The Bridge to The Past:

Yugi Motuo: After Atem's spirit could finally find peace; he and Anzu finally became a couple and eventually married. After years on end of no children, it seemed that Anzu was barren until one day, she conceived and bore a son they named Yuuki. Yugi went on to play games and once his grandfather passed on, Yugi took up the gaming shop, which soon gained a high reputation for being owned by the King of Games.

Anzu Mazaki: Once Atem left, Anzu's budding feelings for Yugi finally withered. In her dreams, she always saw Atem once more. Finally, thinking that Yugi was the closest thing she could get to the Pharaoh, she and Yugi became a couple, much to Anzu's chagrin. After their wedding, Anzu's dreams involving the lost Pharaoh finally came to an end. After three years into their marriage, Anzu never conceived until one night, she experienced a very strange and vivid dream. The next month she discovered she was with child.

Katsuya Jounouchi: eventually became a very successful gambler. While he and Mai never admitted their feelings for one another, they were intimate on several occasions. Their relationship came to an abrupt end when Jounouchi met Azakage Tiffany, a half-Japanese half-Canadian aspiring model. They married and had a child. Mai never told Jounouchi that she was pregnant.

Bakura Ryou: Took over charge of the Domino City museum. He married a woman named Miaka and fathered two children, Amane whom Ryou named after his sister and son named Kazuya. Two years ago, Miaka died in a car accident.

There was a period before Ryou met Mika that he never talks about. One morning, Ryou simply woke up in his apartment and discovered that three months have passed. The events shortly before his black out have also been completely erased from his memory. .

Malik Ishtar: Surprisingly for everyone, Marik returned from Egypt and continued to run his black market business. After he fathered a son named Azrael, he eventually married his mother.

Seto Kaiba: Came back and ran his company. Once Mokuba was old enough, he declared him to be his successor. Eventually, he fathered two children by a woman named Amira al-Hassen, a socialite. There was no love in the relationship and Amira soon ran off after giving birth to Seto's youngest daughter.

Hiroto Honda and Ryuji Otogi: He and Otogi eventually gave up their purist of Shizuka and both moved on with their lives. Neither had children.

- - -

Chapter One: Present Day

The pilgrim tapped into the power of the Necklace. Today would begin either humanity's greatest victory or its downfall. Unfortunately, the power of the Sennen Item could not tell her which.

- - -

Ever since Mika's death, Ryou had taken on the responsibility of getting the children up and ready for school. Always, he had made it a habit to pack Kazuya and Amane's lunch to their specific likings.

Next, he left a selection of cereal out for them to choose. While his father may criticize him for pampering his children, Ryou always did for his children what he was deprived of growing up.

Going up the steps, the first door Ryou stopped at was Kazuya's. He knocked twice on it before he opened it. "Good morning," he said kindly.

Kazuya finished tidying up his uniform as he heard the soft knocks on his door and someone saying "Good Morning" and a familiar face peering in.

"Good Morning, father," he responded, giving a slight smile to Ryou. "I just finished getting ready, so I'll grab my backpack and go eat breakfast," he announced in a quiet voice that was uncannily similar to his father's.

"I'll be down in five minutes," Amane said dully before her father could knock, not bothering to even glance up from her Physics textbook. She'd been up since two and, having else nothing better to do before breakfast after she'd finish dressing, Amane decided to finish the book and therefore not have to read it anymore this year. If this happened again the next day she intended to have her Psychology text waiting on her bedside table.

After finishing the last page of the index (now she could truly say she'd read it cover to cover), Amane shut the book and placed it on the bookshelf above her head. Her father continually tried to convince her that having a bookshelf at the head of her bed was dangerous, but Amane always shrugged and responded, "then the people who say I'm going to die with my head in a book will be happy."

Once she was finished stacking the volume neatly on the pile, she picked up the two folders, hers and Tamako's, of assignments due today. Stuffing them in her backpack, she took two blank mini-cassette tapes out of the box of thirty and put them in her pocket before heading downstairs.

Seeing his sister come down the stairs, Kazuya greeted her with a quiet "good morning". Eating his healthy cereal for breakfast, he soon finished and put his bowl in the sink neatly, spoon along with it.

Grabbing his backpack again, he gave his father a nice good bye and a hug before he went out the door to walk to school. Luckily, Domino High School wasn't too far from his house, nor was the Kame Game shop that he would be visiting after school.

Amane was a girl after her namesake. Just like his sister, the girl immersed herself in her studies. That knowledge alone brought a small smile to his face. If only he could get closer to her…

Yet, both of his children had inherited one thing from his late wife: a normal life. And for that, Ryou could not have been happier. Seeing that he got both of them awake and off to school, he quickly prepared for the long day of work ahead of him.

- - -

"Good morning, Kaiba-sama," the woman who dubbed herself as Alanna Kaiba's assistant immediately greeted once the woman herself opened the door to her room. Exactly at seven o'clock in the morning, just like clockwork.

"You have dinner with your father after school, ma'am. You and your sister's outfits have been picked out for the occasion."

"The occasion?" Alanna questioned. Even now, after all these years, the girl's resemblance to her father was uncanny.

"Business dinner, ma'am," the woman replied smoothly. As if checking something off of the list, the woman rambled on her daily agenda. Nothing unusual there, Alanna thought dully as she toyed with a ringlet of her brown hair.

"Thank you, Kanna-san," Alanna said politely. "Will you please fetch my sister?"

"Right away, ma'am," the yes-woman said.

The irony scent of burning corpses, hums of blades and bows, and thick smoke covered everything. Cries of anguish and exclamations of victory. Children scattered everywhere, trying to escape the carnage. Several youths began scaling the walls, and she rose to join them when--"beepbeepgetthefuckupbeepbeepgetthefuckupbeep!"

Tamako stared at the incessant, and decidedly rude, creature with oddly shaped, glowing, red eyes, "...must have arrived sometime in the night."

After a moment's contemplation, she picked up the seemingly delicate creature and tossed it out the window. Then she collapsed on her bed again and promptly dropped back into her story.

The woman known as Kanna Hikari knocked firmly on the door of the youngest Kaiba child. "Tamako-sama," she called softly. The girl always reminded Hikari of herself when she was a teenager, hence why she was always more patient with her than her boss's carbon copy. "Wake up call."

Tamako shot up at the sound. The assassin was approaching. Moving with silent swiftness, she armed herself with her crossbow, did a diving roll across her bed, and took cover behind. Carefully she took aim, eyes trained on the door, she waited.

She heard more than saw the door begin to open after awhile and smirked, "no ones taking my head so easily." Without another moment's hesitation, she opened fire.

Alanna lost all patience when she heard Hikari's shriek. With a quick glance out the window, the girl determined one thing after seeing the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky: it would be a horrible day.

Promptly, the eldest Kaiba child marched down the hall and as gently as she could, shoved her caretaker out of the way so she could have full access to her sister. "She shot me!" Hikari screeched once she could find the voice.

"She has a good aim then," Alanna replied indifferently as she roughly seized her sister's shoulders. "You will not make me late," she told her sister firmly whether she was awake or not. Just to make sure, Alanna gave her a firm shake.

If Alanna missed her perfect attendance over this little twit, so help her…

- - -

On the other side of town, Jounouchi Seira pushed the snooze alarm for the sixth time. She didn't want to go to school, but her bitch mother wouldn't let her fly on the excuse of cramps.

Sighing distastefully, Seira switched the alarm off. Slipping out of bed, Seira did her daily ritual of getting ready for school. While she studied her reflection in the mirror, she looked down at her Domino City School uniform. Reaching down, she hiked up her skirt slightly.

Hearing a knock on the door, Seira rolled her eyes. "I'm coming! Give me a minute!" She called out roughly. Couldn't she get a moment's privacy in this house? "I'm walking to school anyway, so you don't have to give me a ride."

Like she would want to be seen at school with her dumb dad?

- - -

For the love of God!" Yuuki tried to stuff his pillows into his ears, "do they ever stop!"
He doubted it even as he said it. Anzu and the guy with the ridiculous haircut (and coming from the son of the famous, tri-color haired Yugi Motuo, this meant something) had barely had the self-control when coming back this morning to make it to her room. He knew this because they set off the shop alarm on their way in and woke him. Yuuki had been relieved when the pair finally made it past the shop; the last image he needed while ringing up a purchase was his mother and that guy next to Baby Dragon on the counter.

As the screams and "WHAM"-ing sounds increased in volume and frequency, Yuuki tried to bury his head in the mattress. He was seriously considering sleeping in the shop that night. Sleeping bag, pillow, electric blanket, an alarm clock: he'd be good to go. Or at least sleep in the living room.

Yuuki was both dreading and praying for his alarm to go off. He knew he'd wouldn't be able to stay awake in class and would probably get detention, but at the same time, he couldn't stay here. It wasn't that Anzu would yell at him for skipping, it was just that he wouldn't get any sleep or work down here with those two around. He'd have to look for a nice bench or something in the park.

He wished his father would get those contest planner people in America off his ass soon and come home. When Yugi was home, Anzu was at least discreet.

- - -

Twelve year-old Azrael Ishtar finished his breakfast of waffles and rinsed his plate before putting it in the dishwasher.

Going off to find his book bag, he soon returned with it and then went over to his father and gave him a hug. "Tell mother I love her when she wakes up," he said to his father politely, "and I love you, too."

Pulling away slowly, Azrael started off on his was to school.

'Azrael only has a couple more years of middle school before he will be in high school, but he almost seems like a high school student with how organized he could be,' Malik thought priding to himself about his son. He watched as Azrael walked out of the door and closed it behind himself before turning to go back into the master bedroom.

- - -

Maiko sat by the school entrance, waiting for the doors to be opened. Her first day as a first year at Domino High, since her mother transferred her from the other high school.

"Remember, you might meet your father around this school." her mother told her before she said her goodbyes and drove off in her convertible to work.

Opening her eyes that new memory filled her with a deep hope that her father would show up and accept the fact that he had a child with her mother that he accidentally ran out on. She would become the star child in her father's life and make sure that whatever child he had with that other woman would be left in her dust. She wanted her father all to herself as far a fatherly love.

Seira stubbed out her daily cigarettes before rolling her eyes from her friends to the direction of Maiko. "New comer," she muttered. Crumpling the rest of the cigarette up with her shoe before a teacher could come by and see.

Quickly losing interest in the girl, Seira took out her compact to check her reflection real quick. She snorted when one of her male friends had the audacity to say that the girl was rather good looking. Fucking traitor.

Focusing on her reflection, the girl closed the compact as hard as she could. It was always the same. The same brown hair framing the perfect heart shaped face set with jewel like emerald green eyes. Any other girl would have smiled at such a face instead of scoffing. Katsuya Seira had it all, a wealthy family, good parents, a nice upbringing, brains and looks.

To her, nothing like that mattered. She wanted more. Looking back at the newcomer, Seira narrowed her eyes. She would have to do for now. "And you know what we do with pretty girls?" She asked sweetly.

The group looked over at the so-called golden girl of class 1-C, expecting a response other than they received. "We befriend them of course," she replied sweetly.

Walking along, Seira gave Maiko her award-winning smile. "Hiya!" She said cheerfully. "You look new. Want me to show you around?"

Looking up at the approaching person, Maiko smiled. The girl coming towards her looked so gorgeous. She noticed that the skirt was a little high and made a side note that the girl probably could have made her appearance slightly more modest, rather than making herself look too easy. Besides, it was all in the way you dress that shows how easy you are. Her mother always told her that.

"Hello," Maiko replied, a gentle smile crossing her face, "If you aren't too busy, otherwise I can do it myself."

Standing up, she brushed the dust from the back of her skirt and flipped her long, golden locks behind her shoulders. Her eyes, their normal brown color today, examined the girl that stood before her.

"You're pretty," she complimented the girl, hoping she would have a new friend. She didn't want to become lonely like her mother had become so many times. Shifting the weight of her backpack a little, she offered her hand to shake. "My name is Maiko Kujaku."

"Cute name," Seira purred. "I'm Jounouchi Seira, by the way." Leading the girl into the building, Seira went through the motions of showing the new girl around. Finally, she came upon the door marked 1-C. "That's my homeroom, by the way," she chirped. "I'm class president."

Maiko barely paid attention to most of what Seira said as they went around the school. She at least pretended to be paying attention.

'She didn't just say Jounouchi, it has to be a coincidence," she thought. There was no way that this girl could be her younger half-sister.

When the tour was over, she said to Seira, "I have to go to the school office about where my homeroom is." She turned and went towards the office. 'Then I will have to show her up. I'll steal my father's love away from her.'

- - -

Yuuki was positively dragging by the time he escaped the confines of his "home." He hadn't realized just how much sleep he had lost these last few days until now. Every movement hardly seemed worth the effort it took, his backpack and clothing felt as though they had been supersaturated and now were unbearably heavy. Even the twenty his mom had shoved in his hand on his way out the door felt like an unnecessary weight.

He needed a place to crash, screw school, as much as he had been enjoying his classes so far. He needed a break, from school, home, work, Anzu...Damn, all Yuuki wanted was someone to talk to about this. Yes, technically he had talked to people, for a long time, but Yuuki knew his friends so well, and they him, that none of their suggestions were...what word did he want, new?

"Who cares," he responded to himself, "there's no one left to take a new point of view on this, all I can do is try to keep going." And school wasn't going to help today, he needed rest. Undisturbed, zero-brain activity rest.

Yuuki walked into Domino Park.

"...ugh, that boy is going to give me maternal instincts," Amane muttered distastefully as she observed a half-dead Yuuki attempt to enter Domino park rather than the bus terminal. Three times. The first time he walked into the frame of the gate's entrance. Then the frame on the other side. Amane had never understood how people could do things like that and not react. On the other hand, she knew people wondered how she could be so nonchalant about things they apparently found exciting, so she supposed this was an even trade.

Sighing, Amane followed the zombie, pulling out a quarter as she did so. Heads, she'd drag him back to school by the seat of his pants, tails, by his nostrils. As much as she pitied his situation, she didn't see this as a alternative to school, where his classes could distract him. Besides, Domino Park was not exactly the safest place to snooze, and Yuuki was admittedly a cute boy. This was the best thing Amane could do for him right now.

She tossed the coin, caught it, and flipped it onto her arm, "Damn..."

Terra quietly made her way through the park on her way to school. According to the map, cutting across the park would be the easiest route to school. After all, no one liked to be late on their first day of a school...in a foreign country.

He's here!

He? Terra thought, the color draining from her face. Quickly, her sapphire eyes scanned across the park. The one her forefathers were referring to stood out in what seemed to be a beacon of light. Seeing him, a cold shiver involuntarily crept up her spine.

The blood of the Wretched still flows…

In order to avoid notice, Terra quickly moved on. Having them once more announce their desires for her to be their angel of death was the one risk she took by coming here.

School, Terra thought, yes she had to get to school. The only predictable thing with them was the fact they always seemed to quiet down once she came to school. With luck, they will do it again.

- - -

Seto Kaiba was seriously beginning to wonder who was in charge here.

It was bad enough he'd inedvertedly turned Alanna into too perfect of an heir. Mokuba told him it was just his paranoia (as though he had no reason for it!), but Seto feared her skills and confidence might lead her to take legal action and come into her position early.

It was worse that his other daughter (oh, what had he called her?) was showing signs of some kind of mental illness, according to the household staff. Her disinterest, though no lack of aptitude, had already proved her incapable of maintaining Kaiba Corp, but he didn't need the bad press blaming her condition on her raising. If anyone's, it was the household's fault, he never had the time to breed her, and therefore her situation was the result of the manner in which those who had been near her cared for her. But if she had to go to sort of crackpot clinic, all the press' arrows would be pointed at him.

And, when he thought he could not be buried in anymore shit, what happens? Mokuba phones from grad school to tell Seto he's hired someone to make sure Seto takes care of himself. Seto had sat with his cell to his ear long after the boy had hung up, thinking over and over, what the fuck?

A babysitter. His little brother had hired a babysitter to keep an eye on him. Oh, this was going to be hell. He would not stand for it. As soon as he reached his office, he was kicking this person out. He didn't care what Mokuba would think, he wasn't allowing this.

Hand latching tightly to the knob, Seto swung the door open so hard it crashed against the door. He smirked, expecting his "sitter" to be startled, but the smirk faded as soon as he saw whom he was dealing with.

There, standing, poised, behind his desk, shuffling papers into a neat stack, was a young woman with long chestnut hair. She glanced--glanced--up at him, smiled, and stood up straight,
"It is very nice to see you again, Kaiba-kun. I'm Jounouchi Shizuka, Katsuya's younger sister."

This could definitely be hell.