A/N: I'm not sure how, but I managed to write two chapters for two completely different stories in one day and update both of those stories. And this is a ilong/i chapter! Good lord. Don't take this as typical. I just happened to have the whole day free and had the drive to do it. I am now feeling the effects and whoa, my back hurts. Ugh.

Canon Timeline Reference: Some time has passed since last chapter, aka the end of the last arc. This chapter begins the next arc and takes place at the tail end of S3E10 ofStargate SG-`and the tail end of S2E2 of Yu-Gi-Oh!. So Kaiba's Battle City will begin soon and while the Yugi-Gang is ready, no one else is.

You know the drill. I'll do a rough edit tonight and a serious edit tomorrow morning. Until then, enjoy~

Chapter summary: In which Anzu is a great friend, Daniel finds his purpose again, Hammond learns something that makes him think, and a woman with a necklace and vision is coming.

25: Driving Force

Yugi stared down at the gleaming Puzzle in his hands. Never in his wildest dreams had it occurred to him to that one day he would solve it a second time. When Bandit Keith shattered it in that old, unused gymnasium Yugi had felt like a piece of his soul had shattered with it. Ever since he solved the Millennium Puzzle the first time, he'd felt like he had gained something he never knew he was missing.

When Keith shattered the Puzzle, Yugi felt whatever-it-was be ripped away from him. The ringing silence in his head where Yami's voice should be terrified him and the gaping chasm in his chest where Yami's presence should be had threatened to crush his heart. Without Yugi ever realizing it, Yami had nestled into Yugi's psyche so thoroughly that just the thought of losing him terrified him to no end.

Was this what Kaiba felt about his host? Or, maybe not this exactly but something similar.

:It's possible,: Yami whispered, appearing in his ghostly form next to Yugi on the hospital bed. He looped an arm around Yugi's shoulders and held him close. :If the fear of separation is anything like mine, then I don't blame him for being so attached to his host.:

"Do you think, one day, he'll tell us everything?" Yugi asked. "He's changed so much since we first met him. I used to, well, not hate him but…" He flushed and ducked his head in shame. "I didn't like him."

:To be honest, I doubt any of us liked him back then,: Yami said, resting his incorporeal chin on Yugi's head.

They never could understand how Yami's spirit form could hover straight through other people and struggle with inanimate objects while freely interacting with Yugi. Eventually, Jounouchi convinced them to just accept it as 'glowy-magic-pyramid-stuff' and embrace it. Yugi giggled at the memory.

:What's so funny?: Yami asked curiously.

"Nothing," Yugi replied with a ready smile. "How are Jounouchi and Honda doing?"

Yami smiled. :Much better. Anzu came while you were asleep and kicked them out.: He grinned at the disappointment he felt rippling through Yugi's mind. :Don't worry. She'll be back in the morning. I heard she has some good news for you too.:

Yugi visibly perked up. "Really?"

"You… You got what?!" Yugi cried, his voice climbing up an octave in his shock.

The brunette girl stood proudly, her hands on her hips, and a sparkle in her teal eyes as she grinned. "You heard me," she declared. "I got the goods on the location for Kaiba's upcoming Battle City Tournament and I made sure we could all go together."

"How the heck did you pull that off?" Jounouchi cried. "Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to even get Kaiba to see to me let alone talk to me?"

Mazaki Anzu covered her mouth and snickered derisively. "I suppose a woman's touch was needed," she teased.

Jounouchi slapped a hand over his face while Honda chortled next to him. "Gah! I don't even want to think about that," Joey groaned.

"Don't worry," Anzu said, waving away her friend's whining. "Unless you don't want me to tell you," she added, resting her chin on a finger in mock thoughtfulness. "I guess I can wait until KaibaCorp makes the official announceme-"

"NO!" Honda shouted, slapping a hand on Jounouchi's head and pushing him back down into his seat to shut him up. "We're listening! I believe you! Tell me? Please?" He glanced at Yugi, blinked, then pointed directly at his goth friend. "At least Tell Yugi!"

Yugi choked on the water he was drinking before collapsing into a ball of laughter. Predictably, Anzu gave in with a victorious smirk.

"That's what I thought," she said smugly. "Well, first off, you all need to pack for at least two weeks because if you think for a second I'm going to let you guys go off and duel for one week solid without doing some sightseeing with me, you can kiss your tickets goodbye."

"Promise!" Honda shouted, immediately raising his hand.

Yugi smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Anzu looked squarely at Jounouchi who blushed and crossed his arms in a huff. "Fine. So long as we don't just go shopping," he mumbled. His grunt from Honda's elbow to his gut was audible to Anzu across Yugi's hospital bed.

"Oh we'll definitely be going shopping," Anzu said, enjoying Jounouchi's suffering way too much. "But I've also looked at a few camping trips we can go on and hiking trails too! It'll be fun."

"That actually doesn't sound too bad," Jounouchi muttered in faint surprise. "I didn't know you liked hiking, Anzu."

She grinned. "I love it. It helps me stay in shape and besides," she sighed happily, "the views in some of the mountainsides near Kyoto are the best."

"You know," Yugi said, rubbing a thumb over the golden eye on his Millennium Puzzle, "I think Yami would enjoy seeing Kyoto."

Honda sat up straight. "Hey, that's right!" he gasped. "He's never seen much of Japan outside of Domino City and Tokyo."

"We should make it a winter trip," Anzu said, already planning several outings for that adventure. Then she shook herself. "But first, Battle City 1." She smirked. "Got any guesses?"

The three boys looked stumped. Then Honda spoke up.

"Is it nearby?" he asked.

"Nope," Anzu chirped, shaking her head. "It's abroad."

She inwardly giggled with glee when she saw her friends' excitement skyrocket.

"America?" Yugi gasped.

"Correct!" she declared, pointing at Yugi.

"Why America?" Honda said in dismay. "KaibaCorp's based here in Japan."

"But Industrial Illusions isn't," Yugi said. "And I doubt Pegasus would let Kaiba throw a huge event like this based on the game Pegasus' company created in another country."

"Power hog," Jounouchi grumbled, crossing his arms in a huff.

Anzu pursed her lips. "It's not that bad," she said. "I think it'll be fun." She fained disinterest again. "Unless you don't want to know."

"No!" Jounouchi cried. "Just tell us, man! I'm dyin' over here!"

She cackled. "Then I hope you're ready for some awesome views because KaibaCorp's Battle City 1 is in…" She paused for dramatic effect. "Denver, Colorado!" she trilled, slapping the four colorful tickets onto the stark white sheet on Yugi's bed.

She couldn't be more proud of herself right now. The looks on her friends' faces were priceless! She loved Duel Monsters and dueled on occasion, but her dream was to dance on Broadway. Honda enjoyed dueling as much as she did, but he also had another dream. Honda preferred working with his hands. Motorcycles, mopeds, a few motorbikes. Those were Honda's pride and joy.

But Yugi and Jounouchi? Anzu knew they wanted to be professional Duelists. She also knew that none of them were particularly well off financially and Jounouchi was dying to visit his sister in the United States. Ever since Joey won the prize money from Duelist Kingdom and sent it to his sister's hospital to pay for Serenity's eye surgery, he'd been itching to find a way to get there.

Thankfully, they all knew the Kaiba brothers. Kaiba Seto might be a pain in the ass but Anzu had made it her mission to make Seto's weakness her strength. She managed to track down Mokuba and tell him about Jounouchi's desire to be with his little sister after her surgery and Mokuba had wavered. All she had to do next was tack on how much she knew Seto would enjoy defeating Jounouchi in Duel Monsters and Mokuba had bolted to go get the tickets and information from his brother.

Score one for Mazaki Anzu!

It bit a little at her conscience to throw Jounouchi under the bus like that to get what she wanted, but only a little bit. Knowing Jounouchi would be thrilled at the chance to compete and see his little sister after so many years apart made the underhandedness well worth it.

"The Mile High City?" Jounouchi cried. He snatched a ticket from the bed and held it up to get a better look at it. Then he made a high pitched squeal and hopped around ecstatic. "Road trip baby! Oh yeah!"

Anzu would never understand some of Joey's slang. Still, his excitement was infectious.

"Thank you so much, Anzu!" Yugi said, grabbing a ticket and clutching it close to his chest happily.

Honda, Anzu noted, was too busy kissing his ticket to say anything. Weirdos, the lot of them.

"Now all we have to do is buy plane tickets," Yugi said.

"Actually," Anzu said, letting the word trail off suggestively, "I've got a solution to that as well." She found herself the proud recipient of three sets of awe filled eyes and resolved to always remember this moment for as long as she lived. "I had a little talk with Kaiba," no specifics as to which one, let the boys guess, "and he agreed to give us a lift on his personal plane."

Honda was practically drooling and Jounouchi looked about ready to pee his pants from excitement. Yugi's mouth had dropped open and his violet eyes were so wide Anzu wondered in passing if she could climb through them. She laughed instead.

"Aren't I an amazing friend?" she declared, patting her chest proudly.

Three.

Two.

One.

Just as she predicted, Yugi bounced across his bed and wrapped his arms around her waist spouting endless thanks. She'd probably be hearing that for the next month or so. So worth it.

"How the hell did you get grumpy moneybags to let us ride on his plane?" Jounouchi demanded in disbelief.

Anzu mimed zipping her lips shut and throwing away the key. She knew when to keep her secrets. Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't going with them. After hearing about all the insanity from the gang's last misadventure abroad, there was no way Anzu was skipping out on this trip. She wanted to see Kaiba's mysterious glowing eyes for herself.

"Hear me Daniel!"

Those words would haunt him for a long time. Find the boy. Find his wife's son by another man. Another Goa'uld. Harcesis. A child of two Goa'uld hosts with the combined genetic memory of both parents. Normally, a Goa'uld's genetic memory was only passed from the queen symbiote to her offspring. But a harcesis was a human born of two Goa'uld-ed human hosts and contained the genetic memory of both the queen and the sire. All of the secrets of the Goa'uld in one, small child.

And Sha'uri wanted Daniel to find him. His beloved wife. His beloved, dead wife had pleaded with him through the mental connection created by the Goa'uld Amaunet's ribbon device to find her son. Right before Teal'c fired his staff weapon, killing both Amaunet and, to Daniel's despair, Shau'ri, Amaunet's host. It took days for Daniel to finally forgive Teal'c.

Honestly, deep in his heart, he knew what Teal'c did was the right decision. But to lose his wife when he had been so close to her, looking at her, being tortured by the Goa'uld snake inside her, listening to her voice following him long after her death… He still wasn't sure how Shau'ri managed that.

According to Sam, the ribbon devices had a strong mental component that allowed the host's consciousness to reach out for short periods and communication subconsciously to the tortured victim. Almost like a subliminal message.

But how had Shau'ri's father Kasuf known about his then dead daughter's desire to speak with Daniel? How had he known she had sent Daniel a subliminal message? That, Daniel could not figure out which only added to his distress. For a while there, Daniel hadn't been sure what was real, what was memory, what was dream, and what was Sha'uri whispering to him.

"Hear me Daniel!"

The endless chasm of depressive pain threatened to send him plummeting over the edge once more. But this time, it only threatened. It didn't knock him over. He was healing.

He had to find the boy. He had to protect his wife's son. He had to protect him.

Which is why he was standing in the tent where Sha'uri died wishing the last few moments of his wife's subliminal message would continue to haunt him. Her words, her voice, her face, her. She had been his everything. She had been his reason for joining SG-1. All he'd wanted was to find Sha'uri, free her of Amaunet and Apophis, and return to Abydos to live in peace.

Now she was gone. Truly gone. He'd gotten her message. Her voice would no longer haunt his living, waking mind save in true memory. It hurt. Like the bleeding heart wound Teal'c's staff weapon had dealt. He knew one day he would heal and right now, being here helped. But it would undoubtedly be years before his heart was whole again.

He would honor Sha'uri's last request and find the child. Even if he had to find a myth to do it. He'd done it before, he could do it again. He would.

The academic community had laughed him out of their ranks and disgraced him when he dared to present the theory that the Egyptian pyramids were older than was widely accepted and were landing pads for aliens. There were times when even he questioned his own sanity. But then he would go over the facts he'd found, the writings he'd translated, only to find nothing but evidence to back up his claims. He lost his credibility, his job, his home, his car, everything.

But if he hadn't continued to believe, if he hadn't continued to try, then he never would have been found and recruited to work on the Stargate project. He would never have opened the Stargate and traveled to Abydos. He would never have met Sha'uri and helped Jack kill Ra.

Sha'uri would never have been captured and made into a host for Apophis' queen Amaunet.

No. He couldn't think like that. That was not his fault. That was Apophis' fault and Apophis was dead.

So Daniel would live and spite Apophis in every way he could. He may have lost Sha'uri, but her memory and her plea would live on in his heart. As would the last words she whispered to him when Amaunet died from Teal'c's blast. When she could hardly find the strength to breathe, she still found the strength to whisper those four, precious words.

"I love you Daniel."

"I love you too, Shau'ri."

His words were soft, lost to the wind on a planet that smelled of death and decay. The tent he stood in, the tent where Sha'uri died was untouched. It stood exactly as it had the day of her death. Even the bodies of Heru'ur's Horus Jaffa had been left to rot around the tent. A few carrion birds picked at the exposed flesh and Daniel could see signs of other scavengers' presence.

He should leave. He'd promised Sha'uri. He would find her son.

Kheb. The mythical world where the Goa'uld Osiris fled after his brother Setesh's betrayal. Until Shau'ri told him otherwise, Daniel had always believed Kheb was just that: a myth. It was real. He would find it.

Briefly, Daniel wished Setesh was still alive just so he could get the planet's 'Gate address out of the Goa'uld slimy neck. But it was very possible Setesh did not know the 'Gate address. Osiris knew. But Osiris was as yet an unknown to both Daniel and the SGC. If the ancient System Lord was still alive and out there in the galaxy, Daniel would find him and get the address.

He would save his son.

Perhaps, in the process, he could find Skaara as well. Stargate Command had lost track of Sha'uri's brother since he, serving as the host to Apophis's snake of a son Klorel, escaped their mothership's destruction over a year ago. That was another festering wound for Daniel, but especially for Jack.

The colonel had become attached to Skaara from their very first trip through the Stargate before killing Ra. Jack had been devastated to discover the boy had been taken as a host. Daniel now knew the pain of losing a loved one because the Goa'uld cared nothing for their hosts. Daniel would do everything in his power to keep Jack from suffering the same pain.

Jack had lost his only son when the boy found his hidden service weapon and accidentally shot himself. The despair Daniel remembered his friend suffering from very nearly resulted in Jack setting off the nuclear bomb General West, the then commanding officer of the SGC, had sent through the 'Gate after them onto Abydos. The general knew of Jack's precarious mental state and knew the colonel would be trigger happy.

Skaara had brought Jack out of that and together, he and Daniel Ringed the bomb up to Ra's retreating spaceship and blew it and Ra to smithereens. Jack's words. Skaara was the son Jack needed. Sha'uri's son was the driving force Daniel needed.

They would pull off the impossible again. They had to.

The regular phone in General Hammond's office rang. He wasn't expecting a call, but things happened. Picking up the receiver, he answered.

"Hammond."

"Sir?" the airman on the other end said. "You've got a call from someone called Neph- Nephthys?"

Immediately, the general sat up straight. "Patch him through," he said curtly. There was a subtle click and Hammond took a deep, calming breath before speaking. "You've got some serious explaining to do."

Kaiba snickered. "Is that so?" he said, sounding more amused by the situation than anything else. "I did promise to give you a way to contact me. Consider this my way of doing just that."

"Explain."

"I've sent you a package with a communication device in it," Kaiba said. "It's small, fits in the palm of your hand, and should reach me even if one of us were in orbit. If that ever happens."

Better than expected. However, "I'm assuming this device is Goa'uld in design."

"It is. It's old, even by Goa'uld standards," Kaiba admitted, "but I can guarantee it still works. I used it at Setesh's compound."

"To communicate with your so-called First Prime." It was a guess based on the information Jacob, Selmak, and SG-1 had given him, but Hammond was willing to bet he was right.

"Close," Kaiba said. "Which, incidentally, brings me to the second reason why I'm contacting you."

"I'm listening."

"I'll be in Colorado in a month for business and pleasure. If the Tok'ra ever decide to speak with me, I suggest it be during that time."

"And if it's not?" Hammond said. "The Tok'ra don't answer to be. They also have a bad habit of not returning our calls as quickly as we would like."

"They're Goa'uld. Time moves differently for us."

The general considered that statement. He'd never thought about it like that before. For a race who lived for thousands of years, a few months was probably nothing in comparison. But for a race that typically only lived for a century or so, a couple months was a comparatively long time.

"I'll do what I can to speed up the process," Hammond said, even though he was fairly certain there wasn't much he could actually do.

"I'm sure," Kaiba replied, sounding just as disbelieving as Hammond felt. "Remember my terms. I want to meet them on their world."

Hammond scoffed. "And I'll tell you again, I highly doubt that will happen. The Tok'ra don't even let us through to their base world. It's much more likely they'll want to meet at the SGC or somewhere they designate."

Kaiba hummed. "Then I come armed."

"Within reason," Hammond said carefully, "I don't personally see a problem with that although I'm sure the Tok'ra will."

"They can deal with it. They may not trust me, but I don't trust them either. They are young compared to me. Mere children."

Which brought up yet another point General Hammond was practically itching to discuss. "Speaking of children," he said, "Daniel told me about your bird."

"I'm a queen, general," Kaiba said. "I have to spawn. Resisting the need is unpleasant. But I give you my word, none of my children have ever taken humans as hosts or been implanted in a Jaffa. I would never allow it and now they don't want to. They find the very idea disgusting."

Interesting. "How do you know that?" Hammond demanded.

"I'm a queen. I made them that way."

"How?"

Kaiba huffed a laugh. "Answer me this, general. These Tok'ra of yours, do they take hosts?"

"They do."

"Willing or no?"

"Willing. Most of the time."

"Don't underestimate a Goa'uld's survival instinct, general," Kaiba said, sounding unusually sharp. "When faced with imminent death, the desire to survive, no matter the cost, is almost impossible to resist. In some circumstances," he added with the slightest hint of hesitation, "the pain from a kara kesh can force that instinct to the forefront of a Goa'uld's mind."

That sounded like the voice of experience. "Duly noted," he said simply.

"Good. Back to your Tok'ra," Kaiba continued. "Other than their resistance to the System Lords, is there anything they have in common? A way of doing things? A way of thinking? Something which is intrinsic to who and what they are and is shared by all of them?"

Hammond thought carefully. "Several," he said. "The most notable being their refusal to use a sarcophagus."

"A wise decision," Kaiba said. "Anything else?"

Nice try. "Why do you ask?" the general asked in return.

Kaiba hummed. "The next time you communicate with them, ask them if they are all descended from the same queen."

"Why?"

"Because if they are, then you know why they all think the same way," Kaiba replied. "A Goa'uld queen is responsible for continuing the Goa'uld race and passing on the genetic memory of the Goa'uld to their children. But not all memories must be passed on and some memories can be cast in a certain… light, per se. If the queen despises something, then they can choose to pass that dislike on to their children."

"Meaning what?" Hammond said.

"Meaning," Kaiba said, his voice strangely calm, "as long as I don't want my children to view humans as potential hosts, they won't."

But if Kaiba ever changed his mind…

"I'll see you in a month, general."

"Now wait just a minute!"

No good. The click of a disconnected line followed by a dial tone rang in Hammond's ear. Reluctantly, he hung up the receiver. Weaving his fingers together, Hammond pressed his mouth against his hands and went over every word Kaiba said during their discussion. Kaiba had been surprisingly forthright about some things and annoyingly vague about others.

But he had given him something to think about. If the Tok'ra were indeed all descended from the same queen Goa'uld, and a queen had the ability to control and manipulate the genetic memory she passed to her offspring, then that could potentially change the game entirely. One queen was potentially responsible for the entire Tok'ra resistance.

The possibilities of one Goa'uld queen on Earth were endless, not all of them good.

She stood on the railing of the ship bound for the United States. She knew what she had to do and she was fully prepared to do it, but a part of her was deathly afraid. She loved her brother but he had to be stopped. Marik's gift had been both a blessing and a curse ever since their mother's death. Rishid did his best to keep Marik sane, but there was only so much that could be done. To make matter worse, no one noticed Marik's fall until it was too late and her brother was gone.

Now she was on her own, above ground, sailing to a foreign country to kill her brother. She already knew she would not succeed in freeing him of the snake that had possessed him. She'd seen it. If she could not defeat him, then she would kill him.

Since the return of the Shadow Games, Ishizu had believed her people's duty to be almost over. Then her mother died, her father went insane, and she lost her brother to a false god from a race she and her people had long thought driven from this planet.

Her visions told her to be present at a certain place at a certain time for a certain person's arrival. She would be. She was already personally overseeing the shipping, handling, placement, and protection of the artifacts she brought with her from her family's vaults to the museum in Denver, Colorado. There she would find the person she was looking for.

Her fingers brushed the golden eye emblazoned on her Millennium Tauk. Her necklace had not given her a vision in several days but she wasn't worried. She was calm. She knew what she must do.

She would find her Pharaoh, the queen who once served him, and her brother. She would. She'd seen it.