Six fish fillets. Ate one, typed some more, looked back, three fish fillets were gone. Where did they go?

...husband. T.T

Chapter 7: Never Meant, But Was

Joey came an hour afterwards, babbling apologies for not coming the day before to get their things. Apparently, the storm had been heavier than ever in their part of the world and Tristan couldn't make it due to he was stuck at home with his sick nephew while his sister went out on a spontaneous business trip. He had asked Joey to get his camping gear for him, which he had agreed with no little complaining.

"Damn, the weather's just gett'n worse." he said as he stepped into his friend's room where Yugi sat at his computer. He didn't even give a sign that he noticed him. Smirking, Joey sidled over.

"What you looking at buddy? A nude-y movie?"

"Joey, I'm trying to read."

"What you reading then?" and not bothering to hear if he had an answer or not, the blond read over his shoulder. His eyes widened.

"Oh yeah, I was going to tell you about that."

"Huh?"

Joey pointed to the screen where a picture of a half-faded pyramid was shown, with the other half of it a tall, national monument.

"Tristan said he saw that this morning. I thought he was just looking for an excuse to get out of baby duty, claiming he was seeing things and all."

"Nope. That's real. And it's been happening ever since Aleah got here."

"Aleah? Is that the girl's name then? Speaking of which, where is she?"

Yugi didn't answer right away. Though Joey could be more oblivious than most, when it came to his best friend this was less often the case. His mouth thinned as Yugi continued to stare at the picture of the half-formed pyramid on the screen. Even he could tell his friend was thinking very, very deeply.

Unseen by him, Yami hovered nearby, expression a mirror of his hikari's concentrated expression. A hint of unease could be seen in the tense way he held his regale posture.

"She's gone, ain't she?"

"If you must know, yes." At last, Yugi turned to look at his friend. "But something feels awfully off here."

"No kidding. It's been storming for days!"

"Not just that, but Shadi was acting very peculiar."

"Shadi? You mean that weird robbed guy who turned the professor into a zombie?"

"He was the one who came to get Aleah." Yugi looked down at his hands, which were clenched. "He said she didn't belong anywhere. That her mere existence was going to ruin everything, if it hadn't already."

Joey let out a low whistle as he sat himself on Yugi's bed and folded his arms behind his bed. "A little harsh for him, don't you think? Then again, can't really say I know the dude."

"My thoughts exactly," he said, "though Shadi usually comes with somewhat dire prophetics, he seemed different this time. Fearful almost."

"Fearful?" Joey gave the spiked head boy a hard look. "Yug, I've only met that guy maybe, what, twice? He's always seemed a rock to me. Are you sure you didn't see things? Isn't he just a spirit?"

"I guess, but like you said, we really can't say we know him."

Yugi turned back to the page and scrolled down the page. Another picture of an old, stone world style plow where an ATM should have stood showed up. "Not to mention these strange shifts have been happening all over the city, but I can't find any link between any of them, and…Gah! I just don't know. I'm no research genius like Kaiba. But bow could Aleah cause all this?"

Joey shrugged. "Frankly, Yug, I've stopped trying to make logic out of half the crap that happens to us. Like that whole…whatever that was with Dartz. We freaking pulled swords out of dragons' heads in our sleeps and floated around like…like—"

"But still! I just have an off feeling about all this. Shadi didn't even sound a little curious as to why Aleah is the only thing Yami can remotely remember from his past."

With a flinch Joey lost balance and had to undo his arms behind his head to hold himself up. "Woa, wait, hold that thought, are you saying that young pretty thing is…was—dude, if she's from the same time Yami is from, she's gotta be—you can't be serious—"

Yugi typed in a quick keyword into the search bar and sighed. "She's not a spirit, Joey. She's actually from the future. Eight years from the future." Yugi froze, hit by a sudden idea. "Joey, how old would you say Aleah is?"

"I don't know. Seventeen? Eighteen at most?"

'She's sixteen.' murmured Yami from besides him. Yugi didn't question his darker half, but quickly did the math in his head.

"Kaiba was after her." he said. "He was the one who found her. If she's right and she's only from the year 2016—" his eyes went wide. "Another Aleah is alive in America, maybe even in North Dakota. If that's the case, how was Kaiba able to find her here and not where she really is?"

Joey just gaped at his friend. Without really meaning to put thought into it, he said, "Well, one is eight and the other is sixteen, maybe he wasn't looking for a kid." He scratched his head. "Man, this all sounds so weird."

Yugi bit his lip and erased what he had written in the tool bar. Instead, he wrote in her name. Right as he clicked enter he realized there was no way for him to track down a little eight year old in America. Eight year olds didn't even have online records, did they?

He thought hard through their mind link to Yami. 'Why did it sound like Shadi had to enlist Kaiba to find her? He never had a problem finding people before, as far as I know. He was just so…'

'Spirit like?' said Yami wryly. 'Yes. I know what you are feeling, little one. Something is indeed not right. I too have the feeling we did something wrong in letting her out of our sight. It doesn't help that we know next to nothing about an already mysterious man.'

Then, quite suddenly, Yugi found himself no longer staring at a computer screen, but his windowsill. Feeling as though a rug had been pulled out beneath him, he looked down at his hands still frozen in mid-type. Where the computer had once been, a beautiful blue cloak lay folded upon the desk.

Three sets of eyes stared at it. Yami moved to brush his incorporeal hand over it, a confused look in his eye. Yugi reached out to touch it as well to feel soft, almost silk-like cotton. Then, almost as soon as it had happened, Yugi's fingers were pressing against the cool glass of a very confused computer screen.

"Oh man, I'm losing it." said Joey, pushing himself to the back of the bed.

"If Shadi's taken her to her own time," said Yugi slowly, "why are these things still happening?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure things randomly changing into other stuff isn't good." Joey's teeth were on end.

'Maybe there's a connection to the things that are appearing,' murmured Yami. 'An ice staff, chains, a statue of Bastet, and now the cloak. They're seeming more familiar by the hour.' He closed his eyes, looking frustrated. 'If only she had told me my name. I don't care what consequences it would've brought, I hate feeling so blind.'

The three sat in silence only broken by the occasional question from Joey which they answered in small sentences. The computer lay momentarily forgotten, though Yugi stared hard at it as he thought.

At last, Yugi hung his head in his hands.

"Maybe Shadi is right." he said lowly. "Maybe Aleah existing in our time stream where she shouldn't have is screwing everything up. I just can't understand anyone not having a purpose—not suppose to exist. It didn't feel like she was, well, existence-less or anything."

"Well, Yug, you can't tell everything just by feeling it out." Joey propped himself onto his elbow. "I mean, maybe he is right. Personally, I think Kaiba would kill to be her."

Yugi thought this the strangest thing to say and gave his friend a look that told him so. Joey just shrugged.

"He's always going on about how he makes his own destiny and doesn't give a crap about his purpose or what's in store for him. So far, I think he's done a pretty good job at avoiding it. Remember when he dueled Isis with that fortune telling necklace of hers?"

Both the small boy and his invisible yami looked at the yank lounging on the bed. Joey probably didn't realize the depth of the question he had brought up. Was one really obligued to fulfill their destinies? Did fate really have as much control over their lives as they thought? Kaiba certainly didn't think so.

Another cry came from down stairs and everyone flinched. Yugi leapt to his feet, alarmed. What could have startled his grandfather this time?

"What was that?" asked Joey.

Before Yugi could untangle himself from his chair, the door burst open and Tea stumbled in, her pants completely wet and her hair haggard. There were circles under her eyes. Everyone was too shocked to even exclaim at her state.

"That white girl," she panted, "I found her."

"What do you mean?" asked Yugi, feeling his heart leap with Yami as he pressed in closer in excitement.

"In-In the museum. I found her by his—this weird tablet. That Ishtar lady pointed it to me and translated it for me." Looking faint she sunk to her knees. "Oh, Yugi. I think she might be connected to the past—like you and Seto. I-I-I don't know—"

Of course, Yugi thought with a droop in his chest. Tea couldn't have known Aleah was gone.

"Damn, Tea, take a breather. You look like you're about to pass out." said Joey. "Now, what was that you said?"

"That white girl. I found traces of her in the museum along with Seto and the Nameless Pharaoh." Finally noticing something amiss, she glanced about her. "Where is she anyways?"

"She…left." said Yugi impatiently. "What did you learn?"

Tea looked away bashfully, "Um…well…it's really iffy. That woman spoke of her like she didn't mean much. She says she was a slave the Nameless Pharaoh doted on until she mysteriously vanished before the fall of the Shadow Games. Apparently she never thought it was important to tell us of her because it had nothing to do with Yugi's destiny or the problems at hand. She was just some random tidbit of the pharaoh's private life that, frankly, wasn't any of our business." She blew away her bangs. "But I insisted. It was just too weird."

Yami drifted closer to Yugi. 'Perhaps it would be in our best interest to investigate this. Besides, if anyone can give us a glimpse into the past, it is the holder of the millennium necklace.'

Yugi nodded. "I'm checking this out."

"Me too!" cried Joey as he scooted off the bed. "I know an adventure when I see one!"

"You guys better hurry, then," and she looked at her watch as she said this. "The museum closes in about two hours and it's all the way across the city."

"It's already that late!"

"Yeah, Yug, where you been?" said Joey.

"Never mind that, come on!"

With that Yami vanished back into the puzzle and the two boys barreled out of the room, followed by an exasperated Tea.

"Oh, come on! I haven't even caught my breath yet!"

#$%&%$#$ !#$%&^%$#! #$^%$# !

Atem staggered into the stables with his foaming horse. The stable hands, alarmed at seeing their pharaoh in such a state, rushed to his side to take the horse off his hands and flutter like concerned pigeons about his form.

"Leave me be." he growled.

This only earned him a few more feet of breathing room, but he was able to stumble back out into the sunlight. He fell against a stone wall of the stables and slid down the hot stones.

"Mahado…" the thin wall of numbness surrounding the hole within him trembled. He put a hand to his sweating face. How had he let this happened? How could he have left his friend to fight on his own?

Suddenly, all he wanted was her. He wanted Aleah. He wanted to run to her and bury his face into her soft whiteness like a child. Mahado was gone, merged with a shadow beast, to forever live in the Shadow Realm, because Atem hadn't been enough. He could command gods—he was a god! And yet…and yet he still had not been enough.

His small moment of quiet was short lived as the stable hands came out all a fluttering once more. He quickly got back to his feet, even though his knees trembled.

"Your majesty, please, you need help—"

"I said leave me be!"

That quieted the flock. They all blinked at him with their wide black eyes. He didn't want black. He wanted blue—blue as the sky where the kings dwelled.

He pushed off the wall and stumbled towards the palace, peeling off jewelry as he went. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any of this. He probably looked like a freaking peacock in it all anyways, flushing up his feathers when in reality he was very, very small and powerless.

Aleah. He had to get to Aleah. He needed her.

Set ran to him followed by panic stricken guard's as he stepped into the palace.

"Your grace!" he cried. "What has happened? And wha—" he chocked mid-sentence as Atem tore off his cape. But as all eyes fell with the purple cloth, the Pharaoh looked up into viziers eyes, as though lost.

"What am I doing wearing this…this…augh…" he tore at his hair. "Set, Mahado, I couldn't save him. What is wrong with me? Why am I so-"

"Pharaoh," said Set quickly, "we don't have time for you to lose it. You need to stay strong. If what you say is true, the bandit may be advancing."

Atem wagged his head. "No. I can't do it. You be pharaoh."

The taller man scowled heavily. "I refuse."

"Set—"

"No, Atem. I will pick up your job because you're scared. Pick yourself off of the ground. You're embarrassing yourself."

The two guards flanking the vizier gawked at the man's audacity. He might as well slapped the pharaoh in the face. By the way Atem looked up at him, he might as well have. His eyes were wide in shock.

Set folded his arms and set his leveled gaze on him. Waiting.

Atem didn't scream. He didn't roar like he would've used to. Instead, he slowly got up and set his uncertain gaze at his vizier. Set nodded, as though approving.

"Now, forgive me, but may I inquire what you meant by Mahado?"

The pharaoh took a shaking breath and looked down. "Just as I said, Set. He's gone. He met up with the thief king on his own and I didn't reach him in time. As a last ditch effort to protect me, he combined himself with his favorite monster. He's part of the Shadow Realm now."

The frown on the tall man's face was deeper than ever. He gave a brief nod and looked to one of the guards.

"Report this to the other high priests. They'll be wanting to know."

The guard saluted, still a bit shaken by the vizier's blunt chastisement of god Pharaoh, and ran off. The second guard looked at the two of them uncertainly.

"And you," Set said, "I need you to—"

Atem raised a hand, stopping him. He leveled his gaze on the man.

"Fetch me Aleah. The…white foreigner."

The guard gave him a peculiar look. "The slave, your grace?"

Atem hesitated. He had yet to fix that. "That will do."

With a quick bow, that guard too fled. The pharaoh and his vizier stood alone in the hall, the sun leaning towards the horizon in the distance. Set's expression softened and he put a hand to the still slumped pharaoh.

"I'm sorry about that, your grace."

He shrugged. "It's all right, friend. I needed that. You're right, I can't just drop everything and run away."

Set gave his shoulder a squeeze. "We will be victorious, my pharaoh. No petty criminal can match the power of the gods."

"But that's just the thing. That creature of his can absorb anything, and every time we beat it down it seems to find another way up. Besides," Atem looked up, his eyes narrowing. "I sense something darker behind the bandit's movements. There's something a lot bigger going on here. Something I can feel in my bones, and it's…it's a lot bigger than me."

"Pharaoh, many things are a lot bigger than you."

Atem gave him a weak grin. "I could have you demoted for that."

"Ah, but you like me too much."

Chuckling, he pushed his advisor's hand off his shoulder. "Very well. But Isis would be very displeased to hear of this."

Set rolled his eyes. "Just go and clean yourself up with that slave of yours. We should meet again tonight. The others should have reports by now and we need to figure out our next move, your grace."

"Fine, fine. Just don't mention Aleah, okay? I've tried too hard to keep her out of this."

"I still don't see why. If she is from the future—"

"Yes, yes, I know your theory. But…" Atem trembled and looked back behind him where the afternoon sun sat low in the sky, making the Nile glow white hot. "I don't know what I would do if she were to be hurt."

Set searched his friend's face carefully. He folded back an arm to caress the golden rod at his belt in thought. "I do not think she's as fragile as you think, your grace."And with a wry smile, he added. "I saw what she did for that child. If she feels she needs to do something, she does it without hesitation, no matter what is in her path. Perhaps you can take a leaf from her book."

"Goodness, Set. Was that a compliment for a foreigner I just heard now?"

"You didn't hear it from me, your grace."

"Dare I say it was anyone else?"

"Dare you say it was me?"

Atem smiled and picked up his cape off the floor. "Like I said, if Isis ever knew. I'll be going now. Go make yourself useful."

Set bowed. "As I ever do, my pharaoh."

He wondered in the direction of his chambers. The guard would be fetching Aleah from the kitchens, where he had sent her for the day. It seemed safer down there, rather than up high in the balcony where his enemies could spy her. Besides, he had wanted to help her figure out what she wanted to be, now that she wasn't a slave, and she had always been curious of went on in the kitchens. He had taught her enough words to follow very simple commands, but other than that her and Diseam, the cook, mainly worked off of a sign language of sorts.

It wasn't till he reached his chambers did a sense of something ill come upon him. The door was slightly ajar. Motioning to the guards who always stood outside his room, he opened the doors.

"Check for intruders. Quickly." he said, and the two men scattered about the room, hands to hilts at their waists. Untied curtains across the balcony fluttered in a faint breeze. He stayed put, looking about sharply. Nothing looked out of place. But it wasn't like he memorized where everything was before he left in the morning.

"Nothing, sir. We even checked behind the tapestry and down at the spring. If someone were in here they would have had to climb through the balcony, your grace, for we saw no one entering or leaving."

Atem nodded. "Return to your posts."

But even when the guards were gone, a chill crawled up his spin. Something happened here. Even as he sniffed the air he thought he could smell the residue of something familiar. Magic maybe? But he knew that magic. Tapping into his puzzle, he gave the room his own search, but still nothing.

Well, whatever it was, he thought, it's gone now.

"Pharaoh?"

Atem turned, an excited jump to his heart. Standing in front of closing doors was Aleah, petite, white, and beautiful as always. Without waiting for another word or even caring how she would take it, he closed the space between them and drew her close to him. She felt warm and soft as always and he took comfort in her scent. He buried one of his hands into her silk-like hair and let out one last tremulous shudder of despair. But everything would be okay, now.

It took him nearly a full minute to realize something was not right. She felt too stif, too still in his arms. He pulled back to find her pale, almost grey. Startled, he brought her to arms length.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Her lips trembled with unspoken words. Then, she looked down.

"Nothing."

There was a coolness to her voice that made him tremble. Not again.

"What did I do?"

"Nothing."

"Then did someone else do something? Tell me who it was and I'll kill him with my bare hands!"

"No one did anything. I just…didn't you need me for something?"

"Don't try to distract me. Something is wrong."

She shrugged and brushed of his hands, still with that distant coolness. "I'll be fine. Can't I have any privacy?"

"But, Aleah—"

"Please?"

In that one word the coolness cracked and for a moment he saw a fraction of her, a hurting piece of her, that disturbed him. He longed to just have it out of her—to know what was wrong so he could fix it and make at least one thing in his life well. But under her pleading expression, he bit his lip.

"Very well." he sighed. "I guess I really am useless, huh?"

She seemed to falter beneath the look he gave her. "What's happened to make you say that."

He sighed and lifted a hand to his eyes. "I'd rather not think about it until I have to." Then, hesitating, he offered the hand to her. "Would you…would you be willing to…"

She cocked her head. "Willing to what?"

"To…spend some time with me? We don't have to do anything. I just want…I just want to be near you. I…" he gulped. "I need you. I…"

Then, to his utmost horror, his voice cracked as tears brimmed his eyes. For a moment she looked equally surprised, and he thought for a moment she seemed to forget about whatever was troubling her. Without another word she took his wrist and gently led him to her very own cushion, which she had moved in front of the balcony. He sat down gratefully to hide his face as a tear finally escaped. She came back with a game board. She must have known it was his favorite.

"Will this work?"

He took the game board from her and considered it. Then, he set it aside, and pulled her into his lap to bury his face into her shoulder. He couldn't stop from shaking. Eventually she wrapped her arms about his head and sighed into his ear.

"Oh, Atem."

And she too began to silently weep. Whether for him or for her own troubles, he didn't know, but it made him cling to her harder. Who was he kidding. Even with her here, nothing was well. Mahado was as good as dead, Mana was missing, half the city of Thebes was demolished by the bandits damn monster, and in the chamber where he had lost his friend to his magician he could feel that this was only the beginning. Another darkness waited to make itself known and he felt too inept to face it.

And now something had hurt Aleah deeply. More deeply than he wanted to know, by the sounds of her quiet sobs. He hated how she shivered against him. So fragile. So very fragile.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I'm sorry. For whatever happened to you. And especially if it was because of me."

Because somehow, he knew, he must have done something stupid to cause this.

Time flew on gilded wings and soon sunset fell on the two of them. By the time Set came to fetch the Pharaoh for the meeting between the priests it was to find the pharaoh and his slave curled up in each other's arms on the floor, fast asleep. Softening at the sight, his vizier thought it best to leave his liege to his peace and left to meet the other priests on his own. He could tell them of Mahado's end. The details could wait. Servants came with armfuls of Atem's shed jewelry, newly polished, and quietly placed them back into their appropriate spots.

Nobody expected the pale girl to wake in the night and see a light only she could see shining in amongst the stars. And when the time came that she made her decision to flee back home, only the pharaoh followed, pleading for her to reconsider. But she had been hurt beyond repair by something only she seemed to know.

Stone gods watched as she vanished into the night, hair fluffed about her shoulders like wings, and the mighty god pharaoh put his face to the cold floor to weep.