Chapter 2

The nurse pressed an ice pack to the bruise forming on the girl's cheek, and she let out a sharp hiss. After her little dispute in the hallway with Mizuko, she was left with a loosened tooth, a pain in her cheek that was becoming a purple-black mark and a sore butt from her impact with the floor of the corridor.

Kaiba rubbed her shoulder and pulled the ice pack away slightly as the nurse disappeared through the door to get a spare for her, sighing at the dark patch forming on her face. "So what went on between you and the new girl then?" he gave her a questioning look.

Mattie turned her face to look at him, her hair stuck her forehead, and before she could speak, her rival's hand brushed the stray strands away, and then was gone as quickly as it came. At the touch the words fell out of her head and a weird sensation bubbled in her stomach before disappearing again.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow and waved a hand, "Hello? What went on in the hall?"

"Oh," Mattie finally woke out of her trance, "Well...Mizuko and I...we've know each other a long time. It sounds silly now, but we've never gotten along, even as children," she hissed again as the ice on her cheek was replaced, "I was once the new girl, and we were told to work together...we were 6 years old at the time, and I was dared to chew bubblegum and stick it into her hair. I know it was childish but it was my first day and I wanted to fit in with people."

The tall teen listened, surprised at the girl's little revelation, "You did it?"

"Yes. I'm not proud of it now, but she did something just as bad to me," Mattie exclaimed, wincing as another shot of pain went through her face, "When she'd had her hair sorted out by the teacher...somehow she got hold of something from the teacher's bag."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed and one eyebrow shot into his brown bangs. "...go on."

"We used to have a snack in the afternoon. And everyone would have either a carton of juice, or a carton of milk, and a sandwich with it. And somehow..." Mattie glared at her hand, "I should probably tell you our teacher suffered from...problems passing waste...so she took herbal drops for it."

At this, Kaiba looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head, his mouth falling open. "She...put laxative drops in your drink?"

"And my sandwich," She blushed and turned her gaze to the mirror, checking her cheek to see the true damage of her old enemy's right hook, "You can guess the embarrassment I suffered."

Kaiba shook his head again. "And this carried on..."

"The entire time we were in school together, we were trying to find ways to irritate the other. And I've never forgiven her for the laxatives." She turned to Kaiba again, and for some reason the temptation to use the name Seto towards him was strong.

The student CEO looked at his friend with a look of confusion. "That's a little hypocritical, Cassidy. I mean you did start this entire thing."

"I know, but I never...I was young, and everyone makes mistakes when they're young. I know better now."

"Then why are you still teasing Mizuko?"

Mattie opened her mouth to retaliate, but found she couldn't. She didn't have a reason. Kaiba smirked. "I think maybe it's time to slowly try and be friends with her."

The girl smirked, even though it made her cheek ache, and straightened her hair. "Then you stop being an asshole to the 'Geek Squad', as you so eloquently call them."

Kaiba's eyes widened, along with Mattie's smirk, and he left the room, only to turn and stop to lean against an empty wall. Was it just him who'd seen the eye on his forehead that night? Or had it affected Yugi, Jou and the others?

He wasn't worried.

Was he?

Inside the room, Mattie pushed her finger inside her mouth to check her now wobbly tooth. She'd always had a couple that had grown unevenly, and Mizuko's punch to her cheek seemed to have loosened one of the crooked ones.

Her thoughts went back to her friend and sports rival, and Mizuko's little comment as he'd dragged her from their hallway conflict. Her boyfriend? She tightly gripped the small sink in front of the mirror and scowled, that bubbling feeling rising in her stomach again. Mizuko had no idea what she was on about.

Even though she was still seething at her old enemy, Mattie's conscience told her Kaiba was right. But Mizuko was going to have to apologize for nearly knocking out one of her teeth before she would try and start afresh.

"Ryuuji? Ryuuji!"

Otogi was snapped out of his dazed state by a hand being waved about in front of his face. "Oh, sorry Shizuka. I was just…thinking…" he trailed off, looking glum.

Shizuka smiled "I could see that. Are you feeling ok? Is this about what happened yesterday?" her smile dropped slightly. "Maybe you should talk to Yugi and the others about this. They understand more about this sort of thing…"

"No, I can't Shizuka! An Egyptian Eye appearing on your head is not something you go around talking about! Not that's they'd believe me anyway." His head flopped onto the counter. Shizuka placed a reassuring hand on his arm.

"But I was there, and the others know that I wouldn't lie!" she said brightly. Otogi peered at her from under his hair, grinning humorously. "You? Not lie? Then I assume your brother knows all about us meeting up every weekend then?" Shizuka eyes widened as she playfully hit him on the arm.

"That's different! Big brother would murder you if he found out! And I'm not into necrophilia," she sniffed. Otogi laughed and shook his head.

"Necrophilia…where did you even learn that word?"

Shizuka giggled.

"What you don't know won't hurt you Ryuuji." The two of them laughed again, all thoughts of the Egyptian eye disappearing as their hands lay clasped together on the counter.

"Sister, should I move these boxes over into the other room?" Malik called out, heaving the heavy boxes up into his arms. Ishizu nodded absently, fingers trailing along her throat, even though it had been months since the necklace had lain there.

Malik sighed before carry the boxes into the next room. He wished with all his heart that he and his family were returning to Domino for a different reason. Not because of the darkness that had seized their minds just a few nights ago, giving them that urgent message, 'return to Domino, you are needed'. Ishizu had been the most effected by it. Malik supposed in was because she had once held the necklace, maybe some left over power from it still remained in his sister?

But Ishizu had denied this. All she had said was that she had been having strange dreams where she was running and running after something, the order of returning to Domino echoed around her mind.

"Malik, what are you doing with those boxes?" came a sudden screech from said sister. Malik almost jumped into the air, and almost dropped the boxes in the process. Ishizu rushed forward to grab the boxes out of his hands.

"Never-EVER-touch something this expensive and fragile again Malik Ishtar, or so help me…" Ishizu's threat went unfinished, but her eyes promised pain and suffering should he ever go against her order. Malik held up his hands in a surrender sign and chuckled nervously.

"Whatever you say sister…" he hurried off into the next room, almost crashing into Rishid in the process. The eldest Ishtar gave Malik one of his rare smiles and pushed him towards the door.

"Ishizu won't notice if you're gone for a little while. Take a walk, and I'll try and make sure we're finished with all the fragile objects by the time you're back." Malik smiled gratefully at his adopted brother before hurtling towards the door. He needed some fresh air. Maybe this walk would be good to help him clear his head.

Mizuko's head gave a painful crack as it thudded against the alleyway wall. Her body felt like it had been pummelled all over, which wouldn't be too far from the truth. 'Trust me to run into a gang on my first day in this stupid city…' she thought, scowling as she heaved herself from the wall to throw a punch at another of the gang members.

She had held up pretty well, although her uniform had certainly taken a lot of damage, and she was certain to have more than a few bruises. The gang member blocked the punch, and Mizuko yelled out as another rammed into her from behind. She landed on the ground with a thud, her vision going blurry.

"Hey-HEY!" she suddenly heard a voice yell, and the heard the sound of fist connecting with flesh.

"Crap, let's go!" she heard the gang leader say, and they all ran.

"Hey, are you ok?" the voice of the guy who-she supposed-had helped her asked, and Mizuko saw a tanned hand just in front of her face. Blatantly ignoring it, she scrabbled to her feet, first taking a look at her own battered state 'oh God, Dad's going to kill me for ruining this on my first day' and then glaring up at her rescuer as if it was all his fault. He was handsome; she couldn't deny that, with tanned skin and platinum blonde hair and purple eyes. He had an assortment of gold jewellery on, and strange markings were around his eyes.

'Huh. Weird…'

"Are you ok?" the stranger asked again, glancing over her body, an almost surprised look on his face as he took in the uniform. "It looked like those guys got you pretty badly."

"I was fine! I could have taken them easily," Mizuko snapped back, feeling more and more irritated by the second. Who the hell was this guy with his girly hair and makeup trying to act like some saviour? Bastard. "I didn't need your help, and if you don't mind, I need to get home now." Mizuko attempted to barge past him but he grabbed her arm.

"Wow, slow down! You should at least say thank you. And please, you were on the floor with three guys crowded over you. I doubt you could have handled them." Malik was irritated. This girl was infuriating! Honestly, he couldn't win. Trying to take over the world, nope. Simply try to help out a girl in trouble on the street? Also a no. Mizuko snatched her arm out of his grasp, and with a final withering glare, turned and walked off into the coming night. Malik stared after her, a frown on his face.

Rain suddenly started to plop down around him and Malik sighed. Oh great. His pocket vibrated and he pulled out his phone, snapping it open. "Rishid? Yeah, I can come back now. I've finished my walk…" and with that, he made his own way back home.

~*Ancient Egypt*~

Nila was humming to herself as she hurried along the street, carrying a basket of items Mahado required. Mahado had originally been looking for Mana to carry out the task, but she had run off again and so Nila had volunteered to buy the items instead.

She sighed happily. Learning how to be a magician was even better than she had thought! She had even almost been able to see a spirit-her Ka-today! She still had a long way to go, and even just trying to summon was exhausting, but it made her happy.

The sun was already quite low in the sky, so Nila quickly decided that it would be better to take a short cut down some back alleys to the palace. She quickly regretted this decision however, as the sun sank even lower, and the alleyway was quickly submerged into shadows. Nila shivered, wishing she had brought a cloak.

Suddenly a figure shot out from the shadows, and Nila screamed as she was sent tumbling to the ground, a searing pain spreading where the thief's knife had caught her.

"Oi, look here fellas! Looks like we got ourselves a rich one," the first thief chuckled, bending down over Nila to touch the gold arm and wristbands she wore, his eyes glittering greedily. Nila scowled slightly, waving her hand across and summoning just enough magic to shove him away from her.

She struggled to stand, and frantically searched inside her mind for the spirit she had glimpsed earlier that day during her magic lesson. Searching for the Ka that might be her only chance. Something did appear, a watery image of a slight girl with long hair like Nila's, but it was quickly destroyed as another of the thieves slashed through it. Nila screamed in pain as the Ka faded, collapsing back to the ground again as the thieves surrounded her.

Nila was close to passing out, but she forced herself to stay awake as she felt rough hands grabbing at her headdress and golden arm and wristbands. She had almost no energy left-attempting to summon her Ka only to have it destroyed a second later had knocked everything out of her.

Suddenly, there was a blinding light as one of the thieves was quite literally blasted away from her. Nila's eyes widened even further as she made out the shape of a small ka in purple armour. Master Mahado's ka…

Her shock at him saving her outweighed the fact she'd lost her possessions, and she looked up, her eyes remaining wide and staring as he bent down to see that she was unharmed.

Mahado, with his Ka not far behind them, lifted her into his arms as if she were a bride, carrying her towards the palace, a look of worry on his face for his charge and student. He could feel her muscles were a little limp from the exertion of magic she'd given, and that she would need some rest, but he couldn't truly gauge and treat her possible injuries without the proper equipment.

He shook his head slightly. He could tell this girl was going to give him a little trouble, but in a way he liked that his student would be a challenge. It would certainly keep his mind away from other people, or rather, a person...a girl...

Nila's cheeks heated up as she took in the feel of him holding her. His arms were so comfortable, and she could easily get used to lying in them. From her position she could see his handsome profile with perfectly defined contours, and it was all she could do not to lean forward and envelope her saviour in a grateful and heartfelt kiss.

Mahado looked at her and when he noticed she was looking at him, he gave her a friendly smile which was tinted with worry. "Ah, so you're awake. How are you feeling?"

At the rich voice she could have melted into a puddle of water, "I'm alright, I think..." she looked back at Illusion Magus behind them, who had a strange expression on his face as if he wanted to speak, but couldn't. She turned back to look at the object of her infatuation and wondered if it was the right time to voice her feelings, "Master Mahado?"

"Yes?" his expression was one of sheer obliviousness, and it took away that sudden confidence to tell him of her feelings, so she shook her head a little, more to herself than to him.

"Never mind."

He didn't look back down, but still spoke, "If it's about your bands and your headdress, another set can be made. You are more valuable than the objects that were taken from you. The items I asked you to get can also be replaced. What's important right now is you."

She felt her heart speed up, and begged to the Gods that it didn't burst from her chest in her joy. Nila hoped that meant her feelings were noticed and reciprocated, or at least he was trying to show her some affection. "I tried to summon my Ka to get them to back off, but...it didn't work..."

"Don't worry," Mahado encouraged, "You have a long way to go before you'll be 100 per cent successful, but you're doing very well. It took me a long time to be able to summon mine and sustain him, and if I'm not feeling at my best it can still be a struggle," he smiled again, and Nila could feel her heart speed up all over again, "You'll get it, even if it takes a while."

When they reached the palace, Mahado set her down on the ground in the healing chambers, and made sure she was alright. But it the middle of him checking her over for injury, Mana appeared from behind the door with a smile on her face, with her usual light-hearted air about her, seemingly delighted. "Nila, I heard that you were attacked, and I was so scared you were hurt but you're alright!" the girl bounded forward, almost ready to throw Nila into a hug when Mahado stopped the young magician in her tracks.

"Easy Mana, I'm not finished checking her over yet, she still could have injuries," he told her, and a momentary sulky face came from the blonde girl before she stood still, "Thank you. I know you're eager to see her but wait a moment."

In her occupation of daydreaming about how wonderful Mahado seemed to be, Nila failed to notice that Mahado's eyes had softened in the young magician girl's direction, the gentle hold on her shoulders keeping her in place, the lightness of his voice towards his student, or that a slight smile had upturned his lips at Mana's presence...

Maybe it was just him who could see it, but there was something certainly strange about his servant whenever Seth was near. For one thing, if the three of them were together, Atem, Nerifa and Seth, it was a guarantee that Atem would end up getting ignored.

He had noticed this pattern quickly; he was not in the position of one accustomed to being ignored. Atem didn't even think they did it on purpose. He was just somehow…left behind.

Atem was currently on his way to Seth's chamber, Nerifa following behind at a respectable pace. That was about all the respect he got from her. They had known each other too long for Nerifa to take any notice of other formalities.

"Hey Atem, what game do you think Seth will have this time?" Nerifa asked, an excited look on her face. Atem smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "Who knows what game he's got. You know he enjoys trying to surprise us!" he laughed. Suddenly a sly look crept across his face. "You always get so excited when we go to play games with Seth…you must really love your games, huh Nerifa?"

Nerifa snorted. "Hardly. There are so many complicated rules I can barely keep up, and I never win anyway so…" she trailed off suddenly, her face suddenly blazing bright red. She'd fallen for it.

Mentally laughing his head off, Atem put on a confused look. "You don't like the games? But you always seem so excited when we play them with Seth! Oh well, I'll just have to tell him you don't really feel up to playing with us anymore…"

"Don't you dare Atem!" Nerifa growled, pounding her fists against Atem's back. Atem was laughing out loud now as he caught her fists with ease. "No, no, no Nerifa, I insist. We've been awful to impose upon you for this long, you simply mustn't burden yourself anymore…"

"OI! You two!" a new voice came from just down the corridor. Nerifa and Atem froze in the antics to see Seth standing there with an irritated look on his face. "You're late. Now hurry up, we need to get the game started!" with that he stomped back into his chambers.

Atem turned to hurry on into the chambers, glancing back over his shoulder quickly to see Nerifa still just standing there, a mortified look on her face. "Nerifa, no use worrying about it now," Atem called. She snapped out of her trance, and threw the Pharaoh and agitated look before following him into Seth's chambers.

Let the games begin.

Ok, so we wrote this story ages ago, and it didn't really work out in the end. But I figured it would be a waste after all the writing we did do for it, so I'm going to post the rest of the chapters anyway. But this story is, and will remain, incomplete once all the chapters we've written have been posted.

Sorry to anyone who was enjoying this and wanted to see it finished~