Black & White and Blue & Gold
by Cryptographic DeLurk
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AN: This is a slightly edited collection of fanwriting that I originally posted on tumblr for SetoKisa Week. Read & Relax!
Chapter 1: Beast Tamer Fantasy AU!
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"The creature is enchanted, Kaiba," Atem had told him. "If you look closely, you can see its true form, waiting under the guise of its magic."
Atem said it kindly, a simple matter of observation.
It was Kujaku that took it a step further. "You'd be better not to get too attached to it, hon," she clicked her tongue, dismissively. "Who knows what it's hiding? What it's planning? Even when they're not a cover for human faces – human spies – they're already all too liable to break your heart." She leaned to speak into his ear. "Especially the weak hearts of men," she teased.
Kujaku was one to talk, though. She was already too attached to her harpies, and the two dragons that followed behind them. One was so wild, it had to be chained. And the second – it was too wild to be chained at all. Its body was charred like coal, and its red eyes gleamed like embers. And Kujaku doted on it, even when it broke out of its stable one night and made a mess of the food stores.
Seto was a much more responsible beast tamer. He oversaw an entire herd of Battle Oxen, as well as the White Dragon. And he didn't make excuses when they stepped out of line, the way Kujaku and Mazaki did with their beasts.
But, most importantly, he didn't get attached.
It was not attachment he felt when he found the beast. He'd been overseeing trade inspections at the border, and he'd almost missed it actually. The dragon was being smuggled in as part of a large shipment of polished rice. His men overturned the entire contents of three carts in the caravan and, after finding nothing more incriminating than a caged exotic bird and a bag of plums (both confiscated) Seto decided it wasn't worth the time and trouble to inspect the rest. He rationalised his lingering feelings of doubt, as he stood next to the centre cart and signed off the paperwork.
"Waste of time," he'd muttered viciously. "Zork's Empire – gearing up for attack. Diabound. The Thief. And Atem has me wasting my time with these trifles."
He stabbed at the reports.
"Father…" he'd bitten back. "Mokuba…"
But no sooner had he walked away from the side of the cart, to hand over the report that would clear the trading company for import, than the cart rumbled and, from the side, burst a stream of light that cleared straight through seven other transports, and through the side of the border's barricade.
Seto turned back, and watched the side of the cart dilapidate and slump. White rice poured over white scales, and it took a minute before his eyes narrowed in recognition of the beast's head, tied and restrained.
Seto tore up the papers in his hands. There was no way that power could belong to anyone else. A struggle was already starting between the traders- no, smugglers- and his men at the border patrol. He reached for the long knife at his belt, and turned to meet the beast's captors. He'd show them Seto Kaiba did not need to even summon his Battle Oxen to deal with scum like them.
It was not attachment when he peered into the White Dragon's eyes, and found in them the same blue as his own. It was a lust for power. And, once the smugglers were dealt with, and the rice and broken wood pulled from atop the dragon, there was nothing to the way Seto frantically ripped at the ropes and hacked at the chains restraining it. And he tore the skin of his own hands in the process of seeing the weakened dragon unchained.
At least one of them would be free, he just wasn't sure which.
Following its release into Seto's hands, the White Dragon had been cowed immediately. It had taken to following him around, and following his commands, even before he could begin to properly train it.
This was not attachment, either.
If the White Dragon was obedient, this was only correct. It recognised Seto's commanding presence – his power, his restraint, his genius. Seto had freed the beast from its captors, after all, and it was smart enough to understand deference and respect.
The limits of this felt surprisingly easy to test. The beast had taken to being saddled and ridden with surprising ease, and Seto pushed forward with this course of action, despite Kujaku's warnings that riding a dragon so soon into its taming was liable to get him bucked-off from fifty feet above the ground. But the White Dragon was cleverer and more faithful than that. It responded easily to spoken commands. It would change course at the lightest suggestion of Seto's words and the slightest shift in Seto's posture. It would attack without hesitation, when Kaiba called for its White Lightning, or its Burst Stream. He had taken it on several enemy raids, and it was as ruthless and fierce and quick to respond to Seto's changing assessment of the battlefield.
Not only that, it was now the strongest beast they had, save for Atem's Exodia, which required a complicated summoning ceremony to call forth.
The White Dragon was such an easy beast to control Seto had actually begun to sabotage it. Would it fly itself into a cliff face, if Seto commanded? Would it attack that cliff face, while it was in range for being dragged under by a resulting avalanche? Would it attack a friendly force? Would it become aggravated if Seto gave it conflicting commands?
The results of such tests pleased him even more. The White Dragon seemed to toe the fine line between intelligence, and a reckless disconcern for anything other than Seto's words. It had a keen discernment for Seto's desires. And it was not afraid to put itself at risk, even as it shied away from anything that would undoubtedly cause serious damage.
Seto became convinced the beast would even attack one of its own kind, if he commanded. He felt eager to test this out, if they ever found another white dragon to begin with.
This was not to say the White Dragon was always well behaved. It made errors, as everyone Seto knew was wont to do.
Once, while flying behind Seto on some errand, it accidentally struck its wing against the tiled roof of a residence. Seto had been furious with it, but the anger had easily redirected at the owners of the residence, when they came out to argue against Seto's ownership of the beast. They seemed personally insulted that anyone, even a beast tamer under command of the King, should let such a fearsome beast fly freely. The White Dragon had cowered behind Seto, as he tore into them. He'd been planning to see them reimbursed for repairs to the building, but now…
And there were other, less accidental things as well. Seto was irritated to find the White Dragon seemed to have a mind of its own. After getting into several vicious tiffs with Kujaku's Black Dragon (of which Seto approved) both dragons were found curled up next to one another, asleep.
"Well, it's good they're getting along," Kujaku beamed. "My dragon and your spy~" she winked.
Seto had huffed, displeased that Kujaku wasn't being a receptive audience to vent his frustrations to.
And the White Dragon seemed to like Mazaki and her beasts, as well. While Seto attended meetings with King Atem, or was otherwise occupied, Mazaki looked after the White Dragon in the fields behind the castle. Seto would return to find his beast playfully chasing Mazaki's herd of Happy Lovers.
"I was concerned, given how powerful your dragon is, that she would hurt the angels. But she seems to have a very mild temperament." Mazaki smiled at him.
Mazaki's Maha Vailo was standing behind her, it grinned at him far more ferally. The decorations on its elaborate headdress swayed, and the glaives at its shoulders shifted against one another, metal upon metal.
"She?" Seto spat, offended.
"Your dragon," Mazaki specified. "Yuugi and I noticed first. But Atem told you she's wearing an enchanted form, didn't he?" Mazaki didn't wait for an answer. "Aren't you curious about who, or what, she is?"
Seto refused to listen further. He shot one last glare at Mazaki, before calling for the White Dragon.
He turned to leave. He didn't have to watch to know the White Dragon would follow him. If he was content in this assurance, it still was not attachment.
If the White Dragon toed the line of acceptability, if it nudged the Happy Lovers gently aside and pressed against Mazaki's outstretched hand before leaving- It was difficult for Seto to feel justified in his anger when the beast seemed to so implicitly know where the boundaries were.
He was angry, though. Late at night, Seto paced in the stable, mulling over his newest letter to Mokuba. The latest in a series he had nowhere to send.
He cursed himself for being so foolish, all those years ago. It had seemed like the chance of a lifetime, when Gouzaburou had come to offer him the chance to study and be taken in for a position at the royal castle. Seto didn't have the background, but he had the brains, and he had no idea he'd signed himself up for five brutal years under Gouzaburou's tutelage, before Atem had taken over his own father's throne, and Gouzaburou had taken a short trip off a tall tower.
At least that's how the story got told.
Not that it helped, when Mokuba and the rest of Seto's family had disappeared in the meantime, and left a trail so cold it might as well have been paved with ice.
"I'll find you- I'll find you- If I don't die in the next battle with Zork's forces-" Seto recited his letter aloud, aware that he sounded more crazed than sane. It didn't matter. Mokuba couldn't hear him. "Or, maybe, if I die- that's how I'll find you. But, no, I should look everywhere in this world first-" His words cut out like knives.
The White Dragon watched him pace. Its wings stretched, and its legs tensed, but it was too wise to approach Seto in the midst of his recitation.
"I still have the locket you gave me," he ground out, yanking the chain around his neck. "I won't rest until I can return it to you…"
When he was done, he glared at the dragon, whose eyes had followed him the whole time.
"What would you say?" he asked it. "Does it sound okay?"
The White Dragon flipped its tail and roared. It was oddly quiet.
"Of course, it doesn't," Seto growled. "It sounds like the ramblings of a terrified fool!"
He flung his pen at the White Dragon. It bounced harmlessly against the white scales, but the dragon growled in upset.
"You don't understand anyhow!" Seto accused. "How could you understand?! I'm wasting my time talking to a stupid beast!"
He was imagining it, when the beast's eyes narrowed with hurt.
"I didn't mean that," Seto reassured, automatically.
He began to rationalise. If the beast did understand him, the apology was in line. And, if the beast didn't understand him, no one would hear his foolishness.
"I didn't mean that. I'm just-"
His words stuck in his throat.
He returned to pacing, and balled the letter up in his hand.
"I promised," he croaked. "I promised I'd find him… Mokuba…"
Seto woke up in the stables. His coat stuck to his sweaty skin. The White Dragon had curled its tail around Seto's body. The narrow end of the tail encircled his arm and pressed up against his hand.
Seto didn't know what that was, but it couldn't be attachment. What good was getting attached? What good was caring about anything – when you couldn't save anyone?
They met Zork's forces at the eastern border, and Seto lost himself in the manic rush of battle. He pressed the White Dragon forward and, as streams of light burst from its maw, it raked its head back and forth to take out as many members of the undead army as possible.
Seto laughed. Atem snapped at him to calm down, from his position in the rear. He was still working up the presence of mind of summon Exodia.
It was going wonderfully though. At least until, Diabound came upon them. Even Diabound could not have stood up to the power of the White Dragon. But against a different target-
It seemed Seto was not the only one with an intelligent beast. Diabound's snake head lashed forward, pointedly circling around the roaring head of the White Dragon and went directly for Seto's abdomen.
The White Dragon lashed out with its claws, but Seto could not see the way it tore Diabound's snake head clean off.
"Kaiba!" Atem roared. "Kaiba!"
He could hear Kujaku yell something from Atem's other side. The White Dragon curled in on itself. It collapsed the ridge in its back, so Seto would have a flatter surface to fall against.
Seto could barely take in his vision of the battle anymore, but Atem's voice was clear.
"Creature! White Dragon! I know you understand me. And I know you are more than what you appear." Atem paused, probably to smile.
"I do not know where your true allegiance lies," he continued, "but I know you have Seto's best interests at heart.
"Flee!" he commanded. "Make sure he gets away from this safely."
At this Seto jerked up, against the reins and the saddle and the prison of white scales.
"No!" he shouted. "Dragon! Stay!"
He could hear Atem sending Kujaku away, too. Without them, there would be no one to cover Atem, as he finished summoning Exodia.
The White Dragon paused, and Seto finally took it for what it was – understanding. And then there's a horrible lurch and Seto was dragged up, high above the clouds, as the White Dragon flew for safety.
"No!" he screamed. "No! No! No! No! No!"
He pulled against the restraints, but the White Dragon wasn't listening. It was carrying him, up and away, and Seto thought about Atem and unfinished duty and the Thief and Mokuba, as the feeling of betrayal sunk in his gut and bled out his wound. The White Dragon, his loyal servant, was betraying his orders. And the bitterness of that was the last thing that stung, as he passed out.
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He awoke somewhere in a forest, with the evidence of a crash landing shown in the trees above his head. The White Dragon was surrounding him again, suffocating, with its tail pressed into his abdomen to stem the bleeding. Seto wondered if Diabound's fangs were poisonous, if he had bled out the poison. He didn't know. He didn't care.
The White Dragon. It- no- She seemed to be awake.
Seto struggled weakly against her tail.
"Let- Let go!" he grit out.
The White Dragon let go. Although she pressed, one last time, against his wound. The pressure of it sent pain spiralling through Seto's torso. His vision blurred. He faltered.
But then he grit his teeth and crawled away, against the mossy ground. His hands scraped twigs.
"You left Atem to that thief!" he bit angrily. But that wasn't all. "You- you went directly against my orders! What kind of servent-?!" He started again. The words weren't coming to him. But he was angry his beast had capitulated to Atem's orders, rather than his own.
"You listened to him!" Seto tried. "I won't have a useless beast-"
He felt bad about that one. The White Dragon watched him worriedly. Her beady eyes focussed at the wound in his abdomen, rather than his face.
Seto fumed. The blood was pounding in his head.
"I won't have you pretend to deceive me any longer!"
The White Dragon lunged forward at that moment. And Seto retreated in fear, but the dragon was faster. With an urgency, but also a keen gentleness, she pressed her curved snout against Seto's face.
And Seto pretended it wasn't quite intentional, when he pressed his cold lips into her.
The White Dragon was shining, and changing form. He didn't see her silhouette, before blacking out again, but that was fine. He'd seen past her magic before, despite himself. He had already recognised her slim figure, and the long trail of white hair.
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When he awoke again, she had bandaged his wound properly – pressed healing herbs into his side. She'd caught a pair of rabbits to eat, and started a fire. She shivered, still naked, and turned her body into the flames.
"Atem-!" he demanded.
"I don't know," the Girl said. "But probably he was captured. He's too important to…"
The Girl trailed off, but Seto knew she was referring to execution.
"Kujaku," he said next.
"I saw her flee off to the east," the Girl said. "I don't know if she got away… But her harpies and their pet and the Red Eyes, they were moving faster than their pursuers."
Seto grumbled and bit at his lip.
The silence dragged out between them, as the Girl sat over him at the fire.
"What good are you to me?!" he asked next. "You were a failure of a beast! And now you're just a scrawny girl!"
The Girl turned down to look at him. Her expression held no guile. Clearly, he could read the shifting emotions that passed over her face. Hurt. Concern. Kindness. Faith.
And that's why he didn't doubt it, when she met his eyes with a determination and will of steel that surpassed his own.
"You promised we'd find Mokuba," she told him, firmly. "You promised we'd find Mokuba together."
He snorted and turned his face into his elbow. But only because he couldn't argue with that.
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