Oh my gosh, guys! I didn't plan to leave you for so long!

Sorry about the random disappearing act. I had some thing going on in my family. But it's all resolved now!

And I got a new chapter up! It's longer, too!

Thank you to all of my reviewers, favoriters, and followers for sticking with me. You guys are seriously the best people ever. No joke ;P

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I only own Erin and Devon.

Chapter 12

School wasn't quite the same without Atem on Monday. His empty spot at the lunch table was only going to remind me that all of this was somehow my fault, and that I would have no one with me to face Astrid or exchange random small talk in art class.

Tea deemed that she, Yugi, and I should focus on our classes so we could help catch Atem up to prevent him from getting too far behind when he came back. We had divided his classes between the three of us and resolved to be step-in teachers for the subjects of our choosing. I had elected to help him with history and physics, since the first was my best subject and the latter was the other class we had together. Art class wouldn't need much catching up, probably just a note from the doctor to exempt him from whatever he missed. We planned to visit him after school to do a little bit of tutoring, and also to talk some more about Tea's findings regarding the cult.

As far as I knew, Atem hadn't told the others about our conversation on Sunday night, nor the amulet. I guessed that, like me, he wanted to find out whether or not it was relevant to our situation before plunging the others into it as well. There was no use in putting them in danger if neither of us even knew what it was.

Nonetheless, I was being weighed down with homework in first hour. Miss Tran spent most of class talking about a big project coming up, so she was giving us worksheet after worksheet of essential material we needed to cover before we began working on it.

All I could do was hope that it wouldn't be a partner project. I knew all too well that the first person to volunteer to be my partner would be none other than my least favorite person – who, by the way, had been staring at me the entire class period, only to give me that "better than you" smirk when I would turn to glare at him. The boy was relentless.

"Speak of the devil." I murmured to myself as I felt a familiar presence next to my desk when the bell rang. I didn't even glance at him as I stood, hoping that all of my hate and annoyance leaked into my voice. "What do you want, Devon?"

Amusement glittered in his eyes. "Oh, come on. I can't even talk to you? What have I done to earn the venom voice?"

I rolled my eyes and slung my bag over my shoulder. "Where do you want me to start? With the constant sexual harassment, or the creepy staring?"

He scoffed playfully, like this was all one big joke. "It's called flirting and it's not creepy. I think you're cute. Is that a crime?"

"Well, your flirting," I made quotations in the air with my fingers, "sucks. And thinking I'm cute isn't an excuse to act like a jerk. For future reference, it's not attractive to anyone worth dating, especially not me. So you can back off now, thank you." I moved to walk around him, but he stepped in my way. "Devon, please leave me alone. I'm not interested."

He raised his hands in surrender. "I get it. I've been an ass to you, and you have every reason not to like me." His voice had gotten softer, less charm and more friendliness.

"Exactly," I said, brushing past him with ease. But then his words and the fact that he had let me go registered in my mind, and I stopped. "Wait, what?"

When I turned back to face him, his smirk was no longer arrogant, but knowing. His dark eyes held mine. Some spark of recognition flashed in me for a moment, but it was gone as soon as it occurred to me, flitting away like the trace of some long-forgotten memory.

He looked almost...sheepish. That was weird. Devon Reisinger was not the hesitating, think-before-you-speak type of guy. He shrugged, trying to look less awkward in this new demeanor. "Truth be told, Erin, I just wanted to see how you'd react." He cleared his throat and looked at the ground, his next words coming out in a rush. "It's this thing...I can't really explain it, but it's in my head." He tapped a finger to his temple. "When I first saw you, something just...clicked. Call it a weird instinct, call it crazy – call it whatever you want – but I just, I didn't know exactly what to do. So I acted like a total douche to get your attention. I figured, you're smart, you're athletic, and you're beautiful; how could I make myself stand out from all of the other guys that were going to try to win you over? But I've realized my mistake: I've made a total fool of myself in the process. And for that, I'm sorry."

I blinked, unsure of what to make of his sudden change of heart. What could I make of it? This was so unexpected, so...not normal. And the fact that he had just complimented me also made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. To say I was surprised at that moment was a major understatement. Was he being serious?

Or was this another one of his ploys?

His expression was completely vulnerable for me to read. I could see the hesitation, the guilt, and the apology written all over it. I almost wanted to believe him.

Almost.

Some strange voice in my mind that sounded very much like my own urged me to not give in just yet. He needed to prove to me that he was worth forgiving. I wasn't just going to forget everything that he had said to me in the last two weeks and pretend they never happened. I crossed my arms, bringing his gaze back to me. "So what are you going to do about it?" I asked, voice stern.

His lips twitched a little at one corner, like he wanted to smile – possibly in relief – at my willingness to work with him. "I want to start over. Can we do that?"

I searched his eyes. Although I was no human lie detector, I knew from experience (creepy guys in sand volleyball leagues) what it looked like when someone was being dishonest about his intentions. However, Devon seemed to be being completely truthful. His deep brown orbs were pleading.

I took a long breath, then let it out in a sigh, silencing the voice in my head telling me I needed more from him, that he deserved to be tortured with this. If he would have been anyone else, I probably would have forgiven him right off the bat, since I didn't like being weighed down with grudges. But this was Devon, who had been a jerk to me since day one for literally no reason other than he wanted me to notice him. This was a lot more of an offense to me.

Still, I had held this grudge for long enough.

"Alright," I affirmed. "We can start over." Devon grinned at this, but I held a finger up. "On one condition."

"And that is?" He asked hopefully.

"You promise to stop trying so hard to be a flirt, and hold off on the advances for the time being. It makes me uncomfortable."

His grin reached his eyes, crinkling them at the corners. This strengthened my resolve to forgive him – he appeared to be genuinely happy that I was giving him a second chance. "Done."

I nodded. "Okay. See you later, Devon."

As I turned to leave, he called out to me. "Wait!" I cocked my head at him, for a second afraid that I had just made a terrible mistake. But then he held out a hand, and I relaxed a little. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right." He cleared his throat. "Hello. My name is Devon Reisinger. I'm the reigning ping-pong champ at the arcade and a part-time waiter at Messy Burger. Sometimes I act like a jerk for no reason, but I'm actually a giant teddy bear."

I shook my head, letting myself smile a little, and took his hand. "Hi, Devon. I'm Erin Stephenson, and I like it better when I get to know a guy before he tries to get into my pants."

"Good to know, and dually noted." He let go of my hand, and let his grin slip into a satisfied smirk. "I guess I'll see you on Wednesday, then?"

"That would be the next time this class meets." I said, still not letting him go completely free just yet. Besides, allowing my true, sarcastic self to come out was extremely satisfying.

"I look forward to it." He said as I left the classroom.

I didn't reply.

My mind still couldn't work out exactly what had just happened. Suffice to say, the day had gotten off to quite an odd start.

Astrid didn't bother me in art, which was new. I assumed she only gave me hell when Atem was there to get his attention.

Now, who did that sound like?

I showed up at the Game Shop around three-thirty, bookbag and my slowly-developing Duel Monsters deck in tow. I was probably going to buy some more cards before I left for the night, and I had decided to take Atem and Yugi's advice and choose some that complemented the effects of the ones I already had. No shouts came from upstairs, which meant that neither Joey nor Tristan was here.

With any luck, Yugi, Tea, and I would have some quiet time to tutor Atem and do a little research about the cult. I mean, I loved the other two boys to death, but when you needed to focus, their arguments and competitions sometimes got a little distracting.

"Hey, guys." I said as I entered the living room, where Tea and Yugi were sitting on the couch, going over Trigonometry with Atem, who had pulled the armchair over to the side of the coffee table opposite them. He looked thoroughly depressed to still be having to do math even while he was out of school.

My appearance brightened his expression a little, and the three of them returned my hello.

"So, Atem, do you get it?" Tea asked, pointing to an equation in the textbook.

He nodded unconvincingly. "Yes."

I didn't want to rat him out for his obvious lie, because it seemed that Tea hadn't caught it. Yugi, however, had, and I could see him trying to bite back a smile. He and Atem shared a secret look.

"So," I said, setting my backpack on the floor to divert their attention away from Atem's torture, "what's after math on the agenda?"

Yugi jumped in to save his brother, as well. "I think Tea said something about history. Did you bring your stuff with you, Erin?"

I pulled my history book out of my bag and slid it onto the table, pretending I hadn't seen Atem's lips purse at the prospect of still having more topics to cover. "Western History." I narrated, like I was announcing the title of a movie. "Lucky for you, this is my best subject." I gave him a smile as Yugi and Tea made room for me on the couch.

I spent the better part of an hour explaining the basics of what he was going to be missing, then helped him with some of the worksheets I had picked up for him. He was pretty good at memorizing people and accomplishments, but not as great when it came to dates. Fortunately, I was. I gave him little rhyming phrases to help him remember when some important things happened, but some couldn't draw a poem from me, so I instead tried to give him a person who could be associated with each date to see if it would spark his memory.

We were doing pretty well up until we got to the conquest of Mexico and Peru. For some reason, he just couldn't remember whether Degas or Pizarro conquered the Aztecs.

"Uh..." I wracked my brain for a way to turn this into an acronym or something, but came up with nothing. Then, an idea popped into my head, seemingly from nowhere. "Okay, so just remember how Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor, was treated and then forced into compliance. The guy who did that was Cortes. You would have to be a huge jerk to do something like that, and Cortes was a huge jerk."

Yugi laughed. "What, did you know the guy personally?"

We all realized my casually-spoken characterization of the long-dead explorer, and laughed with him. I chuckled and replied, "I don't know where I got that from. I guess I just figured..."

"Or maybe you've been watching too much Road to El Dorado," Tea said after one last fit of giggles.

"That's the Disney movie, right?" I asked, confused. Though Mom and Dad had been big into watching Disney with Landon, Miri, and I on Sunday nights when we were little, that movie had never been turned on. Something about Dad not liking the scantily-clad female protagonist, and how it would "corrupt his young daughters."

Tea raised her eyebrows. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you haven't seen that movie!"

I gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. "My dad wasn't fond of some of the sexual themes."

"Oh, yeah," Yugi put in, "that movie was made back when parents weren't so strict about adult jokes being put in children's stories. But that was what made it funny!"

Atem looked totally perplexed about the topic we were currently discussing. "Uh, Disney? Sexual themes?" He repeated, as if those things were unheard of to him.

I figured Atem associated the children's company with child-friendly campaigns, so I tried to explain to get that flabbergasted look off his face. "Just in the background. Nothing little kids would notice, but the types of things you begin to realize as you grow up."

"Like what kinds of things?" He sounded pretty curious. Maybe he hadn't watched childhood movies in a long time?

"Uh..." I began, then shrugged. "I don't know. Like, in Hercules, that one muse says something about how she would like to make some sweet music in Hercules'...something. The others cut her off before she can finish, but you can kind of...fill it in." As I recounted one of my favorite scenes, I felt my cheeks redden. This was kind of an inappropriate thing to be discussing, now that I thought about it.

The corner of Atem's lips twitched as he watched my expression, but his eyes remained dubious. "How would you fill it in?"

"Uh, you know..." My cheeks grew even hotter. His lips twitched again, but other than that, nothing about his face changed. It was my turn to be confused. Was he being serious? Did he not get what I was saying? "Adult messages..."

Then it occurred to me that Tea and Yugi had been oddly silent as they watched me try in vain to hint at what I meant to the usually-smart-but-now-strangely- oblivious Atem. In fact, when I glanced at Tea, there was the ghost of a smile on her face, and she shrugged. I don't know why she shrugged, but it carried some sort of double meaning to it, and this plunged my confusion deeper.

I looked back to Atem to find that he had allowed the corners of his oddly-twitching lips to turn up into a triumphantly smug smirk, an amused glitter in his violet eyes. I narrowed my own eyes, and though my cheeks were probably still the color of a ripe strawberry, I crossed my arms and tried to give him a chastening glare. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

Atem's smirk grew wider, as did his eyes. "Me? I would never."

I bit back a smile and flicked him in the shoulder like I would to Landon if he had pulled that kind of trick on me. "Jerk." I said playfully.

"Hey," he said, eyes darting between me and the history work that he had successfully distracted me from, "it worked, didn't it?"

"Despicable," I responded, my smile finally sliding across my face. "But clever. Very clever. You do realize that this has just prolonged your doom, right? Sooner or later, you'll have to do this work, with or without my help."

"I prefer later," he said, closing the textbook to emphasize his words. His victory shone in his eyes.

Yugi shook his head, grinning. "You are the least-motivated person to do schoolwork I've ever seen, Atem."

Atem shrugged, but didn't reply. He had already made his point, what with using me to divert attention away from the homework and to sexual themes in children's movies. There was no reason to defend it, because it had been genius. For an intelligent person like him, you wouldn't think playing dumb would be a good tactic. But it worked.

Tea checked her watch. "Oh, man." She said. "It's almost five already? I've gotta go. My turn to make dinner tonight." She explained, standing.

"I'll walk you downstairs." Yugi stood with her.

"You don't have to – "

"Seriously, it's fine. Besides, there's something I need to check on in the shop, anyway. Come on." Yugi hid the lie so well that I didn't realize it was a lie until I glanced at Atem and saw that he was smiling ever so slightly. Once I was in on the secret, I turned my attention back to the show with a new interest. It was like watching an episode of 90210, only these characters were much more likable.

Tea finished gathering her things. "Uh, okay. Then it's fine, I guess." As she and Yugi made their way to the stairs, she turned back to me. "Oh, and by the way, Erin. I was going to go to the library tomorrow after school to see if they have anything on that cult. Do you want to come with me?"

Atem stiffened and goosebumps rose on my skin at her mention of the cult. I shook my head. "Tea, really. It's not that big of a deal. You don't have to get yourself into it – "

"Erin, I appreciate your altruism" – she gave a pointed glance to Atem for some reason, then looked back to me – "but we're all in this together. You're our friend, and friends help each other out. We'll figure this out together. Besides, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something did happen to you when we could have done something about it. So stop with the I'll-be-fine lines. Capiche?"

"Capiche." I replied, stunned again by how willing Tea always was to take bullets for me. First the dance-off at the movie theater, and now this. The girl was like my sassy guardian angel.

"Good." Tea smiled, satisfied with my response. "See you tomorrow, then. Bye, you two." She gave us a small wave, and then she and Yugi disappeared down the stairs.

Atem and I sat in silence for a few moments, and then I cleared my throat. "So, when is Yugi going to ask Tea out?"

Atem shrugged. "Who knows? Could be today, could be never. It's like watching an extremely long game of table tennis, but no one will just let the ball go."

I chuckled at his comparison. "Maybe someone just needs to give them a little push so they'll miss it."

"Yugi should do it on his own. I believe he will, when he's ready."

Nodding, I allowed us to fall into another short period of quietness. I again adjusted my position on the couch so I wasn't sitting too close to him, realizing as I did this that I couldn't move away any more without backing into the armrest on the other side.

Atem met my eyes again, his gaze becoming intense again. When he spoke, there was an underlying edge of urgency to his voice. "Did you bring the necklace with you?"

"Necklace...?" I asked, then realized what he meant. "Oh, yeah. Hang on." I dug through my bag on the floor next to me, fingers grasping for the smooth, cold metal of the amulet. When they found it, I clenched my teeth, afraid I would get another one of the strange sensations I had been feeling around it. In fact, I had been so afraid of having another trippy vision that when I put it in my bag, I had grabbed it by the cord instead of the pendant itself. The thing scared me more than a seemingly harmless piece of jewelry should have. "Here."

The moment he saw what I held out to him, his eyes grew wide. Something about his posture changed, shifting the calm atmosphere to one of alarm. His hands curled into fists.

I raised an eyebrow, my worst fears appearing to be confirmed. "What? Is something wrong? Is it a bad symbol?"

He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. His eyes moved between me and the eye in the palm of my hand. "No." He finally said, sounding uncharacteristically unsure of himself. "It's not a bad symbol."

"Then what is it? Why would those creeps leave it for me?"

"I don't know." From the sound of his voice, I knew he was lying. He knew something he wasn't telling me, either because he was afraid of saying it out loud or of how I would react or both.

But I didn't need lies right now. Enough weird things had happened to me in the past couple of days that I was pretty sure one more wouldn't be so shocking. I put a hand on his, partly to get him back for doing this to get the truth out of me last night and partly because a foreign impulse I couldn't name was telling me to. "Atem, please. Tell me the truth."

His clenched fist relaxed under my touch. He took a breath. "I want to. I just don't know how to word it so you'll understand."

Coming from anyone else, those words would have made me think they were indirectly calling me stupid. But from Atem, with the strong conviction that always carried in his voice, it was the genuine truth. I looked down at the eye, which stared back at me with that soul-scouring lapis-lazuli iris. It grew warm in my hand.

"So this is definitely from ancient Egypt, then?" I asked, trying to alleviate the tension in his position.

"Yes." He replied almost immediately, probably glad I had asked a question he could actually answer.

"How old do you think it is?"

"Three thousand years. Probably from sometime around the New Kingdom." There was absolutely no hesitation when he dated it, like he knew exactly what he was talking about.

"How can you tell?"

He shrugged. "Just a guess." Some form of dry humor made its way into his voice, but I had no idea what would be so funny about this.

I nodded. "Okay. So would something like this have cost a lot of money to make?"

"Yes."

A flashback from my last vision replayed in my mind. This jewelry had definitely not been cheap to make, nor had it just been spur-of-the-moment.

"So what does it mean?"

"What?"

"If someone were to, I don't know, make it for someone else, what would be the meaning behind it? Like, protection? Gratitude? A way of saying that they're secretly in love with you?" Although I hadn't quite worked out the motives behind Neferu's actions in the two visions I'd seen him, I had a pretty good idea. Real or not, the guy was definitely crushing hard on the Sagira chick from whose perspective I viewed the scenes.

Or maybe I was just crazy.

His eyebrows shot up at the last one as he regarded me with a curious expression. "Most likely protection. The Eye of Horus was a common but powerful symbol if one wanted someone to watch over them. Why?"

"Just wondering." If he was having trouble putting his answer about why the cult would leave me with a creepy ancient artifact, then I was stumped about how to go about dropping hints from the visions without giving them away. I wasn't quite ready to open up about those yet. Not until I was sure for myself that they were completely relevant.

More questions popped into my head, but most of them were pretty weird-sounding. I sighed, glancing back down to the amulet.

The pupil glinted, and a new question formed, one that I should have asked even before all of this craziness with Death Dungeon happened, back when the visions first started and I didn't know that Atem and Yugi's grandfather specialized in Egyptian history. "Hey, was there anyone in ancient Egypt that you know of named Sagira? Or Mahad?"

Atem grew rigid. When I looked back up at him, he was watching me in shock.

"What?" I asked. It was an innocent inquiry, especially since I didn't remember ever hearing the names before the visions began. I had assumed I may have skimmed over them in a history book or website and unknowingly stored them in my mind, only for them to surface in my dreams. There had been a documentary I watched once that said something about how the brain's memory is so complex and layered so excessively that we sometimes don't realize how much information we have actually retained from everyday life, and that the information can end up in dreams. After all that had happened, it was stupid and naïve to believe something I saw on TV over my own instincts, but logic was the only thing keeping me from going over the edge at the moment.

There was a long pause, in which I could almost feel my skin burning beneath his stare. He couldn't seem to wipe the alarmed look off his face. "Where did you hear those names?"

I avoided his extremely intense gaze and looked down at my lap, fingers closing around the amulet. "I don't know. Probably in a textbook or something. They just sounded familiar."

He didn't reply. Like they had the first day of school, I could feel his eyes scouring my expression, trying to see past my defenses and into my real thoughts. For once, I didn't allow them to.

Footsteps came up the stairs, and Yugi appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Erin, it's raining outside, so Gramps said you can stay and wait it out here if you don't feel like driving through it..." He trailed off as he noticed that neither Atem nor I looked the slightest bit comfortable in each others' presence. "What's wrong, guys?"

Atem was the first to break his stare. He turned to Yugi. "Nothing."

I bit my lip, then stood, grabbing my bag, quickly slipping the amulet into the front pocket before Yugi could see it. "I think I should go. Rain or not, I've got some things to do at my house before my mom gets home. Thanks, though."

"Uh, no problem." Yugi said. "But are you sure – "

"Absolutely." I cut him off, giving him one of the fakest smiles I had ever pulled off in my life. "I'll be fine." In truth, I hated rain. It was the bane of my existence. A running joke at home was that I had lived in Africa in a past life. But the awkwardness between Atem and I had gotten overwhelming, and I didn't want to make it worse. I really liked the guy, and I didn't want to ruin things. After all, we'd only been friends for a couple of weeks.

"Let me walk you down." Atem said, standing.

I shook my head. "No, seriously, I'll be okay."

In one quick movement, Atem grabbed my backpack and pulled it away from me. Taken by surprise, I lost my grip on the strap and allowed him to take it.

"Hey!" I cried out, reaching for it.

He held it just out of my reach. Despite the tense lines on his face, there was still a small glitter of amusement in his eyes. "I'm helping you."

"The bag weighs like, two pounds. I really don't need the help, Atem." I went for it again, but he moved it, this time hiding it behind his back.

"I'll give it back downstairs. Come on." He jerked his head in the direction of the door, then began walking towards it.

I huffed and followed, shooting Yugi a quick glance. "Is he usually like this?"

"Only when he's determined." Yugi said, shrugging, though I could see the laughter in his eyes. "Which would be all the time."

"Wonderful." I muttered as I trailed Atem to the first step.

We didn't say a word to each other until we were down in the game shop, close to the door and out of Yugi's earshot. Atem stopped, still keeping my bag close to prevent me from snatching it back from him. The humor of before had faded, leaving just the hard edge of concentration in his expression.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry if I scared you up there."

"You didn't." At his raised eyebrow, I added, "Okay, maybe you freaked me out a little. When I said those names, it was like you'd seen a ghost. Is there a reason for that?"

He took a breath, eyes calculating, as if trying to decide what he should tell me. After a few seconds, he said, "They were some very important people. One of them would have been queen of Egypt." The way he said those words made me think there was some sort of meaning underlying them, but I found none.

"Would have been?" I asked.

"Sagira died at a young age. Shortly after...the king she was in love with." Pain laced itself into his voice, and he had to clear his throat again. "Not many people recognize her name because the time in Egyptian history during which she lived is not well-known."

I had to avoid his gaze, the searching, overpowering gaze of two very intense amethyst eyes. "And Mahad?"

He hesitated, but when he responded, there was a fondness in his tone that made me feel as if he knew these people. "A magician in the Pharaoh's court, as well as one of the Pharaoh's closest friends. He lived at the same time as Sagira."

A magician. Hadn't the man in my dream who I called Mahad been talking to me about magic and spells? "Oh." I murmured, not knowing what else to say.

"Was there some specific information you were looking for?" He asked, reaching out a hand, possibly to turn my chin back up so I would look at him again, but thinking better of it considering it was kind of an intimate gesture, and letting it drop back to his side.

"No, I just..." I sighed. "There's been a lot of things going on lately. The history lesson was kind of refreshing. Thank you." I nudged him in the arm. "If we were studying ancient Egypt in Western History, you'd be acing it."

He couldn't hide his disappointed frown, but he nudged me back. "Thanks for the support. Will I see you tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure. Depends on how long Tea's planning on taking at the library. But you bet I'll be here on Wednesday." I tried to make my voice sound chipper, in the hopes of cheering him up from whatever mood I had put him in when I mentioned those names.

"Good."

And then, like the night before, we were left standing there, watching each other in silence. I turned my eyes skyward, pretending the slightly dingy, nondescript ceiling was suddenly interesting, and sucked in my cheeks. If we did this one more time, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to stop myself from –

Something was pressed into my hand, and my head shot down so I could look to see what it was. Atem was sliding the strap of my bookbag back into my fingers, hardly brushing them as he did so.

"You might want that for tomorrow." He said quietly, his voice a low, soothing timbre.

"Oh." I laughed slightly. "Right. Thanks." A strand of hair fell in my face, and I blew it out of the way. "I really should go now."

"Okay."

I opened the door, feeling the cool, moist air outside. "Bye."

"Bye."

I stepped into the rain, giving him one last look, then sprinted to my car.

Atem closed the door and locked it, watching her through the window. He couldn't help the gears in his mind from turning.

She knew her own name. She knew it, and Mahad's name, yet she still didn't remember anything else. What had she said? "They just sounded familiar."

He had hoped – wished, really – that knowing her own name would have brought her memory back. That had done the trick for him. He had almost gotten impatient enough that he wanted to tell her what it was without her having to find it out for herself. That would have been breaking the rules, but...

She knew it. He couldn't get over that.

"Atem?" Yugi's voice carried across the game shop from the bottom of the stairs. He must have heard the bell jingle as the door opened and closed. "What's wrong? You two looked pretty spooked up there."

Atem turned to Yugi, unable to hide the astonishment on his face. "Yugi, she knew her name."

"What?" It only took a moment for the words to sink in, and then Yugi's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh. Does she remember anything else?"

Atem looked back out the window, at the spot where Erin's car had just been. "I don't know."

"Did she ask about it?"

The Egyptian nodded. "She asked if there had been anyone alive in ancient Egypt named Sagira or Mahad."

"So she remembers Mahad, too? That's great!" The excitement in his enduringly-optimistic friend's voice was clear.

Atem, however, wasn't so happy. "I'm not sure she remembers Mahad so much as she remembers his name. She said something about coming across it in a textbook." As depressing as the thought was, Atem couldn't get too far ahead of himself. When he replayed the last few minutes he had spent with her, there had been no recognition, no secret in her eyes. Unless she was exceptionally good at hiding things.

Which meant that his ability to read her emotions was rusty. And this presented a problem, since he was so used to being able to see exactly what she was thinking as she was thinking it. He didn't like not knowing what she was thinking. Sagira had been a generally open, honest person, but she had had a few secrets of her own, all of which he had been able to pry out of her. But this...this was a whole new Sagira. Trying to read her thoughts by the looks on her face was like trying to read a book written in Greek.

Yugi joined him at the window, and stared out of it for a few seconds before scrunching his eyebrows together, like he often did when he was thinking things through. "Atem, I don't think there's any mention of either of them in any history book. Grandpa would know, and he hadn't even realized that the Dark Magician was actually a person until the Ceremonial Duel. And I know for a fact that since the only people Sagira was technically associated with back then were you two, and no one knew your name, then she is definitely not in any book."

"Maybe." Atem murmured thoughtfully. Yugi's certainty when he talked things through with him strengthened Atem's sense of purpose. It always had. Yugi never gave up, even when Atem felt like nothing was ever going to work in his favor. It warmed his heart to hear Yugi's optimism shine once again.

Yugi gave him an incredulous look, as if he was surprised that Atem hadn't put together two pieces of a puzzle he had given him. There was a pause, and then he said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "Which means Erin found them out some other way."

Atem's head snapped to face Yugi. Of course! "Which means – "

Yugi's eyes glittered with joy, and his voice hardly contained his elation when he spoke. "Oh, yeah, Pharaoh. She remembers something."

Well, they're on the right track! Yay for Atem/Erin awkwardness!

And what about Devon? He's suddenly being nice to Erin. Is this a good thing, or no?

Sorry if the chapter sagged a little. I felt like writing some more playfulness between the friends, and I have this headcanon where Atem isn't really big into school. He's smart, but sometimes he rebels by not applying himself.

Maybe it's just me. I've spent a lot of time on Tumblr lately lol.

Anyway, tell me what you guys think! What should happen next? I need some small scenes (can be friendly, not so friendly, cute, etc.) between plot points. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks again for waiting for this chapter! Stay awesome!

-creativelybored