Please Read and Review: I really love hearing from people reading the story, and I'd like to know what you think, and where you think it's going.

NOTE ON AUTHOR'S NOTES: Author's Notes necessary for the understanding, and hopefully, the enjoyment of the chapters are at the beginning. The Author's Notes at the end (where they can be easily avoided) are for my somewhat stream-of-conciousness thought on all things Yugioh.

NAME NOTE: Although I've used Seto exclusively, so far, to refer to the 13 year-old Seto Kaiba, I really couldn't see Shadi referring to the 19 year-old version as "Kaiba", since he knew him as Seto in Egypt. So when Shadi uses the name "Seto" he's referring to the 18 year old Seto Kaiba.

SHADI NOTE: I've noted that although Shadi appears and disappears, he can also manipulate solid objects. He ties ropes in the manga; he helps keep Honda and Otogi from falling off the blimp in the subtitled DVD. So my own personal take on it – and the one I'm going with in this story – is that although he can travel through walls (not to mention through time), once he appears somewhere – he's solid, and can interact with people and things.

ANIME REMINDER: In the DOMA arc, during a duel with Rafael, Yami is given a card that will bring out his dark (as in evil) side. Despite Yugi's objections, Yami is convinced that he will be able to control the card, and that it is the only way to win the duel and save and his friends. Of course playing the card seals his defeat. Since this was a kind of Shadow Game, his soul was supposed to be sealed in a stone tile as a punishment for losing. But Yugi pushes him out of the way and allows his own soul to be trapped instead – leaving a guilt-ridden and grief-stricken Yami in sole possession of their body.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I finished Chapter 6 early, so I'm posting them at the same time. Additional Author's Notes and Responses are at the end of Chapter 6.

CHAPTER 5: THE PHANTOM MENACE

YAMI'S POV

Seto entered the house, an 8 year-old Mokuba in his arms. He was far too heavy for a 13 year-old to carry, but one look at Seto's grip convinced me he wouldn't relinquish his brother to anyone – even his older self. And Kaiba had his arms full of his own Mokuba.

It was hard to tell if the older Mokuba was actually too tired to walk, or was feigning sleepiness in response to his older brother's unspoken need for a Mokuba of his own to hold on to. The one thing I was sure of, had always been sure of, was that their relationship was as intense and intricate as Yugi's and my own. And it had just been squared.

"Kaiba – we need to talk," I called out, as he swept past me.

"Mokuba's eight. He's hungry and he's had a long day. I want to make sure he feels at home. And this one's probably hungry again, too," he said with a nod towards the boy in his arms. "When I'm done with them, we can talk."

I heard Yugi's voice in my head. "Why wouldn't he feel at home? This is his home."

"I suppose it depends on why they were out on the streets of Domino in the first place," I replied.

"Besides," Kaiba said. "If you're still here, you must want something. So I'm willing to bet, you'll wait a little longer."

As if he hadn't just insulted me, he continued, "So what am I supposed to call you, now?"

"Yami," I replied.

"Darkness."Kaiba tasted the word on his tongue. "It suits you," he said as he left.

As soon as he had disappeared into his house, Shadi appeared at my side. "Is he mad to talk to you so disrespectfully? You are his pharaoh!"

"Not anymore. He may be the reincarnation of my high priest – and your friend – but Seto Kaiba is truly his own person."

SHADI'S POV

As he entered the room, Kouma waved at me, smiling. Instantly, Seto's gaze sharpened. He frowned in recognition; as if some errant memory had surfaced. I studied my old friend, in this new guise – and was unprepared for the blind fury in his eyes, as he raised them to mine.

"So, it's the phantom," he said.

He caught me off guard. His first strike snapped my head back. His second had me doubled over, clutching my stomach. I should have remembered how deceptive he could be. Punishing as they were, the blows had been feints. As I started to straighten, he grabbed my robes, stepped back into me and threw me over his shoulder. He had timed the throw so instead of falling harmlessly to the floor, I flew across the room to crash into the wall.

"You seem solid enough, now," he remarked as I got to my feet. His 13 year-old self was looking at him with approval; waiting for him to continue.

"Kaiba!" Yami called. It was all he said, but it stopped Seto in his tracks.

"A man who walks through walls, and can… bend time. Let's just say, I've finally put two and two together… and it equals five years."

"How did you know he could walk through walls?" Jounouchi demanded.

"The security cameras at the Battle Ship caught him," he said disinterestedly.

"Why didn't you say something?" Anzu asked, curiously.

"At the time, it seemed… immaterial." He smirked at his own pun.

"Wait a minute, you sick bastard," Jounouchi yelled. "You had cameras on us?"

"Only in the public places. Believe me, I had no interest in whatever you were getting up to in your bedrooms." He turned to Anzu, "Although I admit to a faint curiosity over what you and Isis were planning to do with Rishid's unconscious body when you started playing musical rooms with him. I didn't know you liked them half-dead."

In the stir that followed, I realized what my pharaoh had been trying to tell me. This was not my old friend. The Seto I knew had been difficult; had been driven to prove himself to the man he called his mentor, and to his pharaoh. It had led him to many reckless acts. But he had been able to function, within the limits of his personality, as part of a team. These were the people closest to him, now – his allies. And within five minutes, he had deliberately alienated everyone in the room. Everyone, except my pharaoh – who was regarding him with a weary patience.

I understood now. I had been endlessly reborn, with my original memories mainly intact. But Seto had been truly reborn anew and shaped by different winds. He was as driven as I; as driven as he had ever been – but his purposes were obscure. My fingers twitched at my side. I wondered how long it would be until I was driven to use my key; to explore the mind of the stranger who had been my friend.

YAMI'S POV

We were sitting around a conference table, Kaiba clearly putting our visit in the "business," rather than pleasure, category. The two pairs of brothers were diagonally across from each other. Kouma was in Seto's lap, dozing. Mokuba was next to Kaiba. Seto had not spoken since entering the room. Kaiba had been equally silent, since the fight. They seemed to be ignoring each other… except for the quick, speculative glances that occasionally flew across the table. Their looks were not hostile – but they were challenging… assessing – and they added to the tension.

My mind started to wander as Shadi summed up the situation. Not much had changed. He was fairly sure that Akunadin would be able to follow Seto to this timeline. But he couldn't just grab the items and deliver them to his master, Zork Necropolis; the being to whom he had sold his soul 3,000 years ago. These were Sennen Items. He needed to be given them – or to win them in a duel from their legitimate owners. And that gave us the opportunity to claim his versions for ourselves.

Seto, as the reincarnation of my high priest, had wielded the Rod. Strange as it seemed, he had also inherited the right to the Eye from his father, Akunadin, himself. I wondered if the gods were fond of irony.

Shadi had stressed that the Kaibas' stay in the future was temporary. Once we had defeated Akunadin and reunited the items, Seto and Mokuba had to go back to their own time… to their old lives. It was the only way to seal Akunadin and Zork in their prison; to preserve our timeline unchanged. It was a piece of information that the younger Seto Kaiba received in stony silence.

Shadi stressed that if we were successful, the younger Kaibas would not even remember that any of this had happened. Kaiba's face darkened at the reminder. Shadi looked at him. "Nothing is written in stone," he said. We are in the present now, and events have to play themselves out, as they will. The ending can still change. Zork and Akunadin can still win… if we allow it."

Kaiba didn't react. In fact, he didn't seem to be paying much more attention than I was. Oh, I was sure that he had grasped all the salient points, but he was too busy brooding on the failure of whatever plan Shadi had ruined five years ago. Yet as I looked at Kaiba, I was sure that the two were related.

It was good to see him again.

There had always been a connection between us, a bond that had grown deeper with each duel. I could not erase the memory of running side by side with Kaiba, as though that was the way we were meant to be. I had been aware of the world only through the prism of Yugi's thoughts and feelings. Now my own came rushing in on me, and I realized that the feel of Kaiba was the one that I most wanted to explore. For all that I loved Yugi; for all that we had shared a body… my heart had never danced as it did when I looked on Kaiba's proud face. It was as though I had come into my own body, my own soul… only to be drawn to his.

And for all that we were rivals, or maybe because of it, I felt comfortable with him, as I did with no one else, not even Yugi anymore, since my betrayal. I had surrendered to my own darkness in my battle with Rafael; had kept the name Yami, partly to remind myself of my own weakness. And now I was living with Yugi's forgiveness, following the road Kaiba had walked ahead of me.

I had almost killed him at Pegasus's Tower. Yugi's friends had explained it away; had ignored it by focusing on Kaiba's "cheating." But Kaiba himself had both understood, and I think, approved. And his matter-of-fact acceptance of the darkness in my nature, in my name, made me feel a kinship with him, as if we were still the cousins we had been in the distant past that now seemed to be resurrecting itself.

Shadi had finished his explanations. The meeting had broken up with a laugh as Jounouchi had said, "Oh man, you mean the fate of the world depends on Kaiba doing the right thing?"

Fortunately, Kaiba had ignored Jounouchi, as he had ignored everything going on around him. He turned his attention to what had possibly been concerning him the whole time – where his unexpected guests were going to sleep. I wondered at his preoccupation, until I realized that he was trying, and failing, to find a room in that large mansion without unpleasant associations. He finally put them together in Mokuba's room, which connected to his. I supposed that Mokuba would be rooming with him. Clearly they needed to be together as much as their younger counterparts.

He went upstairs to sort it all out. I found myself standing next to the older Mokuba, as we waited for the limo that was to take the rest of us home. He smiled up at me impishly, all sleepiness gone… suddenly looking as young as the eight year-old version.

"He never responded, but he reads your e-mail at least once a day, you know. I checked the number of times he's opened it."

I smiled at him, suddenly warmed by more than the summer air.