Author's note: Bleck, school has started again! Senior year! Hurray! Not sure what I really want to do yet, but I still have time. My birthday was a week ago, so now I'm eighteen! It's hard to believe! Where did the time go?...

Warnings: None

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuugioh or the OCs I have mentioned in previous chapters.

I'm just like you,

Just not a fool,

I'm just like you,

Just not as cool

(With Bakura, Amon, Zireria, and Arashi)

"Is this really what young girls wear now days? Their skirts are ridiculously short! They look like common whores!"

Bakura watched from his place at the wall with blank eyes, a small smirk growing on his face at the Dark Queen's shocked face. She held up a black skirt that belonged to Anzu, her dark eyes growing wider and wider at the minute when Amon whispered something in her ear. She tossed it aside, glowering at it with distaste. "Whores," she spat out. "Nothing but common whores!"

He looked in Arashi's direction to see if the pale haired man would have any reaction, but so far, he could see nothing. Amon let out a sigh, massaging his lover's shoulders. "Relax, my dear," he murmured quietly. "No one is going to make you wear it."

"I certainly would hope not."

She kicked the skirt away towards wear some of Anzu's other stuff was. He could only stare at it, seeing as it was mainly clothes and inexpensive jewelry, but something else caught his eye. It was a pair of photographs, one being of her and her friends and the other of a boy that looked almost exactly like her.

"She had a twin if I remember correctly, he said to himself, not taking his eyes off the Queen. Tenionia's request kept ringing in his ears, buzzing around as if a fly had found its way in and refused to leave. Tenionia. His memories of her were returning slowly, and from what he could remember, she was probably one of the only people he had ever come to love. "The sooner this is all over, the better. I hate dealing with things I have no desire to think about."

"Akefia, what are you scowling about?"

Amon was speaking to him, a dark eyebrow raised in question. He shook his head, the white locks brushing against his face. "Nothing," he knew they wanted more than that, so he just blurted out the next question that was lying on the tip of his tongue. "But why Anzu?"

Amon frowned. "Come again?"

He stepped away from the wall, coming a bit closer to the Queen. "I asked, why Anzu? She's nothing special. Just a seventeen year old girl with no past life or special destiny. So why her?"

Zireria's cold laugh interrupted Amon before the general had a chance to speak. "How ignorant are you?" her dark eyes swimming with amusement. "I wouldn't have chosen her without a reason. She is special. In fact, very special."

He crossed his arms. "How so?"

She leaned back, grabbing her champagne glass and taking a long sip out of it. "Ever heard of a group called The Children of the Crystal?" she paused to see his reaction, only to role her eyes at his blank face. "Then it appears I will have to explain it to you."

"Please, take your time," he smirked, which earned him a jab in the back from the one of the nearby magicians.

Zireria ignored him. "A thousand years before the City of Atlantis was created, a group of three young people were given the task to take the energy of life giving magic and solidify it into one form: The Crystal of Life. They then sealed it away and each of them was given immortality, but for a price of course. Each of them had to guard three sections of the afterlife: the heavens, purgatory, and hell itself."

Bakura frowned. "And this has to do with Anzu because…?"

Zireria's smile was anything but pleasant. "As you know, my sister is the one who has the crystal at this moment, but that doesn't mean that the three who created the crystal are dead. In fact, it's quite the opposite. One of them is with my sister and her little friends right now."

"Imayra," Arashi said in an annoyed tone. "Also known as She Who Watches."

Zireria nodded her head. "Imayra is the one who guards the souls that end up in Purgatory."

"So Anzu is one of the three original guardians?" Bakura rubbed his temples, finding all this new information very overwhelming. "And that's why you wanted her body? So you could have access to the powers that are dormant inside of her?"

"How right you are," Zireria laughed, heading back to her throne and gracefully sitting down in it. "And so far, everything is working out in my favor. Unless my spy comes and tells me that my enemies are planning something quite stupid, of course."

"Spy?"

"Ivan, you can come in now."

Bakura turned around sharply as a thirteen year old boy appeared from behind the double doors, dressed entirely in black so it would contrast his very pale skin. He walked towards the Queen silently, a smile posed perfectly on his face. "Hello Queen Zireria," he bowed to her respectfully. "It's nice to see you in your true form."

Zireria smiled sweetly at him, which almost caused Bakura to feel ill. "It's nice to see you again, Ivan. I haven't seen you in two months."

"You know me. Always busy spying and assassinating for you. It's too bad I didn't get to see your revival," he pouted for a moment. "But it's nice to see you again."

Arashi huffed, crossing his arms. "What news do you have for us, Ivan? Stop flattering the Queen and tell us already!"

"ARASHI!" Zireria's voice cut like a knife through the silence. She sat up a bit straighter in her throne, dark coils appearing from around her and wrapping themselves around the man's neck. Arashi choked, the coils lifting him a few inches off the ground, his hands scrambling through them, but they only went through the shadows. "Only I or Amon are allowed to command Ivan. You will learn your place and keep silence. Or I will send you to the deepest and horrifying parts of the Shadow Realm, do you understand?"

"Y…Yes…my…my Queen," Arashi choked out, the shadows eventually falling away. He landed on his knees, holding his throat and coughing.

Zireria returned to the boy. "What news do you have for me? What is the House planning to do?"

"The House is planning to attack you in five days. They plan to meet you at the spot where you plan to release some of your shadow demons."

Zireria smirked. "Well then, we will have to be ready for them," she looked at the boy carefully. "And what of my sister? What is she planning?"

"Right now, they're staying with Imayra and her wife. I know how to locate them and I have a plan on how to do it."

This caught the Queen's interest. "Oh? And what is that?"

"I will let them believe I am on their side; that I believe the House is being foolish in attacking you, so I decided to join their side in order to stop you. And when I lead them to stop the House and you, I will turn against them. They'll be out numbered!" he smiled sweetly. "What do you think of my plan, my Queen?"

Amon walked away from Zireria, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulder. "I trained you well, Ivan," he smiled at the Queen. "I agree to it. What do you say?"

"I like it. You may proceed."

Ivan bowed, the smile on his face growing wider as he walked out of the room and into the dark hallway. Bakura turned to them with an eyebrow raised. "Who was that?"

Zireria looked at the boy's retreating back with pride. "That, is my spy and second right hand man, Ivan Gregorovich, the smiling killer."

(Imayra's home)

"So, Imayra, what exactly are you? I mean, I know you're human, but at the same time, you don't seem like one. What are you?"

Elecktra sat on her knees as she helped the woman gather ingredients to look into a scrying bowl. So far, the tall and fair haired woman had remained silent, silently humming peacefully to herself. After Elecktra had asked the question, she stopped humming, turning to face the girl with curious eyes. "I am human. But like you, I have abilities and access to magic and supernatural things."

"You're immortal, too."

The woman blinked. "Yes, I am," she smiled to herself at the thought. "I forget though, how old I am. I have lost track over the years. Perhaps if I spend time to think about it, it will return to me."

Elecktra gathered some herbs, crunching them and putting them in the bowl. "And how are you immortal? Why exactly did you become immortal?"

Imayra only sighed, looking at her with tired eyes. "You certainly ask a lot of questions, you know that?"

"I have been told I'm persistent. It's one of my charms."

"You're very cheeky too," she laughed, but it didn't sound mean. "I like that. It reminds me of Celcia," she smiled warmly at the thought of her lover. "But I will tell you, and I expect you to inform the others as well."

"Go on, please."

"When I was a very young child, my village was exposed to the essence of life magic. Instantly, the sick were healed, the old stopped looking so decrepit, and we were all given magical abilities. My father, the leader of our village, ordered that one person should try to take the magic to contain it; so that other villages would not come and try to kick us out. Unfortunately, the magic could not be contained into one person, so my father decided that it should be divided up into three people."

"So did it work?

Imayra held up her palm. "Not quite, you see, the magic wouldn't just accept anybody. Many tried to harness the magic, but they failed. My mother, however, had an idea. She took me to the spot where the magic was and it instantly reacted to me. It was then discovered that children had a much better chance at controlling it because they were for the most part pure and free of negative thoughts. So, my father picked two children from our village, a pair of twins, and together we harnessed the magic."

Elecktra studied the hard look on the woman's face. "But I thought the magic turned into a crystal? The one that's inside of me."

"I'm getting there. While we were sealing the magic, it rejected us. We then realized the magic could not be sealed in the form it was, so we solidified it. You must remember, that we did not know a whole lot about magic, so once we turned it into a crystal, we sealed it away. We decided that the magic was too powerful for one person to have. However, this was later turned upside down when Tenionia sealed it inside herself."

Elecktra cocked her head. "Are you…upset about that?"

"No, for she sealed it away so her father could not use it for his evil purposes. I'm glad it is where it is, so no one else would know where to look," she sighed. "We became immortal because of our interactions with the magic. We did not know it at the time, but eventually, we each stopped aging."

"When did you stop ageing?"

"When I was around twenty four, I stopped aging. The twins stopped aging after they turned eighteen."

Elecktra peered into the scrying bowl as the older woman added water into it. Her breath hitched as she saw the image of her enemy, watching as the older woman was speaking to Amon. Imayra stared into it, though there was no emotion in her eyes. "Elecktra?"

She glanced over to the woman. "Yeah?"

"Is Tenionia prepared to kill Zireria?"

She blinked a few times, scooting away from the woman. "What?" she only stared at Imayra, who repeated her question. "I…I don't know; I've never really asked her how she feels or if she is prepared to kill her own flesh and blood. I mean, I know she destroyed her father, but he was already too far gone."

"I see."

"But changing the subject, who were the twins that helped seal the crystal. And you said earlier, before all this crystal stuff started, that you knew how to help us and…" she paused, her eyes widening. "Was Anzu…one of the twins that helped seal the crystal?"

Imayra didn't look at her; her eyes were focused solely on the sage she was grounding up in a bowl. Outside, the voices of Celcia and the others sounded, each of them animated and lively. Inside with her and Imayra, it was silent and rather cold.

"Yes," Imayra drawled out slowly. "Only back then, I didn't know her as Anzu. I knew her then as Astraia, the Mistress of the Hellish Yard."

"The Hellish…yard?"

Imayra only nodded. "After we became immortal, the three of us were given duties that would help ensure the crystals power. I was given the job of guarding the souls that ended up in Purgatory. Those are the souls who are awaiting their judgment. Savan, Astraia's twin brother, was given the title Master of the Heavenly yard, who guards the souls that enter paradise. And Astraia, the Mistress of the Hellish Yard, guards the souls of the damned."

Elecktra frowned. "Guard them? But aren't they evil?"

"She guarded them to make sure they would never find their way out. There is more to the story on why Astraia is now Anzu, but the girl doesn't even know who she really is. If Zireria knew, and she probably does, then she is capable of a lot more power."

Elecktra shivered. "It makes sense. If she knows about Anzu's true self and abilities, then she may be trying to access them without waking up Anzu's soul."

"Exactly."

She sighed, overwhelmed with the new information. "But why was she reborn as Anzu? And what about Savan?"

Imayra shook her head. "It has to deal with you. Well, actually, it involves Tenionia and the thief Akefia as well. And-"

"Imayra! Elecktra!"

Both women turned around to see Jounouchi standing there in the doorway, brown eyes narrowed. "The kid from the House or whatever, Ivan, is here."

The three of them rushed outside to where the others were, Elecktra immediately appearing next to Marik's side. Imayra walked over to where Celcia was, the two of them instantly connecting hands. Yuugi's puzzle began to glow brightly as the Pharaoh appeared, staring down Ivan with a firm gaze. "You're name is Ivan, isn't it?"

Ivan nodded. "You sure are pretty smart there, Pharaoh," he grinned, though they could all tell it was fake. "My name is Ivan Gregorovich."

"What are you doing here?"

"And how did you find it?" Celcia asked, her dark eyes narrowing. "It is very hard to find this place."

Ivan smiled. "I followed your magic trail. Magic does leave behind an invisible trail and some of us have an easier time picking them up," his cobalt blue eyes shone in the sun. "I am here to join you guys!"

Honda would have fallen over if Jounouchi hadn't been there standing next to him. "What do you mean?" he asked, Jounouchi looking just as mad as he did. "You work with that House, don't you?"

Ivan shrugged. "I did a lot of thinking and decided that I don't think Imhotep is being very smart. You guys seemed to have the right idea, so I want to be on your side."

Elecktra frowned, stepping forward. "Ivan, I have known you since I first came to the Per Ankh. It hardly seems likely you would help us but," she glanced around her friends. "Stranger things have happened, I suppose."

His grin only grew. "So, can I join you guys?"

She stepped next to the Pharaoh, whispering in his ear. "I don't trust him," she hissed. "I know him, Pharaoh; he is called the Smiling killer. And for good reason."

The Pharaoh could only nod, staring at the boy with a hard expression. "I don't entirely trust him either," he whispered back. "But we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he really does have our best interests at heart."

"Maybe."

The Pharaoh turned to Imayra and Celcia with a smile. "What do you two say? Do you think you can handle having another guest in your home?"

Celcia shrugged. "Does it matter if we can't?" she ignored the jab she got from Imayra. "He's welcome to stay here. But if he goes and tells the House where we are, I will make sure he suffers!"

Ivan only bowed deeply. "I thank you all. I hope I can be of assistance to you," his smile continued to show even as the others turned their backs to head inside, the grin soon changing into something more vicious. "I will make you pay, Pharaoh. You will suffer, and it will be painful!"

IVAN! You back stabbing little bitch! Ahem, pardon my French, but still! Ah, but maybe he'll have some redeeming qualities. Maybe. Song was World falls away by Seether. Well, until next time!