Yami Yami Yugi: I'm so sorry! I'm a horrible horrible author and you guys are wonderful wonderful reviewers. (sob) I don't deserve you! I go off and ditch a story and here you guys are waiting patiently and… Wah! I'm sorry!

Yugi: (backs away slowly) But anyway, we're keeping the same title for a bit longer until we are rediscovered again. So maybe another chapter or two until we officially change the name

Jou: And we are also getting back into the short authors notes after the three page ones we've had in the past.

YYY: (Calm again) So without any more distractions, here is the next chapter of Magic of Love a.k.a. Chosen Four!

Disclaimer: The creator and former legal owner of Yu-Gi-Oh died in a freak schnauzer incident last night and in his last will and testament left me as the owner of his creation. Then I woke up and realized that he was not attacked by a dog and I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. (BUT THAT DOESN"T MEAN I'm NOT TRYING!)

Chapter Fourteen

"Now that we have all of the item holders assembled," Yami said a few moments later, "It's time that we fill everyone in on what that means." He took a quick look at everyone seated at the table before continuing. "Seto, Isis, and I have been brought up with this information, and we were meant to pass it on to all of you once we had all seven assembled."

He nodded at Seto who took over.

"The first order of business is the simplest, sort of. You see, the top floor of the palace has seven rooms that are said to have been created by the gods themselves. Each of them was, obviously, made for each of the holders of the Millennium Items. The rooms were each fitted with enchanted doors that would only open for the owner of that specific item or for the owner of the Puzzle, as it has power over all the others. Whenever a new generation of priests began, the doors would no longer open to the former owners, but instead remain locked until the next owner of that item came around.

"What makes this so important is that, from what we understand about our current priests, this time the holders of the Millennium items match the description in the prophecy."

At this, Yugi's ears suddenly perked up. 'Prophecy?'

"Prophecy?" Bakura asked out loud.

Seto looked at Isis who nodded and put her hands up to either side of her Millennium Necklace. It glowed and she began to recite in a distant voice:

"Within the great kingdom

A great evil shall arise

Its target: the seven

The King, the Priestess, the Priest, the Child,

The Foreigner, the Thief, the Student.

Powers unmatched

It will use all means to destroy them

Even the power of the gods.

War will wage

Tides will turn

A once peaceful land thrown into chaos.

Families torn

Friendships betrayed

Lovers forgotten

And the ultimate sacrifice will be made

The day of destruction is near."

The Necklace stopped glowing and Isis opened her eyes.

"Each of those seven doors is inscribed with the exact same prophecy. If you were paying attention, you would be able to figure out that the King is obviously Yami, Seto is the Priest, I'm the Priestess, Mokuba is the child, Shadi is the foreigner, Bakura is the thief, and Ishtar would be the student."

"And you've never had a group of priests that matched the prophecy," Bakura asked, "which by the way sounds like the world is doomed to destruction."

"No, we haven't," Yami said. "And although it might seem a bit on the doom and gloom side, it's a message that has been given to us by the gods. And now that we have assembled the seven priests in the prophecy, there is no doubt that it will soon come to pass."

"So, you're saying that we really are doomed then?" Ishtar asked, looking annoyed.

"Not necessarily," a new voice piped up. Everyone turned to the young raven haired boy who was now rearranging himself to a standing position on his chair so that everyone could see him. "You see, this was given to us as not as much of a message, but as more of a warning. The point is to know what is going to happen, and then stop it. The problem is that this has been in the hands of the royals for generations, but the priests always put it off, saying to worry about it when it happened. But now it is happening and we are the ones that have to stop it, with no clues as to where to begin."

"Exactly! Thank you Mokuba." Mokuba grinned and returned to sitting on his chair rather than standing on it.

The meeting went on and they discussed, well, okay they argued with Bakura and Ishtar about the things they could and couldn't do. If anything, it was a great display of how far they could push each other before someone lunged over the table intent on strangling the other.

There was one subject Ishtar refused to budge on, though. He was not putting the Millennium eye in his eye socket. There was no reasoning with him. So they were just going to have to make due with hanging it on a chain like some of the others. (How they got it on a chain, however, is a whole other story.)

Eventually they made it into the topic everyone was most interested in: the four slaves.

"So we still have not come to a conclusion," Yami said, "about what to do with you four." Everyone turned to the four slaves who, up until now, had been sitting quietly in the background. He continued, "But before we come to conclusion for you, I would like to know a little more about what we're dealing with."

Everyone looked expectantly at the four boys, who each had the same uncertain looks on their faces. Yami, seeing this, sighed. "I know we've been through all this before, but you have to understand. Someone is after you four. We need to know why or we won't be able to help you. So please, tell us what we need to know."

He wasn't demanding or even really asking them. He was borderline begging them to tell their story. It wasn't something that was easy for a Pharaoh to do, beg a slave for something, especially in front of other people. But he was, and it was genuinely because he wanted to help. Yugi must have seen this because he stood up and started to talk, although somewhat hesitantly.

"Okay, we each have our own special powers. You know this much already. We've had them pretty much all our lives. We all have decks and we all have powers that correspond to a specific element." He stopped there and glanced at his friends, requesting backup. They nodded and he continued.

"I control the element of earth and that gives me the power to control anything like plants and things, I'm telepathic and telekinetic."

Jounouchi stood up. "I control the element of water so I can create and manipulate water, and I can transfigure and teleport things."

Malik stood up next. "I control the element of fire so I can create and manipulate flames, and I can turn invisible and shape-shift."

Finally Ryou stood. "I control the element of wind and that lets me control the air currents around me, and I can also control and alter minds and memories and have healing powers."

Yami nodded. "You said you have healing powers. What about the rest of you? Can you heal yourselves if you're badly injured, or not?" They shook their heads.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "So that still doesn't explain why Yugi and Jounouchi were uninjured this morning," he mumbled, more to himself than anything.

"Umm… actually…" He looked up at Ryou. "I sort of… snuckintoyourroomlastnightandhealedthemandranawaybeforeanyonenoticed," he said quickly.

Yugi looked at Ryou. :Since when can you…:

:Last night Bakura and Ishtar removed our seals:

"So it was you?" Yami asked.

"Yes."

He nodded. 'Thank you,' he thought to himself, not knowing that Yugi was listening in.

:He says "thanks": he told Ryou telepathically, who smiled.

"Is there anything else?"

While the others looked like they were unsure about something, Yugi immediately shook his head. "No, there isn't anything else."

With the meeting over, everyone returned to their own respective rooms, with more questions swimming through their heads than before. Most of their thoughts included some version of "Why are two thieves chosen to be Item Holders?" "Who is after those four Slaves?" "Egypt is doomed if these nut jobs are the ones running it!" and in Ishtar and Bakura's case, "Damn! This is my room?"

Bakura walked into his room in awe. Everything was pretty much made with that weird black stone and emeralds. This room was covered with black and green and was probably one of the richest places in the palace. There were dressers and couches and this huge bed and a bathing area and a balcony…

And Bakura was running around looking at everything like an excited kid. Ishtar was doing the same in his room (although everything was brown and yellow and made of a brownish stone and topaz.) He ran out to the balcony and leaned over. They were so high up and the view was amazing. The people down there looked like ants.

"Hi Ishtar!" came a voice. He looked to his right and a distance away Bakura was waving to his from his balcony.

"Hey Bakura!" He shouted back at him, leaning over the railing slightly, as if being two inches closer would let him hear better.

But at that moment they were both simultaneously pulled back by the back of the robes by their slaves who had annoyed looks on their faces. Although they couldn't see each other, Malik and Ryou both had the look of an exasperated mother and sounded like one as they both said, "Don't lean over the edge. You could fall over and die."

Bakura released himself from his grip and looked down at his slave. "Who are you to order me around? I'm your master now and I give the orders. I'm one of the Pharaoh's priests, I have super cool magic powers, and most of all: I'm bigger than you."

Ryou smiled and turned around, waving him off. "Okay, you keep telling yourself that."

"What was that? Hey, you listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

"I'm listening," he said turning around. Everything about his exterior said he was being completely obedient and docile, just like a slave was supposed to be. Even his voice wasn't defiant anymore. But there was just something… His eyes had this weird spark in them that said he was just playing with him. Bakura growled.

"Stop that!" Ryou blinked up at him and Bakura moved in closer. That look was still there. It was like he was laughing at him. Daring him to prove himself. "I said stop it!" He had him backed against the wall now.

"But I'm not…"

"Shut up!"

Ryou started to say something but was silenced by Bakura's lips over his. His eyes widened but slowly closed as the kiss became deeper. He didn't have any clue of what just happened, but it was kind of nice.

Meanwhile, Malik and Ishtar were having a similar encounter.

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more!"

Well, sort of.

Ishtar was also faced with a strange defiance from Malik, but rather than silencing him with a kiss, he choose to tackle his slave to the ground. Now they were in a little wrestling match that neither of them was giving up.

"What is your problem?" Malik yelled at him, pinning him to the ground.

"You! What else?" Ishtar shouted back, flipping him over so he was on top.

"Oh yeah, well," he kicked him off. "I don't think I did anything."

"Well, I beg to differ!" he tackled him back onto the ground and pinned his wrists.

"Well I don't care if you are my master! You can go drown yourself in the Nile for all I care!" He twisted himself out of his grasp and rolled out from under him.

"Oh yeah, well you can just go jump off a building for all I care!"

Malik paused for a moment and glared at him. "Fine then, I will."

He stood up and walked to the balcony.

"What are you doing?" Ishtar asked skepticly.

Without a word he swung his legs over the railing and jumped.

"Hey!" Ishtar scrambled to his feet and ran to the balcony.

He jumped? Why the hell did he do that? He looked over the edge. It was a pretty long way down. He stared down, eyes wide. There's no way he could have survived that…

"Hi," came a cheerful voice from behind him.

He whirled around to see Malik standing in front of him, looking like absolutely nothing had happened. Ishtar blinked stupidly at him.

"How did you…I just…you just…"

"I'm a shape-shifter, remember? I turned into a bird and flew back up."

Ishtar stared at him before regaining his senses. He glared at the smiling boy and shoved him to the side where he fell back onto one of the couches. "Stay here!" he shouted before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Malik's smile faded as the stared at the shut door. He wanted to make him mad, not make him leave. And now he was gone.

He sighed and stretched out on the couch. This was no fun. He liked Ishtar. He was fun to mess with. And he wasn't too bad to look at either.

He sighed and rolled over onto his stomach. Okay, he'd admit it; he had developed a bit of a crush. There wasn't anything wrong with that. And it's not like he thought of him as his one true love that he was meant to be with for the rest of his life.

In all honestly, he thought of him as more of… a target.

Once again, he was left alone. Yugi absentmindedly swung his legs over the side of the side of the bed. Yami was always leaving for one reason or another. He couldn't blame him. He was Pharaoh after all, and it was a big job ruling a country.

Besides, it gave him plenty of free time to think. And considering what too place that morning, this was a good thing.

It had been a very eventful…week, actually. He hadn't had so much excitement in his entire life, but a lot of it he could have lived without.

But what bugged him the most was that prophecy that they had mentioned at the meeting.

'Was that it?'

He summoned up the piece of paper he was using a few nights ago and read what he had written down.

'Was that the first part to -my- prophecy?'

YYY: DunDunDun… I betcha nobody saw that coming.

Yugi: Okay, so we finally come back and leave the readers with a cliffhanger. Is that really fair?

Jou: Probably not. But this is it. Anymore and they'll have to wait three more months.

YYY: Yeah, again I'm really sorry about that. You guys are so great and I'm a bad bad person. So I'm going to go see a shrink and see you next chapter.

(No promises of when it'll be out though. I might jinx it.)