Right! I have a question for the readers! Recently, I've been thinking in more detail about the plot line for the second part of Traces Through Time. I was wondering, since it's set in ancient Egypt (oops, spoiler) whether I should Yugi's friendship gang in as their past lives. Ultimatly, it wouldn't affect what happened in the anime-the series will remain mostly canon. They will be more back up characters for Efrona playing friendship roles, what not. But is it a good idea to give them past lives? Please tell me your opinion in a review, readers!

Thank you Miorochi, Koragirl and The Duelist's Heiress for their reviews! Much appreciated!

Ah, the song in this chapter is not owned by me! It belongs to Hilary Duff, and is called Fly.

"You are really scary when you go shopping," Efrona sighed, and dropped blissfully onto a chair.

"No, you just don't get out enough, antisocialist," Tea retorted. "Nor do you experiment enough with your clothes…almost all your favourites pieces were the colour black."

Efrona looked affronted. "But the colour looks good on me." Tea stared as if she had a second head.

"If you're going gothic, yes," she allowed. Efrona grinned.

"Exactly."

"All the same, you need variety."

As agreed by their call, Efrona and Tea met together on Saturday and went around doing…well, a lot of talking actually. No mystic mumbo-jumbo conversations, but light, rather air-headed talk that came from the giddiness of going around the mall with girl-time. Not that the two of them were exceptionally feminine, but it was nice to get away from their male friends once in awhile. Especially for Tea.

They had spent the better part of the morning chatting. Tea's confession that she sometimes needed time away from her guy friends, and appreciated each opportunity, wasn't a surprise to Efrona. Hadn't she once felt something similar about her little brother? Not that they had had the best relationship anyway.

Efrona confessed that moving from town to town so often as she had, she didn't actually bother to make friends after awhile because it hurt to think back on previous friendships when she moved. Tea questioned as to why they didn't keep in touch by phone or the like. Efrona had only shrugged, and quietly commented that her lost friends and acquaintances would soon get over her departure. They had ordinary lives to live, while she was a…wanderer.

There were other reasons, but none that Tea needed to here. It would spoil the comfortable mood they were in.

At mid-morning they went into the mall and spent several hours raiding department stores. Efrona nearly choked when Tea tried getting her into mini-shorts. There was no way in hell she was wearing something that short! She refused any clothing that exposed more skin then her arms (up to her forearms) and lower legs. Definitely no tank tops!

Of course Tea was frustrated at her conservativeness. Again, Efrona had reasons for not wanting any clothing more revealing then that, but none that Tea needed to know.

Now they were crashed in the food court, slowly eating their ordered lunches. Efrona couldn't quite remember when she had spent this much money in one day-she was always conservative of money. She had to be a miser to survive living alone. (Thus the reason for her school-banned, part-time jobs. She needed an income after all.)

"You know, it feels weird to have this sense of normalcy," Tea said. She sipped her ordered drink thoughtfully. "With all the wacky things that's happened to Yugi and all of us following, normal suddenly seems…creepy. Like something that'll threaten the world will suddenly appear again, any moment."

"You've learnt to be wary of the future," Efrona sighed. "Never know what might happen. But that's what I am now, always looking forwards and a lot of the time missing the present."

What life did she have now? So focused she had been before on her supernatural mission, she hadn't planned what her normal life would lead to after the mess was over. Now that she found she was 'normal', she didn't know how to react to it-how to enjoy the things around her. She was now just a teenager trying to find firm footing in the world and make her way in life.

"I think it might be balance Tea," Efrona mused. "In between all the crazy things that happen to you and your friends, just appreciate the normal moments. When nothing comes up, you go to school, relax on weekends, and do hobbies you like. You told me earlier you liked dancing?"

Tea smiled brightly. "Yeah. I had a dream of going to New York-getting into Juilliard actually, but…"

"But?" Efrona prompted.

"It sort of faded. It seems like such a far of dream now. I think I'd be happy right now to even get into a dance school."

"You spend too much time with your guy friends," Efrona commented. "Honestly, you need private time to set your own priorities straight, or at least get away from the males. Hence why you're here instead!"

"Yeah, maybe. Speaking of dreams, what's yours?"

Efrona faltered. "I-I don't have any big dreams like you," she stuttered. "I don't really know what I want…I've focused so much on the magic mess for so long that now when I'm free of the mess, I don't know what to do with myself now, let alone the future."

(Speaking of dreams, Yugi had not asked her anything about the previous dream she suspected he had witnessed a few nights ago. She was beginning to think maybe he was only one of quite a few images now that she pulled out to comfort her dreams. Efrona happily shoved aside the thought, satisfied, and continued paying attention to Tea.)

"Alright, did you have any dreams when you were twelve? Before you got involved in the mystic business?" Tea asked curiously. Efrona nodded.

"As Elisa? I was an ungrateful brat, but yeah, I had dreams. I wanted to be a doctor. With my grades then, it would have been impossible," she grinned. It faded though. "I still want to be a doctor. But now it seems so far off, like you feel. I've become a person I don't know."

Tea stood up suddenly, crumpling her lunch wrappings. "We both need to get out more often. We think too much about other things and forget to take care of our heads. Let's go have fun while we still have time!"

She dragged a bemused Efrona to the arcade.

Any moment, everything can change,
Feel the wind on your shoulder,
For a minute, all the world can wait,
Let go of your yesterday.

Efrona was not one to draw attention to herself. She did not like being up on a stage, singing while watchers stared at her. But when she sang, she could get lost in a fictitious reality she herself had created. Song writing was her hobby, besides others, and she loved it and guitars very much.

Right now she was just having fun, strumming out a guitar rhythm while ignoring the two dozen pairs of eyes trained on her in astonishment inside the arcade's karaoke room.

Can you hear it calling?
Can you feel it in your soul?
Can you trust this longing?
And take control

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

Efrona winked at Tea. Tea stared blankly for a second, before her eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed slightly. She wasn't sure whether to be shocked or flattered that this was…dedicated. To her. When was Efrona so good at singing anyway? Not that she knew that much about the shorter girl. You can know about her past, but you can't know very much about her present personality. The real one, not the mask she wore when they first met.

Tea rather liked this natural person Efrona was trying to show. The somewhat grave, but still relaxed and fun-loving person she had been so far this morning.

All your worries, leave them somewhere else,
Find a dream you can follow,
Reach for something, when there's nothing left,
And the world's feeling hollow.

Can you hear it calling?
Can you feel it in your soul?
Can you trust this longing?
And take control,

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

And when you're down and feel alone,
Just want to run away,
Trust yourself and don't give up,
You know you better than anyone else,

Any moment, everything can change,
Feel the wind on your shoulder,
For a minute, all the world can wait,
Let go of yesterday,

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try,
Fly
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

In a moment, everything can change.

Efrona beamed and finished the song she had finished writing a few days ago with a victory sign. The electric guitar she had just moments ago been strumming she put back in its stand. She resisted the urge to blush as she became aware of the stares fixed on her, and scurried off the stage. She darted to Tea and dragged the taller girl out of the room with her.

"…wow. You didn't tell me you could sing," Tea said, once she snapped out of her shock. "And like a pop star already."

"You exaggerate. And you can't say that to me without sounding like a hypocrite-you never told me you were fabulous at dancing. Nor the fact that you won several regional dance competitions," Efrona replied. At Tea's startled face, she shrugged. "There were some old magazines in the library, and your face appeared on quite a few of them from when you were younger."

Lightly bickering, they exited the arcade with their bags and began walking towards Tea's house. (Efrona insisted despite the taller girl's worry-she didn't mind walking back home alone.) They were surprised to be showered with the flower petals of certain flowers from a tree just outside the arcade-a tree that hadn't bloomed flowers in years because of its city location.

"Wow, you could say the world in general is happy today. Sunny day, blue skies, no clouds and flowers suddenly blooming," Tea commented in amusement. She was puzzled when she looked at Efrona and saw a blush streaking the said girl's cheeks, her bangs drooping low over her eyes. "Efrona? You okay?"

"…it's my fault."

"Fault for what?" Tea asked. Efrona looked up in embarrassment. Another shower of petals blew past them from the flowering tree, and some caught in the loose strands of her ponytail. Efrona sighed, blowing strands of hair and petals off her face.

"Um…there are some side affects to being…what I am. You know, with all the magic and stuff. And, well, one of the things that have side affects is singing. Singing speeds up the growth process of plants, or helps it along. The flowers popped up when I sang. I thought I had complete control over-over that reaction," she sighed. Tea laughed.

"Now that's something I would've expected from one of those angel stories. It actually exists!"

Efrona glared at her balefully and kept walking. "It's not fun. I have to keep a pot plant wherever I live so that I can sing at home."

"You'll show me where you live one day won't you?"

Efrona was silent for awhile. "Maybe," she finally replied. "If…if you really want, maybe sometime. But it's not really anything to look at."

"Do you live in one of the more dodgy areas, like Joey?" Tea asked in alarm.

"Sort of. It's not very bad. Just sometimes a few drunks stumble past the front at night. I live in an apartment. It's…very plain. And gloomy."

"Oh, that's not bad. Plain is okay-you just moved in, after all," Tea shrugged.

"It's sparse, plain and it doesn't feel like home," Efrona admitted softly. Tea glanced at her, puzzled, and Efrona went on.

"When you go to someone's house, you can normally feel a sort of homey feeling about the place-it's been lived in, people have laughed and been happy in there. Like Yugi's place-it's warm,and welcome. I've never lived in one place for more than a few months. Each place I lived in was simple, unnoticeable. I never bothered being personally comfortable in those places, knowing I was going to move soon enough. It's just a place I was going to live in for awhile."

Efrona laughed curtly. "Sorry, I'm rambling. Point is, I'm a dull person, and my living place reflects it. If I try decorating my place now, it still won't feel like home. I left that sense behind when I was twelve."

"I wonder if it's because you truly can't feel like home, or because you don't let yourself," Tea replied. Surprise crossed Efrona's expression, so Tea elaborated. "I'm saying, Frona, are you planning to stay in Domino, or are you going to leave?"

Silence met her question. Tea blinked at Efrona-she had honestly expected the girl to reply immediately that she was going to stay. Was she planning to leave, despite all her talk of having friends here and such? Was she, Yugi, Joey and Tristan just more faces for her to leave behind and lose contact with?

"I can't believe you!" Tea exploded. "If you were planning to just leave all of us behind and lose contact just like you did with others you've met, then you're not as sincerely nice you've acted so far, even without being incredibly happy all the time. And I thought I was getting to know you better."

Efrona glared at Tea, eyes flashing dangerously. Tea nearly stepped back from the ferocity of her expression-she had only seen that expression once, directed at Dartz just before Yami and Kaiba began duelling the previous psycho. She hadn't realised how vicious it was and she wondered how Dartz stood up to it while smirking. Or maybe it was just a trait for megalomaniacs to smirk at everything.

"E-Efrona?" Tea questioned, almost unsteadily. Efrona blinked, and at once her expression cleared.

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly. "I spaced out. But please don't…don't judge me just yet, okay? I've told you before there are some things I'm not comfortable sharing with people yet. I don't like losing contact with those rare people I made friends with in the past, but it was…better. It would be better for you, Yugi, Joey and Tristan to stop hanging around me too, but it seems I can't pull away now. I really do want to stay in Domino, for your information. I want to be friends with all of you." Embarrassment lined her face as she said this, but her voice was firm.

"Sorry as well," Tea replied. "I didn't have a right to say what I said before, and it was pretty harsh."

Efrona gave thumbs up. "We're even!"

"Have you ladies finished gossiping yet? We've been waiting for awhile," a voice interrupted the lightened moment. Tea and Efrona abruptly swung around, and both gasped. When had those six punks snuck up on them?

'This is such a cliché situation-and here I thought I was smarter then those people in the movies,' Tea thought.

'I'm such an idiot-when did I let my guard down and forget to keep alert of surroundings?' Efrona thought. 'Ewwww, even worse, some of these people look kind of familiar.'

"Been awhile, gem," the obvious leader of this gang said. Efrona narrowed her eyes, disgusted.

"Your nick names are still as plain as ever, bastard," she retorted, much to Tea's surprise.

"You know these people, Ef-?!" Her sentence was cut off by a hand over her mouth. Efrona shushed her urgently.

"Sorry. It's better if we don't say each other's names in front of gangsters though," Efrona advised, and quickly lifted her hand from Tea's mouth. She swung around to face the gangsters surrounding them. "So, did you stalk me here or is just co-incidence you're in town?"

"Wouldja believe it, just co-incidence!" the gang leader replied, laughing. The laugh abruptly stopped though. "But now that I remember, you still owe us for breaking my buddy's arm some time back."

"He was harassing me first. I don't owe anything," Efrona replied.

"Baby, I gave you a choice last time we met," the leader offered. "Last time, I said you could either join my gang or die. You never chose cause you ran off too quickly. What say you choose now? Personally I'd prefer you to join my gang-not enough kick-ass females in the group." He licked his lips while measuring her up and down. Efrona donned her previous vicious expression again, and he smirked at her fury. (Proving one thing to Tea-villains were blind to anything but themselves.)

"I don't want to die, but I don't really want to join any gang groups either," Efrona said. Her voice was quiet and tense. "You're lucky your buddy made it out of our fight with only a broken arm. Let my friend and I pass-there's no need for a fight."

"Sorry babe," he said, and a switchblade glinted in his and his friends' hands. "You just started it."

They lunged, all of them. Efrona, dropping all civility, shoved Tea into a wall to protect both their backs, and proceeded to launch into the fight. The warning glare she gave to Tea was enough to freeze the brunette in shock. She'd get herself killed alone though!

"Efrona!" Tea cried, but gaped in surprise at what she was seeing.

"Assholes!" Efrona roared, as she grabbed a flunky charging at her. "Like I'd ever want to be a whore for your group!" She pressed against him, dodging under his knife, and kneed him in the groin hard. As he ducked to instinctively clutch his hurt, she slammed her palm brutally against his temple, and he sunk to the ground, dazed. A carefully forceful boot to his head had him unconscious.

As soon as she knocked out the first attacker, she lost sense of reality. It was as if her mind had suddenly split in half-one was the one functioning to survive her current fight, the other was reliving another, particularly violent fight in the past.

"Stay still and we won't torture you for long, brat."

"You honestly think I'm that stupid? Like hell, bastards."

A slash from a blade ripped her jacket. A small cut from the top of her left shoulder to collarbone planes marred her pale skin. Scowling menacingly, barely in control of her fighting instincts, Efrona grabbed the wrist of her attacker, ignoring the knife point scraping dangerously against the planes of her upper chest. With a snarl of effort, she used both hands and twisted the wrist hazardously, at least spraining it. The guy howled from pain as he dropped the knife and cradled his hand. Efrona didn't let him retreat-she slammed him against the wall and with cold precision, used the handle of the switchblade she stole from him to knock him out.

"Damn bitch! She broke my wrist!"

"Don't mess with me then, punks. Had enough?"

'I can't keep going like this…I'm losing sense of reality. At this rate, I'll go completely psycho…' Efrona thought with a detached sort of manner. She was too far drawn into the fight to stop herself now. And she was too ingrained in her memories to tame the wilder facet of her character. The only thing holding her to the edge to sanity was Tea's presence and her old, steadfast morals. She wouldn't hold back fighting short of killing or fatally wounding her opponents.

"Kid, you can't last long in this fight. There's tons of us, and only one of you. Why try and make your punishment worse?"

"Damn it, I didn't do anything wrong! Are you punks mentally retarded, or deaf? I said it before."

"Smart mouth wench, your punishment's going to get worse in the end!"

Tea watched in horror as her friend, so amiable before, usually smiling, serene or quietly grave, become a fighting machine. Friendship and the fact Efrona didn't kill any of them with the switchblade she had managed to steal was the only reason Tea wasn't scared to death of her friend. Efrona's eyes were eerily blank as she fought, the normal pale blue colour lightened to a grey-blue shade. It changed just like when she got too lost in her memories-when she wasn't in her right state of mind.

Efrona tossed a few stray locks from her face. Slowly, she advanced onto the only two remaining gang members left-the boss and his slut. She had a knife out, but it was held shakily, and the woman was trying to squirm behind the gang leader. He snorted, and shook her off. Inwardly, he was shocked at his opponent's skill. It was no wonder his buddy had got his arm broken-the girl's skill was superior to his.

Still, pride didn't allow him to back away from a one-on-one direct fight. He critically assessed her.

Injuries: minor cuts on her left shoulder and collarbone planes; shallow, bleeding cuts on her arms; probably a bruised abdomen from the way her breaths were pulled lighter then before; a slight limp in her gait-she had slightly strained a muscle. The worst was one that a lackey of his had managed to inflict on her side and part of her lower back-a knife slash that was dripping blood. It wasn't too bad though-it hadn't gone near deep enough to pierce any organs. She was fast and quickly reactive.

"You really should have agreed to join my gang. It would've saved you the pain," the boss sighed, and launched into attack, knife held open.

"This is what you get."

"You won't beat me."

She dodged it, but not completely. A thin, almost unnoticeable line was cut just under her jaw. Her feet flashed forward, slamming against his ankle. He stumbled, but didn't fall, as she expected. He was better than she thought. With a smirk, he slammed his elbow into her stomach and slapped her face at the same time. From the sidelines, he heard the girl's friend cry out in horror, and his own girl's giggle of vengeful delight. Confident of his win, he seized his opponent's ponytail and jerked it back, keeping her kneeling on the ground.

"Ha! What happened to the mouthing off, wench?"

"…you…bastard…I'm not…giving up!"

Blood dribbled from her back and mouth while she said the words, and a knife jutted out from the stab wound, glinting in the dim light.

Was she…going to die here after all? After surviving for a year already on her own?

"Your friend's going to be serving our gang after I'm finished with you, kitten," he purred. Wrong thing to say.

Like hell she would give up and let herself die here!

Efrona reacted instinctively to any threat. The fact that it was a threat to her friend and an innocent bystander registered-she had to act immediately!

"Touch her and die," she snarled, and shot a freezing glare that dared Tea to move from her spot. With renewed desperation she lunged forward, biting the arm that clutched her hair. Yelping, he let go, but flashed his knife down for a quicker kill then he wanted.

Efrona, eyes now not just blank, but the depiction of flaming hell and brimstone in the harsh silver tints of her grey-blue eyes, grabbed the oncoming knife with an instinctive hand, clenching her hand around the blade and forcing it down. Blood dripped from her closed fist, but she ignored it and the searing pain. She punched the boss's face as hard as she could, then slammed the knife she snatched off him into his stomach by the hilt, refusing to kill him. At the same time she sent a harsh chop at his throat, slamming his neck back. As he fell, gasping, she slammed a clenched hand upwards into his jaw, snapping his head backwards and to the floor. With a kick, she knocked him unconscious.

Slowly, with the knife still clenched in her bloody fist, she turned towards the remaining female gang member. Her eyes spoke of hell. They blazed with adrenaline, excitement and possibly bloodlust.

"See? Told you I would win. Wouldn't want to be killed because of someone pathetic like you. Now beat it."

Her eyes were unfocused from weariness and loss of blood, but they blazed a more effective threat than words could.

"You also?" she asked with icy indifference. The female gasped, dropping her blade, and shakily ran. To hell with standing with the gang, the damn girl looked ready to run her through with the knife she held!

Efrona watched the other run. She slowly dropped the knife she held and bowed her head, letting her bangs cover her eyes. Clenching her fists painfully, she struggled to bring herself to the present situation, away from past memories. Away from the uncontrolled, unreliable, dangerous part of herself.

'I never wanted you to see me like this Tea.' She thought sadly, spotting Tea's white face through long forelocks. 'I never wanted any of my new friends to see me like I used to be. Like I still am.'

"E-Efrona?" Tea stuttered, and cleared her throat. "Efrona, are you alright?" Well of course she wasn't, she berated herself. She was scratched, wounded and bleeding. "Efrona, let's go to a hospital-"

"No."

Tea trailed into silence, uncertain what to do after the other girl's reply.

"Tea, just…go home by yourself. I need to…" Efrona mumbled half incoherently. She still wouldn't lift her head and let Tea see her face. She turned abruptly with the intention of running off, but realised, when her vision wavered slightly, that she was in worse shape then she thought. She was too tired to move immediately. And she needed to get her more serious wounds looked at.

Hands touched her forearms lightly. Efrona jerked in shock and clenched her fists, still wary of an attack. From under her bangs however, she saw Tea. By a supreme effort, she managed to relax.

"Efrona, let's get you some help. You need to be looked at," Tea said in concern.

"…no hospitals," Efrona relented tonelessly. The dull voice scared Tea more then anything at the moment.

A police siren wailed through the air. It had spotted them and the mess of gangsters on the street. Tea bit her lip-if the police caught them, they would surely send Efrona to a hospital for stitches. She had learned by now that Efrona did not refuse something unless there was a reason. Heck, she didn't even defend herself properly against Joey's teasing!

"Efrona, whatever you do, don't faint. We're going to walk to a friend's house, or the policemen heading for us will send you to a hospital. Alright?"

Silence, but a tiny nod. Efrona was sure she could stand for a little while longer-she had endured pain before.

After the pathetic dogs for punks ran off, Efrona duly concluded, just before she fainted on the deserted road, that she really needed a hospital…if not for the shock of her worst fight yet, then from the stab wound in her back that was currently spouting blood like a tap.

Tea supported the shorter girl as they began walking, leading her. Efrona followed her like a lifeless doll, and she still wouldn't uncover her eyes. Trembling slightly, Tea took out her mobile phone and called the closest friend to them at the moment. This was still ten minutes by walking.

"Yugi? Listen, something bad happened, and we're-Efrona and I-are heading for your house…"

Well! A filler sort of chapter here-deals more in Efrona's establishing friendship with Tea (female who I think needs mroe female friends that stick around) and the uglier aspects of Efrona's pastand character . Though most of her past was already ugly. The violence of her character in here is more of a stain on her childhood innocence that stuck.

Please review and tell me what you think.