Holy f*** on a f*** sandwich! It's already been two and a half months?

So sorry for the wait, guys. Things got super busy and poor time management skills got the best of me.

Luckily, though, I'm back! I hope you're as pumped as I am to dive deeper into AHL! Consider this a belated Christmas present.

I'm going to miss the actual date, but AHL is about to turn two! I want to thank everyone, both older readers and new ones, for sticking with me and being patient for this long. Thank you for over a hundred and fifty reviews and I hope I continue to give you a good story to read until the end.

Alright, it's time to party!

Enjoy!

Mom didn't get out of bed on Sunday morning. Luckily, she didn't work on weekends. Her skin was clammy and considerably paler than I had ever seen it, and when she tried to pretend that she was fine and climb down from her queen-size mattress, she would have fallen if I wasn't there to push her back onto the bed. At my insistence, she sighed and allowed me to bring her breakfast.

She didn't eat very much of it.

My mother was a waif of a woman who ate like a mammoth. She wasn't super-athletic, but a fast metabolism seemed to run in our family. The fact that the chemo was ruining her appetite and causing her to eat considerably less than she should worried me.

"Erin, I promise you, I'll be fine by tomorrow." She assured me as I sat on the edge of her bed. "The doctor said there would be ups and downs."

I nibbled on the crust of her untouched buttered toast. My appetite wasn't quite so big today, either. "I know."

"Then stop freaking out, okay? Take time to be a teenager." She turned my chin to her and planted a kiss on my forehead. "Now, tell me about that boy you've spent the last two days with. You know, the one I didn't hear anything about until Friday?"

My cheeks reddened a bit. "What about him?"

Giving me a sly grin, she patted the bed next to her. "Everything."

I bit my lip as I clambered over her to sit in the spot she indicated. I wasn't sure exactly what to tell her. Obviously not the whole "ancient lovers" thing, but some of the details of Atem and my relationship were kind of weird if someone was looking from the outside in. I decided to start from the beginning. "Well, we met at school. My first day. We didn't really talk much the first week or so..."

My tale went on, avoiding my visions about him and my kidnapping at Death Dungeon, along with anything else that even remotely had to do with the past. Mom's grin only grew wider the more I spoke. When I finished, she resembled the Cheshire Cat.

"You really like him." She said.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's really sweet, and he's helped me so much these past few weeks."

"And he's super hot."

"Mom!" I hit her with a stray pillow, cheeks burning.

She chuckled. "You know it's true. That boy is the definition of a god."

I rolled my eyes as a smile crept across my face. If only she knew how true those words had been in Ancient Egypt. "That's kind of creepy. Lusting after a younger boy." I teased.

It was her turn to hit me with a pillow. "Just because I'm older, does not mean I can't appreciate the opposite sex."

"Well, find someone to appreciate that isn't my man." The words slipped from my mouth before I could stop them. Regret instantly flooded my being.

"So you're official after only one date, huh?" The teasing lilt in her voice was obvious, and she knew I hadn't meant to say it.

I stuttered my next words. "W-well, no, but...I-I was just..."

Mom's laugh echoed through the room. "It's okay. Besides, he seemed pretty attached to you Friday night, anyway. The kid looked like he was staring at some new form of art every time his eyes were on you."

My cheeks got warmer. "We've gotten close these past few weeks."

"Hopefully not too close." She wiggled her eyebrows, and I suppressed an embarrassed smile. There was no way I was going to give her the details of my kiss with Atem. I hadn't even told Tea yet.

I shoved her. "Alright, mother, it's time to give it a rest. Literally. Get some more sleep."

"But teasing you is so much more fun."

I rolled my eyes jokingly and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. "You can tease me at full strength later."

"Be prepared!" She called as I left the room.

At some point in the school day on Monday, I noticed that anytime Atem was near me, I was touching him. Not inappropriate touching. When we met up at my locker in the morning, I playfully tugged on his uniform jacket when he made a joke. When we walked, we were practically shoulder-to-shoulder. At the lunch table, I brushed his bangs out of his face and then proceeded to poke him on the nose with a teasing remark. We didn't hold hands, however, because even though neither of us were really the PDA type anyway, we were a bit on edge about Devon or Astrid starting some sort of fight. The last thing we needed was even more drama.

"So, who all is going to the arcade tonight?" Yugi asked. "Ishizu and Marik leave tomorrow morning, so this will be our last chance to hang out with them."

I looked around the table. We were still eating lunch. "I'm down." I said. As unfamiliar to me as she was, Ishizu's striking resemblance to Isis comforted me. Having Atem next to me and Ishizu in front of me might help jog my memory a bit more.

I kept meaning to ask Atem about Yugi and Ishizu's resemblance to people from the past. Was it only a coincidence?

"Same here." Said Tea from her place between Yugi and me.

Joey, Tristan, and Duke readily agreed as well, with Serenity choosing to go only after Duke did. I suppressed a grin and tried not to look at Joey.

"What about you, Ryou?" Tea asked. "Do you have any plans tonight?"

The white-haired boy in question glanced up from his Ramen noodles. "I don't really think it's a good idea for me to go." Seeing everyone about to ask why, he quickly added, "you know, after everything that happened last year. It would just make me very uncomfortable, and I'm sure Marik would feel the same way."

Everyone nodded. From what Atem told me, it didn't sound like Ryou had interacted with Marik very much, anyway. It was mostly the spirit of the Millennium Ring. It made sense that he didn't want to go. If I didn't know Yugi and how kind and inclusive he was, I would've asked him why he invited Ryou in the first place.

All that did was bring up bad memories.

"I understand." Yugi said, almost looking a bit sheepish for asking.

Just then, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. We all got up, going our separate ways. Atem fell into step next to me, his shoulder brushing mine, and we headed for our next class.

About halfway there, our path was blocked by – to my utter shock and Atem's surprise – Seto Kaiba. He hadn't been in class that morning, so I only assumed he decided work was the priority for the day. That seemed to be the case quite often with the young CEO.

However, he now stood before us, his tall frame intimidating. I took an involuntary step back. With confusion, I looked around at the swarm of students moving through the hallway. We were in the middle of the walkway. If we had been back at my old school, someone would have plowed us down by now. But here, everyone just parted around us like we were rocks in a river.

It probably had something to do with the fact that I was standing with two of the most prominent people in the school. If Yugi and Duke were here, we'd have a party.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba." Atem said, not sounding the least bit fazed. It seemed he was attempting pleasantries, but knew they wouldn't be returned.

"Atem." Kaiba said, eyes darting to me momentarily before resettling on Atem. No further acknowledgement was given to me. Did he know that the girl his little brother kept hanging out with was my little sister? "Have you received your invitation to my tournament next month?"

Atem nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

"Since you were given a spot so early, some of the details for your stay at KaibaLand were excluded due to the rush. I apologize for the accident." He held out a sheet of paper, the top of which contained the logo for KaibaLand. Beneath was a heading in bold letters that read Hotel Information.

"Hotel?" Atem asked.

Kaiba gave a curt nod. "Every competitor is being given a suite in the brand new hotel in the center of KaibaLand, all expenses paid." For a moment, I was sure his eyes darted to me once more, but I couldn't be certain.

A wave of nausea swept over me. Disoriented, I blinked hard to continue concentrating on the conversation.

"Because I'm sure your cheer squad will be with you twenty-four hours a day regardless, I've also taken the liberty of reserving two extra guest rooms in the same hallway, which can be split between them. Who stays there is not my concern, as long as there is no trouble."

Atem uttered a thank-you, but all I could hear was a mumble. The sickening feeling of familiarity was too strong to focus anymore. My surroundings felt like they were closing in on me. What was happening?

Seto said something else. A moment passed, and then they both looked at me. My eyes went to Atem, whose face had become too blurry to see the expression on his face.

His voice entered my ears, the tone extremely recognizable as concern. He had just said my name, but all that came to my ears was a pair of syllables. Everything else around me was garbled now.

Two hands seized my arms as my eyes grew heavy and my knees buckled. The few stragglers who remained in the hallway gathered around when I collapsed into Atem, their worried gasps and murmurs adding to the white noise in my ears. Atem was repeating my name much more loudly.

Someone was shouting down the hall when my vision finally faded, leaving me drifting in blackness for a moment.

The scrolls scattered around the room were stacked in various states of disarray, having been tossed to the side as their reader went on to the next in a desperate fury. I clasped my hands in front of me and watched Seto continue flying through them. I knew I would have to clean them up after he was finished.

"There has to be a spell somewhere, Sagira." He growled as he threw another against the far wall. "You worked with Mahad and you had no idea of his power?"

I moved closer to him. I hadn't spoken in twelve hours, and my voice was dry from sobbing. "Mahad was very private. And even if he did have the spell you're looking for, he wouldn't leave it laying around for just anyone to pick up."

Seto stood. "You're right. Mana!" He yelled.

The apprentice in question appeared in the doorway. It was obvious that she had been crying earlier, as had I. "Priest Seto?" Her voice was small and tired.

"Where did Mahad keep important spells?"

After exchanging a knowing glance with me, Mana looked to the ground. "I...I don't know."

"Useless!" Seto hissed.

When he moved to pass me, I stepped in front of him. "Seto, he's gone." The words, though shaky, felt like a hippopotamus on my chest. No matter how much I dreaded them, they were true.

Sharp blue eyes glared at me. "Don't pretend you are above this, Sagira. I know all about the Pharaoh's plans for you. If you truly love him as much as he thought you did, you will help me."

My heart felt like it had been stabbed a hundred times. I had to compose myself before I spoke. "If you truly know him as well as you think you do, then you will stop trying to undo his sacrifice. He did it to save us."

Seto's eyebrows drew further over his eyes, making him look even more intimidating. I clenched my jaw and stared defiantly up at him, though I knew that deep down, the logic that I was using to argue with the high priest was as meaningless to me as it was to him.

But unlike Seto, I was much less obvious about my intentions.

"If you're not going to help me, then get out of my way." He tried to sidestep, but I moved in front of him again. His voice grew more severe, his new position as king shining through. "That's an order, Sagira."

I flinched, and reluctantly did as told. I knew better than to push him any farther. He brushed past Mana and I and disappeared down the hallway. My lips pursed as my eyes squeezed shut to prevent more tears from leaking.

"He's never going to stop." Mana said, breaking the sad silence.

I shook my head and opened my eyes to look at her tearstained face. "Sooner or later, he will accept what is. We just have to be patient."

"And you?" She asked. Further inspection of her expression told me that she was asking much more than the question implied.

"I will be alright. He had nothing but good intentions." Lies. I hated it – the manipulation. Poor Mana had no idea of what was to come.

Her green eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you."

I tried my best to feign surprise. "What do you mean?"

She crossed her arms. "I saw you leave in the middle of the night. Don't sit here and pretend everything is fine when it obviously isn't." Her tone became pleading. "I don't want to lose any more friends. I don't want to be alone." A tear slipped from her eye. "Don't leave me alone, Ira."

I swallowed a lump of regret. Mana was the last person I wanted to see break. "I'm sorry." I whispered. My cheeks were wet, indicating I had begun to cry once more. "I can't...Atem..."

Mana sniffed and hugged me, her sobs echoing mine. "This isn't the end." She said between breaths. "He'll be back. I promise."

Bright light turned my eyelids red. Because the intense color hit my eyes so suddenly, I was prompted to squeeze them shut in an attempt to block it out. A small, tired groan left my lips. Had I fainted again?

I had to stop doing that.

"Erin?" Atem's voice reached my ears. My lips turned up slightly.

My eyes fluttered open to find him standing over me, not unlike he had been at the museum when I had my last episode. His face was drawn, but I could see it relaxing now that I was awake.

"Good. You're conscious." Came a female voice from somewhere to my right. I turned my head to find the school nurse shuffling papers by her desk. Her honey blonde hair was tied back into a bun, and she wore no makeup to hide the exhaustion in her face. "Do you need anything, honey? Water? Something to eat?"

I sat up, not a trace of dizziness to make my head spin, and ran a hand through my hair. I felt a bit groggy, like I had been woken up in the middle of the night, but I figured that was from the fact that my brain was working extremely hard to process extra memories. "No. I think I'm fine."

"Well, since you weren't out for a horribly long time, all I have for you are a few routine questions." She pulled up a chair at the foot of the bed that I sat on. "When your friend brought you in here, he said not to call an ambulance and that you have had these fainting spells before. However, I found no evidence of that in your medical records. Is this true?"

I exchanged a glance with Atem, who looked relatively frazzled about the situation he was in. "Uh, yeah. It's only happened a few times, but it's never been anything serious. Lack of oxygen or something."

She nodded slowly, noting the look between Atem and I. "Okay. Any history of illnesses in you or your family that could be bringing on these fainting spells? Anemia? Diabetes? Arrhythmia?"

"None."

"Did you eat anything for breakfast or lunch? Have you drank a sufficient amount of water today? Were you feeling nauseous, dizzy, or unwell at any point during the day?"

I shook my head again. "Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, and I carry a water bottle in my backpack. And I've been feeling fine."

She nodded to all of my answers, marking down on a clipboard she had brought with her. "I left a message for your mother when you were brought here, so you are allowed to leave if you would like. That's only if you are feeling perfectly healthy now and do not feel you are able to go back to class. It's probably nothing serious since you have not had any complications before, but just to be safe, I would recommend seeing a doctor to check for any abnormalities in body function."

My blood turned to ice. "O-okay." Mom definitely wouldn't take this lightly. When it came to illness, she didn't mess around, especially after her diagnosis. I shot a worried look to Atem, who by his face told me that he had tried to prevent the phone call from happening.

"Am I allowed to go back to class now?" I asked. Maybe if Mom saw that I went through the rest of the day completely fine, she would forget to schedule a doctor's appointment. It would be a waste of time and money, anyway.

The nurse nodded for the third time. "Absolutely. Just make sure you come back here if you don't feel well this afternoon, alright?"

"Got it. Thank you." I said as I stood, Atem's hand on my arm completely unnecessary but not totally unwanted. The nurse handed each of us a pass to get past hall monitors and give an excuse for being tardy to class.

When we were out in the empty hallway and out of earshot of the nurse, I stopped and murmured to Atem, "What now? Mom is going to freak."

He sighed. "I tried my hardest. She insisted that your mother know."

I took a deep breath and bit the inside of my cheek as we began walking again. "I don't blame you for school protocol. I just know that as soon as I get home, things are going to get ugly."

"You could always stay with the rest of us until after we go out with Ishizu and Marik." He suggested half-heartedly, knowing full well my responsibilities when it came to taking care of Miri that had come around in the last month.

"I wish it was that easy." I blew a strand of hair out of my face.

We continued in silence. Once we had climbed the stairs to the second floor of the school, I was too busy mulling over my most recent regression and my future argument with my mother to notice that Atem had spoken again.

"Erin."

I shook my head, then turned to him. "Yeah?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I was asking if the reason you fainted was because you remembered something else."

"Yes." I was about to elaborate, but my voice caught. I wasn't sure if telling him how badly his death ripped his closest friends apart was very appropriate in a hallway at school.

Or ever.

My mind was still piecing things together, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my visions were giving me information that Sagira had tried desperately to erase. What had she been thinking about as Mana cried into her shoulder? Those few minutes I remembered sitting alone in a dark room, scratching nonsense into that black tablet...could they have been later that same night?

What were the lines of the riddle Atem had told me? When Ra rose for the last time in eyes of blue, her fortunes were counted, though she saw few...Grief had turned to despair...

Atem's expression molded back into a poker face, and I couldn't tell if he wanted me to go on or if he was fine with my one-word answer. I turned my gaze to the floor in front of us. "I'd...rather not talk about it."

He shrugged. "It's your choice –"

He was cut off mid-sentence by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I didn't even have to check the ID to know who was calling me. Mouthing a "sorry" to Atem, I put it to my ear. "Hey, mom," I said, trying to sound cheerful.

"You've been fainting and you haven't been telling me?" My mother's voice was shrill, and the echo I heard in the background clued me in that she had shut herself in the bathroom at work.

My eyes turned to the ceiling. "Mom, I swear, it's not a big deal –"

"Not a big deal my ass!" She sounded like she was trying desperately to compose herself, and her breathing on the line slowed just a bit. "Erin, the last thing I want is another illness in the family. And I know you're smart enough to realize that repeatedly fainting is not a good thing."

"Can we talk about this later?" I murmured. We had arrived at our classroom door, and walking into class on the phone was not a very good idea.

Mom's sigh on the other end was loud enough that Atem heard it, and gave me a sympathetic look. "Fine. See you at home. Don't die."

"Sure thing." I muttered as the dial tone rung in my ear, signifying that she had hung up. With a curse under my breath, I pu my phone back in my pocket.

"Is she angry with you?" Atem asked.

"Angry's a word for it. Let's go." I pulled him into the art classroom, ignoring the looks we got from our classmates, and we took our seats. Astrid was gone, so we had the table to ourselves again.

Atem didn't ask any more questions, though I knew he wanted to. I was too afraid to answer them, anyway. The memories were beginning to scare me.

What had I – Sagira – been planning on doing when that vision cut off?

And why did my stomach lurch in guilt every time Atem's eyes met mine?

Tea drummed her fingers on her thigh, leaning against the locker outside of the American Lit classroom. "Where are they?" She asked.

Yugi shrugged. "Maybe they got held up?"

"Or they're making out somewhere under the stairwells." Joey snickered, earning a slap from Tea. "What? Ya saw those two at lunch. They couldn't keep their hands off each other."

"Neither of them would even consider being one of those couples." Tea shot back, rolling her eyes. "They're too smart."

"That's the hope at least, right?" Tristan asked with a wink.

"You two are so gross!"

"Hey, here they come," Yugi said, inclining his head down the hallway, where the ex-Pharaoh and his assumed girlfriend were approaching. Erin was walking very close to him, her shoulder brushing his, and she was half-smiling. The smirk on Atem's face showed that they were speaking about something amusing.

"Heya, lovebirds," Joey greeted as they came to a stop in front of Erin's locker, "ready to go?"

"Yeah, I just have to grab something out of here really quick." Erin went to work on her combination lock.

Tristan crossed his arms. "I think you and Tea are the only two people I know who actually use their locker. Why can't you just carry the books around with you?"

"Too inconvenient." Erin replied, pulling on the newly-freed handle. As soon as she opened the door, a piece of paper flew out, landing on the floor in front of her. "Huh?"

"I see your locker is about as organized as your life." Joey commented.

"Hardy-har." The dark-haired girl answered. She bent to pick it up.

The group looked on when her skin turned pale as she straightened up.

Tea put a hand on her shoulder. "Erin? Everything alright?"

Erin didn't reply. Her eyes were glued to the paper, which she now held very close to her face.

"Erin?" Atem placed his own hands on her upper arms from behind, and his head next to hers in an attempt to read over her shoulder. His eyes widened.

"That's...That's my face." She whispered.

Intrigued, the rest of the gang attempted to get a better look. Erin lowered the paper just enough for all eyes to see.

A full-body portrait of Erin – or rather, someone that looked like Erin – in a long Victorian gown stared back at them, her gaze level and wise. Next to the picture was a list of statistics: name, date of birth, family members, even a date and cause of death.

"Genevieve Baker," Erin breathed, "born October nineteenth, eighteen twenty-five in Manchester, England; died January twenty-first, eighteen forty-four, at the age of eighteen, under mysterious circumstances. Only daughter of Lord Carleton and Lady Bella Baker of Wales. Engaged to Sir Silas Meaklim." Her breath shook. "Why does she have my face?"

"Erin..." Atem tried, but he didn't know how to explain things to her. His heart was pounding as he mulled over what this meant.

Beneath the abridged biography was large, looped handwriting.

Now time is nothing to her, though it still rules her fate

A hundred lifetimes, thousands to wait.

You're screwed, Perdidit Regina.

That last line didn't rhyme so well with the others, did it?

Will Erin's mom be okay?

I managed to get some Kaiba in there (plus a bonus Priest Seto!). What do you think Erin's newest vision meant?

How do you think the tournament in KaibaLand will go?

And what is going to happen now that some pieces of the riddle are becoming clear to the group?

Once again, I'm super sorry for the wait and will hopefully work a little faster on the next chapter. Things are going to get interesting in the next few installments!

Anyway, I hope you guys had a good time over the holidays and I wish all of you a happy New Year!

Until next time!

-creativelybored