"So you actually had Yugi-kun and his grandfather build your deck for you!? Luckyyyyyy!" Minako angrily jabbed her spoon into her parfait.

"They're all really nice," Usagi admitted. "I invited them to join us today, but we were pretty late with detention. We might've missed them. But if we did, we can always invite them again." A few days had passed since she'd seen Yugi and his friends, mostly trying to focus on some school but ultimately delving into duels and manga instead. She was truly terrible at this studying thing.

"Really?" Minako perked up. "I want to meet Yugi-kun and his friends!"

"I think you want to date someone famous," Artemis commented snidely.

"No one asked you," Minako flicked him in the nose. "Anyway, they sound like they could be really good friends. And maybe they could help me with my deck too." She was practically exuding sparkles with stars dotting her eyes.

"They could!" Usagi agreed with a smile. She pushed at her parfait with her spoon, the dream still clouding her mind. It had become more prevalent lately, leaving her waking up suddenly and feeling like she'd forgotten someone important. It was perhaps even more of a distraction than dueling and playing with her new deck. "Say, Minako-chan."

"Hm?" Minako broke her idolizing for a moment. "Something on your mind, Usagi-chan?"

Usagi paused, taking a moment to chew on her spoon. "You remember a lot of our past life, right?"

"Well that's a sudden question," Minako pointed out. Usagi hadn't asked much about their past lives during the Silver Millennium, remembering quite a bit of it after they'd all awoken in the fight against Queen Beryl, but to bring it up now? Something was on her mind. "What's going on?"

"I've been having this strange dream," Usagi admitted. "It's me as Princess Serenity, I think, but I've fallen to Earth and got stuck there. But then this man rescues me. He's wearing white and a lot of jewelry but I can't see his face."

"Well there were quite a few times you snuck off to Earth," Minako recalled, leaning on her elbows on the table, "but it was always to see Endymion."

Usagi stared at the parfait again. "Did I ever get... lost?"

"I don't remember that specifically, but I don't remember everything from our past," Minako admitted. "Do you think it's a memory?"

"I'm not sure," Usagi shook her head. "It could be a dream but it feels so real, like I'm trying to remember something I forgot. Each time, I remember a bit more of the dream, like I'm watching a movie."

"How strange," Minako observed. "Maybe it really is a memory, though I don't actually remember Endymion ever wearing jewelry."

"I don't think it was him though," Usagi admitted. "The man in my dream was really dark skinned, and even Endymion was pale. But the man did seem to want to help me get back to the Moon."

"That's a very specific thing to remember," Minako considered the description. "His jewelry and his skin, but not his face?"

"He's always got his back to the sun," Usagi explained. "I feel like I know him, but I just can't remember who he is."

Minako frowned a bit, thinking back to her attempts to recover her memories. She recalled Adonis, a man from her own past who seemed like an ally but turned out to be an enemy. Hopefully this mysterious man wouldn't turn out that way. At least Usagi had the senshi to back her up if he did. "Could be just a dream."

Usagi frowned, chewing on her spoon some more. "Maybe." But her heart told her this man was real.

Minako stared out the window, suddenly distracted by a massive downpour. People on the streets began to scatter, becoming soaked in the rain. "Was there rain in the forecast today?"

Usagi stared too. That storm had approached so suddenly, darkening the bright and sunny afternoon sky and bringing rain with its approach. "On no. I didn't bring an umbrella today!"

Minako stared outside some more. "Usagi-chan, do you see that?" Out in the middle of the storm stood a man in a crisp blood-red suit with jet black hair slicked back. The rain seemed to call to him, surrounding him but never touching him to a point where it looked like he was summoning it.

Minako slipped out of the booth, beckoning for Usagi and the moon cats to follow along. The group peered out the door of the Parlor, watching the man curiously and suspiciously.

"It's time to flood the world to find her and him. The remnants shall fall."

Usagi and Minako exchanged worried looks.

"An enemy?" Usagi knit her brow together in worry. "And after all that work we did to restore the Galaxy Cauldron." She knew that the world still had chaos within it but to find it so soon? She had hoped for a bit more respite, at least.

"We should transform!" Minako summoned her sailor crystal to her hands.

Magic and sparkles and light burst out the Parlor door, quickly grabbing the suited man's attention.

"Hold it right there!" Eternal Sailor Moon proclaimed. She had lost her wings, shattered in her fight with Shadow Galactica, but her crystal had still remained intact, allowing her to still transform and fight. Just without the cumbersome wings. For the better, truly, as the rain doused them to the point that her hair was sticking to her face.

"I'm the pretty suited soldier, Sailor Moon!" she introduced herself.

"And with her, the goddess of love, Sailor Venus!" Venus added.

"We won't allow you to flood the world!" Moon continued. "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

"Lofty words," the man hissed. "But this doesn't concern you."

"This is our world, and we'll protect it against those who wish to harm it!" Sailor Moon announced. She summoned her Eternal Tiare to her hand.

"What is this, Saturday night anime?" the man fussed. "We settle this with duels. Prepare yourself, Moon and Venus, for a tag-team duel."

….

"Just how many Crown places are there in Juuban?" Jounouchi rubbed at his forehead. "This is giving me a headache."

"She said Crown Fruits Parlor," Yugi recalled. "There can't be many of those, right? It seems pretty unique."

"It's down the street," Anzu directed them. "I just asked the guy in the shop. You know, that would've been much easier if we did that in the first place."

"Yeah yeah," Jounouchi waved it off.

"You wanted to come along." Anzu pulled his ear. "Just stop complaining and let's go." She paused, her hand still tugging his ear as she noticed the clouds quickly roll in. "Was there rain in the forecast today?"

"I don't think so," Yugi shook his head. "Grampa didn't give me an umbrella today." He shook his head some more, closing his eyes and pausing for a moment. "Something feels wrong."

Anzu stared at him for a moment. There were the subtle changes she had come to recognize when the two had swapped the body, when one was in control of the other. The voice was more confident, even with the short warning. "Atem?"

He nodded. "I've been getting deja vu lately," he admitted. He'd talked to Yugi about it, the strange dreams that seem to unfold like turns in a game. He hadn't mentioned it to the others, but he'd left Yugi to speak for him lately as he dwelled on his fractured memory. "Something about this feels familiar."

"Deja vu?" Anzu echoed. "Something that we didn't find within the Memory World?"

Atem nodded. "I'm not sure what it means yet, but it's all just a haze."

"It's just rain, Yugi," Jounouchi shrugged, calling him by his other half's name.

"Deja vu is strange like that," Anzu noted. "Anything can trigger a memory. Perhaps there's something about sudden rain that seems familiar. Wasn't there an inundation festival every year in Ancient Egypt?"

"There was," Atem recalled. "It brought in water and life to the harvest every year. We've seen it rain many times, but I don't think I've ever felt deja vu from it."

"Perhaps remembering your true name has caused you to remember things," Anzu suggested. She frowned as the rain began to pour in sheets. "We should find Crown Fruits Parlor and take shelter before we become utterly soaked."

They quickly rounded the corner, following the instructions that Anzu had gotten from the store. Sure they'd found the Parlor, but they'd also walked in on some sort of unusual scene.

"Magical girls?" Anzu reasoned. She'd heard about them, strong sailor-suited soldiers who protected Tokyo against magical threats. They seemed more like fiction but she'd seen them on the news quite a number of times over the last two years.

And sure enough, there they stood, Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus, facing off against some man in a blood red suit.

"D-duel?!" Moon stammered. "Are you serious?"

"Magical battles are overrated," the man pointed out. "It's time to put your power where the cards are. Both of you, prepare yourselves." He held a deck in his hand, poising it in front of him with a curved arm. Nearly obscured by the fall of the pouring rain, he seemed to double himself as a second man in a suit appearing beside him. Moon would've thought herself seeing double if the second man hadn't had white hair.

"He can't be serious, can he?" Venus blinked stupidly. "I don't even have a deck yet! This is crazy!"

Moon patted down her fuku for her deck. "This might be the only way to punish evil. I've barely even started playing!" She found her deck magically appearing, decorated with a crescent moon on the back instead of the usual Duel Monsters logo.

"I'll be your partner in this tag team."

Moon blinked. She knew that voice but it sounded more confident than before. She turned over her shoulder, staring wide-eyed. "Y-yugi-kun?"

Venus stared. So that was Yugi. He sure seemed confident, standing tall and proud with his deck of cards in his hand. "You really shouldn't get involved in this! You could get hurt!"

"Heh," Atem smiled. "I've been through a lot, particularly with duels. I'm sure we can be victorious. Besides, if these suited men are causing trouble here, it seems only right we bring them to justice." He hadn't actually planned to intervene but when they'd come across the scene, he had to do something. That deja vu was still itching at the back of his mind, and he reasoned these men in blood red suits had something to do with it. Perhaps he could get an exciting duel out of it in the end.

"I barely even know how to play," Moon reiterated.

"Don't worry," Atem countered. "Just believe in the heart of the cards." He smiled at her confidently and reassuringly in a way she was certain it had to be true. Pausing, he dug into his pocket, pulling out a sort of bracelet. "You'll need this."

"What's this?" Moon took the offered bracelet.

"Latest in Kaiba Corp holographic technology," Atem explained, showing off the one he wore.

"Holowhata?" Moon blinked.

He frowned a bit, peering at the two suited men. They sure were being patient for antagonists. He turned back to Moon, showing off that he wore a similar bracelet. "Here, watch." He held his deck out. The bracelet lit up, displaying the deck on the ground as if it were a giant set of cards.

"Whoa," Venus marveled. "It's like a real life video game!"

Moon put the bracelet on her wrist, holding out her deck which appeared on the ground too. She had to have faith in her cards, just like Yugi and Sugoroku had said. The cards could feel one's faith and hope, and as Sailor Moon, she was often a beacon of hope and faith for people.

She could see a few people gather about, seeking shelter in the nearby shops to stay dry in the rain. Moon, Venus, and Yugi unfortunately were thoroughly soaked in the rain. Good thing she didn't have the wings to weigh her down anymore.

"About time," the black-haired man in the suit smirked.

"For this we'll be sharing a pool of life points," Atem explained. He flicked his wrist up, making a wide spanning motion as several smaller holographic cards appeared in front of him. "We can't see each others' cards, but we can use our own cards to help each other out."

Moon took a deep breath, summoning her own inner strength. She'd fought queens and galactic enemies, downed forms of Chaos and purified the Galactic Cauldron so that all could live free of Chaos. A duel against some rainbringer shouldn't be too hard. Maybe.

She glanced at Yugi. He seemed confident, but that was what she expected from a champion duelist. She knew she couldn't lean on him completely, but perhaps she simply had to rely on his word instead. Believe in the heart of the cards.

...

Author's notes:

So the bad guys finally make an appearance! Having slicked-back hair seems to be a bad idea in the middle of a rainstorm, but these guys don't seem to particularly care.

The duplication is a nod to Chiral and Achiral during the Black Moon arc.