Notes: So I'm still having a good time with this AU. Thank you so much to everybody who's favorited, alerted, and commented!

With the Voltage Running through her Skin

Was she dead? She didn't feel dead. She'd never been dead before; she didn't know what it felt like. But she didn't think it felt like this, her heart beating wildly against her ribs, rain dripping on her head, cold stone under her hands. This felt like close to dead. She knew close to dead. Close to dead was not dead.

But if she wasn't dead, what happened? One moment, she was facing that horrible old man. Their souls clashed and she was winning. Her dragon soared through the clouds where the other creature's attacks couldn't hope to reach. Then the creature turned its attention to her priest. And the dragon dove. It wasn't fast enough. She shoved him out of the way.

The next thing she knew, she was flung into a ruin on top of some man. He felt too solid to be a dying hallucination. Sure, he looked a little like Seth, but they weren't the same. And there were other people she didn't recognize.

A man with many colored hair, spiked in all directions. Another with white hair, like hers. A woman in a bright yellow cloak. Two more men. And they were all staring right at her.

Her fingers curled on the ledge as she watched them for any clue about what happened or where she was. There was an altar at the end of the hall, with braziers and scattered scrolls and cloying incense. Was that a dead body next to it? In her experience, those were not good signs.

Were they planning on sacrificing her or were the lizards good enough?

No matter. She could get away from six people. Run across the ledge. Jump down. Disappear into the forest. Climb up a tree. They'd never catch her. If they couldn't climb a pillar with excellent handholds, they couldn't climb a tree.

She started up the carving when the short man with spiky hair took a few cautious steps towards her, then tried to say something. She didn't understand their language, but she paused. After a few moments, he tried again.

"We are not…looking to cause you harm." He spoke slowly, pausing every couple of syllables, sometimes changing words half way through, with a heavy accent and an aristocratic tone. It appeared she was not getting away from the nobility any time soon. "We would be honored if you were to be our friend."

Although it was easier to climb up the carvings and onto the roof, she leaned a little further over the edge. She didn't trust him, but nobody was throwing rocks at her yet.

She watched while they had a discussion amongst themselves. Slowly, the tall man hauled himself to his feet and looked everywhere but at her. After a few minutes, the man with yellow hair split away from the group and took some sort of clear bag out of a pocket. He took something out of the bag and ate it before holding the bag out towards her.

Her eyes narrowed, watching the group as a whole rather than the man. She could probably overpower one person. She could even manage two or three if she had to. With the storm raging overhead, she could loose her dragon or call her sisters. She could almost hear them telling her to tear apart the tiny, fragile humans.

But so soon after her last fight, with the thrill of battle coursing through her, she wasn't sure if she could control them. She wasn't sure if she'd want to.

Even so, the thought of climbing down with so many people made her heart race with terror.

But she couldn't take her eyes off the bag. She couldn't remember if the thin porridge she'd had to fight another prisoner for was the day before yesterday or the day before that. She tried not to think about Seth promising her as much bread as she wanted when they got out.

If they tried to grab her, she could climb the column faster than they could.

She climbed down, more mindful of the handholds on the column. Memorizing exactly where each one was. Just in case. She kept one hand on the stone while the man held the bag out to her. When she couldn't quite reach, he took a step towards her and she jumped back, growling through bared teeth. He stopped, held his free hand up in some kind of gesture as he backed away.

The man with the brown cloak said something in a flat tone and the blond snapped something back, nearly sending her back up the column. Then he set the bag on the floor between them, motioned for her to take it, and stepped away. Without taking her eyes off the group, she took the bag.

It was an odd material. Clear and smooth. Not any fabric she knew. It felt easy to rip. What was it made of? How was it this clear? Where were the stitches? How did it close? What was the damn point of a bag that didn't close?

She ran a finger along the inside and felt ridges. She tilted her head and pressed the edges together. Where she did, they snapped together and the bag closed.

Alright. That was how it worked.

Her curiosity sated, she backed away to the column to check over the bag's contents. Dried fruit, nuts, some little brightly colored hard things. Rocks? No. Humans didn't use gizzard stones. Still, she took one along with a handful of fruit and nuts before placing the bag back between her and the group.

She measured out most of her handful of food, then tried the not rock. It seemed safe enough to eat. It was sweet and crunchy. Perfectly edible. She put the rest into a pocket to save for later.

The man with the spiky hair came towards her again, pausing at what she had decided was a safe distance. He watched her for a few seconds then backed off a little. She hadn't realized how tense her shoulders were until they relaxed.

"I'm Yugi," he said.

"Kisara," she replied, slowly and deliberately. She'd used more human words in the last few weeks than she had in years. They still didn't come easily to her.

Yugi introduced the rest of the group to her in his weird, halting royal dialect. The blond with the food was Joey. The woman was Tea, the tall man was Seto, and the two men trying to sort out the apparently not dead body were Bakura and Tristan.

All the while, cold rain dripped from the roof onto her head. She wrapped her free arm around herself and tried to rub a little warmth back into her body.

Without hesitating, Tea held her cloak out to her. Kisara slunk back, maintaining the distance between them. The woman hesitated to put the cloak down in the growing puddle on the ground.

She was so focused on the Tea circling around to put the cloak down somewhere less damp that she almost didn't notice Seto taking his off until he was mid-way through throwing it at her. Her hand shot out, snatching it out of the air before it fell on her.

If anybody else had thrown something, she would have run. But she remembered his long, elegant fingers trembling at her waist. She was stronger than he was and found it difficult to be intimidated by him.

So instead, she hissed at him. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. She still did not find him intimidating.

The cloak was far too big for her. The end would trail on the ground. It was horribly impractical and would get in the way if she tried to escape. Still, she didn't want to get close enough to everybody else to throw it back at him.

She draped the heavy fabric over her shoulders and found a way to tie it off so that it didn't drag in the leafy mud.

Tea held a hand out to her again and said something Yugi translated as, "Do you want to come with us?" She smiled and Kisara started to back away again, clutching her hands to her chest. She didn't know these people. She didn't know where they were going. She didn't know what they were going to do to her.

She glanced back into the temple. She could vanish into the jungle. Make a home in the ruins. Live safely alone. Try to find a way back to where she came from.

But they seemed kind. They hadn't tried to hurt her.

Yet.

They hadn't tried to hurt her yet. People weren't kind for no reason.

But they outnumbered her. If they wanted to hurt her, they could. And they hadn't. They'd given her food and a dry cloak. And she didn't know where she was. Or how she got here. And if she was being honest, people being kind for no reason was one of least damnably weird things that happened to her today.

Kisara turned her back to the temple and as she left with them, she couldn't find it in herself to be afraid.