Yes, I have changed this story's name, merely for the benefit of interest. So very sorry if this change, or the change in my pen name, is an inconvenience.

LAST CHAPTER! Gosh, finally finished my first fanfic! 'sob sob'. Okay, I'm better now. Anyway, this will be the last chapter for THIS section of the Traces Through Time series. I'm working on Part Two, but I don't think it will come out for awhile. I have exams this week and next week, as well as exams for other random stupid things-no, not a fun life. I'm enjoying what freedom I have now.

Hints for Part Two of Traces Through Time, since some of you have been asking-yes, there will be romance in it! I am a romance addict if the story's good. We'll see how it goes.

Nobody answered my quesiton-should Tea, Tristan, Joey and any other people from YGO be put in ancient Egypt as incarnations or something? My second part does involve ancient Egypt somewhere. (Spoiled.)

Also, thank you to Koragirl and The Duelist's Heiress for their supportive reviews on my story! And thank you to those that have read this story and reviewed, or just read it. I hope it's been okay for you.

Now to the conclusion of this Part...

The plan was so simple, so vague, and so routine. This was the reason why no one remembered her from the places she travelled through for the past few years, and why she had stopped making friends after the first few times she did it. The repetition of this particular event was painful.

After all, wouldn't you be hurt if the few people you were once nearly close to suddenly forgot all about you? Though she had forced that fate upon them, but she was doing it to protect them.

Efrona sighed and shook herself out of her thoughts. She glanced at the vast body of water that lay below her, stained orange as the gloriously sorrowful sunset behind her-the heat of the day, the perfection of it, hinted at a storm soon, within the next few days maybe. Lovely time to leave town, huh?

That's right, leave town. She had to, after what happened at school. Her screaming, and people finding out she had trauma problems-she had drawn far too much attention. And the evil personality of the thief Bakura, hidden inside kind Ryou's mind…the darkness within that evil personality reminded her far too much of the murderer of her family, to be comfortable around.

The similarity of the oppressive darkness within the two personalities was what was making her flee. There had to be a reason why they were so similar-was it possible that her murderer, also enemy of the Pharaoh, was the evil spirit Bakura?

His name had been-she mentally gulped-Akunadin. So no, her family's murderer wasn't Bakura. All the same, she was afraid of that type of darkness. She was too weak to face something related to her past, and even though her friends said they would be there for her…

Hell, there was no 'even though'. She was just too plain used to be alone, to let them help her now. To an extent, they had. But they didn't know her deeply enough to fully help her, and she was too scarred inside to even help herself. Pathetic? Yes. But she couldn't hep it.

'Maybe one day,' Efrona thought wistfully. 'Maybe one day I'll come back here to Domino, when I've faced my own fears, when I can finally look them in the eye and tell them I've changed. Well, maybe not tell them, but say it to them mentally. I'll always be ashamed about what I'm going to do now though. I'm so sorry, you guys, but this is the only way to get away cleanly.'

She touched her wolf necklace gently. "Alright Efrona, let's do this. One last time. Then from now on, you'll never try and open up to people that much again. It'll save them and you the pain."

The body of water beneath her flying form was the dam that supplied drinking water to Domino. It was the one of the few things humans couldn't live without. Sooner or later, most probably during dinner tonight, people would drink some water to top off their meal. Except it wouldn't be normal water. Thanks to the magical properties her necklace had, the water would be turned into a memory eraser. People would start to feel woozy, then faint, straight after drinking it. While they were unconscious, the spell within the water would take form in their mind and destroy any image of her in it.

She personally called them her 'scouring wolves' since her necklace was the image of a wolf.

After they woke up from unconsciousness, the victims of her 'wolves' would simply wonder why they fainted, and go about their business. The people that checked up with a doctor as to why they fainted would find no answer, since the doctors would not find any symptoms of illness. Maybe just stress or tiredness.

Oh, and they wouldn't remember her.

Not many Efrona came into contact with actually remembered her. Except for a small few-mostly gangsters who had left town before she could wipe their memories-none would remember the girl who lived in a particular, recently vacated apartment, or who was the girl who sat at the back of their classroom was. It hurt, to be forgotten, and it hurt when she had to erase herself from the memory of those who had been kind to her. It was like an invasion of privacy. But it was safer for them not to remember her. What if Akunadin found them, and looked through their minds to see if they had seen her? Did he even have that power? If he found out, there was a possibility that he would kill those who knew her. He had killed her family, after all. To him, what's a few passer-by's?

'Breathe Efrona. No panicking-just do the job!' she scolded herself. She closed her eyes, and let loose her magic. Her wolf pendant began to glow, and for a moment, the water faintly sparkled, though the flashing was hidden by the brightness of the sunset. The ghostly image of a wolf walking over water flashed once, and vanished just as abruptly.

If anyone had been watching the scene, they would have seen a small-built girl floating above the centre of the dam, a backdrop of a rich, ruddy sunset behind her. Aquamarine eyes tinted orange from the sunset would have been sorrowful, but dry of tears.

She hadn't cried since she was twelve, since her family had been killed and she had given them the best burials she could in her circumstance.

And if anyone looking at this scene had watched extremely closely, they would have seen the magical manifestation of her flying magic-two white, feathered wings, almost completely translucent, and only visible through the faint blue outline that contrasted against the background.

The wings might have been angelic, but she was no angel herself. She was just a scared little girl dealing with bad situations the way she always had-by running away.

It was night when Efrona finally gathered the courage to finish her last task-Yugi.

Well not specifically Yugi, more his counterpart. Her water needed to be drunk by the person for her spell 'wolf' to reach the person's mind and begin its task. The thing was, while the spell wolf could erase her image from Yugi's memory, the Pharaoh still remembered her. She somehow needed to get Yami to drink the spelled water.

'I don't want to do this,' Efrona thought, as she pulled a hairpin out of her pocket. She bent the hair pin straight, and proceeded to undo the Turtle Game Shop's door lock the thief's good ol' fashioned way-picking it. She had enough experience picking simple locks to undo this one, though with a little help from her bracelet. It was how she had hacked into government files and created a new identity for herself-her bracelet had done the hacking. Right now, it was giving her gentle urges with magic as to how to unpick the lock.

It sounded vague, but it worked. After a few minutes, the lock clicked, and Efrona silently entered.

Grandpa Motou was sprawled out on the couch in front of the TV, and the TV was still on. An empty glass cup lay on the floor. 'Grandpa Motou must have fainted while waiting for a TV show to come on.' Efrona thought. 'Lucky the floor is carpet, or the glass wouldn't have survived.'

Sighing, she switched the TV off, picked up the dropped glass and set it on the table. She stood there for a few moments, surveying the comfortable living room a little wistfully-wistful seemed her most common expression or emotion these days-and then moved to the kitchen.

She took up a glass of water. If it knocked Grandpa Motou out, than the water in the house was the water that had been infected by her spell. She flitted up the stairs and quietly entered Yugi's bedroom.

Yugi was collapsed on the floor by his table. A quick check over him told he hadn't injured himself falling, but he was currently in an uncomfortable heap on the floor. Setting down the glass of water she brought, Efrona moved him into a more comfortable position, and then touched the Millennium Puzzle. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought, and let loose some magic. Her bracelet and hand flared with white-blue light.

Pharaoh, come take over your charge. Someone is here to see you.

After a few moments, Efrona spotted Yugi's fingers curl slightly. She hastily stopped her magic and let go of the Puzzle. However, she kept one hand on Yugi's shoulder, and shook him gently.

"Yugi! Yugi, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

Deep, sharp violet eyes opened, definitely unlike Yugi's softer, gentler eyes. He looked at her in confusion. "Efrona?"

"Phew, I was worried for a minute," Efrona said, relieved. "Are you alright? You were sprawled out on the floor."

"Something is wrong," Yami said, worried. A dazed, dizzy look flashed briefly in his eyes as he stood up-even if his memory wasn't wiped like Yugi's was, since they were separate minds, they shared the same body, and the same effects and physical injuries. Waking up so early after being knocked unconscious (since the body needed more time to recuperate) must have made the body dizzy.

"Maybe something isn't right, but just sit still for a moment, you look a little sick," Efrona said, and handed him the water. She looked at him intently. "Drink, try and feel a little less sick, and then start thinking things through properly. It works better in that sequence." She managed a small, forced grin.

Yami thanked her quietly as he accepted the glass, and drank it down gratefully. The coolness of the water enabled him to focus and force the dizziness away from his present mind. Efrona took the cup away when he was done, and then began to ask questions. "What happened to you? I don't think either you or Yugi would have fallen asleep on the floor."

"I'm not exactly sure what happened myself," Yami replied. "But I was merely aware that something was wrong when Yugi began to feel ill. I could feel his discomfort, and asked if he was alright. He told me he was fine, but a few moments later he was in his soul room-a room within his mind-unconscious. I saw him there as I was approaching his soul room, along with a vague shadow, but the door closed and locked before I could even come in. I haven't been able to enter it for some reason, not by calling Yugi, or by forced entry either. I can't be too brutal about forced entry, or I could hurt his mind."

Efrona listened intently, growing more uncomfortable as each moment passed. "Do…do you know why Yugi fainted? Did he do something before?"

"I have no idea what caused this," Yami said, a touch of frustration in his voice. "But the cause must be of the magical sort, to be able to enter Yugi's soul room. I'm afraid that the shadow I saw hovering in Yugi's room might be dangerous or even deadly."

"Oh gosh…" Efrona murmured, at a loss of what to say.

Yami thought carefully, searching through his memories. What had Yugi been doing, just before he fainted? He hadn't been paying attention to his counterpart's actions because they were simple, everyday actions. What had Yugi been doing? What had been happening?

Yugi had finished dinner with his grandpa, helped to wash up, and then headed for his room. That was it.

"Nothing odd was happening," he murmured. "Yugi just had dinner and washed up, as usual. The sense of discomfort started there, I think, just a few moments after dinner. It wasn't strong enough for either of us to be worried about it, and Yugi waved it aside as…a 'food not agreeing to him'."

'No, it wasn't the food,' Efrona thought, but kept silent.

"I have a theory that maybe someone is trying to attack us with magic-Yugi was struck first," Yami said, worried. He glanced at her. "You have your own ability in magic, just as I have my own. Did you sense anything odd lately?"

"No," Efrona said. At least, what she tried to say. What came out was a strange squeak. When he looked at her oddly, she shook her head frantically and cleared her throat. "Um, I don't think I've seen anything."

Squeaking? What the hell, she had been doing alright before! What was making her so nervous and shaky now?

Yami frowned, and exhaled in frustration. "I still can't reach Yugi. He could be injured…" he shook his head, as if to banish that thought.

Ah, that was what was making her nervous. Yami was worried for his best friend, and it was her fault. It was because of her Yugi was knocked out, locked in his mind. Yami, being a decent, good friend was anxious.

God, she was such a snake for making him worry like this, for forcing this situation on her friends. When was that glass of water going to kick in and knock Yami out? The sooner she escaped, the better, before Yami found out she was guilty of poisoning (technically).

"Efrona?" Said girl snapped out of her mental panic attack and looked at Yami. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just fine. Are you…are you feeling alright? You look a little pale. You're not going to fall over unconscious right?" she asked, a little quickly.

"I'm fine," Yami said, puzzled, and he instinctively dropped his hand to curl around the Millennium Puzzle. At least, he tried. Except, he found that though his hand could drop to his side, it didn't seem to have the strength to lift back up. A wave of tiredness washed over him, and he nearly swayed at its strength. His vision blurred, and he near collapsed.

"Sit…sit down," Efrona told him. Her voice seemed distant to him, yet he could hear something odd about her voice…had it gone hoarse? It sounded as if she was…afraid to speak.

"W-what…?" he mumbled, and with a light push from Efrona, tumbled onto the bed. She gazed down at him regretfully.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I really am. But this is how it's always been, how it should have been if I hadn't let my guard down."

"What did you do?!" Yami managed.

"You deserve this least of all, since you're searching for your memories. But I'm taking away a few memories myself. You'll be safer for it though. Just relax. You won't be harmed-despite what I'm doing now; I actually do care for you and your friends. You've all been kind to me, but there are some things you people just can't change. That's where I have to change them by myself, I think. Goodbye."

Yami hissed as he struggled against the blackness edging into his vision, but was forced to give in-he wasn't physically superhuman. He fainted dead away.

When he woke up the next morning, it was to Yugi knocking on the locked door of his soul…maze, and frantically asking if he was alright. He was aware that he had fainted, and Yugi also figured out that he himself had but neither knew why.

XXX

School was called off the day after several people fainted in their homes, and the day after that, to find out why the students at Domino High had suddenly been fainting. None knew. But then, none remembered the cheerful blue-eyed girl who hung with Yugi's group. There was nothing to say she had been at the school either. There was no unremembered name in the roll, no extra set of books in a locker that should have been empty.

The name Efrona Kwan was never whispered even once. There were no records in that city to even say she was there. The belongings in the apartment she lived in were gone, as was her memory. Once again, Efrona was a wanderer, passing through places like the wind that leaves nothing behind except mysterious, aimless imprints in the sand.

XXX

"Egypt. Land of sun, land of mystery, land of pyramids and deserts…whatever Efrona, you're just talking yourself because you're lonely, so just shut up. You decided to do all this crap." Efrona sighed, and massaged her temples. "I'm going nuts."

She splashed her bare feet into the Nile River, enjoying the warmth of the water. It was rare that river water would be warm enough not to jump at in shock, but when you're in Egypt, basically everything during the day was warm, from mild to unbearable.

'I wonder what I'm doing here,' Efrona thought, as she glanced at the far expanse of the Nile. 'It's been nearly half a year since I was in Domino. I've just turned sixteen three days ago, and I'm currently holidaying in Egypt since it's school holidays in for me. I should be trying to live like a normal teenager should. So why do I keep thinking back to those people…those friends in Domino? They don't remember me, and one isn't even in this world anymore-Yami, I mean, Atem, he's moved on to the Afterlife. I know it; because I snuck to Egypt and secretly watched over his and his friends' unconscious bodies for days while they were in that weird place they was sucked into by the Tablet. I watched Ya-Atem and Yugi battle it out, I watched the Pharaoh walk into the Afterlife.

'The whole story's over now. The person who murdered my family, he's somehow gone. I'm sure he is, because Akunadin was a past enemy of the Pharaoh who used Shadow Magic. But Atem, after doing whatever he did within whatever place the Tablet sent him, resealed the Shadow Games, this time for good. Akunadin can't hurt me now; I'm free to just live normally, just like Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Joey are.'

Efrona sighed at that. She knew full well that she couldn't, not until she faced a few issues in her past. She still hadn't scrounged up the courage to go back to Australia and visit the house of her childhood, or even to visit her family's graves. Even though she no longer had to move from city to city, she often found herself spending a lot of time outdoors, roaming the streets or parks. The library was probably the only building she was comfortable staying at, because she liked reading. Every other building she was in, she felt so damn lonely.

'Now I'm back in Egypt,' she contemplated. 'For the second time in my life. I wonder why? I have almost no connection to Egypt, besides the fact my necklace was supposedly bought here. Maybe it's because Egypt was where I last saw the gang, and-'

Her thoughts were cut off by a dark, suffocating feeling that was clogging up her lungs. She gasped, and forced herself to breathe. Why was it so difficult to breathe all of a sudden? Sweat beaded her brow and her heart thumped frantically in her chest. This sensation, she was familiar with it. The trigger to it should have disappeared though…

"Akunadin is gone! He has to be! So what's going on?!" Efrona gasped, and desperately, recklessly, she jumped forward into the Nile. She forgot the fact that she was standing on a sand bar, and that the water in front of the sand bar was VERY deep. Also, even if she could control water…

She was admittedly a crap swimmer. As in, she couldn't swim more than 50 metres (one length of a swimming pool) without panting heavily by the end of it. Yeah, she was that bad at swimming, so sue her. Not.

The Nile waters seemed to reach up to Efrona then, wrapping tentacles of water around her body, and pulled her in faster. She gasped, and a flood of water entered her mouth, nose and lungs. Coughing didn't work, because she just took in more water.

'I can't die here!' Efrona panicked mentally, as she struggled to surface. Something was stopping her though-the Nile. The great body of water that Efrona had once admired was now dragging her in deeper, closer and closer to the bottom of the river. She couldn't see the bottom though-it was a long way off. 'I survived maniacs trying to get my powers, being crushed, being beaten up and stabbed by gangs-I can't die by drowning!!'

You foolish little girl, something chimed in her head. The voice sounded amused and exasperated. Such odd thoughts in this situation. Calm yourself, my daughter.

Water caressed her skin gently, stroking back her long dark hair and spreading it willy-nilly like a cloud around her head. Efrona blinked, wondering why her vision was going dark. She closed her eyes, trying to force down the uncontrollable panic and the desperate need to breathe-and lost consciousness.

Water lapped up the banks of the Nile, giving moisture to the golden and brown sand. It also lapped up against something less flat-a body. Like a mother giving away her beloved child, the Nile refused to leave the body alone, to let it be scorched by the sun. The form was thinly covered by a sheet of liquid, almost like a blanket. The face was left bare, pale cheeks covered by dripping, black, blue fringed hair.

A shadow loomed over the body, momentarily blocking the sunlight from the form.

"What in Ra's name…? Layla, come have a look at this. I think we'll be having a new addition to our group."

Farewell readers, until next part! Please leave a review as you pass by this chapter.