Ryou, you know I love you..." tears fell from her eyes again, and she tried to smile, "But my father adopted me when I was left to die at the palace gates. I can't kill him when he gave me life. Let's talk to him."

"Talk with him...?! And get my head slashed...?! The same fate as my brothers and sisters?!" he yelled at her with such scary eyes. Shaharaze leaped back.

"...I... I am the princess of this land... I cannot go with you..." she tried to sound serious, so he wouldn't sense her fear, her sadness.

"This... This is your extent of you love for me, huh...?" he softly laughed, "WHEN IT WAS YOUR FAULT MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS WERE SLAUGHTERED?!?!?!" he screamed. Little did she know, but that sentence would ring through her head like a bad song, and it played over, and over. Tears dripped heavily as diamonds to her skin. Ryou heard the guards coming and held her one more time in his arms, placing something around her wrist.

"Someday." he whispered in her ear.

He jumped off the balcony, onto another stone and then touching the soft dirt ground. He looked once more at her window, at the woman he loved, and then ran off.

It was a bangle with an eagle in the center, and blue waves floating on the rest of the bracelet. There was a message on the inside. It said, "Someday". Shaharaze knew what he meant. 'Someday we will be together'. She fell to the floor weeping, with the bracelet Ryou made. She did not know anything about the powers and destiny this bracelet would hold.

Shaharaze walked to the warriors quarters, where her best friend Metra was with her lover, Joseph. They also were forced to have a secret affair.

"Shara, I'm so sorry..." Metra gave her a sad look. Shara was the nick name Metra gave her. Now when it was said, it gave the princess such pain.

"Metra, there was nothing you could do." she hugged her, and she could feel her own tears on her neck.

"Your love is so much like mine and Joseph's. I'm not allowed to be with him because we're the best warriors. The best warriors aren't allowed to have a love because they'll be distracted from battle," Metra looked sad, "But I want to fight with him to make sure we can love each other." Metra tried to smile, and Shaharaze did too. Metra was right. She had to fight for her beliefs. Shaharaze promised to herself, first thing in the morning, she would go look for Ryou and straighten things out with him and her father.

Shaharaze slept for an hour or two, but was harshly awoken by her mother.

"It's horrible, rebels...!" Azena was scared to death.

"Rebels..." Shaharaze repeated, but then remembered what that meant. RYOU. She put on her boy's tunic and sandals, and ran out the door, her mother right behind her. She reached the throne room, but then saw what was happening. Her father had sealed all the magical creatures that served the palace and were their friends into stone tablets, and was dueling against Ryou with them. Ryou had a scary look, fire was everywhere. That wasn't Ryou, was it...? His kind eyes were twisted and cruel. The two battled the monsters, again and again. But in the end, Atem won. The palace began to shake uncontrollably, and the servants screamed and ran. The only ones left were priest Seto, his lover, the kind blue eyes white dragon woman Kisara, Metra, Joseph, Azena, Atem, Ryou and Shaharaze.

"We're blocked in, huh...?" Atem sighed. Azena smiled and hugged him.

"It's all right. As long as we can have these last moments together."

"Maybe we'll finally be together in the next life, at a time when champions can love each other." Metra tried to smile as tears fell. Joseph held her and kissed her tears away.

"I'm sure that'll happen." he stroked her long wavy hair and held her to his chest.

"Maybe I won't just be a magical creature forbidden to love a human next time?"Kisara kissed him on the cheek as beads of tears strung from her cheeks, andSeto held her in his arms.

"I'm sure. And even if you are, I'll still love you."

"Ryou?" Shara asked him, and he looked at her with those regretful eyes.

"I... I'm sorry..." he clenched his fists in anger at himself. She shook her head and pulled a sword from the ground.

"Shaharaze...?!" he exclaimed. Everyone gasped at what happened next. She cut off all that long hair she once had down to her knees, and now it reached only to her shoulders.

"Now you'll be able to recognize me in the next life, 'cause I look like a boy now." she laughed while slightly crying.

"I'm so sorry Shara, really, I am...!" he cried himself, and held her tight in his arms. Atem came to them and Ryou did not even flinch.

"Ryou... I... I'm so sorry... Death... should be MY punishment, not yours," he said to Ryou, and then turned to his daughter, "I could not have asked for a more wonderful daughter. A strong, kind beauty. Here. All of the female magical creatures that are your friends and once served you." he handed her papyrus paper slips, with small drawings on them, "Also, your bracelet... I shall make it a millennium item, that you use in the next life. Take the millennium scales in the next life as well." She nodded and held her father and mother in a last embrace. Metra hugged her, and then everyone went to their loved one and hugged them. The pyramid collapsed, and each person in there died. But only for a little while, because a reincarnation would find their millennium item and their memories would combine. This is not the end. No, this is just the prologue to the beginning.