Once upon a time, there lived a little girl with a special gift. The gift to make things move with a thought. She lived in a small town with her mommy, her daddy and her big sister. She was a happy little girl with a happy life until one day…

It began with a fire that destroyed her little town, her mommy, her daddy and her beloved big sister. The little girl was picking flowers when she noticed the smell of smoke in the air. She looked up and saw the fire that destroyed her home rapidly approaching her and her pretty flowers.

So she did the only thing she could and made the fire stay back. The effort to save both herself and the flowers took so much from her, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

They say if you visit the remains of the little town, on the day of the fire, you can see the once happy little girl standing on a hill of flowers. Her red hair whipping in the breeze. Red as the three roses she holds in her hands.

***********************************

Isis was still crying when the fire trucks came. Every time she would moan her brother's name, the stoic Rashid would hold her tighter and smooth back her hair, allowing the tears to continue falling on his shoulder.

Bakura wasn't doing much better. He continue to sit beside Ryou on the grass, allowing his light to cry on his shoulder as he watched the firemen work.

Tea felt as if her last tear would fall and then another would take its place. Yugi held her tight as they sat next to Ryou, watching but not seeing the firemen. All he kept seeing was the house explode and Isis begin to scream.

Yami glanced at Tristan and Joey beside him and Yugi. Though their eyes were dry, the once pharaoh could see the pain in their eyes. An ambulance arrived but he feared it would only carry away the remains of his friend and his greatest enemy.

He didn't know when he arrived but one moment Yami looked up and found Shadi standing beside him. Both waited in silence for the other to make the first move, say the first words.

"I was too late." The guardian finally murmured. "I came to help as soon as I knew. But I was too late to stop this."

"Brother!" Isis moaned behind them.

"And here I thought you knew everything." Bakura muttered then silently returned to watching the firemen.

"I am only human." Shadi replied.

"Sometimes I wonder." Was the tomb raider's parting shot.

"Why didn't she come out?" Ryou cried all of a sudden. "She could have snapped the ropes and run out but she stayed!"

Bakura rubbed his hikari's back and sighed. Why didn't she untie herself and get out? Why did she stay? It occurred to him the reason why. She wanted to save Marik. She's still as naïve as ever. Thinking that the world is all sugar and lollypops. She tried to hide it with her sarcastic remarks and harsh exterior but she's the same as she was in Egypt. And she died for it… again.

Yami came to the same conclusion as Bakura and said for all of them to hear, "She wanted to save him, even though he threatened her life and those she cared for. She still had to try to save him."

"Tanith was like that." Tea said with a sniff. "She used to try to help me with my homework. Even if she was a month behind on a million-dollar project, Tanith made the time to come over anytime I needed help."

"Remember that science project we were to had done last month?" Joey asked. "I slacked off until the last minute and was madly trying to think of a project to do. I was frantic until Tanith came over haulin' a fish aquarium with an ivy inside."

He stopped and rubbed his eyes, "She said she knew I'd slack off and need her help. So she made me a bio-dome. I got a C thanks to her."

"She taught me how to set a VCR." Yami told everyone solemnly. "And make ramen in the microwave."

"She helped me understand calculus." Tristan added. "And she didn't even finish school."

"Tanith finished school." Bakura informed him. "Right after she took the job with Pegasus, she went and got her GED. She mailed me a copy of her certificate and stuck a smiley face sticker in one corner."

"When she came back, the three of us went out to eat." Ryou murmured. "It was her graduation party and she wanted us there. Just us." He laughed and began crying, "She called us her boys."

Bakura held his light tighter and gently as before, letting the boy cry. She knew she was going to die and she wanted to make sure we lived. Just like before and I couldn't stop it!

"We found a survivor!" a fireman cried.

Tea lifted her head up with a gasp. Isis attempted to run over to the ambulance where the limp body was rushed. Bakura and Ryou jumped to their feet along with Joey and Tristan.

"We have to see who it is!" Isis gasped. Rashid pried her car keys away from her and everyone jumped into the vehicle and followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Seconds passed like minutes. Minutes passed like hours. Hours passed like days. Each of the gathered people in the waiting room took turns pacing. Isis followed by Bakura. Bakura followed by Ryou. Ryou followed by Yami. Yami before Yugi and then Joey and Tristan. Tea even paced as coffee was bought and passed out by Shadi.

Then Pegasus whooshed in and was filled in on the events that passed. Like most everyone else, he prayed the only survivor was the beloved Tanith.

Then a doctor came in.

"Miss Ishtar?"

Hopes were dashed and crying began as Rashid and Isis stood, waiting for the man's next words.

"There's good new and then there is bad news." He began. "Your brother is stable but has elapsed into a coma. We're not able to handle his long-term care here so I advise you to make preparations near your home in Egypt. I'll give you some names of those who can care for him later."

"Thank you Doctor." Isis said quietly. "What room is he in."

The man frowned, "Don't you want to hear about Malik?"

Isis opened her mouth and gave him a puzzled look but Rashid cut her off.

"Of course, how is Master Malik?"

"Unlike his twin, he got out with only a slight concussion and will have to stay over night. He's in room 830 with Miss Rivencroft."

Tears turned to gasps.

"Tanith's alive?!" Bakura exclaimed.

The doctor smiled, "Of course she is. The girl was talking a mile a minute, demanding some morphine for her migraine and a few cuts and scrapes." The doctor frowned, "We were worried about the blood coming from her eyes and mouth. But since the bleeding from her eyes stopped and we stitched up where she bit her tongue, she's been fine."

"Did you give her anything for the pain?" Bakura demanded for all those too shell shocked to speak.

"Yes, some Toradol through an IV."

"What room is she in again?" Ryou asked as everyone jumped to their feet and began talking excitedly. Bakura kept cutting nervous glances at the Millennium Ankt bearer.

"Room 830."

Everyone was gone almost immediately.

**********************************************

"Whose idea was it to stick the two of us in the same room?" Malik demanded glaring at the girl in the next bed. "Was it your dumb idea?"

Tanith was on buzz from the pain medication that dripping into her IV. She looked over at the angry boy next to her and snickered. "At least you don't have to worry about getting arrest for kidnapping, attempted murder, and destruction of property."

"Why did you spout off those lies about how I tied up my twin, which I don't have, and saved you and him and me by shoving us all in a cellar that didn't exist?"

She giggled, "You got a twin now."

"Rivencroft."

"Ishtar." She countered with a laugh. He's fun to play with…

"Answer the question, why did you lie about what happened with you, me and my so called twin?"

"You didn't kidnap me, Marik did and now he can pay for his crimes."

Malik snorted, "What's your game? After all I've done to you and your friends, why?"

"Why? Because I don't hate" Tanith told him. "Hate is an ugly emotion that leads to ugly deeds like war, to destruction and murder. All those lead to sorrow but not only for other but for you as well."

"My hate is what created Marik."

"Explains a lot." She said with a laugh. "So…what made you hate so much to create Marik?"

Malik slid down out of his bed and approached Tanith's. "If I show you…"

"I promise not to make any cracks or tell any one about it."

He took off his shirt and turned around. Tanith gasp filled the silent room.

"What—Who did this to you? How did it …? How old were you when…" she whispered gently running her fingers over the hieroglyphics on Malik's back that spanned across his shoulders down below the waist of his pants.

"The first born son of the Ishtar clan's duty is to bear the Pharaoh's Memory." He told her quietly. "When I was twelve, I had to go through the ritual where the memories were carved onto my back. My father did it."

Everything was quiet until Malik heard the soft sobs of the girl that continued to run her fingers over each design. He turned around and saw Tanith was crying.

She's crying for me, he realized.

"How could a father do that to his own son?" she asked him. "Why didn't your mom stop him?"

Malik went back to his bed and put his shirt on, trying to ignore the girl beside him. She wiped her tears away and sighed, not expecting the answer that followed.

"My mother died when I was born and even if she was alive, she wouldn't have stopped my father. It was my duty."

"So that's why you got so mad when I made those remarks." She smirked and looked over at him. "If it makes you feel better, I just said those things just to tork Marik off enough to try sending me to the Shadow Realm. I didn't mean them."

Before Malik could respond, their friends and family came in. Immediately Isis hugged her brother while Ryou squeezed the life out of Tanith.

"Watch the IV, hikari. I need my pain killers." Tanith wheezed. Ryou laughed and released her long enough for Pegasus to hug her.

While Isis and Rashid spoke to Malik, everyone else spoke to Tanith.

"If you ever pull a stunt like this again, I will personally teach you the meaning of fear!" Bakura threatened as Yugi hugged her.

"Promises, promises." Tanith replied with a laugh.

"You scared everyone when you didn't come out of the building, you know." Shadi told her

She smirked, "Even you, turban boy?"

"Even me."

"Well I'm sorry, but I couldn't leave my stalker and Ishtar." She told them. Isis, Malik and Rashid turned and listened. "Someone, asked me to protect them and I owed this person that."

"Who?" Yugi inquired.

Tanith smirked, "Master Akunadin…that is, his reincarnation." She laughed before continuing. "The guy had a crush on me in a previous life and a part of his son has one now!"

"You talked to our father?" Isis asked as her brother's jaw dropped. Tanith nodded.

"Why yes I did, called himself the Tomb keeper though." She saw Rashid nod and went on, "He left a message with me as well."

"What was it?" Rashid asked the Ishtar siblings silently recovered from shock.

"He said quote 'to tell my sons how sorry I am to have hurt them as I have' "

"Son." Malik corrected. "He only has one, me."

"No, he said sons. Plural, as in two and he wasn't talking about Marik." Tanith retorted. She looked at Rashid in a new light, "He was talking about you."

"Father never acknowledged Rashid as a part of the Tomb Keeper clan." Isis murmured.

"Has now." Tanith replied with a smile and then frowned a bit, "Though I still don't get how he got in contact with me in the first place."

"It's not important. I doubt he'll do it again." Rashid told her.

"Let's hope not." She replied scowling. "I am not playing John Edward with you guys again. On top of it he said he dreamed of me."

Tanith threw up her hands. "I got enough stalker problems without a hung up spook haunting me!"

Some people snickered at that.

"Speaking of stalkers," Tea said. "How did you do it? I mean with Marik."

"I want to know that too." Malik added.

Tanith smiled, "When I was back as Akunadin's apprentice, I was only allowed to learn one spell. Reflect. The guy wanted to make sure that I could at least work some other sort of magic."

She chuckled then sighed, "Anyway, I was planning on just reflecting Marik's own spell back at him thus sending his mind to the Shadow Realm but then I had a little help and that was what separated Marik and Malik. Who it was, only Ra knows. Heck it might have been Ra. I don't know and I don't want to know."

"Good, I don't want you pulling any more yamis from people." Bakura told her. Tanith smiled faintly.

"You sound just like Master."

Bakura looked at her and smirked then muttered, "You have no idea."

Just then, a nurse came in and announced that visiting hours were over. As everyone milled out of the room, Bakura and Tanith shared another secret look.

If he does any thing to you, and I mean any thing, call me. He told her through their link.

Tanith nodded and the tomb robber finally was ushered out of the room.