Hello, everyone. Another chapter typed. Up to this point, I've been kinda drifting because I've been debating on how this story's going to go. Now I think I have an idea of what I want to do. So if the chapters up until this point have been kind of all over the place, that's why. Hopefully they'll be better from here on. I also changed some of the Supreme King's (the card) traits/abilities. I'll have to change that in the earlier chapter, but I wouldn't bother rereading it, since that's the only thing that will change. I think that covers everything I wanted to say. Enjoy!

"Hey Horus, guess what?" Randy said excitedly. Horus wasn't particularly sure if he cared at the moment, but his friend looked so excited that he asked anyway.

"What?"

"There's going to be a tournament next month here at the Academy," Randy replied, appearing as if he were actually looking forward to it. Horus knew immediately that something was wrong. Randy was never excited about tournaments. Ever.

"Oh yeah? What's so exciting about that?"

"Because whoever wins the tournament gets tickets to the next professional tournament in Domino City," Randy explained. Horus still didn't see why Randy was so happy about it. In order to get the tickets, he'd have to beat the rest of the school. That just wasn't possible for a Slifer, no matter how hard they tried.

But somewhere in the back of his mind, Horus started to feel a strange sensation. Like he was confident that he would win those tickets. His hands shook slightly in anticipation for a duel. A smile was threatening to break out on his face. It was just creepy, so Horus just fell silent.

"Hey, maybe we should watch a duel tape," Randy suggested. "It might help us duel."

Horus barked out a short laugh. If that worked, he'd be the best duelist in the school. Still, he was kind of in the mood to see one. It had been a while.

"Sure, man. When is Cady supposed to drop by?"

"Hey guys! Got a soda?" Speak of the devil.

"How many times do I gotta tell you not to just barge in here," Horus muttered as he passed her a can.

"Ah, whatever. It's still the middle of the day. It's not like you'll be getting changed. Did you hear about the tournament yet?"

"Just now, from Randy."

"Cool, isn't it? I wanna win those tickets," Cady claimed boldly. Since when were his friends such impossible optimists?

"Um, haven't you guys forgotten that we're in Slifer?" Horus asked, trying to be realistic. It sounded horribly pessimistic, but it was true.

"Yeah, but right before the tournament, we're supposed to get new cards. Powerful new cards," Cady pointed out happily. "So even us Slifers have a chance if we get a powerful enough card."

"Hm..." Horus replied. He still wasn't convinced. But hey, whatever floated their boat. "Well, Randy wants to watch another tape. You up for it?"

"Of course! I'm always up for watching a good duel!" she crowed happily. Jeez, did she down ten cups of coffee or something?

"Hey, what tape were we on?" Horus asked.

"Oh, uh, 476. Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale vs. the Paradox Brothers. But if you want, we could go back to the last one. You know, since you didn't get to see it," Randy offered.

"Nah, that's alright," Horus reassured him. "I'll just watch it when I have time. It'd be boring if you guys had to watch the last duel twice in a row."

When he picked up the tape, he froze. He'd forgotten. The last five tapes were all dedicated to duels Jaden Yuki had taken part in. Something felt off, like Horus shouldn't watch the video. Horus shook the thought away and set up the TV.

Cady and Randy were excited as always, but Horus inexplicably dreaded what he was going to see. There was just something horribly wrong.

Cady noticed the way Horus hesitated when he picked up the tape. Not that she was paying particular attention to him or anything. But Horus never turned down the chance to watch a duel. Why was he acting so skittish about this one? That jerk! He probably watched it already without her and Randy and just didn't want to give it away. At least, that was the most reasonable explanation. Somehow, Cady got the impression that that wasn't right. Horus had looked almost...scared.

He seemed to get over his hesitation quickly and pushed the tape into the VCR. After turning the TV on, he sat down on the floor in front of his bunk, and Cady didn't bother thinking about it anymore. The duel was about to start after all.

The image cut in to show two ridiculous-looking twins standing at one edge of the arena and two Slifers on the other. One of the Slifers was short with light blue hair and glasses. The other was a carefree guy with two-toned brown hair.

Horus cried out and leaped to his feet. What the heck?

His eyes were dilated, and his face was pale. It was like he'd seen a ghost.

"What's the matter, Horus?" Randy asked.

"Uh, it's nothing. I just...remembered that I had to go help Sadie with the evening shift today!" he lied. It was obvious that it was a lie. He looked like he was going to be sick.

Before she could argue, Horus practically ran out the door.

"Horus!" She paused the video and her and Randy chased him out of the dorms. But by the time they were outside, he had already disappeared into the forest.

There wasn't a single coherant thought passing through Horus' mind. He just ran, not paying attention to where he was going. What was he even running from? It was all just a big coincidence, right? Horus forced himself to calm down and stop running.

Jaden Yuki. The nightmares Horus had been having. The new deck, especially that card called the "Supreme King". They were all connected. The nightmares had started right around the time that Horus had found his new deck. The deck that Jaden Yuki apparently used to own. It had just magically shown up on its own. Cards don't do that. Ever. Jaden Yuki had also disappeared fifty years ago, right after leaving Duel Academy.

Horus pulled out his-no, Jaden's deck-and frantically searched through them until he found the card he wanted. The Supreme King. The gold eye glared out at him from the dark armor while the brown managed to smile with the most sincerity Horus had ever seen. Horus had been hoping he'd imagined wrong, but it was Jaden's face staring out at him.

Why was he on a card? What was the Supreme King? Then Horus connected the dots. He just hoped he was wrong. Jaden was taken over by his dark emotions and did horrible things...

He dashed back to the card shop to find Sadie.

"Didn't I tell you? You don't have to work today," Sadie said tensely. Then she realized that Horus looked sick, bent over and breathing like he'd just run a marathon. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I...I need to show you something," he said uncertainly.

He pulled out the Supreme King from his deck. "Is this Jaden?" He passed the card to Sadie.

The old woman yelped and dropped the card like it had burned her. "Th-that's him. How...What is this card, Horus?"

"I don't know, it was in my deck when I got it. I just assumed it was another monster."

"I've certainly never seen this card, and it definitely was not in the deck when Jaden was alive."

A chill went down Horus' spine. "Wait, alive? You just said that he disappeared. You never mentioned anything about him dying."

Sadie's face darkened for an instant, and every instinct Horus had was telling him to run. Then the moment passed. "I just assumed...it's been so many years...who knows what happened to him?" Sadie explained hurriedly.

She was back to normal so quickly that Horus wanted to believe that he'd imagined it. But he couldn't. "Yeah, you're right," Horus lied quickly. "Maybe it was just a coincidence? Maybe someone in Industrial Illusions knew him and created a card based off of him because he was such an awesome duelist."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Sadie replied, looking relieved. "One of his old roommates became a card designer. Even gave him cards from time to time. But he wasn't around for the Supreme King incident, though, so I don't know how he found out about it."

There it was again. Sadie had slipped again, given away information. Horus pretended not to have noticed. He had a feeling things were going to become dangerous if he revealed her lies.

"Then that must be it! I was freaking out over nothing!" Horus cried, barely managing to speak. "Thanks for the info, Miss Richardson. I need to get back to the dorms in time for dinner. Bye!"

He quickly walked out of the building before Sadie could stop him. Her voice called after him, but Horus ignored it.

"Jeez, where'd you go, Horus?" Cady complained around a mouthful of rice. "Me and Randy were searching for you for an hour.

"Sorry. But I told you, I had to go help Sadie with something."

"Bull," Cady snapped after swallowing. "You looked like you were going to throw up. Now tell me what really happened."

"Alright! So I didn't want to upchuck on your shoes. I've gotten the stomach flu or something. I've been sick for days. Sorry that I didn't know that you wanted me to puke right in front of you," Horus lied, almost convincing himself. It wasn't exactly a lie that Horus had been sick for days. It wasn't exactly healthy to have nightmares and see illusions. But he wasn't going to tell Cady (or anyone else) about it. She'd think he was crazy. Maybe he was.

Cady stared hard at him, trying to discern if he was lying to her. Thankfully Randy chose that time to break into the conversation. "Hey, calm down you guys. It was all a misunderstanding, right? So it's cool. Christa's about ready to come over here, so could you chill?"

"Yeah, sorry man," Horus apologized.

"Whatever," Cady muttered and shoveled in another mouthful of rice.

Horus glanced down at his fried shrimp. Despite his usual distaste for fried shrimp and lack of appetite, he really wanted some. He quickly wolfed down his portion, completely ignoring his rice.

"Wow, I guess you really are sick. You're actually eating shrimp," Cady said sarcastically, already back to normal.

Horus shrugged. "Are you going to eat yours?"

"Not if you give up your rice."

"Done."

They traded dishes and Horus hungrily ate her shrimp, too. They were delicious! How could Horus not have noticed before? His friends looked at him strangely, not believing that he was actually eating the fried shrimp. He hated fried shrimp as far as they knew. He wasn't allergic, but he did throw up after eating some once because he found the taste so awful.

"Hey, you're not going to throw that up later too, are you?" Cady asked.

"Nope," Horus chirped. "It's too good to go to waste like that."

"Oookay, I'm not questioning that statement," Cady said, being ever so sarcastic.

"Look, so what if I suddenly like shrimp?" Horus asked irratibly. "People's taste in food changes all the time."

That pretty much ended that discussion.