Hotaru: Hehehe welcome back to my delightfully evil story.

Malik: yeah whatever

Hotaru: *sigh* too bad Bakura doesn't trust me anymore or he'd be here to make me fill more evil.

Bakura: *walks in and pushes Malik out the door* I'm here, just tired. Accursed mortals trying to kill me for no apparent reason.

Hotaru: *nods* but I'm sure you did SOMETHING to deserve it!

Bakura: *shrugs* maybe I did, I can't remember. My damn Hikari keeps yelling at me about being evil...

Hotaru: but that's what makes you so cute! Oh and from here on I'm calling Safiya Pamiuw cuz that's who she is...for now.

Bakura: *shrugs* whatever. So let's start this already.

Yami: *pops up out of no where* DISCLAIMER: HOTARU DOESN'T OWN ANYTHING!!!

Bakura: do you pay him extra for that?

Hotaru: I don't pay him at all...

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Pamiuw looked at the pharaoh from the other side of the underground room.

"Ready to lose?" She asked.

"You'll be the one losing Safiya" Yami replied. Pamiuw clenched her fists.

"My name is Pamiuw, not Safiya" she yelled. "The last thing you'll learn before you're killed!" Seto was there, but his mind wasn't. He just stared at the harsher, mutated, twisted form his love had once been. Her gorgeous eyes, once a fiery red then ocean blue, were now black and dead. The window to her soul those eyes had once held was shut and locked. No thoughts dare escape those eyes anymore. Pamiuw, Seto soon concluded, meant nothing but good for Safiya but bad for the rest of the world. 'Can she see?' Seto wondered. 'Can she see what he is doing and hear what he says? Surely the Safiya I know would not allow such violence.'

"Are you afraid to fight me, Safiya, or is that really you in disguise?" Yami asked.

"Safiya is dead" Pamiuw roared. "Why won't you listen?!" Those first words snapped Seto back to reality.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Pamiuw smiled.

"At least YOU listen" Pamiuw put a hand on her hip. "Yes it's true. She's dead, and I have taken her place. She's asleep in her mind and she will never wake up. Poor thing came to me crying, sobbing like the weakling she really is." Her eyes flashed with malice. Seto couldn't help but believe him (I'm gonna call Pamiuw 'him.') Those icy cerulean eyes melted to nothing as his stomach dropped.

"Can she be brought back?" he asked. Pamiuw shrugged. "You could bring her back-"

"But I won't" Pamiuw spat.

"ENOUGH!!! Let's get this over with" Yami barked. Pamiuw looked only all too happy to do this.

"Alright, Pharaoh, alright. Go ahead and start" she said. Yami looked at the ground for a moment then raised his head, throwing his hand out in front of him. A large rock slab rose up and the imprint of a dragon etched itself across the stone. Winged dragon, guardian of the fortress. The dragon materialized into the air in front of the slab and roared. Pamiuw wasn't impressed. She flicked her wrist and a warrior with pointed ears stepped away from the stone, its sword raised. Celtic Guardian. The two monsters clashed but were both wiped out. Yami and Pamiuw were both enraged. 'A tie?! That's all this weak body can conjure?!' Pamiuw growled mentally. 'There's only one more go before it comes to the soul match, that's not good!'

"Damn" Yami muttered. He waved his hand dismissively, trying to get the thought of losing out of his mind. A second slab stood up and a human with blonde hair jumped off of it. Neo the Magic Swordsman. Pamiuw took a deep breath and watched as her own second stone rose and a dark clad human, holding daggers sprang out. They ran at each other but once again the blast destroyed both. Yami cursed under his breath then smiled, this was the soul match and Yami had never lost one before.

"Oh shit" Pamiuw muttered.

/ unlock the soul / a voice whispered in his mind. Seto watched as those dead eyes turned soft and warm in a brief second. Pamiuw was startled by the voice. 'Who-who are you?'

/ use her heart to guide the beast, it will not fail / the voice murmured. It never wavered, nor did it have a gender or quirk to give some idea of who it could be. Yami closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. As he exhaled the third stone flipped over revealing a human in deep purple robes holding a staff. The Dark Magician. Pamiuw fluttered her eyes closed then searched deep within the body of Safiya.

*~*~* in their mind *~*~*

He found himself walking down a dark corridor. He stopped at a dead end then looked around. There was a door on both sides and one in the wall in back of him. He opened one and saw a black room that was cold and empty, with a statue of Bastet in it.

"This must be Bastet's old room. How odd." He whispered. (AN: the words spoken in this portion are only heard by the people in the mind.) He closed that door and opened another. He was face to face with himself. After screaming loudly he slammed the door shut and opened the final door. There sat Safiya, in a quivering lump. Her face was hidden by her hair and her knees were pulled up to hide it. "Safiya?"

"What do you want?" she asked in a sobbing voice.

"I'm in a duel with Yami, I need to have your soul beast" he said hurriedly. She looked up at him.

"You can't use my soul beast, you couldn't control it even if I did let you use him."

"THEN COME OUT!!! If I lose then you can NEVER see any of your friends again!!" she just put her head down again.

"it doesn't matter to me. Go ahead and lose" she muttered.

"WHAT ABOUT SETO?!!!" Her head snapped up and she jumped to her feet, pushing him out of the way.

"I'm doing it for him not you" she hissed.

*~*~* back to the future! Err I mean present *~*~*

Yami and Seto were staring at the seemingly asleep Safiya/Pamiuw. All at once she snapped out of it and her eyes were a fierce red. Her features remained the same but her voice was back to normal.

"Prepare to lose Pharaoh, it ends here" Safiya yelled. Seto saw the changes and knew that that was the real Safiya talking. She raised her hands and a GIGANTIC beast rose up from behind her. It was a dragon, blue eyes, bluish-white skin, and three heads. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It roared and one head tried to nuzzle Safiya. She jumped onto it and it raised its head back up. She smirked down at Yami. "Do you still think your better?" Seto and Yami just gaped.

"Seto it looks like your beast" Yami gasped. Seto nodded. Yes it did but Seto's Dragon only had one head, and it was never that controlled. Yami lowered his head in defeat. "Go ahead and kill me." Safiya pointed a slender finger at Yami.

"Get him my pet" she hissed, sounding almost snake-like. All three heads roared and fired white flames at Yami. The flames were about to reach him, about to kill him when Yanagi jumped out of no where and pushed Yami out of the way. "STOP!!!" the Monster Yami had summoned took half the blow but was weakening too quickly. Horror struck, Safiya watched as a girl form of Yami's Monster appeared out of no where and took the rest of the blow. Dark Magician Girl. Both monsters were annihilated and Safiya could do nothing but stare. As she did Pamiuw pushed her out of control, about to order another attack on Yami. But as soon as Safiya was gone the dragon went wild.

/ YOU FOOL!!! / Safiya yelled in their mind.

// FINE! // Pamiuw backed down and Safiya was reasserted as power. The dragon held very still, almost like a statue.

"Down" she commanded. The great reptile lowered the head she was on and she jumped down. She ran over to Yami and Yanagi. "And you did that why?"

"Couldn't let him die" she panted.

"And why not?!" Safiya demanded.

"I have my reasons" she said in a suddenly distant voice. Safiya glared at Yami.

"You're lucky she's my friend or I'd have my precious pet blast you all straight to the underworld." She purred as her 'pet' nuzzled her again. Seto approached Safiya with a wary eye on her dragon.

"How did you conjure that...thing?" He asked. The dragon growled and ruffled it's leathery wings in an annoyed fashion.

"Don't call her a THING, okay? She's very sensitive." Safiya said, sounding as annoyed as her pet.

"Okay how can you conjure and control HER" Seto asked.

"Strength runs in my blood, she's my soul beast. I can control her just like anyone else who has one." She answered. She rubbed a gentle, human, hand across its nose. "Ma'at is her name, because if you stand before her you WILL be judged." Safiya smiled and kissed her pet lightly. Meanwhile Yanagi was trying to come up with a valid excuse for pushing the pharaoh down.

"I saved your life!" Well it was true...of course since Yami was an arrogant bunghole- (watch it Yami.....) he wasn't gonna listen.

"I don't care! You knocked me over! That's punishable by death" he gained an evil (a.k.a. "I'm such a badass" but really isn't) look. She gave him a semi worried look then made sure everyone else was out of hearing distance.

"My name in Yanagi, still wanna kill me?" Yami's eyes widened in surprise. His mouth hung open and he gaped at her. He recovered quickly and motioned for Seto to follow as he stormed out. Safiya closed her eyes and the dragon disappeared slowly. She fell to one knee and took a deep breath. Controlling such a large and powerful soul beast was very tiring.

"I'm going to leave, you okay?" Yanagi asked.

"I'm fine" she muttered standing slowly.

*~*~* that night at Yanagi's place *~*~*

Yanagi was sitting in her bed; her eyes closed trying to sleep, when she felt something brush against her skin. She opened one eye and saw Malik curling up next to her. She stared at him for a moment then relaxed and tried to slip into sleep. As she did Malik's arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She smiled dreamily and settled in again, getting pleasantly comfortable. Malik's breath ran down her neck, tingling her spine, and kissed her softly. She sighed contentedly. He smirked, enjoying her joy, and purred in her ear. This girl was better than Safiya, and he hadn't even had to sleep with her. 'Maybe she's the one for me' he mused mentally. His eyes fluttered shut and soon both were asleep

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Hotaru: alright Yume I know that's probably not good enough for you but you'll have ta wait. There's a lot about to happen that might exclude Yanagi but not Malik.

Bakura: I'm still dead...

Hotaru: oh Bijin I'm sorry, I forgot about bringing you back. And this chapter WAS short. But that's part of the next chapter (which I've already started) and there is nothing that'll distract me this ti-OOH A SQUIRREL!!!! *runs off chasing the squirrel*

Bakura: -.-* oh yeah I'm so assured.

Yami: but at least I'm not dead!

Bakura: *falls over* _._ oh sure just rub it in now.

Yami: *grins widely* so you guys know...REVIEW!!!!!!!!