Yugi walked out of his room feeling more confident and secure in himself than he had in a long time. He was practically whistling to himself as he stepped through the door. Only the incessant knocking on Umi's door across the hall gave him pause.

"Umi, I demand you open the door this instant!" their grandfather ordered as Yugi looked on. Umi did not answer the door, or otherwise submit to the demand, but Yugi flinched as he felt a very rudely worded "Go Away" pound through his mind.

"Grandpa?" he asked.

"Stupid girl won't do as she's told. In my day..." the old man started.

"In your day, girls wouldn't even be allowed to attend high school, even if they were as smart as Umi." Yugi finished for him, trying to highlight the differnces between the two generations.

"Well, in my day, girls knew enough to not get too familiar with a boy until they had their family's permission." The old man countered before storming off. "If you can get her to come out, tell her she needs to open the store, and that she will be going to school starting tomorrow."

Yugi watched his back as he retreated down the stairs. He sighed.

"I do not want to be the go-between." he muttered to himself as he rapped lightly on the door.

"We have to get him to realize that your sister and Kaiba are destined for each other." Atem said, his spirit hovering just beneath Yugi's consciousness. His voice was like a whisper in his ear and Yugi thought, briefly, that he could feel his breath on his skin. He gasped slightly at the nearness of the spirit. Since the night his grandfather had so abruptly severed Umi's contact with Kaiba, Atem was always hovering very close. Whenever Yugi closed his eyes, he felt he could see him, and he could feel him with every breath. Yugi knew that his newfound confidence had everything to do with the admissions they had finally made, but he was still uncertain when it came to what he really wanted from his relationship with the pharaoh.

"What do you want?" Umi's voice was hard, annoyed and bitter as she stared at her brother's dreamy expression.

"Huh?"

"You knocked. What do you want?"

Yugi took a step back as her entire being seemed to echo every time Yugi had been faced with Kaiba's annoyance. He had not noticed it before, but thinking about it now, he realized how similar the two were. He wondered if Kaiba was taking the separation as hard as Umi. He looked more closely at his sister noticing the purple patches beneath her eyes and how her normally cheerful eyes were rimmed in red and blood-shot, as if she had been crying a great deal. She rubbed them incessantly.

"You need to open the store."

Umi rolled her eyes and sighed. She stepped back into the room and closed the door in his face.

"Umi?"

"I'm getting dressed." The sarcasm in her voice made her words feel like a knife. He backed away from the door and stared at it a long second before going down the stairs to have a quick breakfast.

When Umi came downstairs into the kitchen it was as if a whirlwind stormed through the house. She carried an air of frustration and anger, if not malice around her like a cloak. She grabbed a piece of fruit from the table before continuing down into the shop below, muttering to herself about the ills of her life.

"Do you think she'll get over it eventually?" Ms. Takanada asked as she sipped her tea. Yugi looked after the storm that had been his sister and shook his head.

"I don't think so. I don't know if she's been sleeping."

"If she hasn't been sleeping, then what has she been doing there, locked up in her room by herself?"

Yugi shrugged. He had an idea, but he didn't want to share with his pseudo-grandmother since he did not want to risk Umi getting even more hurt.

"She looks like hell. I'm worried about her."

"I'm sure Solomon did not expect her to take the news so poorly. But she has to understand that he only has her safety at heart. After what happened in America, he only wants to protect her, to keep her safe."

"I know his intentions are good, but I can't bear to see her like this. Anyway, I have to get to school." He grabbed his bag and hurried down the stairs and through the shop where Umi was grumpily sitting behind the counter. Tea was waiting for him as he pulled the door open. He practically ran her over as he rushed out the door. Yugi looked at her and had to catch his breath. He had always thought she was pretty and had wanted to ask her out-for himself, like on a real date, but he had been too scared that she might say no. He smiled up at her.

"Sorry. I didn't hit you, did I?" His words sounded breathless in his ears. She shook her head and he felt his heart race. He could hear Atem's amused chuckle ringing in his ears.

"Go for it, Partner." The spirit's voice goaded him on. Yugi looked at her lips which were plump and as pink as her uniform jacket. He wagered that kissing them would be a far different experience from kissing Atem in his heart space. He felt himself lick his own lips at the thought and swallowed hard as she cocked her head to the side. She looked at him as if she was wondering what exactly he was thinking about. Yugi took a deep breath and then pulled the lapels of her jacket toward him and kissed her softly. He could feel her tense at the suddenness of it all, but then her arms slipped around his waist as she relaxed into him. He had been worried about their height difference being a problem-in fact it was one of the multitude of reasons he had been so apprehensive. He always felt so much shorter than her, but as they kissed, he realized that he was only a few centimeters shy of her height. Maybe it was because he was standing taller now, or perhaps he had a small growth spurt. Whatever the explaination, he didn't care. He was only interested in Tea's lips against his.

She giggled as she pulled away from him, smiling. He noticed that her eyes were still closed as she chewed on her lip and that her hands still hovered at his waist.

"We, um, We should probably get to school." she stammered as her hand found his. Yugi blushed, elated, as she intertwined their fingers.

"Hey, Yugi, are you alright? You've seemed, I don't know, agitated the last few days." Joey asked, broaching the question that had been bugging everyone in Yugi's friend group since they had returned from the memories of ancient egypt.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said pointedly. "But Umi, she's having a hard time."

"I'm really sorry about what happened, what I, he, did." Bakura said quietly. Yugi looked over at his friend who had been the source of the recent trouble. Well, yugi corrected himself, it wasn't Bakura's fault, but the fault of the Millennium Ring's spirit. Yugi could still see the crazed look in Bakura's eyes flash through his memory from time to time when he looked at the usually mild-mannered young man.

"It's fine, Bakura. It wasn't you. Umi knows that also. Besides, that's not what she's upset about."

"She's still fighting with the old man?" Tristan asked. Yugi nodded as he picked at his lunch.

"She hasn't been eating, or sleeping. She stays locked in her room most of the time. And when Grandpa walks into a room, she walks out, no matter what she was doing."

"Sounds tense." Tea squeezed his hand and let her hand linger on top of his.

"Yeah. So things aren't that fun at home right now." He looked at his lunch and then packed it away, uneaten.

"So Umi's in a pissy mood, maybe we should take her out and help her get her mind off of things." Joey suggested.

Yugi shrugged as he twisted his hand underneath Tea's and interlaced their fingers. Tristan noticed the motion and broke into a big grin as Yugi turned away blushing.

"And what's this?" Tristan waggled his eyebrows at Yugi and Tea, who immediately pulled her hand back into her lap.

"N-Nothing." Tea answered, blushing and tucking her hair behind her ear before glancing at Yugi. He didn't notice her look as he stared into the distance. His brow furrowed in thought.

"Nothing, right." Tristan cocked his eyebrow at the girl who crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.

"I think you're right, Joey. Umi does need to get out of the house." Yugi turned back to the group, oblivious to the recent insinuations of his and Tea's budding relationship. "And if my plan works, it will do her a whole lot of good." He winked at his friend.

"And what plan is that?" Tea asked. Atem stirred within him, also curious about how Yugi planned to cheer Umi up.

"You'll have to wait and see." Yugi grinned.

Umi sat on her bed with her laptop perched on her knees. She was grateful that her grandfather had not taken it away with the things Seto had given her. She needed the connection to the outside world the laptop gave her. She had spent many hours chatting with Terese and Christa about what had happened, but with the time difference, she was staying up extremely late to do so. She had not realized how lonely she was, how much she longed for her friends, the ones who knew her and stood by her for so many years. Yugi's friends were great, but she still felt like an outsider around them. Only when she was with Seto did she truly feel like she belonged. And even now, that was taken from her, she felt like a foreigner in her homeland once more.

She ached to be back home, surrounded by the people who had been her rock. She wanted to be with her team, cheering their way to victory in their competitions and share in their excitement as they travelled to the world championship. She was so excited to hear that they advanced to the massive event and she wanted to be with them. Mostly, she wanted to feel like she belonged somewhere.

She looked at the website that was open on her laptop listing train schedules. She flipped between tabs as she tried to work out how she could get to the airport on her own. She sighed at the prices of tickets back to California, but she knew that she still had access to an account her mother had set up for her. There was not much in it, but it should cover the costs. She hesitated as her fingers hovered over the keys she would have to press to make her return a reality, wishing she still had Neferet's guidance.

"She would tell me to follow my heart, but my heart is torn. And I cannot go where half of it lives, not without disappointing my family." she mumbled to herself feeling the pull of loneliness dragging her further into its depths. "But if I leave, it would break Yugi's heart, and if I go, would I even be able to come back?" She pulled her hands from the keys and rubbed her neck. She flopped back on the narrow bed and stared at the ceiling. A timid knock pulled her from her contemplation.

"What?" She knew it was rude, but she was not in the mood for niceties.

"Umi? Can I come in?"

She sighed as she sat up and pushed the laptop from her lap. She unlocked the door and pulled it open before sitting back on the bed that had been her home for the last four days.

"Lock it behind you." She did not bother to look to see if her brother did as she asked before sitting down on the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his big violet eyes staring up at her from the floor.

"You know what's wrong." Umi felt her heart clinch as she spoke. She was indeed still upset by her isolation, but there was so much more that was wrong. She felt the push of his mind touching hers and she shied away, trying to hold back the tears.

"It's alright." His voice was soft, loving, and filled with concern. "I know that's not all of it."

She met his eyes and felt the dam within her break. She glanced away, toward the laptop screen still displaying her escape plan. She could feel his eyes drift from her to the screen and then back.

"Umi?" The word held so much more that he wanted to ask, but she did not need him to. She slid from the bed to the floor before him, tears streaming down her cheeks for the first time in hours.

"I can't handle this, Yugi. I can't handle losing any more."

Yugi just looked at her, silent and patient. He reached out and squeezed her hand.

"It's too much. Losing Mom, my friends, moving back here, losing Neferet, whose voice has been inside my head since birth? It's too much. And now losing him?" She shook his head. "I can't do it."

"You have me. Our family. My friends."

"Exactly. Your friends. I need my friends. My people, those who get me. Don't get me wrong, your friends are nice, but I need people who want me around because I'm more than your sister." She wiped her eyes and nose on the long sleeve of her t-shirt. "I just miss them so much."

"Have you called them?"

"Of course! But it's not the same. It's not like being there." She curled her knees to her chest and planted her chin on them.

"Kind of like when we weren't living together?" Yugi pointed out with a sad smile. Umi lifted her head. She knew he was right. Leaving would make her miss him all the more.

"Besides, you can find new friends here. Start school, like Grandpa wants. I'm sure you'll find a lot of people who will want to be your friend."

"I had someone. He liked me for me, but I was told I can't see him anymore."

Yugi rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Umi, Kaiba has a lot of history with this family. You know that."

"And that history is exactly why he shouldn't like me, much less love me like he does."

Their eyes met in conflict. Umi could tell that he was struggling, at least in some part, with the idea of Kaiba dating his sister. For all the effort he took to make it seem otherwise, deep down, Umi saw that he was conflicted.

"He really loves you? He's capable of that?"

Umi grabbed her phone and played Kaiba's message for her brother. She had to have listened to it a thousand times. She knew ever word, every pause, every inflection by heart. Yugi listened and as he did, Umi saw him change. When the recording finished, Yugi took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he rubbed his hand over his face. He looked at Umi, with her unkempt hair and dark circles beneath her eyes. She really did not look well. She had gone through so much without dealing with any of it. And after hearing the message, he could understand why Grandpa's ultimatum broke through what meager defenses she had. He was wondering when his own limit would be reached at this point. He chewed on his lower lip as his eyes darted to the open laptop screen once more.

"I'm going to talk to Grandpa." He said finally as he stood up. "Don't do anything rash until I get back, please?"

She felt an outpouring of his love for her, and his plea that she not leave him.

"I won't. Not until you get back." She reassured him.

Yugi steeled himself as he stood in the doorway to the shop. His grandfather stood behind the counter assisting a customer with a purchase. He watched the transaction, noticing how friendly his grandfather was with the customer. He remembered the same friendliness being shown to Kaiba when he had first entered the shop. Yugi barely recognized that person as Kaiba now, even in his memories. The young man had grown so much since then. He wondered how much of his evolution was due to the penalty game his Other Self had inflicted upon him, and how much was a result of Umi's effect on him. After hearing the recording-despite Kaiba's admitted drunkenness while making it, Yugi was certain that his sister had mellowed the young executive substantially.

The bell chimed as the customer left and the door slammed shut.

It's now or never, he thought as he approached his grandfather.

"Grandpa, why exactly, I mean, I know why you don't like him, but why would you be so insistent that Umi not see him?"

"What are you rambling about, Yugi?"

"Kaiba."

"Oh. Him."

"Yeah. Him."

"Did you forget what he nearly cost this family? What he nearly cost you? I will not have him poisoning Umi as well."

"I haven't forgotten, but I have forgiven. He really is a different person now, Grandpa. And he helped me rescue Umi. That should count for something."

"It does, just not enough."

"Umi loves him."

"Is that what she's telling herself? So she doesn't feel guilty about sleeping with him after everything that happened?"

Yugi opened his mouth to protest but could find no argument. He decided to change tactics.

"Does that matter? It's how she feels."

"She is entirely too familiar with him. Of course, it matters!"

Yugi looked at the determined eyes of the old man only to see a man of an earlier generation who was set firmly in his ways. Yugi surrendered the battle, but he vowed, for his sister's sake, that he would win the war. He turned back to the stairs and hurried back to his sister's side. On his way through the kitchen, the phone rang.

"Hello?" Yugi picked up the phone. He didn't even bother with his typical, polite greeting. He had too much on his mind, like how to keep Umi from running away and how to get Grandpa to get over his anger.

"Yugi?" The voice on the other end was young and familiar.

"Mokuba?" Yugi asked, tentatively.

"Yeah. Yugi, I'm scared."

The last time Mokuba had come to him was when Kaiba had been essentially kidnapped. The timbre in the young voice belied his fear and Yugi wondered if this call was about something similar.

"What's wrong, Mokuba?"

"I, I don't know. There's something wrong with Seto."

Yugi sighed and looked to the stairs that led to his and Umi's rooms. He prayed that she had kept her promise and was waiting patiently for him to return. He took a seat at the table

"Tell me about it."

"Well, I don't know what caused it. Seto didn't tell me anything the other day when he came home angry. He just shut himself up in his workshop and hasn't come out for days. Well, not for any longer than it takes him to get something to eat, but he barely ate anyway, so even that's pretty rare."

"When was this?" Yugi asked, though he had a good feeling he knew when.

"Um, four days ago. I think." The voice on the line paused. "Yeah. It was the day after Umi showed up at the office. Two days after the incident with Bakura."

Yugi took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The timing was right.

"And he didn't say anything about what happened to you?"

"No." Yugi imagined the younger boy shaking his head. "He didn't even look at me, or anyone else."

"I see."

"Yugi, I'm sorry to ask, I don't know who else to turn to. Do you know what's wrong with him? Or have an idea of how to help him?"

"I might have both actually. Given when you said he started all of this, I think the cause was my grandfather."

"Your grandpa? How?"

"He told Kaiba that Umi didn't want to see him anymore." Yugi could hear the stunned silence on the other end of the line. "It's not true. Grandpa told Umi that she wasn't allowed to see him anymore."

"Well, that explains a lot. The receptionist told me about an old man who had gone to see him the day that everything started. Yugi, I know that my brother doesn't seem like it-he's had to play his emotions pretty tightly to his chest since our parents died-but he has a very tender heart, or he did, before. He's had to build wall after wall to protect himself. It hasn't been easy. For either of us. But since he's started seeing Umi, those walls have been coming down. He's been smiling again."

"And Grandpa struck him while he was defenseless."

"Yeah."

The line was quiet for a long time.

"Yugi?" Mokuba asked.

"Yeah?"

"We have to get them back together."

"Yeah." Yugi nodded. "I think I have a plan, but I'll need your help."

"Anything you need, I'll do what I can."

Yugi proceeded to give Mokuba instructions before hanging up and calling Joey, inviting him, as well as their other friends to hang out together tomorrow. With his preparations set, Yugi began to walk back up the stairs.

"You seem uneasy, Partner." Atem's mind brushed his. Yugi felt a wave of relief mixed with affection and friendship. Gone were the feelings of attraction from the other night, though he could still sense some desire within the spirit. The disconnect only added to Yugi's nervousness.

"I have no idea if this will work."

"It's just like setting up a combo. All the pieces will fall into place. You'll see."

"You're too confident, Other Me. It's not a game of Duel Monsters."

"No, but it is a game."

"I don't think playing with people's hearts is a game."

"It's the only game, Partner." Yugi could feel the tickle of the spirit's presence. He wanted to embrace his other self, to join in a union so complete that he could no longer tell where his spirit ended and Atem's began. The desire was not sexual, not exactly. It was more intimate that than. Yugi chewed his lip as he raised his fist to Umi's door.

Seto peered at the image before him. The dragon shimmered in the harsh light of the work room, but his gaze was focused somewhere within the beast. For a fleeting moment, he thought he saw a flicker of long white hair and stern blue eyes before the image morphed into the beast that now occupied the room.

"Come on, come on." he muttered as he shut the hologram off and cycled it back up again. He gasped as he saw her once more. He reached out for the image, his hand passing through it like a mist. When he reached out once more, the dragon's scales were firm beneath his touch. He released a frustrated breath and began the cycle once more.

The door opened behind him as he once again reached out the for woman in the image before she transformed into the dragon that filled the room. Mokuba watched his brother repeat the same pattern several times before calling out.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Seto stumbled as he turned, scattering tools to the floor with a clang.

"Mokuba! Tell me that you saw her." Seto's eyes were crazed and darted from one side of the room to the next. Mokuba looked at his brother with concern. The elder Kaiba was more than disheveled. His hair was greasy and stuck out at odd angles when he ran his hands through it. His shirt was stained and the sleeves were pushed up awkwardly. His fingernails had been bitten to the quick, and yet, Seto still gnawed on their tips as his bloodshot eyes pleaded with his little brother to confirm his vision.

"Saw who?" Mokuba asked.

"The girl. Long white hair, blue eyes." Seto's voice was rapid and stilted.

"All I see is the dragon."

Seto knitted his brows together as he turned back to the controls that activated the holographic projectors. He shut them off once more and then reactivated him.

"There, see!" Seto pointed. "There."

"Still a dragon." Mokuba's concern for his brother only grew.

"I have to find her. I have to, to free her." Seto tapped his fist against his forehead as if he were trying to remember something. "She can, she can help me. Like before. She can make the pain go away."

Mokuba watched his brother pace. Seto fiddled with the controls a bit before continuing on his circuit of the room. After two or three laps, he triggered the device which generated the image. The dragon once more filled the room, and this time, disappointment filled Seto's sigh.

"Who are you trying to free, Big Bro?"

"The girl, Kisara. She," he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "She is the dragon. She is my salvation, or she was, or she will be."

"Seto, when's the last time you slept?"

Seto waved off Mokuba's concern with a shake of his head.

"Can't sleep. Too painful. Besides, there's too much to do. I have to free her."

"Why?"

Seto stopped his frantic pacing. He chewed on his thumb and his eyes dropped to the floor.

"She's the only one who can stop the pain. She did it last time. She can do it again." his voice was barely a whisper.

"Last time?"

"When my soul was torn. When I lost Neferet."

Seto looked up and went back to work, wiping away stray tears that glistened on the deep purple bags beneath his eyes.

"She can stop the pain now that I lost her again."

"Lost who?" Mokuba demanded. Seto stopped once more and looked at his brother fully.

"Umi." Saying her name broke him like an earthquake shatters a dam.

Mokuba watched as his face contorted as he said her name. Mokuba had not seen his brother cry since the day they buried their father, but even then, Seto's face had not looked so pained. The older Kaiba dropped to his knees and collapsed forward as tears streamed from his eyes. Mokuba stood, stunned for a moment before he wrapped his arms around his brother.

"What do you mean, you lost Umi?"

Mokuba could barely make out the story that Seto told him about Umi's grandfather coming to return the gifts he had given her and telling him that she didn't need him.

"So she didn't tell you herself?"

Seto shook his head against Mokuba's chest as sobs wracked his body.

"And you believed what the old man said? Why?"

"Because why would she want someone like me." Seto sniffed. "After everything..."

"Are we thinking about the same Umi? Because the Umi that I know does not shy away from what she wants. Not ever."

Seto's eyes were still shining with tears as he looked up at his brother.

"True she might not make the best decisions when going after what she wants, but she will always go after it. And she doesn't strike me as the type to send someone else to do her dirty work."

Seto sat back and wiped his face as he listened.

"No, I think that if she decided something, she would be the first one to tell you. Good or ill. She wouldn't be afraid to look you in the eye and speak her mind."

Mokuba looked at Seto, who was watching him, wide-eyed. A small smile settled on the younger Kaiba's lips.

"Right?"

Seto nodded, realizing how much of what Mokuba had said was true. Umi was many things, but a coward was not one of them. He felt anger rise within him, anger directed at himself for not realizing sooner what Mokuba had seen. He looked back at the dragon of light staring down at him. A woman's voice seemed to echo in his mind, comforting him, reassuring him.

"You will release me, Seto, but you cannot do it alone." the voice said in his heart. He pressed the trigger that made the dragon fade into nothingness. In the moment between light and darkness, he saw her face, the woman within the dragon. She smiled at him and nodded before she faded as well. Seeing her made his heart quicken, but it was different from how he felt when he even thought about Umi. He knew that somehow they were tied together-all three of them. He had the feeling that the dragon woman-Kisara as the other version of himself had called her, that she had been his salvation far more times than was fair. And now he had been asking for her to do so once more. Staring at the spot where she had been, he vowed that he would save her, but that he would save himself first.

"Right, Mokuba. I can't let myself believe that she would brush me off so easily." But still the thought of her words coming from her grandfather's mouth shook him to the core.

"Besides, Yugi said that she's been shut in for days too."

"Yugi?"

"Yeah, I, uh, I called him." Mokuba said penitiently. "You had been locked in here for days, Seto. I didn't know what else to do." he added hastily in explanation. Mokuba's eyes grew wide and he froze as his brother hugged him.

"I'm sorry I worried you, Mokuba." Seto pulled away from his brother but left his hands on the smaller boy's shoulders. He looked at his brother, thinking that he seemed taller, realizing that he did not have to bend over as much. "Thank you. For everything."

Mokuba beamed at him.

"Yugi said that it was their grandfather's decision, that he told Umi she couldn't see you anymore. He also said that she was thinking of running away and going back to America."

The words chilled Seto. If she left, he thought, he might never see her again.

"Yugi is trying to convince the old man, but he hasn't had much luck. He does however, have an idea to get you to see each other."