Q. PRELUDE TO THE END

I never really feel quite right
I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong
Every time I look at you, you seem so alive
Tell me how do you do it, walk me through it

I'm following every footstep
But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me
Shine on this life that's burning out

SHINE (shine it on to me)
Shine down on me (I wanna feel it)
Shine on this life that's burning out

- Shine,ending song to the original Hellsing Anime

The forfeit worked out for Malik, considering the fact that he was still asleep in the waiting room with Youko watching over him, while Yami left to deal with his and Ryou's duel. With all the formalities out of the way and when they started the duel was typical, only there was no witty banter or anything. The only highlight of the duel was when Mai let in Jonouchi Shizuka, her eyes still bandaged, and Ryuuji Otogi, who was looking nervous as he drifted away from the group and made a beeline for Yugi.

Yugi had shifted from being slumped in her chair against the wall to leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She had adopted this look when Rishid had left to prepare for his duel, due to the fact that her mind had caught up with her. As things really began to settle in her mind, as she began to really think about everything that happened, Yugi realized that the sudden calm she had felt at the beginning of the finals was more her being numb than anything. All she wanted to do was cry, about what she wasn't sure of yet, and curl up in bed with some hot green tea with more sugar stirred into the liquid than should be possible. She swore that after this, since the bed would happen, she was going to take a week to avoid people and just stay in with Yami. "There is no place like home." Yugi whispered to herself, mentally laughing at how appropriate that phrase was for this situation.

"You look stressed." Otogi stated as he sat down by her but she did not pay him any mind.

"No offense intended, Otogi-san, but I don't like you enough to tell you why." Yugi stated as he watched the two duelists shake hands. While her tone was a bit hostile, Otogi did not feel the typical anger at being dismissed so easily rising in his chest. He let it go, since it was true. Yugi sighed and got to her feet, wincing as she stretched something that was obviously stiff, and just in time to greet a smiling Jonouchi Shizuka.

"I never imagined you to look like this, Yugi-chan!" Shizuka cheerfully stated as she suddenly hugged Yugi. "I wanted to thank you for lending me your computer so that I could listen to Ka-chan's duels." She added and pulled away as Yugi blinked a few times.

"Ka-chan?" both her and Otogi echoed as the auburn haired girl giggled, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth while her brown eyes reflected her amusement to them.

"That is my nickname for Katsuya." She answered as both Yugi and Otogi decided to drop the issue for now, until Jonouchi did something stupid that warranted such embarrassment.

"Okay." Yugi stated as Shizuka tilted her head to the side with a look of confusion on her face. "Sorry to seem a bit rude, but I need to go talk to Kaiba about something while I can." With that Yugi retreated towards the waiting room as they watched her leave.

"That was odd." Shizuka commented as Otogi shrugged. "She didn't sound that stressed before."

"I know, but it would be best not to press her." Otogi told his future girlfriend as she frowned and turned to him. "Motou-san doesn't trust many people with her private life, I have found, and if she is looking for Kaiba-san that means she is going to resolve part of this issue on her own." Shizuka accepted his words, but only because she knew that she could not do much for Yugi at the present time.

Malik was awake when Kaiba entered the waiting room, obviously a bit disturbed by something that happened in his duel with Isis. Youko had gotten to her feet when he entered the room, having jumped at the sudden entrance while Malik lazily got to his feet and stretched his arms up above his head. "What did your sister do to her?" he demanded with a glare as the blonde flinched at the tone.

"You could just ask me." Yugi stated from the doorway as Kaiba turned to face her.

"I think it would be wise to leave you two to discuss this." Malik stated as he pushed Youko towards the door, Yugi taking the extra three steps in and towards the side as they walked past her. "Good luck." The blonde whispered as he passed Yugi, who moved over and closed the door while Kaiba crossed his arms and looked like a father ready to reprimand his daughter for doing something stupid.

In some ways, that was not far from the truth.

"What have you kept from me?" Kaiba asked as Yugi sighed, shoulders sagging a bit.

"What do you want to know?" she asked as he tapped his foot while thinking of his first question.

"What did Isis mean when she said you were in her grasp?" he asked as Yugi looked uneasy. Kaiba had never seen his long time friend and adopted-sister look so edgy before.

"She kidnapped me in the middle of Battle City." Yugi stated, deciding that it would not be good to dance around the subject or avoid it. Eventually she would have to come to terms with it, eventually she would break more than she did that night… and right now she would not bury it. Her instincts were telling her not too.

"She what?!" he grit out from between his teeth as he let his arms drop to his sides while he crossed the distance between him and Yugi. She took a step back as he rested his hands on her shoulders and kept her from backing farther from him. "Yugi." He pressed out as she looked away.

"I was talking with Bakura-san out in the crowds, in one of the main areas, when someone ambushed us. I threw him my bag and they drug me kicking into the alley, knocked me out, and I woke up in a room with Ishtar-san." Yugi stated, leaving out a good many facts. Kaiba looked a bit shaken by just knowing that much. "She's damned creepy with her obsession."

"She said something about 'that fool that claims he loves her' during the duel, I know you heard it." Kaiba stated, as she looked him in the eye. "Your relationship with Saitou-san is more, isn't it? It is more than the typical boyfriend-girlfriend stage that you both claimed during 'The Legendary Heroes' debatable."

"It is." She admitted as he waited for her to continue. "We are actually engaged."

"Engaged?" the brunette echoed as she nodded and he let go of her shoulders and fell back in a dead faint.

As Jonouchi Katsuya and Ishtar Rishid began their duel, the last of the semi-finals, a confrontation was going on between Bakura Ryou and Satou Yami. Both boys bad taken to standing in front of the entrance doors to the arena, far enough from everyone that was involved in the duels so their conversation would be as private as they could get without entering the waiting room where Kaiba had gone. Also they could see practically everyone, especially the fuming Isis, from their position. "Can you feel it?" Ryou asked Yami, who crossed his arms and leaned against the metal divider between the glass doors.

"Have you been watching too many horror movies or are you mocking someone?" Yami drawled out as Ryou shivered, which drew Yami's attention to him. In a split second Ryou's hair became spikier, giving him a slight more of a devious look, and his eyes were now as gray as an overcast day instead of dark brown. "I see you have finally gained enough strength to make such a change drastic." Yami remarked as 'Ryou' snorted and stretched his arms above his head.

"Not all of us were blessed with such power, Pharaoh." A voice that was not Ryou's calm tone answered with a smirk. Yami recognized the heavily accented tone that now emerged from Ryou's mouth, he had almost missed it despite his trouble with his memories. "Amon will have to gather his power like I did, with patience. It is not like you, or any of those in the Shadow Realms, can help us."

"It is unfortunate that you haven't lost your sharp tongue in your imprisonment." Yami dryly returned as his devious companion took to inspecting his nails in his boredom. "Am I right in calling it an 'imprisonment,' Thief King Zuka"

"Yes, you are right… but it was by choice." Zuka sneered and turned his attention to the duel. "So, your mind was proven to be empty. Is this true?" he drawled out as Yami glared.

"My mind is not empty, but I do not appreciate my memories being tampered with. It is annoying to have everyone around you know yet they keep you out of the loop." Yami hissed out from between his teeth as Zuka flinched at the anger behind his words. "I do not appreciate Yugi being brought into this screwy circus!"

"You have adapted well to this new world, already using their phrases." Zuka commented, in hopes of deflecting the issue but when he met Yami's crimson eyes he knew it was too much to hope for. "It was for your own good after what happened to her, we were hoping that you would have recovered if you did not remember. You loved her too much for our magic to give you a chance at happiness, your magic would not let you forget and it was our stupidity that we tried without researching." He answered and turned to face the now glaring Yami, whose fingers were twitching. Zuka was not stupid enough to think that the other would not crush his mind in public, but he had no way of getting out of this.

"What happened?" Yami pressed as the Thief King, who was possessing Ryou, looked resigned.

"Why do you want to remember?" Zuka asked as Yami blinked twice, trying to figure out what he was trying to get at.

During this conversation, Yugi was crouched by Kaiba and lightly slapping his face to get him awake. It would not look good if she exited the waiting room and asked for smelling salts or anything to wake up their employer, who had fainted. The only plus of the situation was that she would tease Kaiba about this incident for a long time. "Maram, you wouldn't happen to have a spell to wake him up, would you?" she asked in a rather exasperated tone as the red Dark Magician appeared behind her.

"To wake him up?" he asked eagerly while bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, causing Yugi to frown. She had missed the emphasis the Magician had put on the word 'him' because if she had caught it she may have asked him why he was so eager. "Of course I do!" he jovially added in answer and snapped his fingers and a small lightning bolt to hit the brunette and he sat straight up for the culprit but seen no one since Maram faded into the background again, just to be safe.

"What the hell?" Kaiba demanded as Yugi rested her elbows on her knees with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.

"You fainted when I told you that I'm engaged to Yami." She stated as he twitched at the mention of her fiancée's name.

"I'll kill him." Kaiba bluntly stated as he went to get up from the floor, but all she did was reach out and lay a hand on his shoulder. "How do you know him? Both of you have been so damned secretive, even during 'Legendary Heroes!' I have no background on him, no origins, no nothing and yet you trust him enough to got this far without suspicion!" By this point in his rant Kaiba was shouting, but Yugi did not look insulted or even phased by his questions. She was still calm and staring at him with an expression that was best described as thoughtfulness.

"Do you really want the truth?" she asked in a level tone as Kaiba nodded, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting for her to continue. "Do you believe in magic?"

"Of course not!" he vehemently stated as her eyebrows shot up, but she just laughed and fell backwards so she was sitting on her butt and not on her toes. "What's so funny about that?" he growled with a glare as she just laughed harder.

"That would have been my answer, up till I received this golden puzzle from Grandpa." She replied with a smile, wrapping her arms around her knees as Kaiba just patiently listened to her. "Before Duelist Kingdom, that is. When I completed the puzzle I found myself face-to-face with this shadow of a man with red eyes, who scared me at first. I later found out, during Duelist Kingdom, that his name was Atemu and he was from Egypt… well, ancient Egypt."

"Wait a minute, a man from ancient Egypt lived in the puzzle?" Kaiba asked with a look that clearly said he did not believe what she was saying. He reached out and pressed a hand to her forehead, now it was Yugi's turn to frown. "You don't have a fever, maybe you have hit your head one to many times or maybe this is a produce of what that bitch did to you." He stated as Yugi tilted her head to the side, still frowning.

"Kaiba… Seto, my old friend and now over-protective brother." She stated as she batted his hand away from her forehead while he waited for her to say something more. "I guess I'll just have to prove it to you."

"Why do I want to remember? I want to remember because obviously whatever is going on revolved around those memories, around this woman I cannot remember." Yami stated as he pushed away from the divider and let his arms fall to his sides, clenched into fists. "I want to know because I was married to that woman and because I can't remember I have this void in my emotions like my memories. I want to remember because if it affects my feelings for Yugi I want to at least know so I can warn her." He snarled and took a step towards Zuka, so that he was now standing face-to-face with him.

"What will you do with that knowledge?" Zuka bravely asked while trying to keep his body from trembling, which would tell Yami that he was still afraid of him. In this effort he made sure to keep his eyes locked with Yami's. It was dangerous waters he was treading now, especially on a topic they had all been sworn to never speak of even before the soul bindings.

"They are my memories." Yami growled as the white haired, possessed teen gulped.

"She was the apprentice to Shadi the Sorcerer of Darkness, the only female master magician in all the lands and the only white magician ever born. When I first met her she introduced herself as the Silent Magician." Zuka stated as he felt a hand near his throat, gathering up the material of his shirt. "After we came to live in the palace, since those with the Millennium Items had to stay together, your mother announced that your first marriage was annulled due to your wife being barren and that was a bad omen for the lands." He continued as Yami let go of his shirt, but still glared.

"And?" Yami pressed as Zuka fidgeted.

"She announced your marriage to the Silent Magician, whose former master accepted the agreement in the place of her father, and you were both married." He concluded with hands up as Yami drew back to where he had been leaning against the metal divider. "Your head priestess wanted your second wife because of her power and prestige, your first wife wanted her dead because she no longer had access to the title and wealth you had. From that the seeds of destruction had been sewn." Zuka quickly added as Yami was frowning.

"Why have you not told me her name?" he asked, causing their conversation to taper off for a few moments while Zuka thought about his answer. In the background they heard cheering from Shizuka, random movie quotes was Jonouchi, and calm commands from Rishid. It was obvious the duel was dead even and both were enjoying themselves, considering the occasional bantering.

"That is something you have to find out yourself." Zuka stated as he faded into the background of Ryou's mind and left a confused teenager facing a pensive Yami.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Kaiba asked with a skeptical look as she held up her arms.

"Nothing up my sleeves, no duel disc on my arm, and no technology whatsoever in the room." She stated, imitating the stereotype of a magician about to perform a trick. "Maram, do you think there is a way to make a believer of him?" she asked as the red Dark Magician appeared on Kaiba's other side with a calculating look on his face as he made a show of checking a shocked Kaiba over.

"Probably not, he'll dismiss me as a hallucination." he asked tilting his head to the side in question. "Which is heartbreaking for a magician of my status." He added pressing a hand over his heart and looking rather hurt.

"Don't mind him, he's been like this since we met." Yugi told Kaiba while reaching out to pat him on the head like a good pet of sorts, which succeeded in snapping him out of his shock. He twitched and stared at her.

"How did he appear? Is this a joke?" Kaiba asked as Yugi leaned forward and rested her chin on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs again.

"No joke." Maram stated cheerfully, which disturbed Yugi because the Dark Magician always looked so serious and Maram had been so up to this point. "You can believe it if you want or you can ignore it, but it is hard to ignore magic when you are surrounded by people connected to it."

"What do you mean?" Kaiba demanded of the grinning Magician.

"Yugi is connected to this magic since she was born with it, Pharaoh Atemu was blessed with his own and he is also the guardian of the Shadow Realms, Bakura Ryou was born with magic as well but it was not awakened, Malik was born with it but he has not awakened it either, and finally there would be the two neither of you have met." He explained, ticking the names off on his fingers as Kaiba twitched again. "Ishtar Isis has magic, as well, but her magic was twisted and corrupted by her own perversions and that will be dealt with soon."

"What do you mean by that?" Yugi asked as Kaiba turned his attention back to her, obviously attempting to forget about the duel monster that had just appeared in the room.

"Speaking of Ishtars, what was going on earlier with the dazed expression?" Kaiba asked as Yugi looked a bit confused. "Before the duels, when Jono-kun and I arrived." He elaborated as Yugi's eyebrows shot up in surprise at hearing the pet name that Kaiba had given the blonde teen.

"Jono-kun?" she asked, causing Kaiba to blush in embarrassment.

"You are avoiding the question." Kaiba pointed out in a steady tone of voice, which was a surprise to him since he felt anything but steady about letting slip what he had began calling Jonouchi. While this went on Maram faded back into the shadows, obviously unneeded now that the conversation had moved away from magic. The Magician decided that he would have to cause troubles for Kaiba while Yugi was training in her magic, it was so much fun to annoy the serious teenager!

"That's why you were asked about a DNA test." Yugi stated as he waited for the rest of the answer. "That woman claims to be my mother, who is not dead, and she than claims that Malik is my brother, that I never knew about, and all of this was being hidden by Grandpa, who was working for Isis." There were a few moments of silence as Kaiba thought about that sentence.

"Are you living a soap opera?" he asked with a straight face as she snickered.

"I hope not, because if I am I'm becoming a nun just to cut it off at the knees." Yugi replied as he cracked a smile at that answer. All talk of magic was forgotten and Kaiba resolved to interrogate Satou Yami and see if the stories matched up and if they didn't he would make sure Yami's body could not be found.

A/N: Sorry! I did not mean to have this be so late, but this deviated from my original plan. It was supposed to be chronicling the duel between Rishid and Jonouchi but, instead, this came out. A filler, yes, but a reviewer, Dark Reborn, pointed out that I did not introduce Kaiba to the legend of the puzzle and such... plus a bit of a past look as a build up to the next chapter.

An answer to your other question, Dark Reborn, the Anonymous Dueler was actually Grandpa.