Now here is the last chapter at last. It's not the best I've written to this story, and once i was down I broke down into the arms of a friend and after that cried about the whole night. I'm feeling awfully abandoned and lonely and I'm gonna miss all the charachters of this story. I miss them terribly already and I must fight tears every time I think of this story now.

Well, I hope you guys like it and that you won't break down and cry out of disappointment in me and the end. It's been a long journey that I now will take farewell of... (tearsy eyed).

Anyway. This is the end and the very last chapter. Please enjoy.

/Love Mjus

The Truth behind the Legends

"Yugi, I hope you're awake, for if you're not you'll be late for school."

Yugi stirred. He was death tired, but his mom had a point; if he didn't get up about now he would be late.

He dressed and got down for breakfast still half asleep.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Yami greeted.

"Mornin' stupid brother," Yugi muttered.

Yami looked up from the newspaper. "What was that for?" he asked with a surprised laugh.

"Because you're stupid, stupid." Yugi rested his head on his hand as he fed himself with breakfast. As he ate he kept mumbling incoherently, obviously rather annoyed.

"Yugi, are you sure you're alright?" Kanaka asked when she entered the kitchen. "I told you to get in bed early last night."

"I know," Yugi muttered. "Like I could forget."

Kanaka sighed and decided not to push it. "Well then. I left your lunches by the door. Make sure to grab them when you leave."

Yugi nodded, finished his breakfast and went to do his ordinary morning chores. He brushed his teeth, combed his hair, put on his uniform, packed his bag and almost forgot his lunch by the door. Well, it was the first time Kanaka had put them there so of course he almost forgot, it was only luck he didn't. Yami had passed the first block before he remembered.

It was a dark and rainy Friday and first class was culture. The students were actually a little exited about today's lesson, for it was time to present the follow up from the research; dress up like the artist or (if a portrait) the person on the painting and tell its story. Since Yugi was a freshman with the last name Atemu, his group was out first.

Seto and Ryou had prepared texts and images for the Overhead and was preparing at the black board, mumbling quietly to each other. They had cleared a pathway from the door to the front where a chair with high back, golden armrests and red velvet seating stood waiting for a special person.

When the teacher walked in she was pleased to see her students prepared and ready to start. Except for one thing. "Where're Atemu and Ishtar?"

Ryou smiled as Seto wrote on the black board. "We shall announce their appearance as soon as everybody is ready."

"Battle Princess" now neatly stood on the black board. He stared out the crowd with bright, almost proud eyes. "Everybody rise to greet the queen of Scotland."

Everybody snickered to each other as they stood; believing it was all a game, until the door opened and the queen herself entered the classroom with her nurse by her side.

Yuniko was elegantly dressed in a fitting, dark blue green velvet gown that left her shoulders bare. The sleeves were pointed, decorated with billowing, golden embroidery and ended by her elbows, drawing attention to her golden skin. Malin had done a wonderful work with the queen's long hair. The crown on her head had challenged her skills, but now Yuniko's hair was braided many times in her neck to fall over her left shoulder in soft waves. Rumours hadn't gone far from the truth when they four hundred years ago named Scotland's princess the kingdom's highest beauty. The colour of her dress also made her blue eyes seem even brighter.

Everybody bowed as she passed them. Yuniko stepped up to the throne and turned, her eyes shining with the same authority and strength from her time as Scotland's monarch. Malin walked silent and pleasant in her moves slightly behind her queen, dressed as a normal servant with knee long, white dress and only its blue waistband to prove she was the queen's personal servant. When the ruler turned Malin curtsied deeply and Scotland's patriot saint nodded nobly in acknowledgement. Yuniko seated on the throne as the nurse took her place behind her, she motioned for everyone else to follow her example and sit down.

Seto and Ryou stepped in front of Scotland's monarch and bowed elegantly. "Welcome, your majesty, Treasure of Scotland."

Yuniko nodded at them both, radiating calmness and good will. She opened her mouth and spoke. "I am honoured to be here, my young ones." Her smile was honest and she looked so very proud.

Ryou stood closest to the Overhead so he took the few steps there to turn it on. Ken's painting showed in black and white behind the queen.

"Your majesty," Seto bowed again. "The painting of you in your moment of death was painted by Sir Ken Scotte. I believe you can tell us about him."

Yuniko's smile faded. She looked to the side where she could see the copy of the painting on the Overhead. "Sir Ken. It feels like a long time ago, that day in the throne room." She turned her gaze back to the crowd listening, her eyes sad but her voice steady. "Sir Ken worked in the council for my father, late king Loutus of Scotland. He was very loyal," her eyes grew darker as she frowned at the memory. "Towards my father, that is. But the thought of a female ruler… displeased him."

"Why?" somebody in the class asked and Yuniko turned her eyes towards her while Malin gave her a sharp glare.

"It is no crime to wonder loudly, Malin," Yuniko said as if she had seen her nurse's glare, though Malin knew she had probably seen it in the girl's face. The queen gave the senior who had asked the question a politely interested glance. "You ask me why? Now I wonder why you are asking."

The girl shrugged her shoulders uncertainly and shook her head. "W-we-well, I don't know when you lived but…" she shrugged her shoulders again, not knowing how to voice her question.

"I understand," Yuniko said softly. "You are a strong and independent girl. But I was born 1612, and back then it was the men who ruled this world." Flames of harm glowed in the girl's eyes and she straightened her back about to say something spiteful, but the queen raised her hand with a hard look in her eyes. "I know how you feel, young miss. I have felt so too many times. But Sir Ken's dislike towards me was not only the fact I was a woman."

Malin lifted her head and stared with stone cold eyes at the crowd. "Sir Ken believed Milady to be weak because she never once in her life ordered execution as penalty." Eyes widened and glances were exchanged. Malin spoke up again, feeling the need to voice facts. "Milady is merciful and kind, but not weak. The title of 'Battle Princess' was given her for reasons that do not include weakness."

Yuniko turned her keen eyes towards Honda who sat to her right on the second row. "You have a question for me, do you not?"

Honda stood before he spoke. "Milady, why would a man who disliked your majesty choose to paint you?"

Scotland's patriot saint smiled sadly. "Because I loved him, I believe." She looked over to where Bakura sat staring, almost glaring, intently at her. "Once he tried to steal my protection and I gave him one more chance. He failed that chance."

"The marriage?" Bakura and Yami asked in union, making Yuniko smile and them glare at each other.

"You have done your homework, I see," she said almost slyly, hinting she knew more about it than the rest of the crowd, or themselves. "Yes. Sir Ken sent to me a suitor I could not refuse."

A brunette in the back stood, curiosity mixed with awe in her eyes. "Why not?"

"Because the Irish Lord Thomas had strong military forces," Malin answered to draw attention away from Yuniko's fleeting show of pain. "Since Milady was fighting a war and late Lord Thomas offered to join forces with her majesty."

Yuniko nodded again, mostly to herself. "Until we stood in front of the altar I could not refuse him, the consequences of denial would send upon me and the world a catastrophe I rather not try to imagine. But there in the church, I, Yuniko I of Scotland, refused Lord Thomas IV Gabriel of the Lion clan in order to keep my kingdom safe for some time longer."

"Forgive my intrusion, your majesty," Seto interrupted as politely as he could. "We are swaying from the subject."

"Actually not, little Kyoko." Yuniko looked up into the surprised blue eyes of the male, her own very aware even with the distant look. She seemed to have surprised herself with an automatic replay. "No. You are Seto Kaiba now. Forgive me."

Seto nodded, still not really recovered from the surprise. "You are always forgiven, Milady."

Yuniko smiled warmly at him. "I wish that was true." Then she blinked to let him see the green and brown hiding behind the blue before turning back to Honda. "My fiancé died that night along with his son," she pursed her mouth fleetingly, "whom I can tell was older than me, and the soldiers he had brought to witness his overtake of my kingdom, so obviously not knowing the consequences of such an action. Sir Ken led him to it. It was somewhere between late Lord Thomas's arrival and the wedding I figured out Sir Ken was related to Lord Thomas, uncle and nephew actually." A thought seemed to hit her from the looks of the listeners. "I suppose I should tell you I was far from isolated in the white castle and I had friends outside my kingdom's boundaries as well. A few messages to my Irish friends served me enough information and proof to uncover his plans and send Sir Ken to exile." She frowned a bit, as if daring anybody to disagree with her. "I had given him one more chance to serve me, but Sir Ken was blinded by… greed I suppose, and fear. Late Lord Thomas was his uncle, and if he had taken over the Scottish throne Sir Ken would have been a part of the royal family, and as such better protected."

"At least that is what he imagined," Malin said spitefully, her face telling everybody exactly what she thought of the man.

"Fear can do a lot to you," Yuniko nodded, her eyes dark as she looked Yami in the eyes. "And Sir Ken choose to listen to his fears and let it lead him."

There was a silence where Malin straightened her back again and looked over the heads of the crowd. She had done so every time she had something to say. This time though she was silent at first. "The night of the wedding her majesty fell ill and would not wake up for six days. When she did wake up Sir Ken was judged and sent to exile."

Yuniko nodded, a small smile touching her lips as she remembered that moment. It was so clear in her mind it could have happened this same morning. "My weakness, and strength, has always been my people," she said softly, like a mother talking about her child. "Sir Ken was part of my people and as such I loved him. Despite his dislike towards me I wanted him to be safe. So, on impulse…" she looked out over the heads, seeing the eyes directed at her, curious and aware, "I told him to take care."

"To bad he did not," Malin mumbled with an absent-minded glance out the windows. Yuniko had to smile at her tone. Malin would never learn to keep her comments in a leach.

Otogi slowly stood slightly to the queen's left side. "My apologies, Milady. But you have left out some details…" He hesitated before he continued. "Actually, your majesty has left out many details."

"I am aware of that, young sir. But those details have to do with the name given to me only months before my death." She suddenly gave him a sharp gaze, marking his place. "I will uncover everything, but I will do it in my own pace."

Otogi nodded, bowed clumsily and sat back down as fast as he could. Yuniko nodded satisfied before she turned Malin's way. "Where was I?"

The nurse thought for a second. "You told Sir Ken to take care right before he left the throne room."

"Yes." Yuniko nodded and found Otogi's green eyes. She clearly remembered them in governor Duke's face. "I could not forgive him or take back my punishment, but I could tell him I loved him." Otogi swallowed, unable to keep the eye contact. "And then he forgave me."

The queen gave the students a moment to understand what she was saying, something a few seemed to have a hard time with. One of them, a shaved boy with deep brown eyes, stood hesitatingly. When the queen gave him attention he blushed and almost stumbled over his tongue. "I-I-I just… Your majesty… She said," he waved in Malin's direction, "he didn't. Take care, I mean."

Yuniko nodded at him. "You are right. Sir Ken died before he could leave Scotland."

"How?" the boy asked and paled when the queen's expression darkened. He quickly sat back down to get out of the way for a possible punishment for his thoughtless question.

"He was killed." She turned her head to the overhead. "A week after his banishment, perhaps even less. Ken had not dared to leave Scotland because he believed that as long as he stayed within the kingdom he would be somehow safe."

The teacher stepped forward. "Now you are not making sense, lady. This painting is supposed to be of your death. When exactly did he paint it?"

Yuniko lifted her chin and looked down at the female teacher with a slight frown. "I died a few months after Sir Ken. He was not there to witness it. He could not possibly have made a painting of me in my moment of death during his lifetime."

The teacher was about to protest when Seto knocked on the image of the painting. "This," he said with narrowed eyes, "is a forgery, painted many years after Queen Yuniko's and even King Jonathan's regime."

"King Jonathan?"

"We will come to that," Ryou said quickly. "That question belongs to the end of the history behind the Battle Princess." He nodded to Seto.

"But before that we'll tell the story of this painting. For even if it wasn't painted during the seventeenth century it is still an image of a person who have lived."

A girl in the middle stood. "How can you tell it's a forgery?"

"Simple," Malin replayed. "The ribbon that tied her majesty's dress together was blue."

Everybody looked at the green ribbon that twisted around the arched body of a lost queen. Yuniko was wearing a blue green dress so no one had paid much attention to the colour of the painting's ribbon.

Seto spoke up again. "The owner of the painting was also the one who actually made it, though he in the museum said his grandmother had painted it, and he purposely painted the ribbon green."

"Why would he do that?" someone asked, obviously one who hadn't meant to open his mouth.

"So that he could recognize the queen when she was reborn," Malin replied.

Jono stood up but was silent. Since he didn't seem able to put words to his question he sat back down.

"The artist's name is Ken Scotte," Seto informed, making the students exchange disbelieving glances. "He stated that he was a descendant to queen Yuniko's half sister Ryouko."

"Which is impossible," Ryou stated firmly.

The teacher stepped up again, this time with something haughty around her mouth. "Half sister, you say? A bastard I assume. How can you be so sure she didn't have bastards of her own?"

Ryou's chin shot up. "Because the spring 1632 Ryouko entered a nun abbey while her sister, Kyoko, married a nobleman."

"So, this Scotte is…" the teacher silenced under Yuniko's hard glare.

"The Mr. Scotte who put me on canvas is the same man whom I banished four hundred years ago."

Mrs. Atac took short pause to take in that information. "That is impossible."

Yuniko blinked and Yohim's brown eyes glared at her with such intensity Mrs. Atac stepped back. Even the ones in the back saw the change of colour in the woman's eyes, because her entire appearance changed even if she still looked the same. Yohim stood. "How can you be so sure?" Mrs. Atac opened and closed her mouth, trying to speak though she had no words to say. "We have not yet uncovered the truth and already are you laughing me off. I will not tolerate such treatment from you." She looked over the class. "Nor anybody else."

Even Yami and Bakura straightened up for Ma Yoro's stern and hard face, not wanting to know what she would do if they disobeyed her. If she threatened them now no one would think it was an empty one; she would do exactly what she said.

Yohim's shoulders were still drawn backwards, but her glare softened as she sat back down. Yuniko's blue eyes returned, but the expression stayed the same. "I have learnt there are two stories about me," she started calmly, still with glowing eyes. "One story tells I ascended the throne and disappeared during the winter the same year."

"But the other story is a legend," Ryou stated solemnly.

Seto looked through his notes after something as he spoke. "The legend stats that Yuniko I of Scotland, the Battle Princess," he looked up, "fought vampires."

"But that is the truth!"

Everybody turned and stared strangely at Honda, and only then did he realize the one who had spoken was he. Yuniko smiled a little. "We know the truth, and no matter what we say we will always be the only ones who know."

A boy to the far right stood. "Excuse me, my queen. But if what you say is true, then you fought count Dracula? I thought his residence was in Transylvania."

"Count Dracula?" Yuniko almost laughed and the rest of the tense atmosphere eased. "You must mean count Vald Dracul of the Dragon clan? He was the first vampire, and as you say he had his fortress in Transylvania during the 12th century."

"How do you know that?" Yuniko looked at him sternly, waiting. "Your majesty," the boy added.

"I needed information about my enemies and did my own research." She raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner that dared anybody to oppose her. "Have I not already told I had friends across my borders?"

"Of course you have, your majesty," the boy almost squeaked, not daring the queen's look. "Memory failed me. You must have had friends all over the world."

Yuniko's eyes narrowed dangerously. "My brother was engaged to the youngest daughter of the king of France, my council consisted people with relatives from many different countries in Europe and Malin was born in Wales while little Ryouko and Kyoko were both born in London." The queen's eyes flew over her keen listeners. "As monarch it is important to have contacts everywhere in order to stay as much at peace as possible, as well as being updated on everything that happens around the world. Being keen and observant of every voice and the crimes the counts thought they did without being noticed have always been important."

There was a twitch in the corner of Malin's mouth and she had to lift her head to speak. "Smuggling is one of the oldest crimes in history, and it will never cease to be."

"I could look between my fingers as long as it did not threaten Scotland or my people."

Bakura and Yami exchanged a look. This was a side of the queen they hadn't expected, but then again none of them were really sure what the life of a royalty was like and what it contained. Queen Yuniko must have had a hundred eyes and ears out.

Yuniko's smile broadened so slightly it wasn't even visible. She liked to turn over people's image of her and seeing the faces of the victims of her little mischief was always as fun.

"History does not tell much interesting," Seto spoke up, not letting the queen bath in the stares long enough. "1612 princess Yuniko, only daughter to Yue of the Forest clan and king Loutus III of Scotland, was born. 1615 the queen was banished for reasons there are no clear facts about."

Ryou held up some papers and waved a little with them. "Some say she was cheating on the king, that she was the castle's all man's whore. Other's say that she tried to kill the king out of jealousy because he was the one hiring whores. The third theory is that she tried to steal something precious and was caught. However the king didn't have heart enough to execute his queen."

"She tried to take me away," Yuniko said, her smile gone. Actually, her eyes were really dark after hearing the rumours about her parents. "Something happened when I was born, what I can not tell, but it scared both my father and mother and their visions of protecting me were very different. In the morning February 28 my mother was banished, but my father would have executed her had I not been there to stop him."

Seto nodded his head, as if what the queen said sounded logical. "You know the truth, Milady. Anyway, some interesting facts are that 1626 your majesty was fourteen years old, and already by then named Great Brittan's highest beauty."

"And some said that was an exaggeration," Jono voiced before he realized the words had been lying on his tongue just waiting to be said. He had known that part would come and prepared for it, subconsciously. He blushed and lowered his head so that he didn't have to see the queen's expression.

"I can not answer that," Yuniko said, once again smiling amused and the shadows almost cleared from her eyes. "I must admit I had not met every person on the island, or on Ireland, so I can not tell if that fact is true or not. But what is beautiful in me in your eyes, Mr. Jonouchi, may be ugly in your neighbour's."

"Nothing with her majesty is ugly," a male voice said and Yuniko wasn't sure where it came from, so she just smiled. She did notice a reddening face off to the back though.

A sigh was head from Ryou. "1630 the king passes away in an illness."

"Illness?" Yuniko suddenly asked very lowly.

"That is what all facts say, your majesty," Ryou said with and apologizing bow as if he too had known it was untrue facts. "There are no records that stat differently. Just like there are no absolute facts you had an older brother."

Yami frowned. He knew all this, but to suddenly hear what the world saw as facts when the truth obviously was different cut in his heart. Why hadn't prince Atemu been recorded? What about Princess Tea?

Yuniko's chest lifted as if she was about to puff her breath out, but instead she looked hard in front of her. "My brother was killed before my eyes the night of my sixteenth birthday, my father was killed before my eyes two years later. I did not wish to frighten my people and said my brother had fallen ill, but when my father died everybody knew about the vampires and knew what had happened when his death was announced. By then they could also guess what had happened to my brother. Why does history say I had no brother and that my father passed away in an illness?"

"The church," Jono said as he rose. He couldn't stop himself, something much stronger pushed the words forward, out his mouth. "The church fought the truth and decided vampires had never existed. The pope of Rome could not allow such unholy creatures to have walked the earth that God left to the humans."

Yuniko's eyes narrowed. She had had her talks with the pope as well and had never caught much liking in him. The head priest of the church near her castle hadn't liked the idea of her as the ruler of Scotland, but he had held his options to himself even if they had been showing on his face. The pope had thought he could have a great influence on her kingdom when she was queen, believing women to be weak rulers. Elizabeth I of England had kissed up to the pope, Yuniko I of Scotland had refused.

"I can understand that, Mr. Jonouchi," she said stiffly. "The pope and I were never friends. We only tolerated each other at the best of terms."

Seto nodded. Kyoko had followed Mokuba to eavesdrop on a meeting between the pope and the queen. The two conversations that had been going on, the words they had spoken and the tone with which they had been said, had frightened them so that none of them had dared to go close to Yuniko for six days.

"Anyway," Seto continued as he tried to shake off Kyoko's feelings of that one time of eavesdropping. "The records stat your majesty disappeared in the beginning of winter the same year, leaving Scotland in chaos without a ruler."

"Really?" Yuniko said as if that didn't surprise her. "Was the pope involved in that too, Mr. Jonouchi?"

"Yes, Milady," Jono answered without a thought. "He hated the fact he had not been there to choose the new monarch, and that king Jonathan had carried such absolute devotion to your majesty that he refused to leave the throne."

Flashes lit up the sky and thunder made the windows shake worriedly. If they answered to Yuniko's feelings or if it was just a coincidence nobody could tell, but Yuniko's face had hardened enough for anyone to believe.

"Tell me why I am not surprised," she said between clenched teeth. "I remember well the day I abdicated the throne to Jonathan Edwardson. It was not far till sunset and I had to get away from the castle and my people before that."

"Why?" a short girl to the left asked stupidly. Yuniko only moved her eyes to her.

"Because they were coming."

Another flash and boom of thunder. For a second the shadows became tall men with glowing eyes and white skin. And they were gone the second the pupils turned to look. Nobody needed to ask who had been coming.

"The war had to come to an end, and I am sad to say it did not."

"What happened?" Bakura asked. It was the first time he got Yuniko's unshared attention and her eyes went straight to find his. She was silent for a moment, staring at him as if in surprise.

"Something impossible to explain I fear," she said at last, softly staring into his eyes. "The three times gathered in one second of eternity and fought against the being the devil had thrown on earth. That night God told me that the vampire during my time called Sanguis was the devil's attempt to make a human. The Devil cannot give Life so he asked God to do so, but God refused and the devil threw his creation on the earth and went back to hell. The doll however was neither alive nor dead. Sunlight hurt it, but it was still able to move. It became what we humans call a vampire."

"Excuse me, your majesty," Mrs. Atac said, once again with her haughty smile plastered on her face. "But that sounds highly unreal."

"Of course it does," the queen said with a nod that wiped the smile right off the teacher's face. "That is why it is a legend, is it not? Because it is unreal, and the world is filled with realists."

Mrs. Atac didn't know what to say. The queen's eyes were daring her and winning. What could you say against someone with such dignity looking at you with eyes challenging your will to understand the truth?

"My brother was among the vampires," Yuniko continued. "The night of my sixteenth birthday he was killed and turned into a vampire. Since he was of royal blood he became a powerful one too, a very important one driven mad by his dying wish, his desire and Sanguis's whispers." There was a soul deep pain buried in her voice. Yami felt his chest tighten at the sound of it. "That last night of my life I had to fight him. Brother was driven beyond mad and I can not describe what he looked like. I can only say that with God holding my back our power was equal. We finished each other."

It was silent for a long moment, the pupils with their imagination trying to see the furious battle and Yuniko trying to push the images away from her mind. Seto saved the moment by placing another image on the overhead. Yami dropped his jaw along with most of his classmates.

"This is a copy of the handmade painting inside queen Yuniko's locket that was found in the grave made for queen Yuniko under the white castle from where she ruled. It is her and her ten years older brother Atemu."

"It's Yami!" someone exclaimed and everybody turned to the stunned teenager of Yugi's brother.

"Did you say 'Atemu'?" A girl in the front row asked, her voice thick with doubt and disbelief. "But that's your- I mean Yami's last name."

Yuniko only nodded, unable to keep the sadness completely away from her expression.

"Because I am a saint I am not allowed to go to Heaven."

"What?" Bakura, Jonouchi, Honda, Seto, Ryou and Malik all turned and stared at her along with everybody else in the room.

"But shouldn't you as a saint belong in Heaven?" Bakura asked, something unreadable in his eyes. Yuniko shook her head.

"I am not your average saint or martyr, I am the patron saint of Scotland. As such I can not leave my kingdom unguarded. My soul lingered in the petrified monument of my former body."

"What does that mean… your majesty?" Bakura asked, honestly curious.

"That her body turned to stone," Ryou answered and Seto moved the sheet on the overhead so the image below the one in the locket could be seen. An image to show the weathered stone body of Scotland's most holy ruler.

"That night God had so separate me from my brother completely, but he gave me a promise. I was unable to finish my mission that night, and so I had to be reborn again. God gave me the promise of letting me be reborn in the same family as my dear brother, so that what was lost could be recreated."

Honda frowned slightly. "What was lost?"

Yuniko smiled. "My brother's loving heart."

Queen Yuniko of Scotland passed the room where Yugi's and Malik's cloths were kept on course to the main gate. The rain had stopped and the storm had passed, but in the sky the dark clouds still lingered. Her mission was still not completely finished.

In the shadow of the gate stood a pitiful figure. The queen stopped in front of him.

"I really am a coward," Ken said lowly, tonelessly, mirroring the depth of self-contempt he felt. "I didn't even dare to come to your aid yesterday."

The queen said nothing. Malin also stood quiet behind her ruler and friend, her face equally expressionless. Ken never dared to look up from his former queen's feet.

"I can not even ask to be forgiven. Your majesty did once, I can not expect it again, can I?"

"No," Yuniko said honestly and Ken's face almost disappeared in the shadow of his pain, grief and bitter understanding. He didn't see Yuniko's soft smile. "Because I never held a grudge against you, because I know you so well, there is nothing I can forgive. But can you?"

Ken looked up at her face for the first time and tears escaped his eyes, falling over his scarred face.

"Can you forgive yourself, Sir Ken?" Yuniko asked again, softly. "And can you forgive me, for using you the way I have?"

The old vampire's body shook with sobs. Malin walked forward and embraced him wholeheartedly. "I forgive you," she said honestly. "I have hated you and held a grudge against you, but you have cleaned yourself in my eyes, so I forgive you."

Ryouko and Kyoko walked up to the kneeling pair and joined Malin.

"I forgive you," Ryouko said and meant it. "I no longer hate you or your uncle. I have forgiven you."

"Me also," Kyoko said and nodded, smiling. "I can not stay angry at somebody who honestly regrets his wrongdoings."

It was too much for the poor man. He had lived with his regret for so long it was indescribable how it felt to be forgiven.

"Free me, oh Queen of Earth," he prayed. "Release me from this life. Do to me what you did to his majesty and to Father Scot."

Scotland's patron saint heard his prayed and answered it.

Yami was looking for his brother along with Bakura. Yuniko had left with Malin in tow and when the applauders had died down Seto and Ryou had left as well.

In the main gate to the school they suddenly saw Yugi against the light of the last flash and boom of thunder. But what happened in that second of eternity none of them would ever forget.

The second stretched and Yuniko suddenly stood in front of them, smiling happily. Without saying a word her arms and entire being embraced them with all the love her heart held for them alone.

"Thank you," she said and the second ended.

They blinked against the light of the sun that flooded down onto the rain-whipped world and gave it all colours only the light can give. God's promise embraced the new world free from the creatures the Devil had once created. Yugi and his friends stood watching this colourful beautiful world when Yami called out to him.

"Yugi." He turned around, a smile in his green eyes. "What happened just now? Are you all right?"

"I am fine, brother." Yugi smiled from his own heart, from Yohim's and Yuniko's whose souls were at long last free from the bounds of earth. "Everything is fine now."

The End