Author's Notes: How are you folks? It's almost Christmas, and Kwanzaa, so I thought I would give you guys a little present. (Rats, I forgot Hanukkah and today is Winter Solstice).

Anyway, this is the second phase of Kikyou. I still can't think of a better title. (Rats again...)

I still want to keep the tone dark, but this time we have a switch in characters. I won't tell you guys anymore than that.

In this time we live in, souls are not forgotten. Just displaced.

If you love me, call my name.

Kikyou – Chapter 9: Homecoming

"Call my name..."

"--Mokuba, sir?"

Mokuba blinked and sat up. He smoothed back his unruly long hair and adjusted his tie. The view out of the window was the same city as always. On the radio were the results of the Duel Monsters World Championship.

"--And once again, Duelist King Yugi wins using the awesome combo of the Dark Magician and--"

"Turn that rubbish off."

"Yes, sir."

Mokuba leaned back in his seat and continued to stare out at the passing scene. What was this feeling of restlessness? Of a dream almost remembered?

It had been 10 years, and much had changed. Now he was the head of Kaiba Corp. And yet, everything was much the same.
He had taken over the business as soon as his brother was announced "dead". The business world had been in an uproar. A kid take over a multi-billion dollar cooperation? A kid that didn't even know how to tie his shoes, much less how to run a business?

But Seto's death had froze Mokuba's heart. And he was no longer that "kid". He had proved that he has what it takes. Being even more ruthless than Seto had been in his prime.
Yet, was the decision to lock away his heart and the mementos of that time a good one?

"Don't remember. Let's just forget about it. What happened there, what occurred here...and Kikyou. Forget everything." No one had argued with Yami's—Atem's—decision. They had left the room that had been Kikyou's and sealed it. And inside of it they had sealed everything of that summer.
They had went their separate ways. All promising never to remember, much less speak of, that bloody summer.
Yet that phone call remained.
"Do you still remember?" That one sentence and that voice. The Duel King, The King of Games, the Pharaoh.

Why bring this up now? That one cryptic sentence that changed everything. Atem, who had changed since that summer and no longer dueled, had called not only him but everyone. Saying only that one cryptic sentence.

"Why now? When we have fought so hard to forget everything?"

"Kaiba, sir?"
Mokuba sighed and looked away. "Don't call me Kaiba, that was my brother."

And the car moved on.

"If you still remember, call my name."
"How's it feel to be the Duelist King, Yugi? Not to mention back in Egypt."

Yugi smiled shyly for the cameras. A smile and manner that still threw off the guards of his opponents. Hidden behind this short, shy man, was a beast.

"Well, I'm happy to be back. I've always loved Egypt and the Egyptian people. But, wow, I didn't think you all would show." Yugi smiled again and blushed from embarrassment.

What fools, people are. So easy to manipulate.

There were cries across the crowd from fans as far away as America and his home country. Shouts of "We love you Yugi!" and "I'm your biggest fan!"

Unnoticed by the crowd a man his same height, but with his hair cropped short and dyed black, slipped behind him and leaned against the window frame. The blaze of cameras cast a double shadow. A shadow as faint a a ghost and a nonexistent reflection.

A glimpse of another time.

'And this is my Egypt.' Were the thoughts thorough the man's mind. A waiter came up and offered him a drink. Delicately, he took it and offered the servant thanks in the ancient tongue.

"Pardon?"

"sigh... Thank you."

Yes, this was his Egypt. But it was not the Egypt of old.

Yugi separated himself from the crowd around him and the reporters looked else where. Hungry as vultures for the next meal.
Side to side, they looked like twins. Except for that one was blond and the other had solid black hair.

Gone was the day of bad magenta highlights.

"Not enjoying the party, Atem?"

Atem sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Should I? I don't enjoy being here."
"Too close to the afterlife?"

That hurt, and Yugi noticed Atem flinch away from him and the familiar set of pain on his shoulders. But he ignored it. Yugi took Atem's drink from his hand, sipping it elegantly.
Two girls watched them and squealed. They pointed and showed off for their amusement.

"I just don't know what your problem is." Yugi sighed between sips of the martini. "I've tried everything short of throwing you to a asylum."
"I. Know." Atem hissed out between clinched teeth. "I'm not the one with the problem. It's you."
Yugi waved back at the girls, smile in place. He hissed back. "Wave, brother."
"No."
"Goddammit, so help me god I will snap the connection between us. Pick up your fucking hand and wave."

Atem complied.

"Good, see? That's the way to have fun."

"Damn you."

Yugi looked over his shoulder once, a cold smile on his face. What exactly was the connection between these two men? Friends? Brothers? Or something more sinister? "Yes, I know. But you see, brother, I'm already damned and loving every second of it."

Yugi walked away, Atem watched him go. Both of the girls from before hanged off his arms like trinkets.

Atem gritted his teeth in pain and slid to the floor. The crowd didn't notice his presence.
"Shit, shit, shit." It was useless, the chant, the pull on his heart and the pain through his artificial body continued.

Why couldn't they forget that summer? But wasn't it his fault for getting them involved?

"Call my name."

That dream, he was the first to receive it. It was too late to save Yugi, or himself, but maybe, just maybe...

One word passed his lips.

"Kikyou."

"If you still remember, call my name."

"Save me from the darkness."

She flew higher and higher, toward the light, but still fell short. It was dangerous and reckless, and yet still she flew.

One...two...one...two... The director's tap against the wooden boards barely reached the edge of her consciousness. So far gone was she that the images behind her painted lids blew past in a blur.

That summer...that summer...that summer. Yugi and me. And the other Yugi.

Hands around his throat, apply more pressure. He screams and she laughs, enjoying the feel of him under her and thrust of her hips.

That summer that changed everything.

One...two...one...two...Now.

She jumped. And heaven jumped with her. Hell beneath her and heaven above. A race against time and the devil.

"That was great, Tea!"

Tea stopped and took the towel offered to her. She smiled at the younger woman behind her. The woman who admired her. In just a few short years she had become a legend on Broadway. A foreigner with the legs and grace of an angel.

"That was nothing, don't get so excited Sophie."
"But, you're amazing! Did you see how high you jumped? Your dance moves? How fast, yet so light and graceful! I've never seen anything like it. It's out of this world!"

Out of this world indeed. That summer, they had had every wish of theirs come true. Everyone, but the price was heavy. A thousand and one nights worth, and then some.

Tea realized that she had drifted off and focused on Sophie again.

"--How can I ever dance like you?"
Before she could stop herself, the words were already out of her mouth. Cold and emotionless. "Die."

"What? Wait, Tea!"

Tea ran across the street, the traffic light separating the two of them. "Die and be reborn as a monster."

Such was the price of a wish.

"If you remember, call my name."

"Save me, take me, find me--"

"How should we do this boys? Just like in the drills?"

Joey nodded his head and drifted off from his commander. The area they were in was either somewhere over a war torn jungle, fighting guerrilla soldiers, or some where in the Middle East where death and the devil walked hand in hand singing nursery rhymes to the darkness.

Joey drifted off and remembered.

When Tea had won tickets to visit America, Joey had gone with her. His old man was finally dead, the bastard finally killed over after drinking his last beer and knocking the shit out of him for leaving home without permission. Like he cared. The only good thing to have ever come from that summer.

Anyway, him and Tea had had a fine time. Lots of babes, on his part, shows and action and adventure. Tea had been scouted and Joey had fallen in love with the country. Gazing up at the Statue of Liberty, he could finally understand what all those immigrants had felt long ago: freedom, a calling.

But it didn't erase that summer. Nothing did. Not fighting, not sex, not even this.

For some reason, he was the only one that couldn't forget that feeling of his life on the line, that thrill that everyone else had forgotten. And he hadn't even been hurt.

But when he had seen Seto's face, right before they stopped him from smashing in that guys head, Joey had wished to switch places with him. Wished that everyone had just let him do it.

They deserved it. Out of everyone he was the only one that had seen that summer as a blessing.

So when Tea left, he had followed. Became a citizen and enlisted. He had rose in the ranks until now he was serving his country. Another solider, a special solider.

A solider who if he didn't listen in right now would die. And no one would know.
Because technically, he didn't exist.

Joey looked up as one of his teammates patted him on the shoulder. "You ready to go, man?"

He couldn't see him through the helmet, but the fear around him was so heavy it was giving off a stench of it's own. Joey stood up and smiled back. Saying nothing, because in his smile was enough courage for the both of them.

Who was afraid of death?
And then there was the wind and the feeling of weightlessness. The thrill of the unknown. Of the path taken. And then the tug of the parachute and the darkness of night.
They moved like shadows, with only hand signals and their own senses to light the way.

Who were they fighting? Did it matter? Technically, the war was over. Not that one which had started before ten years ago. No, a war of politics. That was over to the public.
But even in times of peace, war continues. Only the public, the civilians, don't hear about it. Because they don't understand. They get frightened, pull back, and ignore.

And that was why they existed.

It happened fast, too quick to even be labeled a battle. They were infiltrating a base that seemed more like some rich home. There were screams, but Joey ignored them and went from room to room.

Kitchen.

Bathroom.

Bedroom.

Children's room.

Here he paused and looked around. It looked like his room when he was a kid. Cloud patterned wall paper and ceiling, posters from the newest bands and cartoons. Comics and toys thrown uselessly in a corner.

Joey swept the room, skirting past the twin beds. Besides for that one feature, it could have been his it was so familiar.
And then there was pain. Little teeth bit into his ankle.
One swift kick, and a snap, crackle and pop later and he moved on. Emotionless and swift. Asking no questions. Because some had to die. That is just the rule of the world. Without it the good people would already be dead. Leaving this world to evil.

An hour later, and with blood and a cold emotionless mask lacing his face, Joey clocked in and returned to the helicopter.

"Urgh." The man that he had met earlier before the mission threw up next to him as Joey's eyes flicked over the burning remains of the house.
"W...Why? Why? Why?"

Joey glanced at him and then back at the burning remains.
"I... I don't want this... I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!"
At a signal from his commander Joey turned on the pathetic excuse for a man at his feet. "Then just die."

"Wha--"

His eyes in that moment weren't even worth remembering. Not like Kikyou's.

Joey turned toward the air craft and hopped in before take off. He looked back, the view maimed by his bangs. "Some people deserve to die. Simple as that." The familiar prayer that he always said.

It was always the same. This just wasn't exciting enough to count as an experience.
Why they killed? Which side he was fighting for? Did any of that matter? Probably not. It was the truth, he wasn't even fighting for America any more.

But did any of that matter?
"Call my name."

That dream, and that voice that had changed everything.

"Kikyou..."

"--If you love me, call my name."
Serenity turned back to the dishes in the sink as a voice echoed in her head.
She hadn't known Kikyou very well. Their first meeting had been in that cramped little car. But she had envied her. Seto had really loved her. But the Seto that had exited the car, the Seto she had seen,

He had been something else entirely.
She had finally realized what it was the last time she had seen her brother, Joey. He had smiled and went through the motions of being her brother, but--

He was not her brother. Her brother had died in the car. During that summer. During that sunset where the sun had bleed and the night when Seto had died.

And now Serenity was here. With Honda.

"Hey mom, can we watch tv?"
Serenity looked down at her son and smiled. "Sure, go ahead honey, but you'll wake the baby if you turn it up too loud."
Her son smiled back. "Yeah, I know. But the Duel Monsters World Championship is on!"

Serenity smiled. Somehow, he reminded her more of her brother than Honda. Before everything had happened. Before everything had turned so horribly wrong.

That summer. The stench of blood and the sound of cicadas wouldn't fade away.

Serenity turned back to the dishes as her husband walked through the door.

"Man, what a day! How are you and the kids?"
Honda kissed her on the cheek and Serenity smiled back. A true smile. This was her life now.

"Everyone's fine. Oh, the school called. They want to know if you're serious about hosting the little league game this summer."
Summer. That summer.

Honda made a face. "Again? I said I would, didn't I? Unless they want that bastard that hosted it last year to."
"Honda, the children."
Honda turned to his son, who was sitting too close to the tv again. Sigh.
"Hey, Shuichi knows what a bastard is. Don't ya son?"
"Yep, eggplant."
The two of them laughed at their joke and Serenity turned back to the dishes. In the reflection of the window she frowned.
That dream...

"Call my name."

...Surely Honda had had it too. How best to bring it up? And that phone call...

"Do you remember?"

Serenity gripped the plate a little too hard and it cracked.
No, she wouldn't remember! All of this would go away if she just didn't remember it. Her brother, that summer, everything.

Everything would be all right.

"Serenity? You okay?" Honda was by her side. Concerned. She had broken the plate without realizing it. Her hand was cut, but that would heal.
The blood dripped from her hand and swam like little fish down to the bottom where they greedily consumed the water.

"Yes, everything will be alright."
And it would.

"--Don't forget me."

"Call me. If you love me, call me."

"Yeah, I'll be there at seven. No, we'll talk about it then."

Mai sighed and hanged up the phone. She had cut her hair a week ago. The curls at the base of her neck and the long strands of hair that covered up her right eye, in the new sexy popular style, blew in the wind coming in from the broken shards of glass of the telephone booth.

In this day and age... Sigh, she was getting old. Why didn't she just get a cell phone?
Older yes, but still the same. When it came to her body anyway.

Her hips, bust, and legs could still tempt any man. That's how she had shacked up with another loser.

Married men. She felt sorry more for them than the women they were married to. This time would be the last time she would fall for a man in a suit. How best to break it off...

When Atem had declared that they would forget everything, they did. For awhile. And then they remembered again. But they were granted what their hearts desired.

All except her. She refused it. Mai ran away from a good man, and a good career, and a good life. She left her cards behind and packed up and left everything. She traveled, received news that the man she was engaged to had found another and could not cry over it. It was her choice.

She would not take blood money from that affair. Never.

She had met Kikyou in the back of a car and learned that a man could do more than take. He could destroy.

Mai had turned from the edge of a dream into a nightmare.

"Why? Why do we have to forget, just to remember?"

From that phone call Mai had chased after Atem and met him the night before he was to leave for Egypt.

The sight of him had took her breath away. Not because he was still handsome, or because he had a body of his own, but the change in him. The loss of spirit.
Out of everyone, even Seto, he was probably the most damaged from the affair.
In that small, high class, hotel room he had laughed bitterly. Not at her, but at himself.

"Why indeed? Maybe because it is time."
"Time?"

"To remember." Atem turned from her to the window over looking Tokyo. His reflection could not be seen, his shadow flickering like a candle flame. "To remember everything. The sins we can not erase."
"What sins?" Mai had shouted back. "Sins of what? We tried! We couldn't save her! We were children! What were we suppose to do?" Her voice left on the last words, tired of fighting him.
"I don't know. Maybe we are being punished." Atem took the words straight from her mouth. The words in her heart.

"What... Happened to you?"
He turned from the window then and smiled once more. It was painful, like looking at the aftermath of an accident. Horrible, yet strangely alluring.
"That summer."

For some reason, that broken look in his eyes drew her in. They were the worst couple, horribly mixed matched. But she tried, she tried in that room with the lights blazing like the sun and the 24 karat gold chandelier, to change him. Even for a moment.

But he had had all the passionate response of a porcelain doll. And kissing him was akin to kissing the dead.

He had shunned her touch, but hadn't broken away. Just that painful mewing, like a kitten being crushed.

"Mai... Ah... Stop...Please. Don't (sob)."

Damn you, Atem. She turned away from that memory. Maybe she had forced him. But that helplessness had just spurred her on.
In the end, in the darkness before morning, he had backed away from her to the edge of the bed. Just a little ball with black tufts of hair.

"That summer. Do you remember anything from it?" His voice so small and weak, as if she had taken his soul and not just his body.
Like a cliché, Mai lit a cigarette and leaned against the bed frame. Arms covering her naked breasts. "Like what?"
"Anything."
"You and that summer... Atem."
His shoulders tensed as she turned the use of his name into a command.
"I remember you. Isn't that enough?"
"The me of before that summer or during it?"
His question silenced her. She couldn't remember either. Just the him of now. The small man turning away from her with broken eyes and a broken voice. Chained and bound to a man that did not love him. Trapped now by a woman who--

What? Wanted to save him? She who was drowning herself?

"The blind leading the blind."
"What?"

Mai had turned then and bridged the distance between them, dragging him closer despite his protest and petting his head in a gesture of comfort. They were silent then, and he fell asleep on her shoulder with his arms encircling her waist.

How small, that gesture of kindness, yet it meant everything to her.
Men. They broke and trapped you. They took until nothing was left. And woman let them and asked nothing in return except for a promise and the one thing they could never hope to have:

Their heart. Even then Atem's heart was far away. Somewhere where Mai couldn't reach it. Still couldn't.

Mai opened another pack of cigarettes and smoked one while watching the sunset. She leaned against the broken telephone booth and expelled the smoke from her lips in one smooth, unbroken chain.

"Yeah, I remember. Call you, right?"
"Call me--"

"I remember! But I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for him. Alright?"

Mai crushed the cigarette bud with her heel and walked away into the night.

"Call me. Now."

These seven people. Seven lives, different yet inexplicably linked by one word, one command, and one person. In ten years they had changed so much.
Were they happy? Did they love?
Did anyone?
And the cycle begins again.

--Ten years ago--

Atem stood overlooking the buildings below, standing on Kikyou's balcony. Clenched in his fist was the Millennium Puzzle. A struggle just to stay awake, just to stay sane, let alone cry.

The humiliation, the pain, everything was just too much. But with Seto, might as well say it, dead and Kikyou gone he was the leader for the moment.

"Yugi?"
From Tea's voice, Atem's shoulders set in a movement that would be forever associated with pain, even ten years from now when the real Yugi would use that pain against him.

"Forget... We have to forget everything."

It was the only way. The best way.

Tea seemed to be the only one that would speak to him. Everyone else looked away. And why not? After what had transpired between him, her, and Yugi?

The act that Yugi held against him, what he held against himself.

The hatred that would grow into a flame ten years from now would consume them both.

Atem closed his eyes, the weight of the puzzle heavy in his hands. His curse, now and forever. He couldn't face the afterlife anymore. Not like this.

"Forget. Don't remember. Lets just forget about it. What happened there, what occurred here...and Kikyou. Forget everything."

No one spoke, not even Tea. But the sentence was passed. In the light of dawn—or was it sunset? He could never remember—they had agreed to that promise.

"Forget." Serenity.

"Forget." Honda.

"Forget." Mai. So forth and forth from every person.

All eyes rested on Mokuba. He clutched in his hands one of Seto's deck. The Sarcophagus of Sealing.

They would seal away their memories.

It was unclear who had spoke. Maybe it was Yugi from within him, using his voice. Maybe it was someone else. He still did not know, could only guess.
Regardless the voice came and forced the boy to make a choice, a choice which would change him. Forever.
"Mokuba."

"F...For...Forget."

Atem nodded, back in control again. "Forget."
And they had left that room and its sins and regrets, its promises and memories, behind. Locking it away forever.

Now Mokuba had opened that door. Now Kikyou was calling them to not forget her, or that day.
The seal was broken.

"Atem?"
Atem looked up and opened his eyes slowly. They were on a plane back to Japan. He knew where everyone was, what they were doing, and how they felt about this moment. But he didn't care. And neither did Kikyou. Whether they liked it or not, they would be forced into one more battle.

'Joey, Honda, Mokuba, Serenity...Mai. My friends, we can't escape from this. I was wrong.'
You can't forget a horror, a experience, so terrible that to forget it would be a sin itself.

"Atem? Earth to Atem?"

For the first time in a while, Yugi looked at him with real concern.
Atem flinched away from the open hand brushing against his cheek and looked away from Yugi's worried eyes. Dammit. Even now the pain was still so deep.
But his heart was still. Maybe now, in the days to come, he would face death.
What a blessing that would be.

Yugi turned away with disgust and looked out the window of the jet. "Hey, from here you can see Tokyo Tower. Welcome home."
Yes, welcome home.

Atem turned and closed his eyes. "Yes. Welcome home."

(End of Chapter Ten)

Author's Notes: Is this even PG-13 anymore? XD Seriously, I'm starting to wonder. I was also wondering why you all like this story. It wasn't one of my bests until this chapter. I just love it to pieces. My favorite part is when Yugi and Atem are introduced and Mai remembers Atem. I never even considered those two as a couple until now. XD

Well, anyway, in the days to come it will mainly focus on Mokuba.
I know you guys never get my movie trivia questions. But, and I know people have seen this horror movie (and no, it's not Scream), what horror movie made from a book does this chapter remind you of? It was unintentional, yet it still ended up this way. -.-

See ya next chapter.