Here's the next part of the Path to Happiness trilogy. It's probably the last part.

Pairings:

YugixYami(Puzzleshipping)

AtemuxHeba(Blindshipping)

MarikxMalik(Bronzeshipping)

RyouxBakura(Tendershipping)

SetoxJoey(Puppyshipping)

AknankanonxAmara(no shipping)

warnings: lemons, mpreg

Summary: After three years, everyone is living happily in a time of peace. That peace is broken, though. When a dark force invades and tries to take over the Millennial Kingdom, things turn to war. The Millennial Kingdom is overcome without being able to put up a fight. Yugi is able to send Yami, Firestar, Solomon, and Dartz to Egypt before he is captured as well. Things looks grim, especially when Yami reveals an important detail about Yugi. Heba then tells everyone of the legend of the Elemental Warriors. Having no other option, Heba along with Joey, Ryou, and Malik gain control of four of the five elements. Heba and the others are planning to try and rescue Yugi and then save the kingdom. Can they save Yugi? Will the elemental powers be enough to help them?

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 1- Peace

~Three Years Later~

Three years had passed since the Millennium items had been found, and everyone was living in peace and prosperity.

Heba and Atemu's son Alex was now three years old and he was a handful. Heba and Atemu were constantly having to keep an eye on him as they attempted to keep him from getting into too much trouble. Atemu was having to go through training to be Pharaoh, so Heba had to keep Alex in line more than anything.

Ryou and Bakura now had a two-year old son named Richard. He was called Rick for short. Ryou and Bakura were also trying to keep their son from getting into too much trouble since he was into everything. The two were very happy now that they had their son.

Marik and Malik had a year and a half year old daughter named Anastasia. The two didn't have as much trouble with their daughter. They were both happy with how their lives were turning out.

Joey and Seto had a six-month-old son that they named Seth. Seth was the most manageable of the kids because he was just now learning to crawl, so Joey and Seto had the easier time managing their son.

Yugi and Yami had not had any children yet. The two were very busy ruling the Millennial Kingdom, and they didn't have much time for much else. They were able to get away and see their family every so often, but not nearly as much as they would have liked.

Aknankanon and Amara were perfectly happy with how everything was going. They were glad to have their grandson as well as their great-nephews and great-niece around. Aknankanon was going more in depth with Atemu's training to be Pharaoh.

~Egypt~

Child-like laughter rang out through the hall.

"Alex! Come back here!" Heba called as he chased his son down.

Alex was trying to get away from his father.

Atemu walked out and saw Alex running down the hall and grabbed him, picking up.

"Daddy!" Alex said happily.

Heba came up to them, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"Problem?" Atemu asked.

"Yes. Our son is trying to give me the slip once again." Heba answered.

Atemu chuckled. "He's good at that." Atemu said.

Alex giggled.

"You need to stop encouraging him." Heba said with a slight glare on his face.

Atemu shrugged. "I'm not the one who has to deal with it." Atemu answered.

"Well, maybe I need to leave him with you for a day and let you see how it is trying to keep up with him as well as keep him in line." Heba said. He had a slight smirk on his face. "Or I could just cut you off in the bedroom." Heba said before he turned and walked off.

Atemu turned slightly pale at that. He didn't like that thought at all.

"Daddy sick?" Alex asked, looking up at his father.

"No, Alex. Daddy's not sick." Atemu answered as he started to follow Heba. 'Although I think I'm going to faint if Heba actually does that to me.' Atemu thought.

"Sounds like Alex is getting into trouble again." Seto said.

Joey was in the floor playing with Seth. "When isn't he getting into trouble?" Joey asked.

Seto shrugged. "We don't have that problem." Seto said.

"Yet." Joey remarked.

Seto rolled his eyes. "Yes. I know. Not yet." Seto said.

Joey laughed. "We're going to know Heba's pain when Seth gets to where he can run like that." Joey remarked.

"Well, at least we can relax until that time comes." Seto said as he lay back down on their bed.

Joey then picked Seth up before he walked over and set Seth down on the bed with him. "Well, I'm going to go out for a little while, so you can watch Seth." Joey said.

Seto glared at him. "That is a low and dirty trick." Seto stated.

Joey shrugged before he walked out.

Seto really didn't mind watching Seth since he loved spending time with his son, but he wasn't going to admit that to anyone.

"Rick! Come here!" Bakura growled as he chased Rick down.

Rick was currently running away from his father.

Bakura managed to catch up to Rick before he reached down and picked Rick up. "You need to stop hanging around with Alex so much. He is becoming a bad influence." Bakura said.

Rick just laughed.

Bakura rolled his eyes before he turned and headed back to his room with Rick.

"Finally catch him?" Ryou asked as he looked up from his place on the bed.

"Yes. I finally managed to catch up to him. With no help from you." Bakura said as he plopped Rick down on the bed with Ryou.

Ryou smiled. "You could use the exercise anyway." Ryou said.

Bakura glared at him.

Ryou just smiled.

Rick managed to get off the bed, and he started to play in his parents' room.

Ryou and Bakura lay back on their bed to watch Rick play.

Marik and Malik were in the lounge with Anastasia, who was walking around and playing with the toys that were in the room.

"Geez. All she does is play." Marik said.

Malik rolled his eyes. "She's a toddler, Marik. She's going to play most of the time, anyway." Malik said.

"I know. I know." Marik said.

"Don't worry. She'll want your attention more as she gets older." Malik said.

"Daddy!"

Marik looked down to see Anastasia looking up at him.

"Of course, she does love your attention now." Malik said.

Marik reached down and picked Anastasia up.

Malik shook his head. 'He is wrapped around her finger. When it comes to disciplining her, I think that I am going to have to be the one that does that. There's no way that Marik will be willing to punish her.' Malik thought, knowing that she was going to be daddy's little girl.

Aknankanon chuckled as he drank his drink as he sat on his bed.

"What do you find so funny?" Amara asked as she walked over to her husband.

"Oh, nothing. Heba was chasing Alex earlier today. That boy gets into trouble all the time." Aknankanon remarked.

"Was Atemu any different? You know that he got into trouble all the time, too. Alex is just taking after Atemu more than he's taking after Heba." Amara said.

"True." Aknankanon agreed.

"I love having a grandson." Amara said.

"Yes. You weren't the one that had to carry him and give birth to him. You also get to take him and spoil him as much as you want because you then turn him over to his parents to discipline him." Aknankanon said.

Amara laughed. "You love that fact, too." Amara said.

"I never said that I didn't." Aknankanon replied as he finished his drink.

"I wonder when we're going to get a grandchild out of Yami." Amara said.

"I don't know. We can ask him pretty soon." Aknankanon said.

"Why's that?" Amara asked a little surprised.

"You know that we have a ball coming up. We invite all kingdoms allied with us to it. The Millennial Kingdom is, without a doubt, our most powerful and closet ally. I am certain that Yami and Yugi are going to come to this ball." Aknankanon said.

"That is true. We haven't seen those two in a few months. It'll be nice to see them again." Amara remarked.

Aknankanon wrapped his arms around his wife. "Well, Yugi and Yami have a lot on their plate. They have to run a kingdom. They can't drop everything to aid us." Aknankanon said.

"I know, Aknankanon. I just would like to see my son again." Amara replied.

~Millennial Kingdom~

Yugi and Yami were in the middle of a meeting. The two had been in the middle of the meeting for most of the day, and they were both rather tired, and it was barely noon.

"The renewal treaties with the different kingdoms are coming due, Your Majesties. They need to be done soon." one of the councilmen said.

"We are aware of that. We are currently working on them now. We will be getting them done as soon as possible." Yugi said.

This seemed to satisfy the council.

Solomon and Dartz both could tell that Yugi and Yami needed a break from the meeting before they both collapsed.

"Perhaps it would be best to take a break. We have been here since before breakfast. We should break for a few hours so that we can all rest and get out thoughts together. We can meet back here an hour after lunch." Dartz suggested.

There were no objections to it from anyone in the room, so everyone left the throne room.

Yugi and Yami were glad that they were able to get out of the throne room due to how tired they were.

"Thanks. We need a break." Yugi said to Dartz.

"No problem. Just rest. You're going to need it for when the meeting starts back again." Dartz told them.

Yugi and Yami nodded before they walked off.

"Do you think that they are going to be okay?" Solomon asked.

"After some rest, I think that they will be. They have been doing a great deal recently. I honestly think that a little down time is something that they both need." Dartz said.

"Let's hope that a way to give them just that is found." Solomon remarked.

Dartz nodded his agreement.

Yugi and Yami walked down the hall to where their office was. The two went into the office, and they made sure to lock the door.

Yami sighed. "I am exhausted." Yami said as he walked over and collapsed on the couch.

"I know the feeling, Yami. The council is really wearing us thin, which I understand why." Yugi replied as he sank down in the soft chair at his desk.

"We're going to end up collapsing if they don't calm down." Yami said.

"Yami, we just had a hurricane to hit a sections of the kingdom. We need to aid those people through this disaster." Yugi said.

"How does driving us to the point that we collapse with exhaustion aid those people?" Yami asked.

"I don't have a clue." Yugi answered.

"I thought that the council was just supposed to give us advice on what to do, not tell us what to do. They are slave drivers." Yami said as he put one of his arms over his eyes, intending to use some of the time to take a nap.

With the time that they were given, the two had three hours before they headed back to the meeting.

Yugi started looking through some of the papers that had been placed on his desk since they had left that morning.

Hearing the shuffling of paper, Yami said, "Yugi, you should take this time to rest instead of doing all that work."

"I'm only seeing what we've been given, Yami. I don't think that I am going to be able to do much work at the moment." Yugi said.

Yami relaxed at that as he tried to get some sleep.

Yugi found an envelope addressed to them, and he saw that it was from Egypt. 'Hmm. At least this has nothing to do with treaties. My marriage to Yami handled that.' Yugi thought. He opened the envelope and took out the letter, starting to read it.

"Anything interesting?" Yami asked.

"Yes. How would you like it if I were able to find a way to give us a night off?" Yugi asked.

Yami uncovered his eyes and looked over at Yugi. "I would say that you were my savior." Yami replied.

"Well, you'll have to call your parents that. This is an invention to a ball that they are having in Egypt. It'll be in two weeks." Yugi said.

Yami groaned. "Sooner would have been nice." Yami said.

"Count your blessings. I'll work so that we can stay there for a few days. We could use some time off." Yugi said.

"Point taken. We both need time to relax." Yami said.

Yugi nodded his agreement. "Well, I suppose I should inform them that we will be coming." Yugi said.

"Later. We need to rest and get ready for that meeting." Yami said.

Yugi got up and walked over before he lay down with Yami. "I know what you mean." Yugi said.

Neither had been able to get a good night's rest in two weeks, so they were both purely exhausted.

Yami sighed. "I don't know how they expect us to produce an heir to the throne when we're too tired to try." Yami said.

Yugi laughed. "I know, Yami. We'll have to point that out later on." Yugi said.

The two were wanting to try to have children now, but they knew that they couldn't do that since they were so tired. When they got to bed, they were too tired to do anything other than sleep.

"All right. We need to get some sleep." Yami said.

"Right." Yugi said. He reached over and set the alarm clock to go off later. "We can get about an hour and a half nap." Yugi said.

"Better than nothing." Yami said.

Yugi set the alarm clock back on the stand.

Yami wrapped his arms around Yugi, and Yugi rested his head on Yami's chest. The two were soon asleep.

Solomon and Dartz were talking in Solomon's office.

"So, what can we do to help Yugi and Yami out?" Solomon asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. The council is running them ragged. I understand why they feel that Yugi and Yami need to work so hard with all that is going on, but they running them both ragged." Dartz said.

"They may mean well, but I think that in this case, they have gone a bit too far." Solomon said.

"Well, we can always bring this up to them and point out that they need to let up on them." Dartz said.

"Think that will work?" Solomon asked.

"We know that the council is completely loyal to the Emperors. There's no question of that. I just don't think that they realize how tired they are." Dartz said.

"Then let's try to reason with the council. I think that they will let up if they realize just how much Yugi and Yami need some time off." Solomon said.

"Right. Let's go." Dartz said.

The two stood up and left the office to find the council.

~Egypt~

Heba walked into the lounge and collapsed on one of the couches.

"Tired?" Ryou asked.

"You have no idea. I don't have that much energy after spending all day watching Alex." Heba said.

Bakura snickered. "Hurting your sex life?" Bakura asked.

"That's none of your business, Bakura!" Atemu snapped as he walked into the lounge and sat down by his husband.

"Ignore him, Atemu." Ryou said.

"Where's Alex at?" Malik asked when he noticed that the three-year-old was nowhere to be seen.

"My parents came and got him. They wanted to spend some time with him this afternoon." Atemu said.

"I'm sure that you two don't mind at all. You probably need a break." Malik said.

"Yeah. Mom and Dad love to have him for a while." Atemu said.

"What do you expect? This one they get to spoil and then send back to the parents when they need to be punished or something." Ryou said.

"And they love it." Heba said.

"You look like you could go to sleep." Marik said.

"I honestly could. I think that if I were to lay down and be still long enough, I would." Heba answered.

"Alex tired you out real good." Joey said.

"Yeah. I've been chasing him all morning." Heba answered.

"I think that you might want to help him out from time to time, Atemu." Ryou said.

"I know. I can't help that my father wants me to learn in more detail about what comes along with being Pharaoh." Atemu said.

"I know that, and I'm not mad." Heba said.

Ryou knew Heba very well, and he knew that Heba needed a break. He also knew that Heba needed some kind of alone time with Atemu that didn't involve sex.

"Anyway, what should we do now?" Bakura asked.

"Well, we have three other children that we have to watch, so there is a limit to what we can do." Seto said as he and Joey sat down in the room as well.

Seto put Seth down on the floor so that he could play.

"Well, we're going somewhere else, so we'll see you guys later." Atemu said. He then took Heba by the hand before he pulled Heba from the room.

"Where are they going?" Bakura asked.

"There's no way to know." Marik said.

Atemu pulled Heba into their room.

"Atemu, what's going on?" Heba asked.

"Well, we haven't been able to spend much time alone together, and I thought that since my parents are watching Alex today, we can spend this time alone." Atemu said as he wrapped his arms around Heba's waist.

Heba sighed. "Atemu, we have sex all the time. You don't have to worry about that." Heba said.

"Heba, I don't mean that. I mean literally spending time alone. No sex involved." Atemu said.

"You mean that?" Heba asked a little shocked.

"Yes. We haven't been able to spend time alone lately, and I convinced my father to give me the time off from the training so that I could spend this afternoon alone with you." Atemu told his husband with a soft smile.

"In other words, you asked them to watch Alex this afternoon so that we could spend the afternoon together." Heba said.

"Pretty much." Atemu answered with a guilty grin. "I'm sorry I don't help with Alex as much as I should. I know that it's rough on you." Atemu said.

"It's okay. It's not like it's your fault." Heba said.

"Still, I wish that I could help out more. I miss spending time with you two all the time." Atemu said.

"Well, we can spend time alone now, and you can convince your father to give you another afternoon off so that all three of us can spend time together." Heba said.

Atemu smiled. "Then we should spend this time we have together." Atemu said.

Heba nodded before the two left the left their room.

~Millennial Kingdom~

Solomon and Dartz had found the council and decided to talk to them about Yugi and Yami.

"Lord Solomon. Lord Dartz. What can we do for you?" one of the councilmen asked.

"We wished to speak to you about the Emperors." Solomon said.

"Is anything wrong?" another asked.

"In a way, yes. I think that you are working them too hard." Dartz said.

"They are doing what is necessary." a different councilman remarked.

"Yes, but neither have any time to get any rest. They are the last ones in the bed at night, and they are the first ones up in the morning. They are both extremely tired all the time, and they barely are given time to concentrate on anything other than their work. They need a break." Solomon said.

After thinking about it, the council realized that they were right.

"We didn't mean to force them to work so hard. I suppose we didn't think." one councilman said.

"All we ask is that you let up on them. They are going to get everything done. No one needs to tell those two what they need to do for them to do it." Dartz said.

"Of course. Perhaps when the meeting resumes, we should tell them to take the rest of the day off." another councilman said.

"It would be a good idea. I'm sure that they could use the break." Solomon said.

The council agreed that they would tell Yugi and Yami as soon as they could.

The alarm clock went off.

Yugi reached over and turned it off. He sat up and stretched lightly. He then looked down at his husband, who was still sound asleep.

Yami normally woke up to the sound of the alarm clock, but Yugi figured that he didn't hear it since he was so tired.

"Yami, wake up." Yugi said, shaking his husband gently.

Yami groaned and opened his eyes to look at Yugi. "What?" Yami asked tiredly.

"We need to get up. We have to eat lunch before we go back to the meeting." Yugi said.

"Oh. Okay." Yami said. He really didn't want to have to go to the meeting, but he got up anyway since he knew he had to go.

Yugi went to the door and unlocked it before he told two servants to bring them their lunch.

"I hope that the council lets up on us soon." Yami said.

"With any luck, they will." Yugi replied.

When the servants returned, they left the food on the desk and left.

Yugi and Yami then sat down to eat.

Yami took the chance to look over the invitation to the ball they had gotten from his parents. "You do know what is going to happen while we're there, don't you?" Yami asked.

Yugi looked up at Yami curiously. "What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

Yami laughed. "My mother is going to be asking us when we plan on having children. She's always liked the idea of grandchild, and she's going to want as many as she can get." Yami said.

"Well, just tell her that we're thinking about it." Yugi said.

Yami raised an eyebrow. "We want them, though." Yami said.

"Yeah, but do you really want her to know that the reason we haven't started trying yet is because of the fact that the council has kept us so busy we haven't had the time?" Yugi asked.

"Oh. She'll have the council's head." Yami said.

"I know. No one knows that we're planning on starting a family, so I thought that we would wait until I am actually pregnant for that one." Yugi said.

"I get it, Yugi. I'll just tell her we're thinking about starting a family." Yami said.

"Good. Problem solved." Yugi said.

After the two finished their lunch, they decided to work on the renewals for the peace treaties before going to the meetings.

The time seemed to pass quickly, and Yugi and Yami were soon back in the meetings. The two expected things to be the way they had been fort he past few weeks with all these demands heaped on them, and they trying to meet them.

They were in for a big surprise.

The head of the council spoke to them. "Emperor Yugi. Emperor Yami. I feel that we owe you an apology." the man said.

Yugi and Yami were both startled by this.

"What for?" Yugi asked.

"We have realized that we have been demanding too much of you. You both are excellent rulers, but you had so much work put on you that you are both exhausted. In fact, you both look like you are ready to collapse right now." the councilman said.

"We are sorry for not realizing that we were asking too much of you." another councilman said.

Needless to say, Yugi and Yami were both shocked and thrilled at this.

"You were only doing what you thought was best for the kingdom. You don't need to be sorry for that." Yugi said.

"Yes, but we did cross the line. We are sorry. And we agreed that you both should take the rest of the day off to rest and not worry about work." another councilman said.

Not ones to look a gift in the mouth, Yugi and Yami graciously accepted.

"I am glad of this." Yami said as he sat down on his and Yugi's bed.

"I know." Yugi said as he shut his door. "At least we have the rest of the day off." Yugi added as he walked over and sat down by Yami.

Yami wrapped an arm around Yugi and kissed him on the cheek. "So, should we use this time to start on our family?" Yami asked.

"Hmm. It wouldn't be a bad idea, but I'm too tired. Let's get some actual rest today, and we can start on the family tomorrow." Yugi said.

Yami smiled. "Agreed." Yami said.

The two lay down to rest after two weeks of barely getting any rest.

Hope you liked it. I know that there wasn't much action, but it'll come later.

For anyone who wondered, I have family visiting, so updates might not be regular this weekend. By the start of next week, things should be back to normal.

Next: The ball in Egypt.

R&R.