DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Kingdom Hearts. Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh, and Square-Enix owns Kingdom Hearts, and both hate that their characters are all heading through the time-space continuum.

"SHIT!" Saix screamed, clutching his forehead. Sith and Katt dropped their weapons – both were intent on going after Xaldin when they saw him – and ran to help the frustrated Nobody to his feet. But when they reached him, his eyes went yellow and he shoved them both away, snarling furiously. Especially at Sith. Katt ended up skidding and slamming into the nearest table; Sith flew straight into the wall and slid down, knocked senseless.

Artemis and Victor knew it was their turn now. Artemis's own eyes went yellow, and his wings tensed as he rushed right at his father – who was in the process of charging at Sith. The two collided in a massive explosion that shook the building, and Ryou heard nothing more than growling, snarling, and a roar from Saix. He didn't need to see to know that Artemis was fighting his own father. And likely, he wasn't winning.

"What's going on!" Anzu asked, as Saix threw his son into the wine rack behind the bar. The bottles all shattered, spilling their contents onto the half-Esper as he growled, slamming to the ground. He stood, barely aware of the pain, or of the blood dripping down his cheek. All he knew was that his father went insane, and was going to murder his mother for a reason none of them understood.

"What the hell?" Jou asked, as Artemis jumped over the bar to continue the fight, "Wasn't that bastard on our side!"

"That was before that man showed up," Yugi reminded them both, watching as Saix knocked his son effortlessly aside again. Artemis went down, and this time, he didn't get back up. That was because Saix had used Lunatic, and Artemis couldn't possibly block such a massive weapon.

"F-father, why!" Victor asked, eyes widened in horror when Saix finally turned on him, "What are you doing! Why are you trying to kill us!" Saix's response was to roar his fury to his son. Then, he charged and swung Lunatic as hard as he could. Victor sidestepped… but the shockwave knocked him clear on his ass, dazing him. Saix didn't relent. He kicked his son, sending the pup sprawling as he landed by his mother's side, both of them out from the blows they each took.

Saix was not deterred. His target was in front of him, and it was only sheer luck that Victor landed near her. Slowly, the Nobody advanced on the helpless Espers. He'd end the threat before Xemnas found out, before it became a problem. He raised his sword above his head, and was about to bring it crashing down. Down into the skull of that damned woman and their damned… damned… damned nothing!

"STOP!" Ryou screamed, and Saix found his move halted by… by a human! Saix growled and looked down to see Ryou holding his arm, trying to keep him from killing Sith and Victor. Ryou looked up, eyes watered and hands shaking as he tried to deter the blow, "Saix, stop it! Don't you know who you're attacking! You… you can't! You can't kill Sith!"

"She is a threat," Saix snarled savagely, eyes blazing. But Ryou shook his head, and his grip tightened. Sith was not the threat. Xaldin was. Why couldn't Saix understand that?

"No!" Ryou cried, "She's defenseless, and she hasn't done anything to you! She's going to become your wife!" But if he thought that'd stop Saix, Ryou was wrong. Saix's muscles corded, and he shoved Ryou away. Ryou skidded, but didn't crash into anything like the others had. But it wouldn't have mattered. Saix was focused on him now.

"That is why I must kill her," Saix told him, a smile twisting horribly on his face, "She is a threat."

"To whom?" Ryou asked softly, and stood. His legs felt shaky, but he found strength in knowing that he was at least slowing the berserker down, "You? Or Xemnas?" Saix stopped, and could not actually answer. The truth was, the answer was neither. Sith herself could do nothing to them. But if she did marry, she'd cause him to leave the Organization. And Xemnas would see that as betrayal. He'd kill Sith, and then torture Saix with her death. Softly, Ryou said, "Or are you doing this to save her before Xaldin gives her the death sentence?"

"He promised he would not harm her, but that will be broken if he deems her a threat in any way," Saix said, halfway between sanity and bloodlust, "If he is told I marry and have a family in the future, however far it is… he will end it before it starts." Ryou noticed his tone was shaking a bit as he spoke, and it looked as though it were growing harder to wield Lunatic. Just a few minutes more…

"Saix, what will Xemnas do?" Ryou asked, to keep him from completing Sith's death himself, "Can't you explain? Can't you compromise? Sith said you're a high-ranking member. Can't you…"

"There is no compromise with Lord Xemnas," Saix growled at him, though his eyes returned to their golden hue, no longer that flashing, furious yellow, "Sith… Sith must be eliminated." He raised his sword again to strike, and Ryou ran back to stop him.

"Saix, stop!" Ryou cried out, and this time, he stood in front of Sith and Victor, "Do you really want to kill them! Your own son? Your wife!" Saix growled, but he lowered his sword. The truth was no, he did not want to harm them at all. And he was fine to let whatever happened unfold. But that had been before another member of his group had seen him. And worse off, that member was one of the cruelest on the team.

Saix was on the verge of slaying himself when he saw something else stirring out of the corner of his eye. He turned, and saw that it was Sith. She hadn't been entirely unconscious, but she did have some injuries. Her forehead was bleeding, and her glasses were broken on one side. Yet, as she slowly stood and tried to steady herself to look at Saix squarely, she showed no sign of feeling any pain. In fact, it looked like she was just about to parent a very temperamental child; she was undoubtedly calmer than perhaps was healthy.

"Saix," she said gently, and his ears lowered just a bit, "Saix, calm down. This is no reason to kill us." Ryou glanced and saw her words had a profound effect on the man in question, who set Lunatic down and walked over to her, shaking his head and stopping just before her.

"Do you not understand what Lord Xemnas will do to you?" he asked her, "What he'll do to them?" He pointed to Artemis and Victor frantically. Sith just put both hands on his left and brought it down.

"And do you understand what you were going to do to all three of us?" Sith countered softly, and Saix froze entirely. He looked at his two sons; both were out completely cold, both sporting similar injuries on their backs. Defeated, and humiliated, Saix looked down at his claymore, and heard Sith say, "You were more of a threat than Xemnas was."

"I…" Saix realized he had nothing to say, and that Sith was right. In that moment, he was the worst threat of all, and he nearly lost himself to his own outrage. He knelt down and clutched his forehead as though he were in incredible pain and said, "What have I done?" He felt a hand on his shoulder and knew it was Sith.

The others, however, were not so sympathetic. Jou's brows creased and he said, "You were going to kill our friends, you asshole." Sith glared furiously, however, and Jou knew his best choice was to just shut up. But still, he said, "What did you want me to say, Sith? He was going to murder you!"

"So have many others and you've not said anything about that," she replied quickly, and then gently added, "If you've ever lost your heart, you would understand Saix's confusion and terror."

"What do you mean?" Anzu asked her, approaching slowly at first. When Saix merely looked and did nothing more, Anzu came over more casually, and stood beside her mentor. Sith looked down at the man's back for a moment, and then at Anzu.

"Nobodies are souls who have no hearts," she explained after a long hesitation, "Theirs have been lost to the darkness, the same power I seek to destroy. When a human – before they become a Nobody – loses their heart, they lose all semblance of themselves. Any feelings, emotions, or opinions they had before are for naught, and they're left with only an empty shell of what they had once been.

"Now imagine if you've spent years believing you have no ability to feel, accepted it, and then discover one day that something will happen and you will regain your heart and love again," Sith continued, and at this point, almost everyone was listening as the older woman spoke, "A Nobody will find they are no longer such a Nobody. Imagine the confusion, the fear, the worry of suddenly having such a thing. Of suddenly caring for things after so long of nothing but emptiness.

"Imagine next the thought of it all being destroyed before it could even be conceived," Sith went on, and her tone hardened a bit, "Imagine that one man held your life and could crush it at the slightest provocation, and had no qualms of doing such. Imagine the terror of a chance of true happiness being decimated by someone with, not a lack of heart, but a black hole of a heart. You would, quite literally, go completely insane." Which was exactly what Saix had done. With that being said, Ryou was beginning to see the man in a different light. What if that was why Saix was so difficult? Because he just wanted his heart?

"He did this because he didn't want Xemnas destroying it," Ryou whispered, and Sith nodded, taking her broken glasses off.

"Saix is a tortured soul. He would rather hurt himself than have anyone else do it for him," she replied gently, and took a deep breath, "So rather than deal with his heart being broken, he would rather kill the only person who could give him his heart back." Ryou looked up at her, and she nodded again, that gleam of just knowing in her eyes.

"You," he said, and Sith's lips went thin. Then she looked back down at Saix, and her eyes watered a little bit. Up until she had met up with Organization XIII, her life had been relatively simple; Mello was annoying, but he knew his boundaries. But now with Saix… Sith shut her eyes.

"I will not say I can predict the future," she began firmly, and Ryou knew she was speaking to him as well as Mello, and no one else, "But I know who will be in it. Ryou, you will not be in it when this is said and done." Ryou already knew and accepted that when the wedding had been crashed royally – and it was mostly his fault, too!

"But Mello?" he asked curiously. Sith opened her eyes, but looked at no one.

"Some of you will be, and some will not. Mello will be because he is a guardian, like Basch is," Sith answered calmly, "Espers are not like humans. We cannot always live in your worlds safely, so to do so, we have appointed guardians that support us for our lives and theirs."

"How many do most Espers have?" Ryou asked her. Sith smiled a bit, and it was a smile that she did not wear often. It disarmed Ryou.

"One," she said, "But I have six: Aeon, Mello, Matt, Bakura, Basch, and…" Ryou knew the last one was Saix. Sith patted the man's shoulder, and Saix stood, turning so quickly that Sith almost fell. But he wasn't cruel. He caught her with one arm and kept her from crashing heavily to the floor. And possibly shattering into millions of bloody pieces. Ryou looked up; Saix's face was covered with shadow.

"I am no one's guardian," he said quietly, and stood Sith up. Then he turned toward the hall they had come from, and went to walk through, back toward the portal. Katt glanced at her sister, and then at Saix. This wasn't right.

"So you're giving up," Katt said furiously, and Saix turned slowly to meet her glare, "What? One screw-up and you're going to abandon my sister? Is that how you were when you were human!"

"Katt!" Sith hissed, and turned to Saix. She looked at him with such a look of gentleness and sadness that it made him almost stagger, "I understand, Saix. As the queen of Nesce and as Sith Winchester of the Winchester bloodline, I release you as my gua…"

"D-don't…" Saix said, before she spoke the last word, and Sith froze, staring, "Sith, I'm… I'm sorry. I need to think, I need to clear my mind." Judging by Sith's expression, she understood that answer. She smiled weakly and nodded, walking over to wish him farewell. She wasn't sure how long he'd be gone, but he'd been with her for long enough to forge as friendly as bond as possible, for being a Nobody.

"I've had to do that over a thousand times in my life," she replied with a knowing look, "Saix, I promise I'll stop Xemnas if he tries to kill you. You don't deserve this, and neither do our sons."

"Neither do you," Saix snarled furiously, and then relaxed when Sith reached him. They stared for a very long moment, neither knowing what to do or say. Technically, they weren't even really friends, and certainly weren't anything more. But seeing Artemis and Victor, right there…

Saix could not possibly say what made him do what he did next. It was something he had never done, even as a human. It was something inside, his own voice, that told him to just do it. Not because he loved Sith – not yet, anyway – but because he might not see her for some time despite forcing his way to being her escort. It was a job he didn't even want, but for some reason it held his interest far more than being an overseer to a cult leader. He threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. It was such a steel grip that Sith almost choked. She couldn't move, not without twisting her own spine. But she didn't need to. Saix wasn't trying to hurt her.

Sith held him, and though he had to bend down to lay his head on her shoulder, it was a sight that tore at Ryou's heart. He had never seen such a vicious man become so disheartened before. Sith merely stood and kept hold of him, and Ryou could tell he was trying to speak and keep his head buried in her hair and shoulder at the same time. As for Sith, she swore she felt tears spilling onto her shoulder and into her sleeve. Gently, she forced Saix to look at her. He did not look like he'd been crying, but tears were there on her arm.

"Saix, what did you say?" she asked gently, and he blinked as he stared in her eyes. Eyes that judged yet were not cruel like Xemnas's.

"I said that even though you are not my wife and that we have no children yet, take care of Victor and Artemis. And take care of yourself," he replied calmly, and let go, "Sith… I'll see you… someday." Sith watched as Saix turned again and walked toward the wall. As he did, a portal of darkness appeared, and the Nobody went right through it. He left nothing behind; even Lunatic had vanished in his wake.

Sith stood and watched nothing for a very long time. The others behind her watched as well, though none of them were quite sure what the old Esper was looking at; to them, there was nothing more than a dim, red wall. Yet when they called her, Sith didn't respond. She just kept staring. Ryou, the most concerned and the most familiar with Sith, walked over to her and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. She tensed, but only for a second when she realized it was him. Then she let out a soft sigh.

"You're worried about him," Ryou said quietly, and Sith nodded slowly, still waiting for something that wasn't there.

"He's going to take care of this problem himself. He doesn't want us involved," the Esper replied, and looked down, "He doesn't want us getting hurt. He knows Xaldin will hold this over him for a long time if I do anything." Ryou wasn't surprised. He looked at where Sith was staring, and understood now why Xemnas didn't want to forge an overly long alliance with Sith. He was afraid someone in his group would go off and leave when she left. Perhaps he even knew it'd happen. For that matter, he knew Saix would fight hard for his life, too.

"Saix is a good man, isn't he?" Ryou heard himself asking, and he saw Sith turn. She bit her lip, and then looked back at her two children, sprawled on the floor. As far as trying to do the right thing… Saix was all right with that one. For a Nobody, he was trying. As for being a father… well, that'd probably take a long time for the little beast to get used to. But Saix was a quick learner. He'd get it soon enough.

"…he is," she replied, and then her fists clenched, "Damn it all, if he ever comes back, I'll remind him that he is." By the look on her face, Sith couldn't actually explain why this upset her so much. But Ryou knew; seeing their children affected both parents. Maybe this was what the future's Sith was warning him about.

"Did finding it all out mess up time?" he asked suddenly, and Sith's brow rose questioningly, "I mean with Saix. Finding out you end up becoming his wife." Sith actually grinned. It was a mischievously, little grin that meant that if it did, she'd make sure it didn't. Somehow, that was going to involve him, too.

"Well, we have two choices," Sith told him, "We can either go back in time and prevent you from meeting Victor, or we can just not tell Aeon about this little mess." Ryou's eyes widened as he stared at Sith. Neither one seemed like a good idea for a multitude of reasons – the first reason being that doing either would screw them into their graves regardless!

"Which one seems good to you?" he dared to ask. He wasn't surprised with Sith's answer.

"I like the idea of having kids," she said, and Ryou's mouth fell open as she continued, "And Saix isn't a bad choice to have them with, either." She only barely noticed that everyone else was staring at her. Slowly, so slowly, Ryuuzaki spoke as he stared at his friend.

"Sith, are you kidding us!" the dueling detective asked, brow raised, "That psychopath just tried to kill you, and you want children with him! What the hell is wrong with you!" Sith's look went flat. Since when were these children allowed to decide who she did and did not like? Besides, her next choice was Mello, and everyone was clear that match wasn't made in heaven. She snorted.

"Need I remind you all that I'm over four-thousand years old and can make this choice myself?" she retorted, and that shut Ryuuzaki up, "Now, we can argue about who I marry, but let's not forget that he's currently solving a problem, and we have more to do ourselves." Ryou had a feeling she changed the subject on purpose, but he didn't comment. She had a point, after all.

"So, what do we do first?" Honda asked her, and looked around to see if anyone had come back from the raid against Yaten. No one had, at least not yet. Sith hummed and turned toward the halls they'd entered from.

"Getting back into the timeline would be a good start," she said, and her wing flapped, "Xaldin is probably the reason we crashed. We should see if we can even move, and if not, let's see what needs to be fixed." That beat standing in an empty club. Ryou nodded, and they led the team back toward the dark halls, where the machine waited.

The machine was exactly as they left it, and they found Basch had been keeping watch over it since they'd gone to investigate. And to their relief, Sith had been right. Xaldin had been the cause of the jam; when they returned, the lights were working and there was a whirring sound that had been absent before.

Malik and Kaiba each walked to one of the terminals – Malik went to the internal one – and input commands and statistics that Ryou could not read. The former beckoned the others to join him, and when they did, Kaiba put in another command. The machine began to pulse and shake a bit, and before the doors closed, Kaiba and Basch jumped in. Then, the doors slammed shut and the machine began its work. Promptly, the bar disappeared as Miho and Anzu watched from the window; in five seconds, it literally fell away, and they were left to look at the shattered fragments of time as they began to speed along the timeline again.

"So, where are we heading now?" Jou asked, setting Artemis down against the back wall. Kaiba and Malik looked down at the terminal screen before either answered. Then, Kaiba glanced back at the blonde.

"If we're lucky, we're going right to where Sith said the block in time was," he said grimly, and hesitantly added, "Assuming Xemnas doesn't send anyone else to spy on us."

"If Xaldin reported what he'd seen, he very well might," Katt told them, and Ryou bit his lip, "Organization XIII is unforgiving toward 'defective' members." Ryou and Yugi both looked from Katt, to her sister. Sith's lips were pursed and there was a look of absolute anger scribbled on her face. Ryou almost felt bad. This was obviously tearing the confused woman apart.

"Would they really kill Saix?" Yugi asked, and Sith nodded, looking away, out into the darkness beyond.

"Without a moment's hesitation," the Esper growled, and her fists clenched, "Xemnas is not a compassionate man. In fact, I'd say that if they don't kill him, they'd do far worse. Perhaps even torture him to death, or to suicide." The thought of a man like Saix falling like that made Ryou's skin crawl. It must've done the same to Sith, too.

Slowly, Ryou walked to Sith's side and laid a hand on her shoulder, saying, "This isn't your fault, Sith." Sith shook a bit, but she didn't disagree. She simply wanted to do something about this. Even if Saix wasn't her husband yet… damn it, they had children right there who deserved to be born!

"If Saix dies, I'll hunt down Organization XIII myself when this is through," she said to him, and Ryou looked down at her with concern, "When Rath is finally dead, I'll have no reason to keep in touch with Xemnas. If he kills Saix, he will learn to regret it very quickly." Ryou nodded, not doubting the many ways Sith could find to lash out at the Nobodies. Like them, she did not seem to have her heart sometimes, and she could remind them of that. When she was killing them all, likely.

The mood in the chamber became somber and quiet as the machine chugged along down Kaiba's set path. No one knew what to say or how to help Sith deal with the possibility of losing her sons and future husband. But Sith didn't need that help. Ryou could tell that, in the silence, the sly Esper was planning. What it was, he wouldn't know until later, but he knew she wasn't as helpless as the others thought. He just patted her back. If he could have, he'd kill Rath and make her work easier and shorter. Sith, for what it was worth, deserved some ease for once.

"What'll you do once Rath and Xemnas are dead?" he asked after many minutes. Sith looked up, and saw he was genuinely curious. She looked back toward the window, and sighed. Truth to tell, she wasn't sure. Her own world wasn't habitable; returning there was no option.

"If Saix is alive, then the answer will be obvious," she said just as quietly. Then she said nothing more, and even though Ryou was waiting, it was clear she wouldn't continue.

"What if he isn't?" Miho asked her. Sith shook again. She didn't even want to think about that scenario. But she forced herself to consider it. Saix was strong, but he wasn't immortal.

"Then I'll return… home," she replied, and glanced at Ryou, "To Oblivion. I'll continue wandering until I find a place I like."

"You don't like our world?" Jou asked her. Sith sighed again, and slowly, she shook her head. That disheartened the group in a way that nearly broke the woman's heart.

"I've done too much damage to consider calling it home," she replied after a long pause, "Understand this, friends. I am the reason your world is unstable. It was through my actions and my choices that yours cannot support any magic. And it is through my actions that Rath is alive at all. Had I not fought her, so long ago, she would not be here." To children so young, that didn't even matter. They weren't alive to know who Sith had been, and who Rath truly was. All they knew was that Sith had come to their world and had saved them from the mad Mystic numerous times.

"And you don't think we'd let you stay," Ryuuzaki stated, and laughed, "Sith, I know we're assholes, but we're not mean."

"I understand you all care about me, but… my life is so long, and there are scores of worlds that still need help. If I stay here, who will help them?" she asked, and everyone stopped. That was a good question. Without Sith, Bahamut would be hard-pressed to find another warrior to do his dirty work. Not to mention that Mello, Aeon, and Katt would leave, too.

Kaiba just laughed and said, "You can't find a true reason, so you're giving us a bunch of self-righteous bullshit. Way to go, Winchester. You just achieved a new level of Ass." Sith looked up, and gave a sardonic grin. Ryou knew if she could have, she'd have slammed the man in the face, and taken his teeth with her. As it was, her words would have to suffice; best not to use her power here, as opposed to using it on Rath or Xemnas.

"We're all a bunch of arses when it comes right down to it, Kaiba," the older woman reminded him tartly, and leaned against Zealacht, "Look, I can't give a good reason as to why I don't like your world, but you all need to know it has nothing to do with you. I love you all, you're the closest friends I've had in thousands of years. But believe me when I say that my road is best traveled away from here."

"And what about Saix and your sons?" Bakura asked, and when Sith rose an incredulous brow, he said, "In the future, you and your happy family lived in Domino."

"Wasn't that because there was nowhere else to go?" Yugi asked, and Bakura smacked him over the head. To the old thief, that wasn't even a point worth mentioning. But Sith just gave him a superior grin, and he cursed Yugi a thousand times for his big, fat mouth.

"Concerning Saix, if he so much as wants to stay here, we'll live here," Sith answered simply, "Otherwise, I go where he goes."

"Sounds like another grade-A excuse," Kaiba remarked, and this time, Sith did hit him. He flipped right over, and heard Ryuuzaki gut-laughing at him; obviously, someone wanted Sith to snap and finally send him sprawling. And she did. Slowly standing, Kaiba rubbed his neck and said, "You don't need to be a bitch about it."

"I'm being a bitch?" Sith asked, and actually laughed herself, "Kaiba, all you ever do is make our lives absolutely miserable. If we need your help, we basically have to whore ourselves to your company to get it, and I'm still a bitch? Oh, boy, you make me laugh my arse off." Kaiba hated being talked down to, but he couldn't deny the truth. He did make Sith and Ryou beg for his help. Of course, that was mostly because he didn't want to believe in magic. Ironically, it was often Sith that 'convinced' him to help, usually with a well-aimed fire spell. Right at his ass, or at his tower.

"That's nice to know," he grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away. Ryou had a feeling he had no idea what else to say; he just wanted the last word in. Sith let him have it, and turned again to look out the window.

Without any constellations, she couldn't tell how far they'd come or what era they were currently passing. But Sith noticed that there were more fragments to look at, and that they were bigger. She watched as one drifted by; it depicted two unnamed men riding across a vast and verdant plain on brown steeds. Another showed her two swordsmen dueling in the 1400s. Ryou came to stand next to her, and watched the fragments pass with increasing interest. But he noticed that she was not as excited.

"How far are we?" he asked her, but she shook her head to show she didn't know that.

"We could be really close, or we could be thousands of years away," Sith replied calmly, "The problem is, the fragments are jumbled."

"Why?" Anzu asked, and saw clearly that a small fragment showed the capture of a sea captain, as a pirate prepared to hang him on his own ship. Sith, who'd been looking carefully at what each shard revealed, narrowed her eyes. She couldn't find any correlation to these images; none of them appeared to be around the same timeframe.

"Because Rath has already been here," the older woman stated gravely, and her eyes flashed for a second, "She knows Aeon's taken me here. And she's tearing up the timeline to stop us both." Though no one but Sith understood the dangerous consequences of that, everyone shivered, and some grabbed desperately onto others for comfort. It definitely didn't sound too good to those who weren't versed in time-travel.

"But if she does that…" Ryou began, and Sith nodded in agreement to the unsaid conclusion.

"She will destroy everything that's been created thus far," the Esper finished, and turned to look Ryou full in the eyes, "That, I fear, was her intention from the start. Not to simply erase myself, but to recreate the worlds in her vision." Ryou didn't want to think of what such a vision would entail. He knew enough of the Mystics' cruelty to understand that there would be no such thing as freedom for any race, if Rath succeeded. Not that they were much better off as it was – but at the very least, they had some resistance.

"So how're we going to stop her?" Ryuuzaki asked, and for once, he sounded damn serious, "I mean, you haven't actually said what we'll do if and when we find her. We going to go in with our weapons blazing, or are you going to lock her up forever?" Both sounded as likely to happen as Xemnas showing Saix any mercy. Sith just gave a cynical smirk.

"I'm going to kill her," was the simple response. When Ryou gasped, Sith looked down and said, "It's either myself or Rath. If you don't like my answer, feel free to join her side of the story." She already knew no one would dare to do that. But that didn't stop them from questioning her decision, or her sanity. Murder seemed harsh, even if Rath deserved it.

"Would the other Espers let you do that?" Anzu asked her, and when Sith stared, the young girl added, "What about Fenrir or Bahamut?"

"You seem to have forgotten the deal I've made with Poltzghast," Sith reminded them darkly, and that stopped any questions they did have, "Either I kill Rath, or I surrender and get torn apart. And I certainly don't plan on dying. Not before giving Victor and Artemis a chance." Not to mention that her parents should be avenged, Ryou thought silently. Then he turned to the two younger Espers in question. Neither had woken up yet. And he began to worry if they ever would.

"I hope Saix has that determination," Ryou said to himself, and watched as Sith sat down and held her head in her hands. He hadn't thought she'd be able to hear him, but now he knew she probably had.

The machine began to slow down a while later, and Ryou looked out of the window to see why. By then, several hours had passed and many of the group had gone to sleep. Only Sith, Yami, and Bakura remained awake – the last two simply being because they were spirits. Unfortunately, Ryou saw nothing except the metaphoric sky lightening. No longer looking black, it took a sort of dusky purple nearest the horizon, giving off the illusion of twilight. With the new light, he saw that the machine was moving along a 'track' made of similar light. And indeed, they were slowing down. Soon, it seemed as if the machine itself stopped, though Ryou didn't feel a thing.

Slowly, Ryou opened the door and stepped out. He was surprised that he landed at all; like the portals he'd used to find Saix, he landed on nothing, but it felt as sturdy as a cement road. After testing to make sure he wouldn't fall, Ryou looked up at where the machine stopped. He was even more surprised to find that there was something in front of him. It was a giant keyhole. There was no door for such a thing to sit in, and no frame or sign of anything being behind the lock. Yet it was there, and sealed in the center was the insignia of the Millennium items. This had to be the seal Sith spoke of.

Since the seal was still intact, it meant Rath hadn't yet gone this far. Considering her past interference, Ryou counted it as a miracle, and walked closer to inspect the lock. It was solid, but when he tried to touch it, he was shocked with a magical, potent force. Quickly, he yanked his hand away, and heard a sharp voice in his head.

Sith Winchester and the Pharaoh must be present to unlock this memory…

Now Ryou knew why Sith had to get Yami. The lock must have hurt her, too. He turned to go and get them both, and saw that they'd beaten him to it. Both spirits were standing there, with the Esper between them. And all three were looking at that lock, both in awe and in horror.

"So locks in time can exist, after all," Bakura whispered, and turned to Yami, "What in hell did you do to create that?"

"This memory not only holds the chapter that contained Zork, but it also held the events that led to the creation of the Mystics and the destruction of Nesce," Sith said, her voice seeming soft in the vast silence of the realm, "Much evil is swirling in this memory. Too much, if you ask me."

"Are you ready to face this memory?" Ryou asked her, and Sith nodded, taking Zealacht out.

"I've only ever seen one other lock like this, and it was too strong for even Aeon to break," Sith replied, "It may be painful, but I won't run this time. I have to know what I've done, and I must know if it can be fixed." Yami smiled, and both he and Sith held out their hands to the lock. It glowed brightly for a second, and the seal around it broke and fell, fading into nothing before it landed. Then the lock vanished, leaving behind…

Another portal of darkness. But rather than wait for them to enter it, the portal grew, and grew, and finally simply stretched and swallowed them whole, the machine included. For several long seconds, Ryou saw them all falling through a dark tunnel. But the light came quickly, too quickly, and before his heartbeat reached ten, they were out of the tunnel. All four of them landed hard onto a rough dirt floor.

And when Ryou looked up, he found himself in a large, empty room, with the others unconscious around him. And he had the sudden feeling that he wasn't entirely alone.

-(End chapter)

With the possibility of Organization XIII coming after Sith, Saix left to protect both her and their children. He also left Sith in an emotional mess, and now she must figure out a way to stop both Rath and Xemnas at the same time. For now, she and Yami have succeeded in unlocking the memory that holds back the knowledge of what happened before Sith was exiled from her own world. But is Sith ready to see for herself what she'd done to get herself thrown out in the first place? How does it put Ryou's world in such turmoil? Find out next chapter, so click that Review button!