Digitized smoke billowed out of the duel arena as the Chocolate Magician blasted the opposing side of the field.

"Not so fast, Mizuno-san!" Atem declared. "Magic Cylinders! Black Magician Girl, reverse the attack!"

Usagi rattled her spoon around the empty parfait glass. They had all rented out a duel arena for a couple hours, Atem and Ami hogging the field for much of the past hour as they mercilessly attempted to outdo each other. She'd never seen a duel quite like this before, two strategists playing their cards so smartly Usagi's head was spinning.

She stared at Atem instead. The memories of the past had come flooding back to her after they'd fixed time. She had spent some time on earth before the battle against Set began, spending most of it with the young pharaoh. They were both naive rulers, uncertain about the world and only certain about each other. They were intrigued with each other, enthralled by their beauty and their unyielding compassion for their people.

The pharaoh took the princess to the royal gardens several nights in a row. The gardens were a beautiful expanse of pools adorned by lilies and reeds. Ibis and cranes stalked about the pools by day, but at night, the ponds were quietly reflecting the full moon's light.

The first night, the moon princess stared at the sky. She had never seen her home from a distance, admiring the beauty of the Moon hanging in the sky against a bed of stars.

Each night they returned, staring up at the sky in each other's arms. The moon princess spoke of her home, of the Moon Kingdom where she lived. She wanted to return home but not yet. She wanted to spend more time with this young pharaoh she'd felt so close to so quickly. Yet Set sought to interrupt it all.

"Dunno why they keep doing this," Jounouchi slumped in his chair. "They've come up with a draw twice already."

"Well, if anything, Ami-chan is always persistent," Makoto admitted, chewing on her parfait spoon. "She's always really good at things that involve strategy and refuses to be beat in anything academic. You should've seen her during the high school entrance exams. She didn't sleep for weeks."

"Man I'd want just half of that smarts," Jounouchi confessed.

"Well if you'd actually study, you might have a chance," Anzu pointed out sharply.

"We could study together~!" Minako suggested. "I bet we could really hit the next exam out of the yard."

"Park, Minako-chan," Naru corrected her.

"What?" Minako blinked.

"Nevermind," Naru shook her head.

"We could all get together!" Usagi suggested. "Studying is sooo haaaaard and it'll be better with friends."

"You just want to play children's card games again," Rei pointed out.

"Duel Monsters!" Minako corrected her.

"S-so harsh, Rei-chaaaaaan!" Usagi cried.

The chocolate magician attacked the black magician girl, creating digital smoke and phantom chocolate across the arena. Atem frowned. Ami managed to one-up him this time, but it wouldn't last. He'd take the upper hand again, or at least would try. It wasn't often he found someone that could match his strategy. Kaiba was one, now Ami was another. The duel was enthralling and enticing, though he found himself slightly distracted.

Memories of the past had pieced themselves together after returning from the ancient past. It was perhaps the clearest memories he had from that time. The rest were still fractured as he attempted to recall everything about his time as a pharaoh.

After sickness claimed his father, Atem had been left with so much responsibility to run a kingdom without knowing anything about how to do so. It left him cold. But when the moon princess had suddenly fallen from the sky and ended up in the garden, the young pharaoh found himself warming up. He was so enthralled by the moon princess. She was so kind and compassionate and so intrigued by the moon in the sky. She warmed his heart and he wanted to draw closer to her.

Set interrupted their budding relationship, and then she had to return home. He found himself staring at the sky night after night, watching the moon make its journey until it disappeared for its journey through the underworld before appearing back on the horizon once again. He had heard so much of her kingdom, of her people and her different way of life. It was so foreign to him, he wanted to see it, to be there with her. Never did he expect at the time he would see that Moon Kingdom in person or under such strange circumstances.

"You seem distracted, Other me," Yugi noted.

"Just remembering the past." Atem peered at his nearly depleted deck. The duel had gone on so long that both sides were nearly out. This round would end up in a draw soon, his best cards now resting in his graveyard after some perfectly timed counters from Ami.

He peered across the field at Ami. "She's planning something." He wasn't quite sure what she had in mind, but he could make a few guesses. She had already played both Black Holes, Dust Tornados, and a few other crush cards. There was one that hadn't shown up, and if it was in her hand, it could end the game.

He thumbed through his deck. He had no reversal spell cards left, all of his negation cards now resting in the graveyard. She'd already hit him with two Graveyard Bombs, which used the spell negations in his hand and required two Pots of Greed to recover. He didn't have much left at this point to work with, but neither did she.

"I play one last card," Ami proclaimed. "Cosmic Hand Crush!"

"There it is." Atem knew that card was in her deck. She'd used it once before to force a draw. He used a similar tactic to force the second draw. Neither wanted to lose. The card forced both players to discard their current hand and draw a full hand from the deck. It was a risk as neither could count the opposition's cards at such a distance, but it was a strong risk with a strong reward. If she had more than a full hand's worth of cards in her deck and he didn't, she would win. But if he did and she didn't, He would win.

He knew full well he didn't have enough cards. Yet fortunately neither did she. He folded his arms. "Third draw. I must admit, I haven't found another duelist that can pull off a move so perfectly timed as you do."

Ami grinned as she gathered up her cards. "It has been awhile since I've had such a good challenge. And we did complete several games uninterrupted this time. Perhaps we'll need to reshuffle our decks and I'll challenge you to another game later. I will not be outdone next time!"

Atem grinned. "And neither would I. I couldn't call myself the King of Games otherwise."

Ami smiled. Perhaps she would try to take that title. "Let's join the others."

Atem nodded in agreement. What an intriguing group of friends he'd found after Yugi and Usagi accidentally bumped into each other running to school. Little did he expect a simple encounter would expand into a war across time to save their past, present, and future in a shadow game dueling with souls. It was a strange thought even just to think, and their duels had been just as strange.

Little did he also expect to learn more about his life as the pharaoh. With his memory still in pieces, he finally gained unexpected clarity.

"Glad you finally joined us," Jounouchi teased.

"We'll simply have to rethink our strategies and duel again later." Ami picked up the menu, skimming over the large selection of parfait looking for anything that had strawberries in it. They were in season, so they'd be quite sweet and tasty.

"We'll see about that next time," Atem grinned. "I'll be sure to counter your counter deck."

"We'll see about that," Ami declared.

He turned, plucking the menu off the table and catching Usagi's gaze. She stared up at him with the parfait spoon hanging out of her mouth and chocolate on her nose. He'd stared into those eyes before. When they didn't stare at the Moon, they stared at each other. Her eyes felt so warm and filled with hope. They had shared something in the past.

And they had, Usagi was certain of it. Usagi had a future planned out, with a destiny to become the queen of Crystal Tokyo. But she still had a present to live. Perhaps she could enjoy that something with Atem, with the mysterious pharaoh of the Earth who had caught her eye during an accidental journey to the green and blue bead she admired so much. She looked forward to what the future would truly bring.

...

Author's notes:

Thanks so much for reading! I know we had some trouble there with the chaos literally going on around us, but Atem and Usagi took care of that chaos. What they actually did when Serenity fell to Earth? I'll leave that up for you to decide.

Until the next fic!