Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry if the spacing is weird. I didn't initially type it in word. I'm not entirely sure how it's going to look.

Thanks to angiembabe, lalalei, zaira fire, and to everyone else who has given this story a chance.

I hope you enjoy!

-ForeverLily

Chapter 8: Second chances

Slow clapping filled the horrified silence. "Well now, you never fail to disappoint Yugi boy. I came for a show and you gave me a spectacle! And Kaiba boy, how are you handling all of this? The last I heard you were desperately trying to pretend that you had imagined the millennium items. I suppose that's a lost cause, hmm?"

How did Pegasus even get in? "As it just so happens I was sent here by the Dark Magician. You really should lock the door Yugi boy, you never know who might waltz right in...but I see I'm not the first." He brushed his hair to the side revealing the millennium eye. "The spirit of the millennium ring has stolen your daughter. Then I suppose it's a good thing I'm here isn't it?"

"When is it ever a good thing that you're here?" Mokuba remarked with uncharacteristic (but understandable) hostility.

"Hello little Kaiba. My, my they do grow up fast. How long has it been?"

"Seven years." When Kaiba Corporation was forced to do business with Industrial Illusions Seto was the one who handled it. Seto refused to let Mokuba anywhere near him if it could be avoided. Unfortunately, Pegasus had a knack for just showing up with no warning.

"Ah...seven. The number of completion. If that's not proof that this meeting was destined then I don't know what is." Yugi wondered how Pegasus could manage to act like that all of the time. He only got creepier as he got older. "All that's left are the last two items, and I think you know as well as I that they'll be here soon. Once they're here the real fun will begin!" Somehow Yugi didn't like Pegasus' idea of fun.

For the first time since his arrival he sobered. "Yugi, I know that I cannot atone for what I've done, but I'm afraid that I must ask for you believe me when I say that I'm a changed man. When I organized Duelist Kingdom I was young and bitter and allowed the darkness in my heart to consume me. Quite frankly I was shocked when I was deemed worthy to possess eye the first time around, but perhaps now I am truly ready to possess the eye until the time is right to give it up."

Someone knocking on the door gave them a fright, causing Tristan to trip over the coffee table. "Damn it! That really hurt!"

Tea carefully led him over to the couch. "Be careful Tristan! You were just possessed. You should really take it easy!"

"Thanks Tea."

"Don't mention it."

"Yugi." Ishizu and Marik had been so quiet that he had almost forgotten about them. "I believe that the person that we are waiting for will arrive quite shortly. The time has almost come."

The knocking persisted. "Let me go see who it is." Yugi looked out the window and saw a girl about his daughter's age standing there. He quickly opened the door.

The girl just stood at him, staring in awe. "Mr. Mutou. Hi...I'm...uh...Aiko. So I'm not going crazy!" Was she the one?

"Please come in. Can I offer you any refreshments?"

She shook her head no. "No thank you sir."

He motioned for her to sit down. She openly stared at Seto, and to Yugi's surprise he stared back as if he were trying to remember something. "Seto Kaiba. You're my inspiration! It's nice to finally meet you in person!" She shyly said. She blushed several shades of red and gasped. "I can't believe I just said that, wow…I'm uh...really embarrassed now. Sorry."

"So Kaiba's finally got an admirer huh? How cute." Mai laughed. "I think I like you kiddo. What's your name?"

She looked down and sat even more rigidly in her seat. "Oh, right! I'm Aiko and you're Mai Valentine! You're such an amazing Duelist. I mean, I'm not that into dueling or anything, but you were one of the best early female duelists. That Harpy Deck you used in Duelist Kingdom was amazing and...I'm babbling, oh god, someone please feel free to tell me to shut up now." The poor girl was shaking in her seat now. It was too much for her to be in the room with all of them. "I've been...this is going to sound insane, but I dreamed that this guy, he looked a lot like Mr. Mutou, but he was dressed like an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, told me to come to this house to discover my destiny and meet someone from my past. He didn't even tell me that it was a house, he just gave me an address. He also apologized that his cousin, whoever that is, couldn't talk to me. Is this making any sense?"

Yugi looked towards his friend. "Maybe you should take this one Seto."

"Why me? Isn't this your area of expertise?"

"You're more familiar with her part in all of this," he reminded Seto.

"Fine, I'll tell her."

It went without saying that he had her full attention. "Five thousand years ago seven items were created to put the ultimate power in the hands of a Pharaoh of Egypt."

"He did it to bring peace," Yugi corrected.

"If I'm going to tell the story I'm going to tell it the right way, not with the rose colored view you still seem to remember it all with."

"Very well then," Yugi conceded with a sigh.

"These items caused a psychopath to go on a rampage and side with...a being that represented evil. When the Pharaoh's son took over he was left to clean up his father's mess. Somehow the uncle of the Pharaoh was convinced to side with them. While the Pharaoh was out trying to stop them his incompetent court they let him slip through their fingers. A girl named Kisara saved the Pharoah's cousin from his uncle once he saw that he had been fooled by sacrificing herself and turning into a the blue eyes white dragon." He paused. "You look just like her." She had the same frail build, bright blue eyes, pale skin, and white hair as the girl, and Yugi wondered why he hadn't seen it before. "I'm assuming that you're supposed to be some sort of modern version of her like I'm supposed to be a modern version of the Pharaoh's cousin Priest Seto. That Pharaoh that you dreamed about sent you her because you are supposed to be meant to use one of the seven items in order to help stop the same beings who threatened Egypt five thousand years ago."

From the way she was staring at Seto you'd think that he had just announced that he had decided to give up making games and join the circus. "Do you really believe that sir? This seems too insane to be real."

"I don't really have a choice," He snorted and held up the item. "Do you see that puzzle around Yugi's neck, Ishizu Ishtar's necklace, and Pegasus' gold eye?" She nodded in response. "Those are some of the millennium items."

She shook her head determinedly."There's no way I'm destined for anything except earning a business degree. I'm sorry Mr. Kaiba, but I'm not that Kisara girl from Ancient Egypt-my family's not even from Egypt!"

Marik addressed the girl for the first time. "Let me tell you from experience that ignoring your destiny will only cause you grief. My sister and I are descendents of grave keepers of the tomb of the nameless Pharaoh. Our job was to protect the tomb of the nameless Pharaoh and wait for his return. When I was a child I rebelled. In the end it only caused me more pain and nearly destroyed me."

"Who are you?"

"I haven't introduced myself have I? My name is Marik Ishtar, and this is my sister Ishizu." He pointed towards his sister. "I used to hold the millennium rod and my sister now holds the millennium necklace."

"I appreciate the advice sir, but this is all just so far fetched...dragons and monsters don't exist, and neither does reincarnation. It's all just fairy tale nonsense!"

"Fine." Seto snapped. "I refuse to sugar coat this just because you're young-by the time I was your age I was running my own company. By ignoring this you'd be putting everyone you care about in danger. Even if you don't believe in all of this, and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, there's someone out there who does and he will try to prevent you from getting it by any means necessary. That means that he will threaten, torture, and kill without hesitation to get his way. Do I make myself clear?"

She could no longer meet his eyes, so she only nodded. "Don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" Yugi asked.

Seto narrowed his eyes. "Your daughter was just kidnapped. If someone needs to be a little 'harsh' to avoid another kidnapping then it's a good thing I'm here because none of you have what it takes."

Tristan, like always, was the first to come to Yugi's defense. Yugi just hoped that he wouldn't antagonize Seto further."Hey man, you really need to chill out Kaiba! All he means is that this stuff can be so fucking surreal the first time. If she's got half the brains we think she has she would have understood the danger because we mentioned saving the world from the embodiment of evil. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get more serious than that."

"Since when are teenagers reasonable? Even I was a bit…"

"Evil, sadistic, manipulative…" Tristan filled in the blank.

"I was going to say unreasonable," Seto snapped. "If we're going to ask some naive teenager to help us she should know what's at stake. Treating children like morons only causes problems in the long run."

There was nothing that Joey or Tristan could say to dispute that, so they settled for grumbling in displeasure. Yugi sighed at their immaturity and decided to direct the conversation towards something a little more productive. "Let's discuss this like adults. If we are going to get Akari back we need to be rational, and arguing like children won't help anyone."

Yugi turned to Aiko and gently asked, "How are you doing with all of this?" If she were a normal person she probably would need some convincing, or maybe she'd just need to be reassured that she was not imagining any of this.

"So that thing around your neck...that's one of these items?" She quietly asked.

Yugi smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "That's right. It's called the millenium puzzle. I first solved it when I was around your age. You're in highschool, right?" She nodded. "My grandfather was an archaeologist who had uncovered the puzzle on an expedition to Egypt before I was born. It was just sitting on shelf in the back of the shop, hidden by boxes and crates of merchandise when I accidentally discovered it while playing. He told me that I could keep it, and encouraged me to solve it many times over the years. It took me eight years to solve it, and every time I nearly quit out of frustration my grandfather would urge me to continue. Do you know why?"

"He wanted to teach you about finishing what you started"?

"Maybe that was part of it, but the real reason was that he knew that I was meant to solve it. Once I placed the last piece in the correct in the correct spot I unleashed the spirit of the nameless pharaoh and the shadow games. I didn't know what was going on at first-In the beginning I blacked out every time the pharaoh took control of my body and people kept talking about things that I couldn't remember doing. When we finally were able to talk I began to realize how huge everything was." He figured that he probably shouldn't go into detail because he didn't want to frighten her further, considering that the man who was their adversary at the time was sitting on the couch next to them. "I had never been so frightened in my life. I was overwhelmed, scared, and I had begun to wonder if I really had what it took to help the pharaoh regain his memories. I guess what I'm getting at is that I know you must be frightened right now, so I'm going to tell you what he told me-whatever happens we'll face it together, and as long as we're a team we won't be defeated." She just stared mutely.

Mai leaned forward and asked Yugi "Is that why you were so freaked out when you dueled me in at the castle?" The girl was enraptured in the conversation. Two world famous duelists were discussing something that she had only read about in books.

"Not exactly. I had just seen a side to him that scared me. He was willing to win at any cost because he couldn't lose, and I was afraid that he'd hurt someone. I had just started getting to know him, so it wasn't like I knew him very well at that point. He nearly crossed a line that day and I was afraid that if he dueled too aggressively he'd hurt you too. You were the one who snapped us out of it Mai, so I owe winning Duelist Kingdom to you. If you hadn't I would have lost and Seto, Mokuba, and my Grandpa never would have gotten their souls back!"

Aiko was puzzled by the reactions of her idols. Both Seto Kaiba and Maximillion Pegasus looked embarrassed. Yugi could tell by her knitted eyebrows that she was trying to connect the dots. "The details aren't important now, but let's just say that I'm grateful that it helped us work things out. Afterwards we became really close. He was like a brother to me by the time he left for the afterlife."

"Seto, are you okay?" Mokuba asked his brother. Nobody outside of their circle would have even been able to tell that Seto looked out of sorts in the first place. Seto was a man who prided himself in his control, so that he relinquished it, if only for a moment, showed that something was truly bothering him.

"It's nothing Mokuba." Nobody had dared to tell Mokuba about what happened on the ledge because they knew that it would upset him. "I was just thinking."

"About what? I know that something happened that day. I can get you not wanting to tell me when I was kid, but I'm an adult now. I can handle it." Knowing Mokuba, he wouldn't take it well.

Seto was silent for a moment before staring Mokuba dead in the eyes. Yugi couldn't help but admire the way he met fear by staring it in the face and not letting it overwhelm him. "You had been kidnapped, and I needed a way to get into the castle, so I challenged Yugi to duel for all of his star chips using the first generation duel disk. When I realized that I was losing I stepped to ledge and told him that impact of losing might make me fall off…"

Aiko and Mokuba stared at Seto in wide-eyed horror. "Seto!"

"Yugi, the other Yugi anyway, tried to go through with the attack, but then he called it off. That was how I won in order to get into the castle."

"That was not the right way to handle that! You know that, right?"

Although Seto seemed a little guilty, Yugi knew that he would not apologize for something that he had deemed necessary. That was the thing about Seto Kaiba, he did what he had to do and nobody could stand in his way. Yugi had never blamed Seto for this because he had recognized his desperation. "At the time it seemed like I had no other choice. I will admit that it wasn't the most reasonable decision, but it was the best one that I could come up with at the time and I stand by it."

If it was possible Mokuba's glare directed towards Pegasus grew icier.

"Mokuba-"

"That's Kaiba to you." He snapped.

"Very well then Mr. Kaiba, my past may be dark and my actions terrible, but surely you of all people know that people can change. Your brother is a changed man from the young man who first ascended to your adopted father's position."

"That's different! Seto's always been good, he just didn't always show it!"

"I believe Yugi boy may disagree with that."

Joey nodded. "I hate ta break it to ya Mokuba, but he was an even bigger asshole then than he is now. He did some pretty screwed up things when we first met him. So did Pegasus and Marik-hell, even Tristan and I weren't exactly upstanding citizens when we first met Yugi. Although we didn't try to steal his soul, we were bullies, and I was in a gang before I switched to domino high. If Yugi hadn't given us a chance who knows where we'd be?"

"Prison?" Tristan wondered out loud. "We'd have probably picked a fight with the wrong people and ended up in prison, or maybe worse."

"Fine, I'll work with him, but I still don't trust him!" Mokuba huffed.

"Fair enough Mokuba Kaiba, fair enough. I couldn't expect any more from someone that I have wronged so grievously. For now we shall have to wait and see which cards the spirit of the millennium ring will play next."

Tristan pointed to the wall behind them. "I think we already know."

Shadow Ghoul was spying on them from the window. "We need to stop that thing before it reports back to Bakura!" Mai shouted.

"I've got this. Grave keeper's Assassin, attack!" Ishizu commanded. Shadow Ghoul successfully evaded her attack and faded back into the shadows.

Yugi growled and summoned the Dark Magician. "Dark Magician, find Shadow Ghoul and destroy him!" He waved his staff, but it was too late. The creature was gone and was on it's way to report their progress to Bakura.

Meanwhile in the Domino Deals Motel:

The spirit of the Millennium Ring sat on the edge of the bed twirling a knife in his hand. The news was unsurprising-he had been expecting it any day now. "So they're ready for the games to begin eh? The board has been set and all of the pieces are in place-it's time to see how long they can last without a Pharaoh to bail them out of trouble. What do you think Akari?" He laughed when he saw her glare. She looked like a kitten pretending to be a lion. Maybe to one of her little playmates school she would have frightening, but she was hardly as dangerous as him. "Come now little girl, how do you think your father is going to fare in this little game?"

"He'll beat you-he's the king of Games! He'll rescue me and then you'll be done for!" She spat.

He laughed again. The girl was more amusing than he thought she would be. He'd expected a sniffling, cowering girl and instead got one with spunk. "We'll see about that. I've learned a few things from last time. I'll win because I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. Can your father say the same?"

"Absolutely!"

"Then we shall see soon enough, won't we?"

Author's Note: What do you think of Aiko? I made her younger because I think that if she existed during the series she would have been drawn into things the same way that Kaiba was. That left me with having to find a way to translate Kisara into a new modern (and age appropriate) setting. Right now she's kind of shy and overwhelmed because she's the only one who has never experienced the items or magic, but do you think that anyone who looks up to Kaiba the way she does could stay that way for long?

As always, thanks to anyone who reads and favorites this. Please review and let me know what you think!

-ForeverLily