"NO! NO, no, no, no NOO! I HAVE all ten starchips! I am GOING to the PALACE!!!"
They turned to face the direction of the noise and discovered something very strange. A girl of about fifteen was walking towards them. Well, being dragged towards them could be a more accurate description judging from her words, but none of the fabulous five could see anything or anyone dragging her. She was holding out her left hand and appeared to be yelling at the bracelet that adorned that wrist. "This is a kidnapping! An abduction! An invasion of all sorts of… legal things!" She tried in vain to plant her heavy black boots into the dewy grass, but she walked forward anyhow, her brown hair almost whipping out of the red headband that fought with the wind to keep it in place. The headband matched her long red jacket that she wore over a short, black zippered dress. Her round glasses magnified her startling eyes, one the blue of the ocean on a clear day, and the other the same jade green as a cat's.
Those eyes were focused on the five friends as she finally looked up, startled. "Oh…" she said, pausing for a moment. "Hi."
"Hello!" Sanai said cheerfully. "I'm Sanai, and I think we're going to be BEST FRIENDS!'
"Um, right. I do feel the strangest desire to befriend you… and impress you… and obey your every whim…" the new girl shook herself, as if ridding herself of a determined housefly. "I'm Jenny. Jenny Hawthorne."
"I'm Sanai Valentine. This is my sister, Mai Valentine," Sanai gestured towards where Mai stood, as she, too, had come over to investigate the disturbance, "my boyfriend, Joey Wheeler, and my friends, Yugi Moto, Tristan Taylor, and Tea Gardner!"
"Did you tell her my last name?" Tea whispered to Yugi, who shook his head. "Neither did I."
That train of thought was interrupted as Jenny spoke again. "Well, um, it's very nice to meet all of you. This is incredibly awkward!"
"Awkward?" Sanai looked confused, "whyever so?"
"Perhaps because your new… bestest best friend" Mai drawled, well used to her sister's inane habits, "appears to have been possessed… or possibly accompanied by an invisible yet corporeal companion."
"Huh?" Tristan asked, confused.
"Not a ghost," Mai explained, "as a ghost could not physically drag… Jenny, was it? A ghost could not physically drag Jenny against her will, as someone or something obviously did."
"Has she always been this smart?" Joey asked in a stage whisper.
"Of course!" Mai tossed her hair. "I'm a Valentine."
"Ha. Haha." Jenny laughed weakly. "Ghosts… spirits… I don't believe in those." She peered at the faces of her companions, trying to figure out if her desperate attempts at damage control were at all successful.
"What about Invisibility Cloaks?"
"What?'
"Never mind."
"Anyway… I'm totally not possessed! I swear!" She glanced at each of the member of the sextet (snicker) in turn, pausing when her eyes met those of the boy Sanai had called 'Yugi Moto."
A change came over Jenny, her blue eye turned to green, and the jade orbs gazed at the boy who was not, in fact Yugi, but an ancient spirit like the one who was now in control of Jenny.
"Pharaoh," she whispered worshipfully.
Yami—for indeed, it was Yami rather than Yugi in control at the moment, despite the fact that the whole dual personalities (or duel personalities) thing hasn't yet been revealed to anyone else in the cast of thousands—glared at the spirit, willing her to silence.
The spirit read his will in his eyes, and bowed her head, ducking her knees in a seamless curtsy. "My lords and ladies, I am Dahlia."
"I thought you just said your name was Jenny!" Joey said, confused.
"My spirit is housed in the body of the girl Jennifer. We share our time of dominance peacefully-"
Her voice and eye changed, as she spat "peacefully my-"
"And it is my time to establish a meeting with the six of you" Dahlia regained control smoothly.
Sanai's eyes glowed. "Oh, wow! It's like two friends at once!"
Mai interrupted them. She had been scanning every inch of the possessed girl's ensemble, wondering idly where she had purchased that dress, and if they sold it in the V-neck, when her eyes landed on Jenny's… erm, Dahlia's? RIGHT wrist. "You have all ten starchips. You have ALL TEN starchips! How in HADES-"
"Language, sister-mine" Sanai interrupted.
Mai ignored her. "did you get all TEN starchips? We've been on this island for, what…"
"Three hours, forty-two minutes, and twelve seconds," Tea said, glancing at her bunny-rabbit watch. (She had named it Frank.)
"It was a difficult task indeed," Dahlia admitted, her eyes darting to Yami's and then flittering away again rapidly. "Yet I found solace in my memories… my memories of learning, of dueling… of trusting in the Heart of the Cards."
Her eye changed color, and Jenny's voice appeared once more. "Sorry- I had to interrupt her before the sappy elevator music started playing."
At Dahlia's disappearance, Yami disappeared too, leaving a friendly yet slightly confused Yugi in his place. "Well, it's nice to—is that a Millennium Item?" he asked, eyes widening at her bracelet.
"Um… no? It's just a cheap knockoff I bought in a tourist trap in Miami. Don't eat the oysters."
"No… it's all right. I have one too!" Yugi pulled his Puzzle out of his shirt and let it dangle from the worn rope necklace.
"Well… that explains a lot." Jenny said. After a pause, she added, "If you had tried to explain it to me BEFORE dragging me here rather than DURING, I might have bothered listening."
"Can you not have conversations with the voices in your head? Please?" Mai glanced askance at the strange girl.
"Voice. Just one. Not plural. Trust me… one is plenty." Her gaze turned inward, as if she were having a conversation with herself… or with the spirit of her Millennium Seal.
"All right!" she said aloud. Her gaze turned back to the sextet (still funny) standing before her. "So… can I hang with you guys for a bit? I don't want to go to Pegasus' castle yet, as it would be awful being cooped up alone in that plush, well-ventilated castle with all sorts of servants to obey my every whim."
"Of course!" Sanai and Yugi said simultaneously.
Mai shook her head. "As cool as you cats are, I'm going to separate myself from you for a bit. See you at the castle… I guess."
"I guess that makes it just the six of us," Sanai said cheerfully.
"Yup- a stunning sextet." Jenny added, figuring that Dahlia didn't count sans body.
Joey and Tristan both sniggered. "Sextet."
