A boy with spiky tri-colored hair walks past a mirror in his room, stopping right in the middle to observe himself. He wears a navy blue uniform consisting of pants and a jacket that he leaves open, exposing part of his black shirt. The sun shines outside his window and he can hear the sound of busy pedestrians and cars as they go to their destination.

Walking over, he opens the window, inhaling the fresh air that greets him. Then he releases an exhale. He will soon be a senior at Domino High School, leaving him to wonder what's next for him. Life has certainly been different since the pharaoh left.

He lowers his eyes.

Ever since he solved the Millennium Puzzle years ago, there was never a dull moment. With the pharaoh by his side, they were able to save the world multiple times, creating friendships and unforgettable moments along the way. But even after facing the toughest foes, the Ceremonial Battle was the most difficult thing he had to do. Because it was there he had to say goodbye to his friend. Never to see him again.

"Yugi!" his grandfather calls from the foot of the stairs.

"Yeah?"

"Your friends are here! Hurry or you all will be late to school!"

"Coming!"

He races down the stairs, meeting with Téa, Joey and Tristan to start another day.

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A warm gentle breeze softly blows on his face, the green grass tickling his neck and the back of his hands as he lays there in a daze. The atmosphere is a lot louder than that of Egypt, with running motors, screeching tires and planes flying over head.

Wait. Planes?

Atem's eyes burst open and he gasps for air as he quickly sits up, his mouth immediately going agape when he takes in his surroundings. The cars rushing down the street, the towering buildings, the sidewalks. Could it be? He looks down at his clothing, noticing that he is no longer wearing his royal clothing, but black pants, a black shirt and matching jacket that's similar to the clothing he wore in Yugi's time. However, on his wrist, his diadhank still miraculously remains.

"Am I really…back in Domino City?" he asks himself, still taking everything in with a look of surprise.

He stands to his feet, his eyes going from left to right before closing them. 'If I'm here, then where's Cairo…?'

Cairo sits up, initially breathing heavily from her anxiety being at is peak, then taking deep breaths to calm herself down once she realizes where she is. In this space, there is no room for fear or doubt. Centuries of being its prisoner has taught her that. As much as she wants to scream, she cannot. The trapped souls would be on her within seconds.

The darkness around her is limitless and knows no end. It is foggy with a dark purple hue and it is cold. The last thing she remembers is her father trying to rescue her before she blacked out. The thought of being back within her prison caused her so much fear that it ultimately became too much for her to bear. But now, she has to be strong. She has no choice.

As she walks through the Shadow Realm, she goes past a certain rock, seemingly placed in the middle. She remembers countless years sitting on top of that same rock, keeping guard of all the evil souls to make sure they stayed in their place. It had become a mindless routine for her. Although the souls would occasionally taunt her, they feared her immense strength, knowing she could cease what's left of their existence if she wanted.

A beam of light shines down on her and she sighs, sensing the presence of the gods. She stays silent, partially to contain her anger and remain respectful, but also hear what they have to say.

"We have summoned you here for a very important task," the gods start off. Cairo averts her gaze from the light with her arms folded. "Souls have escaped and must be returned here immediately."

Cairo narrows her eyes. "For nearly five thousand years I have guarded this place and that has only happened once due to unnatural circumstances. So how is it possible for something like that to happen in such a short period of time?" she asks before muttering, "Unless the new soul keeper is incompetent."

"I can see this child will be a joy to work with," comes another voice, causing Cairo to whip around defensively to see who it is.

A man wearing beige pants, a black sleeveless tank top and a long purple cape emerges from the shadows. He wears armbands, bracelets and neckwear similar to hers and his hair is spiked sporadically upwards. His eyes are a dull purple and he sports a mischievous grin as he approaches her.

Cairo takes a moment to observe him before looking elsewhere, underwhelmed and uninterested in who he is. "What does he mean by 'work with'?" she asks the gods.

"Both of you will be responsible for returning the souls," the gods tell her.

"I was never offered help when I had to retrieve them the first time. Why should it be any different for him?" she slightly raises her voice, growing frustrated. "If it is his responsibility to look after the souls, then it is his sole responsibility to return them, is it not?"

The man snickers. "Questioning the almighty gods, are you? Better be careful."

"I don't know who you are, nor do I care. But I highly suggest you don't cross me," she warns him, to which he only grins more. He takes in what she is wearing, noting the crown on her head, making him wonder who she is and how someone like her ever got put into a position like this to begin with.

"It is he that is the cause for the souls' escape, Cairo," the gods reveal, sending a wave of anger through her body as she glares at him.

"You what?!"

The man shrugs. "That may or may not be true."

Cairo growls inwardly. "So this is a case of me holding him accountable since he cannot be trusted…"

"That is correct," the gods reply. "Once all souls have been returned he will be swiftly dealt with."

She looks to the source of light, stepping forward. "I need to know that once I do this…you won't ever summon me here again."

The man raises an eyebrow, amused. "Oh? Have somewhere to be, child?"

"It is none of your concern," she says, not giving him any contact.

"Go. The time is now," the gods say.

"Wait!" Cairo protests. But before she can say anything further, a portal opens up below and they drop through it. This is all giving her a major case of deja vu. When she first had to go through this, apart of her was happy to be able to go out in the open, although she still had a strong sense of duty to get the job done. But now she is dreading it. Not only did capturing the souls leave her extremely exhausted, but now she has to work with someone.

She slowly looks over to the man with his arms folded, totally unfazed by the portal they are whooshing through. He is definitely not to be trusted.

Sensing her gaze, he looks to her as well, smirking. "Marik is the name," he says. Although usually, it's preceded by a darker variation of the name. "And…Cairo, was it?"

She doesn't answer, only adding to his amusement. The quicker they do this, the quicker she can go back to the afterlife. At least she hopes. Reaching the end of the portal, her stomach drops when she sees nothing but a body of blue water waiting for them. The same thing happened the last time and she had to be rescued by Joey, who she didn't know at the time, because she didn't know how to swim.

And she still doesn't.

Her eyes widen as the portal shoots them out. "NOT THE WATER AGAIN!" she yells to Marik's confusion.

"Huh...?" Her tough exterior has dwindled all because of water?

She screams in protest as they plummet down while he continues to look perplexed by her behavior.

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Téa walks out of nearby burger joint with an exasperated sigh. Her friends, namely Joey and Tristan, have begun their gross overindulgence of food and she couldn't bear to watch anymore. Holding onto her brown purse, she searches for other food options while she has the time. Soon, they will have to return back to school for the remainder of their classes.

"I need female friends," she groans.

She looks up to the sky, allowing the sun to warm up her face. Whether she finds anything or not, it definitely beats being inside that stuffy restaurant. "At least it's a nice day out."

She walks past a man wearing sunglasses, who discreetly tries to snatch away her purse that loosely hangs off her shoulder. Feeling a light tug, she snaps out of her thoughts and looks over, seeing a man wearing a green jump suit with his hands on the leather strap of her purse.

"Hey!" she yells with her eyes narrowed, tugging back. "Let go of my purse!" She is in disbelief that he is doing this in broad daylight, but others seem to be scared to get involved.

"We can either do this the easy way or the hard way," the man says back, yanking the purse back so hard that it causes her to fall forward.

She grimaces, turning over to look at her scraped up hand. A shadow of a certain spiky haired person hovers over her. With her mind in a daze, she expects it to be none other than Yugi and the others coming to her rescue. But when she hears the voice, her heart drops.

"Stop right there!" the baritone voice commands.

She slowly looks up, gasping and her eyes nearly popping out if its sockets. Standing with his arms folded, his narrowed gaze on the thief, is none other than the pharaoh. "W-What…?" She saw him walk into the doors of the afterlife. He was never to be seen again. So how is it possible that he is standing there right now?

She shakes her head. Maybe she is dreaming. This can't be happening right now.

When the man tries to make a run for it, Atem swiftly grabs the lid to a garbage can, whisking it in the thief's direction and hitting him on the back of the head. The purse flies in the air and Atem catches it with ease before his eyes finally land on Téa, who is too stunned to speak.

"Téa! Are you alright?!" Tristan yells as they run down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, we heard you scream and—" Joey stops in his tracks and so does Tristan, causing the shorter Yugi to bump into him and fall to the ground with a thud.

He rubs his back and groans. "Hey, what's the big idea you guys?" Yugi asks, standing up shortly after and squeezing his way between his two friends, only for his jaw to drop.

"Is it me or am I seeing double?" Joey asks, rubbing his eyes.

"Nope. For once, it isn't just you pal," Tristan replies, doing the same.

Téa stumbles to her feet, backing away a little. Is it an imposter perhaps? It just seems impossible that the pharaoh could be here right now. In his own body no less.

Yugi slowly takes a step forward, his body beginning to tremble and be overwhelmed with emotion. There's no mistaking it. He knows for a fact that it is the pharaoh. They shared a body for the longest time. Of course he of all people would know without a shadow of a doubt.

"Pharaoh?" Yugi says.

Atem looks to him, a smirk appearing on his lips before nodding his head. "It's good to see you too, Yugi. All of you." He gasps when he sees the tears literally pouring out of Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Joey's eyes, causing a drop of sweat to appear on his forehead.

"It really is you!" Yugi exclaims as they all run and crowd around him.

"I have so many questions," Tristan rubs the back of his head.

"Yeah, no kidding," Téa agrees as Atem hands her back her purse.

"Can we talk about it over food?" Joey asks, rubbing his growling tummy.

Téa cuts her eyes at him, bopping him on the forehead. "Seriously? Even now when the pharaoh is here?"

"What are you doing here? How are you even here?" Yugi asks, causing the pharaoh's facial expression to turn more serious.

"It's Cairo…"

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Cairo wrings out her wet hair, pouting as she walks behind Marik. It's clear he doesn't care what happens to her as he watched her flounder around in the water before she came across something sturdy to bring herself up to shore. "I find it hard to believe that you'll be of any use on this assignment," Marik says, peering at her from over his shoulder. "You couldn't even do something as simple as swim."

"There's a reason why the gods called upon me to help clean up your mess," she shoots back calmly. "Anyway…we should be discreet and get this over with as quickly as possible."

They walk past a group of school girls, who gossip amongst themselves while having eyes specifically on Cairo, noting her odd clothing. "You'll stick out like a sore thumb with your attire."

Cairo glances down at her clothes and stops. As much as she would hate to admit, he's right. Glancing back at the girls that just passed by, she snaps her fingers, duplicating their clothing. She wears a grey uniform, complete with a long sleeve shirt with a ribbon in the middle, a skirt and black knee high socks and dress shoes.

"Where to first?" she asks.

"Someone's in a hurry," Marik says grinning as he slips on his hood before they walk into a shop. The last thing he wants is to return back to the Shadow Realm any time soon. Besides, there's so much he doesn't know about this child and why the gods entrusted her now and in the past to collect escaped souls. On the outside, she just seems like a normal little girl.

They go past glass boxes of jewelry, much to Cairo's confusion as she blindly follows behind him. Admittedly, she has other things on her mind, like what happened to her father. As she ponders, Marik walks up to an attendant, managing to distract them. When they go to the back room, he puts his hand through the glass discreetly, grabbing some of the most expensive diamonds that are on display. Once he is satisfied, he turns around, slipping a diamond necklace into Cairo's pocket without her knowing.

"Let's go," he says, beginning to walk out the door and she follows.

Unbeknownst to them, a security guard has witnessed this and has pressed a button that will alert the police directly.

"I really hope you're not trying to shop right now," Cairo says, still walking behind him. "We have work to do."

"You really are in a hurry," Marik replies as they walk down the sidewalk, surrounded by different shops on each side. "What makes you think you'll return to paradise once you're finished?"

Cairo looks at him questionably. "What do you mean by that?"

"The gods never actually said if they would honor your wish." He can sense the pause in Cairo, causing him to smirk.

And so the manipulation begins.

"Just focus on the task at hand."

He shrugs his shoulders. "As you wish."

"Hey you! Stop right there!" an authoritative voice yells from behind them.

They simultaneously turn around, being met with a police officer who taps his baton on his palm. Cairo raises an eyebrow. Is he talking to them?

"You're going to jail sir!"

Cairo turns her sights to Marik. "Jail as in prison?" she asks. "What did you do?"

"Return the jewelry you stole!"

Marik grins. "You mean this?" he asks, taking out a handful of diamonds from his pocket to Cairo's surprise. "Or do you mean this?" He motions to Cairo's pocket, where a necklace partially hangs out of it.

Cairo gasps, taking it out of her pocket and looking to Marik with disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Alright, both of you, hands up now!" the police orders.

Instead, Marik flicks one of the diamonds with his thumbs, hitting the officer in the forehead. The impact is similar to a paintball gun and the officer drops his baton, letting out a yelp as he holds his head.

"What are you doing?" Cairo asks as Marik makes a run for it. "Hey!" She runs up to the police officer, dropping the necklace at his feet. "My apologies."

The officer reaches out to catch her, managing to grab her by the collar and she instinctively grabs his wrist, flinging him back with her immense strength with ease. She immediately regrets it when he hits a pair of trash cans and soon, she finds herself making a run for it as well.

"I need back up! We have two thieves on the loose! Consider them very dangerous!" the police officer yells into his communicator.

Cairo runs down the middle of the busy street, dodging different cars as she looks around for Marik who is nowhere to be found. "Great. Where did he go?" This must have been apart of his plan all along. He was trying to get separated from her to do as he pleased. Now she has him in a tough situation.

So much for laying low.

A police car with sirens blaring comes driving right toward her and she stops, lifting up one leg and stopping the car in its place with her foot. The air bags deploy, leaving the police officer stunned as she jumps onto of the hood of the car, making a break for it. "Sorry!" she exclaims back to him. This is not how things were supposed to go at all.

She turns one corner, only to be met by a several more officers, all carrying tranquilizer guns. Word surely has gotten around quick. She pivots in another direction, despite their calls for her to stop as they fire off their guns. She manages to dodge most of them, but one manages to hit her in the neck.

Grunting, she stops, taking the dart out of her neck and tossing it to the ground. "What was that…?" she asks herself. Seeing that the police will not stop their pursuit, she keeps running as more people take notice.

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Atem sits at a table with Yugi and the others outside on the patio of Burger World, recapping what has happened in a matter of hours. He went from being in the Afterlife to fighting to save his daughter from the Shadows. And he still doesn't know what has happened to her or why this is happening.

Téa frowns after hearing his story. "How awful. It doesn't look like she can catch a break."

"You think maybe more souls have escaped somehow?" Joey asks.

"But how? I'm sure Cairo would have made sure things were sealed up this time around," Tristan assumes.

"Yeah, but think about it. If Cairo went to the Afterlife, then that would mean someone would have to take her place to guard the souls right?"

Yugi looks up with thought. "That makes sense actually."

"And whoever replaced her must be slacking on the job and she has to clean up their dirty work?" Téa asks.

"It's a possibility," Atem says with his arms folded. "And if that's the case then that would mean she's here in Domino."

Tristan looks over to his blonde haired friend, impressed. "Good job Joey. You're actually making sense today!"

"Watch it," Joey grunts.

"Well we're here to help you phar—I mean…Atem," Yugi quickly corrects himself, scratching his temple.

Téa smiles. "That's gonna take some getting used to."

A sudden commotion interrupts their conversation and they look out, seeing SWAT vehicles and police cars beginning to crowd up the street. Several officers put up barricades, instructing the pedestrians to move aside for their own safety.

"What's happening?" Tristan asks as they all stand up, moving their way through the spectating crowds.

"There's a thief on the loose and apparently she's very dangerous!" someone responds before gasping. "There she is!"

Cairo jumps and dodges the police cars that try to block her in, jumping on top of a stalled semi truck to create some sort of space. She sighs heavily, noticing the amount of spectators have increased. Not only that, but her stamina has decreased significantly. The only thing she can think of being the cause is whatever they managed to shoot her with.

Atem's eyes widen, seeing the girl on top of the truck wearing school clothing, her eyes focused on the officers. "Cairo?"

"Come down nicely or we'll use more force!" the sergeant yells.

Cairo crouches down, resting her hands on top of her knees. "I believe this has been a huge misunderstanding," Cairo says. She looks over as one of the SWAT team opens up the door to the back of their truck, noticing a hooded figure currently tied up and unconscious. "Great…" It looks like Marik has been captured after all.

"You won't get yourself out of this you thief! Especially after you assaulted an officer!"

Téa looks to the others. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Well I don't believe him!" Joey yells. "Cairo wouldn't just hurt people like that!"

"Yeah! She's innocent!" Tristan chimes in.

Atem's eyes zoom in on his daughter, who looks visibly tired as she pants heavily. He notices part of her neck is red, making him wonder if they hit her with something to slow her down. "Oh no…" He sees the police force aiming their stun guns as Cairo, sending him into a panic. "Cairo!"

Cairo looks up, hearing her name being called and she scans the crowd, not immediately recognizing anyone. Suddenly, she feels something shoot into her back, followed by a crackling noise as the muscles in her body contracts and stiffens up.

Atem gasps as she cries out briefly before falling face forward to the ground. "Cairo?!" He tries to move past the crowd. But it isn't quick enough as two officers pick her up by her arms and drag her away, placing her into the back of a SWAT truck near another hooded unconscious passenger.

"What do we do now?" Tristan asks with worry.

"Hey!" Joey shouts out to one of the officers. "Where are you taking her? She's just a kid!"

"An ordinary child would not be capable of what she did. So she'll be taken to a nearby facility with the highest security to figure out what she is," the officer says. "No need to worry. She won't be able to cause anyone any harm."

"You've got it all wrong!" Joey replies as the officer walks away.

Sensing Atem's anxiety, Téa attempts to reassure him. "Don't worry…we'll get her back…somehow…"

Atem watches fearfully as the SWAT truck leaves their sight. When he called out her name initially, it appeared that she was trying to acknowledge whoever called her, but amidst the chaos, it doesn't seem like she was able to make out who did. Then there's questions as to why she was being pursued to begin with. She was accused of being a thief and assaulting an officer, but that doesn't sound like the Cairo he knows. Despite the darkness that still lives within her, she wouldn't attack someone out of the blue. So what led up to this moment?

Yugi frowns when Atem places a hand up to his forehead, seemingly fighting off a headache. He can only imagine what the pharaoh is going through right now and with Cairo now detained, who knows what will happen, especially since she's being taken to a place with high security. How will they be able free her?

That's when an idea pops into mind. "You guys," Yugi says, earning looks his way. "I think I know how to get Cairo out."

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AN: Thanks for reading another chapter! And don't worry, I'm still writing finishing up my other fanfic for those that are reading that as well! Make my day and leave a review!