That night, Yami spoke to Yuugi about Selket for the first time. /Kill her./

Yuugi froze with one hand on the light switch.

/You're the only one who can. The shadow games must not be allowed to awaken. I should know./

"Me…there's no way I could kill her!"

/You must, or she may destroy the human race, herself included. Think, when she is old and dies, who will control the monsters?/

"…"

/No one, unless she has an heir…and marriage requires too much trust. The monsters will run in chaos, and her soulless generals will be able to do nothing without a commander./

"I won't be soulless…"

/No, but could you really bring yourself to preside over the shadow games?/

"I…I guess not. Can't you do it?"

/It's not my place. You must do it on your own to alter the future she sees./

"But…"

/Kill her./

+

"You seem awfully quiet today, Yuugi," remarked Anzu worriedly.

"Yeah, are you okay?" asked Honda.

"Huh?" Yuugi snapped back to reality and blinked a few times. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry."

"But I do," insisted Anzu. "You've been like this ever since we met that Selket girl. Is it something that has to do with her?"

"I'm okay, really," said Yuugi, avoiding the question. "I'll be fine."

Anzu shook her head skeptically. "If you say so."

They arrived at the game shop, but Anzu hung back. Grabbing Jounouchi, she stopped him outside. "Don't you think something's wrong with Yuugi? I mean, you're his best friend; haven't you noticed a change?"

He looked thoughtful. "Maybe… I wonder what it is."

"Talk to him, okay? Something's up with him."

"All right."

+

Jounouchi didn't go and talk to Yuugi. He confronted Selket. "Look, I don't know what you're doing, but ever since you showed up, Yuugi's been actin' depressed. What's goin' on?"

She shrugged. "He shouldn't be upset. With the glory I can give him, he should be excited."

"Are ya still going on about that shadow games thing?"

She looked a little affronted. "Of course! I'm perfectly serious about them. Is there a problem with that?"

"Yeah. From what I've heard, they don't sound very nice."

She waved off his comment with a careless hand. "It's just a ritual of power, and power is what matters. I mean, what else is there?"

"Friendship. And that's why I want to know what's up with Yuugi."

She frowned. "Friendship? Friendship is weakness. It takes too much trust."

"Friendship is strength 'cause ya all work together."

Her eyes narrowed, and she snapped her fingers. Bakura stepped from the shadows to stand beside her, his face blank and cold. "Are you contradicting me, Jounouchi Katsuya? You should tread carefully around me."

Jounouchi stared. A slight shiver ran down him as he looked at Bakura's stolid face. The zombie cards he had run into at the Duelist Kingdom had had more life in their eyes than this shell of his friend. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"For Yuugi's sake, I would I'd try not to, but if you should bring it upon yourself…"

"Yuugi's sake?" spat Jounouchi incredulously, his anger getting the better of him. "What are you talking about? There's something bothering him because of you, and you don't do anything about it. You're just-"

"Enough!" shrieked Selket, thrusting a hand toward Jounouchi. Bakura bolted forward at her signal, his hands clenched in fists.

"Noooooooo!" The next thing anyone knew, a blur of color had effectively tripped Bakura and knocked Selket onto her back. She didn't have to see the millennium puzzle poised with its point over her heart to know whom it was.

"Yuugi!" she hissed in a rage. Then she saw his face. He was clearly in pain, torn between his friends. The tears trickled down onto her as his eyes flicked from Jounouchi to Bakura and down to Selket again.

"Please…Selket…don't…"

Bakura rose, but did not make a move. "Shall I kill them both?"

Selket didn't answer. "Yuugi…"

/Kill her./

Yuugi gritted his teeth, the tears flowing faster. "I…don't…want…"

"I thought we were friends." Even as her eyes bore into Yuugi's soul, Selket's fingers twitched, catching Bakura's eye. She pointed subtly at Jounouchi.

Hostage.

They thought in unison, an empress and a general working with the same strategy.

Yuugi caught the movement and turned to see Bakura lock his arm around Jounouchi's neck. At the same instant, Selket took advantage of his distraction and shoved him away. Standing over him, she glared down with a cold fury. "It was a weakness to trust you. I should never have risked it." She bit her lip. "Up! On your feet before me!"

Not knowing what else to do, Yuugi obeyed. Grasping his collar, she pulled him forward in one violent motion. Her lips moved as if to add a harsh word or two, but no sound came out. Although nearly paralyzed by fear, he managed one desperate move: to drive the point of the millennium puzzle into her. At the same moment, he was shocked to realize that her eyes were full of pain, not true anger. "Yuugi…"

She slumped forward, and he knelt, helping her to the ground. Slowly, she pulled the point from her flesh, and reached into the pocket of her jacket as blood bloomed through the ragged hole. Pulling something out, she handed it slowly to him. He took it and paled. It was the change of heart, stained crimson, with a neat puncture through the middle. He had stabbed it as well. Panic rising within him, he glanced over at Jounouchi and Bakura. Jounouchi seemed a little dazed, but Bakura lay motionless on the ground, growing ever paler. "His…soul…" she murmured. "He'll…die…too…"

The world quivered before Yuugi's eyes for a moment. "No…"

She nodded. "Yes…but…" He hand reached for the card again. Yuugi let her take it. "Here…" She brushed her trembling fingers over the hole, and it vanished. Bakura opened his eyes and sat up looking disoriented. "You…need…your friends, Yuugi… I won't heal myself…it's…better…like…that…"

"Selket??"

"It's like…the future…Isis Ishtar sees… It will come to pass…unless altered…by a millennium item…" She smiled slightly at the comparison and clasped Yuugi's hand, her blood running between their fingers. "Goodbye…"

She gave a deep, sighing breath and closed her eyes. There was a moment of unadulterated silence, and then she vanished. It was the shattering of an image identical to the death of a holographic duel monster, but without any noise at all. The change of heart card blew in a quiet breeze across the pavement to Bakura. He picked it up, his eyes clearing like one coming out of a dream.

Yuugi let his hand relax. It had been curled around the air where her fingers had been only moments ago. Scarlet still dripped from his palm. A flash of gold caught his eye as it plummeted from his grasp to the ground. It had not been there before. He picked it up, and a laugh and a sob fought within him to escape. It was a tiny ankh, a symbol of life, now born out of death. Slowly, wordlessly, he rose and walked away.