A/N: I'm writing this chapter as I reign in the new year, that means I've been writing this fic for QUITE a while now, doesn't it? Well, here's hoping you fools stick around here, especially for some twists I have planned for the KC Grand Prix arc. ALSO. Go read the companion-fic to this one! I just put it up on my profile, it's called "Who Is?" It would be very appreciated if you could read that, as it links in with everything here. Also, it reveals a few more things about my characterisations of each character, starting with Sophie, Seto, Teá and Yugi.

~Ava

~XxX~

I snarled at the retreating back of Seto. He'd taken my bloody shoe. My shoe. I would now have to walk all the way around this god-forsaken island in barefeet. Just because I threw it at him didn't give him permission to take it. I was going to kill him at the next chance I got.

For the moment, I merely kept a calm façade, removed my other shoe and dangled it from my uninjured hand, breezing past my friends and trotting smartly over to the elevator before it could close, prancing barefooted into it just before it did so.

"Delightful." I simpered, deliberately being my most girly. This apparently irked one of my lift-mates, who glared at me as though he was trying to condemn me to Hell. I wouldn't have put it past him to be thinking that, however.

"Callaghan." Seto spat at me as I carefully ignored him in favour of Mokuba.

"Hey kid." I greeted him easily, in my normal tone of voice and act. I gestured to the red button on the side of the elevator. "What's that one for?" Mokuba seemed vaguely torn between whether or not I was attempting to undermine his older brother, or genuinely curious.

"It goes into the hangar." He answered carefully, "Why?"

"Well, what can I say?" I shrugged and laughed in a high-pitched manner that disgusted even me, "I see a big red button and just have to know!" I fixed my stare on Seto, who was also carefully ignoring me. "What about you, Seto?" I said as I batted my lashes at him coyly, "You seem to know exactly what buttons to press." I finished my sentence in an utter deadpan that I felt far more comfortable in. The brother in question glared at me.

"I am not your friend, Callaghan. Stop deluding yourself." He hissed at me, apparently still angry about his defeat. I pulled a face to Mokuba and shrugged.

"I think you're too against it for that to be true, Seto." I said, looking down at my nails on my bandaged hand and leaning against the railing as the elevator descended. An exasperated sound from in front of me.

"Callaghan, just because I decry something so fundamentally incorrect as your false belief of friendship, does not make us friends either." He shook his head as he spoke, the lift doors opening as we hit the ground level. "Sometimes I wonder if you understand the world, or whether it's just colours, shapes and the odd noise in your head."

"Mmm." I nodded, deliberately ignoring the jibe, "I'm glad you lost, Seto." I said, fully sincere rather than taunting for once and glad that Mokuba had already left the lift to catch up with the other lift door opening and spewing out my friends. I looked up, expecting another death-glare, but was surprised to see him just glance at me wearily.

"I have no doubt you'll regale me with tales of my inadequacy." He stated dryly as I snickered.

"Not at all, but that's for another time. No, I'm unfortunately glad it's not you up to losing his soul. I love Yugi and Yami, but…" I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from blushing slightly as I let the end of that sentence hang. There was an awkward silence as so often was the case whenever one of us acted vaguely normal to the other. He turned away from me as he too left.

"Acquaintance."

"Dingbat." I answered lightning-quick to a mildly amused look, "I want my shoe back."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Callaghan."

I narrowed my eyes at him as the doors closed. He'd smirked as he'd said that, it was so obviously a lie. The elevator rose again and I stayed on the lift. I needed to stay on the Duel Tower after all. It was the only place where there wasn't a chance of me getting stones in my feet.

~XxX~

From my perch on the very top of the Duel Tower I could see an awful lot, though not with too much detail. I could certainly recognise different people and the fact that two of them were Dueling. Even without their trademarks, for instance; I could tell Joey due to his specific kind of laziness. It was a sort of…bundle of frenetic energy wrapped in a languid exterior, something which was mirrored in the way he drew cards and set them down. I shifted my weight to see past the ledge a little more. Aaand, even without the gravity-defying trench coat I would have recognised Seto. Arrogant dexterity in every move signalling that he felt perfectly secure in his probable win. Mokuba shortly behind him, obviously supportive of his brother in every move he made. Prophetic. I mused, considering this attitude seemed to spill over into everything anyway. I moved my gaze again, you could tell a lot about a person from the way they Dueled it seemed. Yami, standing with another prideful posture, fists by his sides. I could recognise him from half a mile away, hair or no. Tristan and Duke, leaning forwards and brandishing fists to no doubt punctuate some kind of clichéd but endearing and ultimately buoying cheer-on. Teá, standing stiffly. I frowned in my inner monologue. That wasn't like her. Teá was a dancer, it showed in her every move and the way she usually held herself. Head high, back straight, arms slightly curved as though she was about to pirouette her way out of danger at any moment. This seemed like she was standing in a more boyish, awkward way, with her back stiff and straight, her arms hanging limply by her sides and her head swivelled round before the rest of her body as she walked away.

Like a puppet on it's strings.

I recognised that manner of walking, it haunted me slightly, the day she'd been 'possessed' by Marik as part of his Jigsaw-worthy plot to kill Yugi and Yami the first time round. I rushed round the railings of the Tower so I could follow her progress with my eyes. If I could see her, I'd bet my left arm that her pupils had vanished. My cut hand twinged at the thought, Fucker. I thought venomously. He'd taken over my best-friend again. How dare he. I watched Teá with baited breath, unable to do anything, after all, even if I had both my shoes, the most I could do would be to follow her on the ground and hope that Marik didn't order her to kill me. I wouldn't put it past him to try something like that. She came to a halt in front of the beige-clothed woman that Seto had Dueled once, on the blimp. I-something…Icarus? Well, even if it wasn't, she should be careful about getting too close to a possessed Teá, who knew what Marik wanted to do to her. More than melt her wings, that's for sure, though it would still probably end up in the same way…

I shook my head clear of the analogy after it took a turn for more morbid waters. Teá had a very strong spirit, I knew that. I doubted that she'd be able to kill anyone, even being forced by someone with a Millennium Item. It was so very against her fundamentals. Speaking of Items, I couldn't quite tell from the distance I was currently at, but didn't Cleo (that was what I'd called her the first time, wasn't it?) have the Necklace or something? The thing that was supposed to see into the future? I remember Teá mentioning something about what she'd said after one time I wandered off to sleep somewhere. I snorted as I watched the two of them talk for a few minutes, it obviously wasn't very good at predicting things if she lost her Duel and then ran into a possessed Teá. But I couldn't see the Necklace from here. Not even a glint, which was odd considering she was standing in full sunlight beside the blimp. I was practically blinded from the gold on her arms, veil and belt, the Necklace should have been adding to that, shouldn't it?

I was cut short from my inner sleuthing by Teá exclaiming something so loudly that I could hear her voice from all the way up top. Her voice, but not her words, which would have been nice to hear considering she was now running towards the Duel Tower with Cleo stretching a hand out to stop her.

"I need to know what happened here." A painfully familiar voice sounded from scarily nearby. Marik. The mad one.

My bandaged hand spasmed in sympathy.

~XxX~