Neferet continued to meet Seto every night as her husband entertained his new toy. She was hurt at the lack of attention her husband was giving her, but as long as she could find solace in her lover's arms, she did not really care. Her mother was infuriated by the affair, but that anger did not stop Neferet. The night was like all of the others. Neferet had dinner with her husband and his new concubine in front of the rest of the court, after which she would sneak out of the palace and go to the temple complex. While the priests were not allowed to marry while they served, it was common for prostitutes and lovers to make nightly visits. And Neferet, as Queen and God's Wife, entered the complex like she owned the place. She quickly made her way to Seto's small chamber. Clothing was quickly abandoned. They pair quickly joined both body and soul. They would lay entwined with each other for hours afterward, just relishing in each other's presence.

"This is what love is, Umi." Neferet's voice echoed through her soul, as Umi watched the scene like a fly on the wall. Umi knew Neferet's words to be true. There was something eternal that bound the pair as she watched.

Seto sat up suddenly and looked up at the spot on the ceiling from which Umi was watching. Neferet shifted next to him, turning to look up at him.

"What's wrong, lover?"

Seto took a deep breath before smiling at her. He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose. Neferet giggled.

"We can't keep doing this." he said after a long moment, his smile falling and sadness overtaking him.

"Of course we can." She touched his arm.

"Eventually he will grow tired of her. You know that."

"And then he will find another toy to play with."

"And what about an heir? Are you content to let some lowly concubine give one to him?"

Neferet sighed in anger as she swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She knew he was right, but she did not want such thoughts intruding on her time with him.

"If that is how it is to be. In all these months, the Gods have not seen fit to have me grow heavy with his child."

"Neferet." He reached out to her.

She tried to fight the tears as she stood and turned away from him. But the room was small, and she could not avoid him forever. Seto wrapped her in his strong arms, his long body pressing against her cool flesh.

"Why did you leave?" she asked in a whisper against his chest. She had asked him the question every day since she had visited him that first night. He had always managed to find some way to weasel out of answering it.

It was his turn to sigh.

"Because I could not bear to see you together with him every day." He answered finally. He stroked her hair as she burrowed her face into his chest.

"Finally a truthful answer."

"That was the main reason, But there was something else. Come." He covered himself with a loincloth and opened the door. Neferet walked through the dark portal as naked as the day she was born but with all the bearing of a queen dressed in full finery. Seto took her hand and led her to a deep chamber beneath the temple.

"This is the Chamber of Monsters, Seto. What are we doing here?"

"Do you know where the monsters come from?"

"Don't they come from a different realm? like the Duat?"

"Something like that. But some of the monsters are the drawn to the ka of specific people. When one of these special people are born, the monsters are bound to them. But no one know when or where or why that might happen."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I found one of these special people. She was my excuse for leaving you. She wasn't the reason, but she is why he thinks I left."

"She?" Neferet felt a twinge of jealousy in the pit of her belly. Seto walked ahead, his hand lightly caressing the stone tablets that held the images of monsters. Neferet followed quickly.

"I had heard rumors about a girl in the villages. Well, not just me, but the priests, we had all heard the stories. The girl had hair like spun silver and eyes like the noon sky on a cloudless day." His voice took on a wistful tone that felt like a punch to Neferet's stomach. "She was said to have great power. So I volunteered to seek her out." He turned to her, fixing her with pain-filled blue eyes. "It was torture watching you with him, Neferet. We both knew that you had your duty. I just never thought it would be so difficult to watch you do it. So when the high priest asked for someone to investigate, I volunteered." He stopped in front of her and took her hands in his. He kissed her long delicate fingers. His eyes were on the verge of tears. "I never imagined that I would fall for her."

Neferet felt herself shatter. She pulled her hands away from him as she tried to back away. She took one step, then two before collapsing to the ground like the fragments of a broken mirror.

"Neferet." He knelt next to her and tried to pull her into his arms.

"I thought you loved me, Seto. That we shared a soul." She said to the ground in front of her. He pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear and pulled her face up to look him in the eyes.

"I do love you, my Neferet. Whenever we are together is ecstasy, and when we are apart it is torture. My heart, my soul sings when I am with you in a way that I've never experience before."

"But."

He sighed as he pressed his forehead against hers.

"No but. I'm here now because of you." He pressed his lips against hers lightly before pulling her back to her feet. "You are the twin flame to my ka, Neferet. My soul belongs with yours." He kissed her more deeply and pulled her naked body against him.

Neferet did not want to give in. She was still hurt and jealous, but she knew he was right. They had realized they were bound together the first time they made love. Their souls were born of the same fire, shared the same song. They were drawn together, inextricably, and would be time and again. Neferet kissed him more passionately as she accepted the fact that he could love another just as she loved her husband. It did not change their connection, nor would it ever.

"My love," he whispered as he pushed her gently against one of the stone tablets. "We may not be able to join fully in this life, but one day, we will let nothing stop us." She pushed him back just enough to look into his eyes. Shining out of them, she saw the truth of his words and his heart. She nodded before she pulled him back against her lips and he lifted her up and they continued their union.

Seto Kaiba sat up quickly. A pair of green eyes burned through his dream memory. He gasped as he tried to calm his racing heart.

"It was just a dream. A very intense, very hot dream." he told himself. He looked over at his phone and saw that he had been notified of a new image. The girl seemed sad, like she had been crying. The same green eyes from his dream stared out from her face. He sighed at his foolishness. He had been looking at her face long enough, he thought, that of course it would show up in his dreams. He put the phone back on the night stand and rolled over. He struggled to go back to sleep.

As he drifted back into his dreams, Seto was walking with Pegasus into the Industrial Illusions building in America. He remembered that he was meeting with Pegasus to discuss the new duel arena technology he had developed. The lobby to the building was dark, shrouded in shadows. The elevator that would take them to Pegasus' office shone like a brilliant white portal across the dark, ever-widening expanse. Seto stopped just inside the door. His heart raced and he felt queasy. Something was wrong, but he could not figure out what.

Pegasus kept walking toward the light.

Seto swallowed his fear and hurried after Pegasus. A large pair of green eyes-her eyes, appeared in front of him. There was nothing else of her face, just her eyes. Within them he could see all of the emotions she had shown in the pictures she had posted on-line. There was pride, and shame, and fear, and confidence, and frustration, and joy, and playfulness. And there was love. The world suddenly shifted and he fell into those warm green depths. It both soothed and terrified him. He jolted awake once more. Rubbing his eyes, he decided to forgo sleep and try to work on his new duel disk system while he waited for his idiot brother to return.

Neferet held on tightly as she and Seto made love in the Chamber of Monsters. It was not the first time she had thought about doing so-that was likely the day she watched him duel there for his final test before being elevated to the second most powerful priest in the kingdom. She relished the feel of the rough stone against her back as he brought wave of pleasure to her both physically and spiritually as their souls sang in unison. She called out his name, called him her love, her heart. She had no shame or care as they gave themselves to their desires. She ran her hands over his glistening chest as he lowered her gently to the floor and turned her around.

"You didn't hurt yourself did you?" he asked as he looked over her back for abrasions.

"No I..." She went cold as her eyes met the red-violet eyes of her husband. His face was a blank mask, unreadable as he watched them. His eyes traveled her naked body. His golden pendant lay over his crossed arms as he stood before them.

"I trusted you." The Pharaoh said, his voice hollow, empty. "Both of you." He looked from one face to the other. His mask broke as he looked in Neferet's eyes. "I love you, Neferet."

Her heart broke to see the intense grief she caused.

"Atem." She broke away from Seto's arms and reached for him.

"I... I loved you. You were mine." His grief gave way to anger as she tried to embrace him. "No!" He yelled as he pushed her away. "No." Tears poured from his eyes and his pendant glowed in response to his anger. His hand wrapped around her throat as he pushed her against one of the stone tablets.

"Atem?" she choked out.

"My Lord, what are you doing?" Seto tried to step between them but the Pharaoh pushed him away. He let go of Neferet and took a couple of steps back.

"No." he whispered one last time as a dark cloud erupted from the stone tablet behind her and engulfed her. As the dark cloud shrank to nothingness, Neferet was gone. The glow of the pendant faded, leaving the Pharaoh and his priest surrounded by faint torchlight. The anger in the Pharaoh's face turned to fear as Seto's panicked voice echoed through the large chamber.

"What did you do?"

Neferet tried to look around her, but there was only darkness. From the darkness came a voice that made her blood run cold. She screamed and ran, but the voice was all around her.

"Welcome to the Duat." it whispered. "The Shadows will devour you."

The darkness became palpable and slithered around her ankles, her wrists. It wrapped around her waist and legs, her chest and arms and eventually covered her head. It entered into her and wrapped her in itself until she could feel nothing but the darkness. She called out to the Gods she had served, but nothing reached out to save her. The darkness swallowed her body and soul.

Umi's heart raced and her palms were clammy. The sheets beneath her were damp with sweat but she could not tell if that was from the sex or from her fear. Derek snored loudly beside her. Umi slipped out from underneath his arm and padded her way quietly to the bathroom. She turned the water on as hot as she could, but she could not drive away the cold fear of the darkness that had gripped her. She stood shaking as the hot water scalded her bare flesh.

"Why did you show me that?" Her voice was shaky.

"You needed to know." the spirit answered from within.

"But why?"

"If we can survive the Duat, Umi, we can survive this."

"You're talking like I was there with you. I wasn't. Maybe you can survive this," Umi slid down into the tub and let the shower fall on her like warm rain. "But I'm starting to regret getting into this situation."

"At least Derek can not send you into the realm of shadows."

Umi rolled her eyes.

"How did you escape?"

"What do you mean?" Neferet's voice rippled through her spirit.

"The Duat. How did you escape?"

"The pendant. When it was discovered, I was sort of... dragged out. I think. It's not very clear."

"Pendant? You mean Yugi's puzzle?" Umi felt a ripple of affirmation from the spirit. "that would make sense, though. You could not talk to me until he completed it. Not like you do now. But I've felt your memories for much longer than Yugi's had the puzzle."

"We've been together since you were born, Umi. You are me, only not me. Just at Yugi is him, only not him."

"You aren't making much sense."

"I know. But it is the only way to describe it."

Umi sighed as the water began to turn cold. She quickly washed her hair and finished with the shower. She did not feel purged of the darkness that ate away at her every time she gave into his demands, but she felt cleaner and more refreshed. As she rubbed her hair dry with a towel, Umi wondered about her companion.

"Neferet, what was it like?"

"What?"

"The place you were. What was it like?" She felt the spirit shudder.

"It was... dark, unpleasant. Filled with monsters, but not like the ones the priests could summon. These were uncontrollable creatures of darkness, led by the greatest of evils. I do not like to think about it."

"It does not sound like a fun time. Sorry you had to go through that."

"Just as I am sorry you have to pass through shadows of your own. But you will pass through, Umi. You must. The world as you know it depends on it."

"What? Why?"

"You are the key. We are the key. I could not fulfill my duties in my lifetime, but you can do so for me now."

Umi sighed. She had no idea what this key was supposed to be or what she was supposed to do. She only knew that it stood in the way of her doing what she wanted. She wanted to live a normal life, to go to school with her friends, graduate and then go off to college. She wanted to build rockets to the stars and maybe go there herself. While she loved helping her mother uncover the mysteries of the past, her heart's desire lay among the stars and humanity's future.

She peeked into her bedroom and saw him still sleeping heavily. She knew he would want her to pleasure him again if she woke him, so she quietly dressed herself and crept downstairs. She opened her laptop and lost herself in her work on the designs for her team's robot. The digital gears she was assembling brought her a sense of stillness as she focused on the task. When she had finished, she opened the files she had worked on for her mother during the summer, the pieces of tablets she had scanned. She remembered Ishizu's words to her when she had shown her the large tablet of the duelists, the sense that she had a role to play in the battle to come. Neferet had alluded to her role as well. Umi looked at the tablet on the computer screen, at the pharaoh and the priest facing off against each other. She could feel a pull in her heart, a tug begging her to return home. Umi pushed it away as she opened another robot part to work on.

"I make my own destiny." she muttered as she fastened together the pieces with digital screws.

The late afternoon sun cast long beams of light across the table where Seto Kaiba worked. The sound of the door opening disturbed his focus as it had every time it had opened since early that morning. Finally, he was greeted by the object of his anticipation as Mokuba walked through the door.

"Where have you been!?" Seto asked, his voice a panicked shriek. Mokuba froze before turning to his brother. Quickly, Seto towered over his younger brother. He looked down on him with a mixture of anger, fear, and relief before he sunk to his knees and pulled Mokuba into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry, Seto, but I had to."

"If you had asked."

"You would have said no."

Seto sighed, knowing that he was right. He would have told him know, just as he had told Yugi.

"Maybe, but then I would have at least known where you were and what you were doing. I thought you might have gotten kidnapped or something again."

Mokuba chuckled and hugged his brother back.

"I'm sorry I worried you Seto." He looked up at his big brother with deep blue, nearly indigo eyes. "But you should have helped him."

"I know.I was stupid not to."

"This rivalry is stupid, Seto. You and Yugi would be great friends if you would just let anyone get close to you." Seto pulled back and returned to the table where he had been working.

"Please, let me know next time you run off like that."

Mokuba watched as the walls slammed closed around his brother's heart once more. He knew that he was lucky to be one of the few to see Seto for who he really was. His brother had a good, tender heart that he hid away from everyone. Mokuba knew that their adoptive father had been largely to blame for the walls Seto had built, but he wished that they would fall a little more often.

He nodded before taking a seat on the sofa and turning on the television. He looked back to ask if it would distract Seto, but his brother was already intensely focused on the new device before him. Mokuba flipped through the channels when he ended up on the local news. A reporter was interviewing a foreign woman about an exhibit at the museum.

"Hey, Seto, can we go to the museum to see this exhibit?" His brother just grunted and then cursed as something did not go the way he had wanted it. The woman on the television was describing some of the items in the exhibit. An image of a large stone tablet flashed on the screen along with several other artifacts. The telephone rang. Seto sighed as he picked it up. Mokuba was engrossed by the information about the exhibit that he did not hear what was being said, but the mention of his brother by name by the woman on the screen made him jump. He turned to see Seto also watching the screen intently, the telephone's receiver still pressed against his ear. His normal frown deepened before he stood and made his way from the room.

"Seto! What's going on?" Mokuba called after him but his brother did not answer.