Soul Battle

Chapter Eight – Conversations

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Yu-Gi-Oh, and I'm not making any money from this fic

Author's Note: Whew! Chapter eight already. I would have gotten bored by now with most fics

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Kyla read through the notes she had taken that morning, trying to memorise something of them for the test next week.

"So... Any new cuts or bruises?" Nia asked Kyla.

Kyla looked up. "Huh?"

"I said... Do you have any new cuts or bruises?" Nia wanted to know. "You know, from your foster father."

"Um, it was only yesterday that I told you," Kyla replied.

"So?" Nia said. "A lot can happen in one day, you know."

Don't I know it, Kyla thought to herself. But, outwardly, she merely shrugged, and returned to studying her notes.

"Will you please stop looking at those?" Nia asked. "I want to ask you something."

"But we have a test next week," Kyla replied.

"Yes, but you can study for it when you're at home..." Nia began. Then, she frowned. "Oh, no. I guess you can't."

I wouldn't start pushing Nia away again now, Nareen's voice said in Kyla's mind.

I'm not! Kyla protested.

If you say so.

Kyla sighed inwardly, then raised her eyes from her notes and looked at Nia. "What was it you wanted to ask?" she wanted to know.

"I want to know if you really care about Ryou," Nia answered.

Oh, no, Kyla thought. Why'd Nia have to ask that?

What's wrong? Nareen demanded. You do care about Ryou... Don't you?

That's hardly the point! Kyla snapped.

She already knows that you care about him, Nareen replied. All you'll be doing is confirming that you do. Is that so difficult?

I guess not, Kyla grumbled. She looked at Nia, and bit her lip slightly, wondering how she was going to answer Nia's question.

"Well?" Nia said.

Kyla gave a slight shrug. "All right, I do," she replied.

"I knew it!" Nia exclaimed.

"Don't let it go to your head," Kyla retorted. "You were right. So what?"

"So... You have a yami?" Nia asked suddenly.

Kyla stared at Nia. "What?" she demanded.

"Well, I assume you do have one," Nia answered calmly. "I have one. And I'm still annoyed with you for making me feel like I was going insane."

Kyla looked down. "Sorry," she muttered, feeling guilty.

"It's all right," Nia replied promptly. "You're forgiven."

Forgiven, Kyla thought to herself. I hope that Ryou will be able to forgive me when he returns. For everything I put him through. Out loud, she said, "What do you think Riana meant when she said that Ina was below Yami's station?"

"Probably because Yami was the Pharaoh and Ina was just an ordinary noblewoman," was Nia's response.

"Do you suppose that Riana may have wanted Yami for herself?" Kyla wanted to know.

The cow! Nareen's voice echoed in Kyla's mind. She'd better not have! From the look on Nia's face, Kyla guessed that her yami had reacted in much the same way.

"What did happen to Riana, anyway?" Nia wondered. "She can't have succeeded in her plan... Otherwise, we'd be seeing more evidence of her around."

"I have no idea," Kyla replied. What do you think? she silently asked her yami.

I don't know either, Nareen answered. But I think that Nia's right. If Riana had succeeded in her plan, it would be obvious.

"Nareen doesn't know," Kyla told Nia.

Nia grimaced slightly. "Neither does Ina," she said. "Riana must have been stopped somehow... But how? And who by?"

Kyla just shrugged. "We're not likely to find out the answers to those questions," she said. "Not yet, at least."

Nia nodded slowly. "Kyla, what are you going to do about your foster parents?" she wanted to know. "You can't let them keep abusing you like this."

"They're not abusing me!" Kyla protested. "They aren't raping me. Besides, I deserve most of it."

Nia's eyes flashed angrily. "Is that really what you believe?" she demanded. "There's more than one form of abuse, Kyla. And from what I've seen, even if you did deserve to be punished for something, which I highly doubt, you did not deserve to have that much done to you."

She has a point, Nareen's voice said in Kyla's mind.

Oh, be quiet, Kyla replied.

Kyla folded her arms, and glared at Nia.

"Let me guess," Nia said. "Your yami agrees with me."

"We seem to have accepted this pretty quickly," Kyla muttered.

"Speak for yourself," Nia laughed. "I freaked out the first time Ina spoke to me... And those dream-memories really disturbed me the first couple of times I had them. I was sure that I was going crazy."

"I was convinced that I was going mad when Nareen first spoke to me," Kyla admitted. "I'd already dreamt about her... But I thought that was all it was. A dream."

"Poor thing," Nia commented, a sympathetic look in her eyes. "Why don't you talk to anyone about anything, Kyla? I'd listen to you, and so would Ryou. Neither of us would have thought that you were mad."

Kyla looked down, and shifted uncomfortably. "I've gotten used to keeping things to myself," she mumbled. "Ok, maybe it is unhealthy... But I've learned to only rely on myself."

"You don't have to rely only on yourself any more," Nia told her friend with a smile. "You have me... And, when he returns, you'll have Ryou, too."

Kyla gave a slightly bitter smile. "How can I still have Ryou after the way I treated him?" she asked.

"Ryou cares deeply about you," Nia answered. "He loves you. Why else do you think he's stayed with you this whole time, and left only because of his friends?"

Kyla looked down again, biting her lip. Despite what Nia said, she didn't believe that she would still have Ryou's friendship, let alone his love, when he finally returned from Duelist Kingdom.

If he finally returns, Kyla thought to herself, fingering her necklace.

"Don't look now, Kyla," Nia said in a low voice. "But someone's watching us."

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