~*~

Gabriela was at school again, trying to stay away from everyone, especially the Pharaoh and his gang. She sat in the back in home room, hoping to go unnoticed by everyone. The five from yesterday looked at her, but didn't say anything. Kaiba was sitting nearby. As the bell rang he leaned over and asked, "I thought you were friends with Yugi. What happened?" She didn't have time to nor want to answer. The teacher walked up to the front of the class and pulled out a small piece of paper.

"Okay, class settle down. We have a new student today. All the way from Ramstein, Germany. Her name is.. Safira Stone?" Kiaba's head jerked up. 'That name sounds familiar…'

A young girl with dark blue hair and pale blue fluffy bangs walked in with a book clutched to her chest. Kiaba looked totally confused. 'Where have I seen her before?' He watched her as she walked down the isle and looked for a place to sit, taking the seat beside Gabriela.

~Safira's POV~

The class room was the same as most. She was always shy in new places. She walked to the back of the room and froze. 'He's here!' She stared at Kiaba for a moment. She could tell by the look on his face, he still had no idea who she was, so she just ignored it and sat down. 'Why don't you remember me, Seto?' She sat quietly, trying to concentrate politely, but to no avail. 'We used to be good friends…what changed, Seto?' She watched the girl next to her, trying to advert her attention to something. The girl was watching her too.

"Hi. My name's Safira. What's yours?" She watched the girl jump, startled., and held out her hand.

"My name is Gabriela. I moved here a month ago." Safira got a worried look on her face. 'She's been here a month and she is sitting here all alone! I wonder if these people are that mean or if she did something…'

Safira smiled brightly, trying to hide her feelings, and noticed the girl playing with a necklace. "What's that?" Gabriela held it up.

"I call it the One Eyed Cat. It's from Egypt or something."

"You like the Ancient Egyptian stuff? I do. I learned to like it. At first it seemed really boring, but then, my old class and I went on this field trip. We drove to Paris. It's like a 4 hour drive from Ramstein. We went to this museum owned by some people named Istar or something. Anyway, I was standing there, minding my own business, when this thing fell of one of the Egyptian displays and onto my head. I tried to find one of the curators to give it back, but they had all been on the other side of the building. I did find this really strange lady with black hair and green eyes, but she said that anything that happened, happened for a reason. Then she just disappeared. I don't know what happened, but I got to keep this." She held up a beautiful golden headband that had Egyptian writing on it and a Jackal's head in the front. The Jackal's body went down the middle of your head to have the tail hang off the back if you were wearing it. "When I got this, Egypt seemed to take on a whole new out look to me."

"It sounds like you had a destiny meeting with this little beast." Gabriela held up her Cat and realized that the Jackal had the same eye as the Cat did. Gabriela had to hold back the information of this though, because the teacher had started class again. "I hate biology this early in the morning."

Safira giggled and nodded her head. "I guess it's not much better that our teacher looks like a zombie monster card." They both started giggling quietly.

Kiaba was watching them and trying to put a name to the place he had seen that girl before. He pulled out his laptop and hid it below the desktop. He began looking up Safira Stone. The computer came up with her history. She had been born an orphan, mother dying during child birth and the father unknown. She had started at the same orphanage as Seto. 'Safira? Wait... I remember now... She was the one who gave me my first Blue Eyes." He continued reading. "That's her alright." The computer had a long part about when Yugi had first assembled the Puzzle. A News network of some sort had started thinking of good matches for Kiaba. They had had one every week and nothing was really happening with them. Then, they got wind of a "past little girl friend." They had shown Safira as his most likely match. The Press ripped her apart, like dissecting an animal just to see it's insides. He had publicly apologized to her, but he hadn't realized it was the same girl. 'Why did she move here?' He tried to forget about it now that she was no longer a mystery and he knew, but something was eating at him. 'I know something is not right about this. It's not a coincidence that she's here. Does she want something? I don't see what she could want. I apologized. It must be something else.' He began to think of Battle City and what had just happened. "Fate? Or Coincidence?"

~*~*~ Lunch ~*~*~

Gabriela was going to skip lunch all together. 'I really don't need those guys asking me questions and making problems...' She noticed that Safira was sitting on a bench outside, near the Duel Monsters tables where everyone played. She sat down next to her. "What's up, Safira?"

Safira was watching a Duel and thinking. "Have you ever felt like the Monsters in these cards are alive? Well, I felt, and feel to be honest, that I can communicate with them and am a friend of them. I know I sound crazy..."

"No you don't." Gabriela interrupted. "No crazier than when I say I can sense monsters. By type or rarity or even level. I know how it feels to be friends with the monsters. Safira? Did you happen to notice that both our little beasts have the same eye on them? What do you think of that?"

Safira smiled and went back to watching the Duel. "Do you think it's some sort of sign? lake maybe we're supposed to protect the world from something."

"Safira? If I tell you something, promise not to call me crazy?" Safira nodded. "There is someone in my Cat. A person's spirit. Her name is Jericho. She's from Ancient Egypt. Do you think all of the things like ours have people in them?" She looked at the Jackal headband expectantly.

"I don't know." Safira answered. She put on the headband and suddenly felt a huge headache. "What is going on? OH! IT HURTS!" She began tugging at the Jackal head trying to get it off. Gabriela grabbed her hand and ran to an alley where no one seemed to be. Jeri appeared out of the cat. Safira was now doubled over in the pain. Jericho started to approach and after three steps, stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is it, Jericho? She needs you're help..." Jericho motioned for Gabriela to stay silent. She pointed behind Safira.

"We're not the only ones here to help. Sense that, Gabriela?" Gabriela closed her eyes. She could sense 3 monsters behind Safira. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon. The Red Eyes Black Dragon. And Kumeraku. Some of the most powerful and important dragon monsters in the Shadow Realm.... Gabriela. We're taking her home with us." Jeri walked over to the young girl, her hands up in a surrender position. "Don't make them angry, Gabriela. They could kill you in the blink of an eye." She picked up Safira and began backing away. For every step she took back, the dragons came forward the same amount of steps. When Jeri left the alley, they took flight, making sure to stay nearby. The dragons didn't leave the girls for anything. When Jeri got Safira in the house, the dragons wanted to come in too.

Gabriela went upstairs to the bedroom. "Jeri, set Safira on the bed." She started to open the window. "Okay guys. She's in here, safe and sound. I'm sorry I couldn't let you in, but you're a bit big for the door and my living room is full of furniture. I wouldn't want you guys to hurt yourselves." She let them look in the window at the now unconscious form of Safira. "I hope they don't attract too much attention, Jeri. They are sort of looking out for her aren't they?"

Safira was dreaming of the ancient past. Egypt to be exact.

~Safira's dream~

A young girl was standing in a crowded market place. She was wearing rags and watching people go by. She was suddenly knocked unconscious from behind and dragged towards the palace wall. A man propped her up on the wall and was about to pull out a sword when three monsters dove out of the sky and picked her up out of harms way. A gold dragon, a copper dragon, and a silver dragon. The gold dragon let out a call and the BEWD appeared from the shadow realm. He blasted the man into nothingness. The girl, still unconscious, was carried by the BEWD to the Shadow Realm.

Then Safira saw a great room in which a duel was taking place. It was the Pharaoh's thrown room. The Pharaoh called forth his Dark Magician and the High Priest called forth his BEWD. The BEWD was holding something. It turned to it's master and the High Priest let out a colorful Egyptian curse. The Dark Magician picked the young girl up from the BEWD's hand like claws and turned to the Pharaoh. He could now see that the young girl was in bad shape and she had blue hair. She looked like Safira!

Safira heard a name in her head. Sadeh. Sadeh. It kept repeating itself. Two guards came forward and if Safira had known the two, she would have said they look like Joey and Tristan. They tried to take the girl from the Dark Magician and take her away, but the two monsters obviously didn't like that idea. They glared and let out menacing noises when the two came close.

~End of dream~

Safira started waking up. She looked around confused. "Aren't we supposed to be at school, Gabriela?" She looked out the window. "OH MY GOD! WHAT ARE THOSE!!!" She backed up against the wall and pointed at the heads of the three dragons trying to look in at the same time. "What are they doing here!?!?!?!"

Gabriela started laughing and tried to explain. "When you passed out they followed. It was really strange. Like they knew you or something and were making sure I wasn't a threat." The BEWD made a soft roar and took off into the sky, and doubled back, making a very interesting show for the two teenage girls.

"Where's the Jackal headband, Gabriela?" Gabriela pointed to Safira's head. She pulled at it. "It's stuck tight!"

"Well, before you started tugging on it, it was just a head band, but when you started thinking about it, the Jackal head just appeared." She held her cat out to her. "I haven't got you're problem, but I think if you ignore the headband, it will become less noticeable."

~*~*~ Back at school ~*~*~

Bakura was seething over the previous night's defeat. 'How did she already know about Jeri? It must be the cat thing around her neck. That must be generating her powers. And that monster is definitely one I've never seen. She called it Tori Hikari. Bird of Light. Well, I'll just have to capture Gabriela and make her pay for her insolence.'

Yami was thinking hard too. He was trying to figure out if Gabriela was some how connected to his ancient past. 'She was so afraid of me... I may never forget the look on her face when she met eyes with me. And she used an attack much like mine to defeat that punk in the street. She seems so familiar, but how? What is it that I'm not remembering that is so important?'

Seto was having his own problems. Now that he remembered who Safira was, he kept remembering scenes from the orphanage. One scene especially replayed over and over in his head.

*Flashback* (again...v_v())

A chibi Seto had an even younger Mokuba by the hand and a man and a woman were loading their things in a car. Seto turned around to see a young girl in a sailor suit run after him, waving a card in the air. She stopped in front of him. "Seto! I thought I wouldn't make it! I came to say bye. Here." She handed him the card in her hand. It was a BEWD. His first one. "Don't forget me, okay?" She put the card in his hand and closed his fingers around it. "Don't forget me."

*end Flash Back*

Seto had forgotten. Very much so. 'Why is it so important that I remember Safira?' He felt as if the BEWD itself was angry with him for forgetting.

Yugi and the others were talking about Gabriela's sudden absence and her little episode yesterday.

"She doesn't seem to trust Yami. I think she's lost trust in me now too. We look alot alike..."

Tea tried to comfort him. "It's not like she can't tell the difference, Yugi. She just had a scare, that's all. I'm sure that she just needs some time. I mean, Bakura said that the Cat thing around her neck..."

"The Cat! He said it looked like a Millennium Item, but it wasn't one of the seven! What if it showed her something from the past that made her afraid of Yami?! We have to go check on her! If that thing has an ancient spirit in it, it might have a reason for making Gabriella afraid. We have to find her!"

"Yah, but Yug, It's the middle of school and she left. She could be anywhere by now. Can your Puzzle track her down or something?" As if on cue, the Puzzle began reacting wildly to a force nearby.

Bakura was heading in the same direction, his ring reacting to the same force.

~behind the school~

Ami was walking back to class. She had taken an off campus lunch break and was heading back the unnoticeable Unfortunately, the school gangsters had found out about the little back alley and were about to pay her a little visit.

"Hello there little pretty. I'm sure that you have a pretty bit of cash on you don't you? Well, it's ours now. Hand it over before you regret it." The punk revealed a nasty looking blade.

Ami got sort of nervous. Punk were one thing, but punks with knifes were quite another. "Look. I'm keeping my money. So just get lost, okay?" She stared to walk by, only to be grabbed in the process.

"Well, if this one ain't a little firecracker. Look here, fire cracker, if you don't hand over any and all money you've got, you're cute little face won't be so cute anymore, got it?"

Ami flipped her midnight purple/blue hair and glared at him with her dusty rose eyes. "I said NO!" Her arm shot out to punch him in the nose, but thanks to the way he held her, it only got in front of the long pointy end of his ugly face. It really didn't hit him. She was about ready to give in and give him the money, but the cobra bracelet on her arm had different ideas. Suddenly it went from being just a gold bracelet, to being a real live cobra. It was gold colored still, but the places where it's seeing eyes should have been were rose colored and it had a mysterious third eye on it's fore head, which seemed to be the one it was looking out of.

It danced keeping it's one eye on them then it's other two eyes started to glow red. The guy who was holding her got a blank stare in his eyes and started screaming. He dropped her with a thud and took off, screaming about demons. His cronies followed, not wanting to have to fight with a cobra. After they had all left, the snake wound itself back around her arm. Ami was shocked senseless.

Then, a white haired, brown eyed teen came running down the alley, stopping just short of crashing into her. "I'm sorry." He said in a heavy English accent, "I was running back to school. My name is Ryou. What's your name?" He looked at her. She was wearing a school uniform and her hair was sort of messy from fighting. She was pretty though.

"My name is Ami. Did you see those goons running away? What were they so afraid of?" She looked back down at her arm. The cobra was wound all the way up to her shoulder.

Ryou shook her hand as he replied. "No, but it's better than being rob…" He didn't finish because he could feel the snake against his hand. He slid her sleeve up a little and slid it back down. 'I hope Bakura didn't see that.' He looked back up into her rose eyes. "Where did you get that?"

Ami jerked her hand back, as if she had felt something scalding and pushed her sleeve back down. "I got it in a trade. Some one told me they had a rare card on the internet and I bought it, but this is what I got back. When I opened the box, it just wrapped around my hand. Please! Please Don't Tell Anyone!!" She pleaded, staring into his eyes. "Please! I will owe you big time!" She took his hands still begging. "I don't know if it was stolen or what, but please, don't tell! I can't get it off and I would be considered a freak, please!" Ryou looked at her, completely baffled.

"Um… I won't tell. I promise." He stared confused at this young and fearful girl who was opening up to him with out even knowing him. He just prayed Bakura wasn't listening in…

Ami smiled tearfully. "Thank you! I owe you big time! Just you wait! I will pay you back, Ryou! I swear I will!" She was so happy that she wasn't alone anymore. They walked back to the class together, talking seemingly idle chitchat, but each one really thinking about their dark secret.

~At the Airport~

A young girl with dirty blonde hair and hazel blue eyes was getting off a flight from America. She picked up her duffle bag and headed for a pay phone. She picked up the phone book and started looking for Fremon. "Frimon, Freamon, Fremon…Abbagail, Bernise….GABRIELA!" She wrote down the address and headed for a taxi. "To this address, please. And step on it." The driver nodded and took off.

Sara started fingering something just beneath her neck. Tori? We're getting close.

A jewel on the strange necklace's falcon like head, that was sticking out of her shirt, glowed. `Very close, Sara. Jericho won't be far away now.` Sara could see a mental image of the Yami Spirit. Her green striped hair and blue loin cloth skirt and silk wings. She was a sight to behold alright.

Do you think Gabriela is okay? Jeri wouldn't hurt her, right?

`No. I don't think the spell took away that much of her memory…but we need to be careful for anyone else holding Millennium Items or Beasts. Curse those darn Magicians and their greed. Jeri would be much happier if they had left her memories, but they wanted the world as their plaything. We have to find her, Sara. Now. You're friend is in grave danger if Jeri makes a drastic move. Doesn't this auto mobile go any faster? By Ra and Bastet, we've got to find her fast!`

The taxi started to slow at a red light. Sara couldn't stand it anymore. She through the money in the front seat and jumped out, running the few blocks to the right house. Gabriela's house. She bounded up the stairs and banged on the door. "GABRIELA! OPEN THIS DOOR! OPEN IT NOW!!!" Sara started banging franticly on the door. She didn't mean to seem so desperate, but the things that Tori had told her that Gabriela was now capable of doing had her frightened for her old friend. 'Why the heck isn't she answering?!?!' She lifted her hand to the door knob again just as the door swung open with Gabriela standing there.

Gabriela had heard the screaming voice and knew who it was. "SARA!!!" Jeri came and watched from the stairs as the two old friends reunited and had a long hug. "Sara! You look like you had a fight with a bad day… and lost! What's wrong? You're all out of breath. Did someone come after you?"

Sara took a few slow breaths and started to explain. "Gabriela? Do you remember when you left America? I said I was going to a Duel Monsters convention, remember? Well, when I got there, I saw this adorable Falcon chest plate that I decided I had to have, so I bought it. It was a steal, so I didn't expect it to last long. But it looked ancient Egyptian. When I put it on, it seemed built for me. Gabriela, there was…is a spirit inside the chest plate. It told me about you're Cat necklace." She pointed at the cat hanging out of Gabriela's shirt. "Her name is…"

"TORI!" Jericho jumped up, knowing that was who it was. After waiting so long to see her again, she would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to realize where this conversation was going. She ran down to see Sara and hopefully her long lost friend. Tori appeared out of the armor like chest plate, smiling at her old friend who was obviously glad to see her. They hugged briefly, then held each other at arms length, seeing what had changed. Tori got a sad look in her eyes.

"Jeri, I know this is going to be hard for you, but you have to listen to me…."

Jericho stopped smiling, she knew this was going to hurt, what ever it was. "Yes?"

"Jeri. Jericho. You must put all these thoughts of revenge I know you have in you behind. Please you must listen to me! Pharaoh Yamiji is not you're enemy! If you carry out you're plans, you'll be making a serious mistake! All you once loved will be destroyed, Jeri! Jeri! Please! PLEASE!" Tori was now staring into blank green eyes. Jeri wasn't listening. What she was thinking was plain on her face.

"Traitor. TRAITOR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO TORI!?! MY FRIEND? YOU ARE JUST A TRAITOR! AND A LIAR! I WILL NEVER GIVE UP MY REVENGE! TORI OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD KNOW THAT!" She turned and ran upstairs, leaving Tori looking like she had been smacked across the face.

"JERI! PLEASE!? FOR GABRIELA'S SAKE! You've had you're turn in life, but she's still young! I'm not asking you to permanently give up you're revenge, just hold it off until Gabriela has had a little more of a chance in life…Jeri? Are you listening to me Jeri? JERICHO!"

Gabriela ran up to the room, remembering that Safira was still up there. "Jeri? Jericho? Where are you? Can I come in?" She knocked on the door of the upstairs sitting room or den as Gabriela liked to call it. She opened the door and shut it behind her. "Jeri-chan? You okay?"

She could see the spirit trying to cover up tears as she answered shakily. "I've been better. Gabriela? I think we should send you somewhere safer than this world for a little while. See, I can send you to the shadow realm like a new monster to hide for a while, just long enough for Tori's disillusion that I'm doing something wrong blows over. She's confused, but I know she's right about you being young. We'll continue to practice, and you'll still do the Kiaba Babysitting job, but instead of going to school for a while, you'll be in the monsters' part of the Shadow realm, okay? I don't want you getting into any more danger than necessary. I'll keep you're card with me so that you don't accidentally get called into a battle, so there's no need to worry. I'll disguise you as the Angel of Joy, the card you drew that day we first met. We need to go now, to avoid conflict in any bystanders, okay?" She opened a portal into the shadow realm and stepped inside.

Gabriela followed, not wanting to make the spirit any angrier. She felt a strange energy as a equally strange purple light consumed her form. When she opened her eyes again, she had long white wings and a long white dress that had two skirts, one roughly 2 feet above the other. Her hair now seemed shorter and reddish. She looked questioningly at Jericho. "Now what?"

Jericho held up a card with Gabriela's new form in the picture. "This is NOT permanent. Now, You will have to go to the living shadow realm. I am going to warn you, stay away from the Pharaoh's monsters. They will recognize you immediately. I suggest staying near the light part of the realm and sometimes near the dragons. I will be back to check up on you tonight. Good luck Gabriela." Jeri opened a hole in the realm that had a strange cloudlike landscape behind it. "This is the Light area of the Living Shadow Realm. I suggest you stay here." Gabriela walked in and stood there, dazed.

Jeri opened another hole back to the house and entered. She immediately went to find Safira, who was now sound asleep on the bed where they had left her.

~In the LSR~

Gabriela was walking toward a crystalline white castle. She figured she could fly, but she didn't want it to be obvious that she was a beginner. She was getting fairly close when she was knocked forward by someone tackling her from behind.

"Hiya, Shining Angel… Wait a minute, you aren't shining! Who are you?" Gabriela turned to see a very cute Petit Angel and Shining Friendship.

"See, Petit? I told you not to judge everything just because it has wings! Hello. I don't think I've ever seen you before, but then, I never saw that white bird thing before the other day, either."

"I'm the Angel of Joy and You must mean Tori Hikari. She and I used to be good friends." Gabriela looked around. "Hey, I'm kind of new around here. What's a newbie like me supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?" The PA and SF looked at her funny before talking at once.

"You're supposed to go see the Empress Judge if you're new. She decides who is worthy of staying and going." Was all Gabriela got out of the jumbled mess of conversation. Suddenly, they were covered with a shadow like that of a cloud.

"TORI HIKARI!" Gabriela called. The bird immediately recognized her master. She circled and landed next to Gabriela.

"Hello, Mistress. What are you doing here?" Gabriela put her hand in front of her mouth, signaling for TH to be quiet. "Hmm?"

"You mean Angel of Joy, Remember? Mistress just drew me to look like her, remember old friend?" She looked over at the two small monsters then back at TH. "Remember?" She strained.

"Oh, yes of course. You look so much like our mistress, it's confusing. Come, AOJ. The EJ will want to meet you." Gabriela followed the bird monster, sort of frightened of the EJ.

When they got to the inside of the white crystalline castle, there was an entire court of monsters. In the front of the room was the beautiful Empress Judge.

She looked at Gabriela with a straight face, but her eyes sparkled for a moment, as if this seemed all too familiar to her. She nodded her head and Tori Hikari led Gabriela to a tower in the castle. "We can share a tower, if you want. I can watch out for you while you're here. By the way, why are you here?"

"Sorry TH, It's sort of a secret mission for now. It would be nice if you covered for me if I 'Came up missing' for a little while, okay?"

~*~

HEY GUYS! It's the much awaited update! Sorry it took so long…

Y.S.-Yah, she's in over her head with all the updates and rpg's and crud she has to do. I however, offered to do the update, but NOOOO….

B.S_ If you had done the update, I would have gotten my first official flames and I DON"T LIKE FLAMES! You would have messed up my story to no end and made it all Yami/Y.S. And you're not even supposed to be in this story!

Yami- Black star does not own Yugioh. Yami star had better stay away from me or I'm not doing this again!

B.S_ BTW, A special thanks to my friends Ami and Puck (Okane and I'm not sure of Puck's name) For offering to be Ami and Safira for me! Thanks so much guys for the profiles and ideas! You've been a big help! Later and R &R ppl!