Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh isn't mine. If it was, I'd be as rich as Seto Kaiba himself. (Well, probably not, but you get the idea…)

Author's Note: This chapter's a bit shorter than the others, but only because I feel it would wreck the flow of the chapter if I try to add more in. this is the way I like it, and it has a plot point I needed to keep. And thanks go to all my reviewers who motivate me to write this story.

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Chapter 4: Past, Present and Future

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Neith gazed sympathetically at Isis, and as Neith watched the veiled woman gazed back. Walking over to a large jar in the corner, Neith then plucked a small lacquered jar off the side and dipped it into the deep red liquid. She then walked back over to the bed, handing Isis the small lacquered pot.

"Here, have a drink. It may calm your nerves," she offered.

"Thank you," Isis replied, taking the vessel. "These visions. They keep on repeating. It's… How can I put it?"

Isis then searchingly looked up at Neith, clasping the jar in her hands, and Neith found herself growing uncomfortable.

Why does she look so worried? she wondered.

The black-haired priestess had a concerned tone in her voice and had come so far as to visit her in her temple quarters. Why was she here and not with the Per A'a? Isis was a mysteriously quiet woman unless she had something to say. And what was with this vision? Neith glanced at Isis, her head hidden within that white linen veil.

"Neith, I know it sounds strange coming from me, but you're not interested in Set, are you?" Isis asked her, unobtrusively. "Is he the kind of man who will make you happy?"

Neith froze, her eyes wide.

"Him and me? Don't tell me that was what you saw. Of all the preposterous! Isis, Set is nothing more than an arrogant, remote young man who has that Rod of his shoved so far up his backside that it's amazing the sun hasn't disappeared. No, he's not the one for me. Really!" Neith seated herself down in the chair, feeling a pair of eyes upon her.

"You know, they say that hate can turn to love. To go on about him as you just did shows that you at least have some emotion towards the matter," Isis replied mysteriously. Neith understood perfectly well the Priestess's argument. But that did not mean she agreed with it.

"Don't say that. I respect you, Isis. Please don't make me lose that respect. Gods above, I feel sick at the thought," she replied.

Neith then saw Isis smirking to herself over her jar of wine.

"Neith, even the Per A'a notices that the two of you don't argue as much as you used to. You even bathed together. Does that mean nothing for you?" Isis queried.

Neith swiftly raised her head.

"I'll have you know that he walked in on me!" she protested.

Neith then realised that her cheeks were burning red, or rather that she was thinking of that arrogant Set again, her heart suddenly beating faster. Her cheeks puffed up, but then she sighed and breathed out, feeling somewhat strange. Set may be arrogant and harsh towards his servants, but he was also mysterious. Like Isis, but in a different way. It was something she could not easily describe.

"I wanted him to go, but..." she began to say.

The young priestess could feel something grow within her, the alien feelings she felt towards Set out of place with how she currently felt about him. It was auspicious that he was not here to hear this conversation. If Set were, she would find it very hard to explain herself without her tongue twisting into knots. The blue-eyed brunette had come remarkably close to her in the lake, too close. They had been so close they were almost pressed together. She had felt his warmth, and she would have fainted into the water if his arms had –

"Isis. Don't look at me like that! You're scaring me," she announced, noticing the priestess's gaze.

"Very well. Let me show you what I saw. Maybe you shall come to understand..."

The Priestess raised her hands to her Tauk, there was a flash of golden light, and then all was black.

-o-

Darkness.

That was the first thought that flew into Neith's mind as she found herself transported into Isis's vision. The dark mist permeated every nook and cranny as she stepped forwards. It was a totally different sight to the room she had been in only a moment ago, and the danger that hung in the air had her worried.

It smelt of death.

Rubble littered the cracked floor, and Neith walked further inside the ruined palace, silently followed by Isis. The very structure and design of the palace was like the Per A'a's house in Waset, even down to the carvings and inscriptions upon a battered pillar. Just what had happened? She then walked up to the duel stage, the golden point she wore around her neck glowing faintly. Her mind told her that such a thing could not happen, that the Per A'a would fall; except she also had a sense that something was amiss. The Tauk Isis wore had never been wrong yet.

"What kind of vision is this?" Neith turned and stared at Isis as the Priestess stepped forwards and gazed around at the devastation before facing her. "The palace is… What has this got to do with me?"

"It is of a future that can come to pass. It has nothing, and yet everything to do with you. Now watch," Isis replied with conviction. The Priestess at times was quite infuriating.

But now was not the time to argue.

Neith silently waited, gazing around at the scene as she suddenly heard a light pair of footsteps approaching her through the darkness. She twirled around; her senses were on high alert as a woman passed her, her face shielded by a veil.

The woman hadn't even noticed her, more focused on a small bundle held protectively against her chest. Neith wondered why the woman was alone in a place like this, and she wondered what this woman was holding. She took a closer look, her eyes widening when she saw just whom the woman was. The way she carried herself, the light brown hair…she looked exactly like her. Except this Neith's eyes were a lot more sorrowful, as if they had been through the wars.

"Oh my Gods!" She caught a look of what lay inside the fabric, and was surprised to see the face of a young baby.

Does that mean that I'll…?

"Is that…?" she enquired breathlessly. The young woman did not seem to notice her as she quietly walked on by, cooing to her bundle.

"Yes. That is your future self. However, that is not all I have to show you." Neith looked at Isis and followed the Priestess's gaze as Isis turned her head.

Neith watched on confusedly as the other Neith fell quiet and ascended the steps, a shadowy figure walking out of the gloom to the side of the throne. A familiar air of superiority surrounded the man as he smirked and seated himself on the empty throne, taking the hand of the other her. A very familiar man. Neith had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she walked up closer and saw just who had dared to put himself on the Per A'a's throne.

She then stepped back in shock.

This could not be happening! It could not happen!

Set!

-o-

"Priestess, are you feeling alright? You don't look so good."

Neith walked in front of the older priest, who had worked alongside her father, and as she did she found her mind being occupied by other matters besides those of State. The morning after Isis' visit, she was fraught with worry about the woman's vision. Gazing up at the clear blue sky, she thought about the absurdity of it all.

It won't happen. It can't happen. I hate him! He's obnoxious, arrogant…she thought.

"I'm fine. So stop asking me," she then added, replying to the old priest.

"You know, your father had the same problem of admitting his feelings to others. But perhaps I am poking my nose in a place it doesn't belong." The priest looked up at Neith with his wizened face, noticing her tense posture, and Neith could sense there was something else he wished to ask. "How is – "

Neith folded her arms.

"Watch your tongue."

She then strode ahead of the old man and headed towards a group that had gathered in preparation to leave. Isis was standing next to a horse, close to the Per A'a himself; Atemu, a young boy who was managing to come to terms with the life he now had to lead. Atemu was talking to Mahaado, who she had not seen for a long time. To one side on his own, a tall, thin man, dressed in white and blue, was watching them all silently. He was...

"Is something troubling you, Priestess?" Set asked.

"What? I, oh… Not at all, Hem Ntjr," she replied.

"Then stop staring," Set responded coldy.

Neith looked away as Set glared at her and noticed that the silent, mysterious Isis had been quietly watching their exchange. A glance was exchanged between the two of them, one that immediately caught Set's attention. Something told Neith that this was only the beginning of the matter.

-o-