"Do you want me to do this?"
Yugi shook his head. "No. It's okay, I can do this." He took a deep breath, picked up the phone and slowly dialed.
"What?" was the first thing said on the other end.
"Hi Kaiba." Yugi said, making his voice cheerful and friendly to try and win over his gruff rival.
It didn't work. "What do you want Yugi? Make it fast, I don't have all day to stand around listening to you babble."
Yugi flinched. He'd never totally gotten used to Kaiba's manners – or more importantly his complete lack of any. "I just wanted to ask if Ashelin and I could come over tonight."
Kaiba sounded suspicious. After a long pause he asked, "Why?"
"We need to talk about something."
Kaiba sighed inwardly. "Fine. Just make sure you get to the point and don't try to mess me around with all that destiny garbage." He banged the phone, annoyed at the distraction. Returning to his work he suddenly stopped. What could he want to talk about?
Yugi grimaced as Kaiba slammed the phone down in his ear. He hung up his own phone, shaking his head. "I'm glad that's over." He said, sitting down on the couch in relief.
"So we can go there then?" Ashelin asked.
Yugi nodded. "Kaiba said it's okay. But are you sure we should do this?"
She shrugged. "Not my call. But Asheritu says that it's his by right of destiny, and I gave up arguing with her ages ago." She smiled at him. "No matter how long we fight about something, I always end up doing what she wants anyway. I bet you're not that bad, are you Yami?"
He turned from the window where was standing in his spirit form and smiled. "Me? I'm a model mind-guest." He caught Asheritu's eye and they both started to laugh. It was so infectious that it wasn't long before all four of them were caught up.
Yugi's eyes drifted to Ashelin. She was trying to stop giggling and failing miserably. Then her eyes met his and for some reason, it was at that moment she finally conquered her laughter. Under her stare, Yugi started to feel strangely uncomfortable. He tore his gaze away from her, feeling a blush start to creep over his cheeks. Over Ashelin? "Oh, I just remembered," he said hurriedly, "I- uh have to take Grampa's lunch down to the shop for him."
Once he was gone, Yami shot Asheritu a very thoughtful look that she couldn't meet, so she turned her head away. Even as Yami was going back into the puzzle, realization hit him. "Further complications!" he said to himself. "So that's what she meant. Wish I remembered it."
"What was all that about?" Ashelin asked Asheritu, who was sitting on the floor in her spirit form.
Asheritu suppressed a laugh. "Oh, I'm sure it's nothing." She said as flippantly as she could manage in the circumstances. "If you only knew." She chuckled in the back of her mind.
Kaiba ground his teeth. He knew he would have to ask them sooner or later. "Okay Yugi, what is this all about?"
"Kaiba, we've come to talk to you about the Millennium Rod." Yugi regretted telling Yami that he would handle this. He could see Kaiba getting angrier by the second.
"That destiny nonsense again!" He couldn't believe this. Why did they keep pestering him?
He was about to continue his rant when he heard Asheritu call from the other side of the room. "Catch!"
Out of sheer reflex, Kaiba caught it with one hand. It felt strangely heavy. Only then did he look down at what he was holding – the Millennium Rod. Suddenly, he started to feel very strange. Almost like the top of his head had been opened up and things were being poured in. Power, knowledge, memories. They all flooded into him, giving him all he learned in his past life.
He fell to his knees. "What- what have you done to me?" he gasped.
Asheritu leaned down and pulled him up. "I haven't done anything. It was the Millennium Rod that did that. You were its caretaker for so long, you imprinted your mind onto it. All it did was restore all you had lost."
Yami took over and placed one hand on Asheritu's shoulder. "This must be very hard for him. We should probably leave him to his thoughts."
Kaiba just stood there. Even once Yami and Asheritu had left, he didn't move. He couldn't. All those memories seemed so real, but how could they be? "If they are real, then that means Yugi was right. And if he is right, what am I supposed to do now?" he thought, looking down numbly at the Millennium Rod. "What am I supposed to do?"
Asheritu's eyes opened slowly, it felt like they were glued together. She went to push the hair off her face, but found she couldn't move her arms. Finally she could see again. Namely, she could see that she was strapped down in a chair suspended over a pool of water.
Beginning to struggle, she heard laughter above her, high and cruel. "What's the matter? Don't you like your accommodations?" said the voice from above her.
"Who are you and what do you want!" she shouted.
"Me? I am only a humble servant of the true pharaoh. And all I want is to make you happy." He laughed again. "We know you wouldn't want to be without your precious pretender so when he arrives at the gates of death, you will be there waiting for him." He pushed a button on the wall next to him that started the chair on it's decent down to the depths and left, still laughing horribly.
As the water slowly came up to meet her, she struggled, trying desperately to free herself, but it was no use. She didn't even have her key with her; they had hung it on the wall across from her – to torment her.
As the water moved up over her eyes she thought one word. "Goodbye."
She bolted upright suddenly as if she really had been drowning. "Why won't that stop haunting me?" A sob from the other side of her spirit room made her turn.
"So that's what happened." Ashelin was standing at the doorway that connected their minds, tears in her eyes. "And that's what going to happen to me." She ran into her own spirit room, slamming the door behind her as she went.
Asheritu bolted to the door as it shut, but was too late and got locked out. "Ashelin? Ashelin let me in!" she shouted, banging her fist on the door.
"No!" Came the muffled answer from the other side. "Never! Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were friends!"
Asheritu leaned her head against the cold stone, her heart breaking. "I had no choice. You weren't supposed to know what was coming."
"Oh that's really nice!" Ashelin said heatedly. "Just leave me in the dark so that I'll die like a good little pawn. I don't even matter to you, do I? No way am I coming out now!"
A/N: Uh-oh spagetti-ohs! Let me know what you guys think of the newest plot twist in this little can of worms that I unknowingly opened.
