Seto Kaiba was feeling pretty drained. Work at the company had been piling up due to the new products being released, school was a waste of time, but all that stuff was sadly quite a normal think he had to deal with… What really was making his life more stressful was what happened in Battle City.

Yes, ever since Seto's shameful defeat in Battle City- his own tournament -he hadn't been able to relax or have peace of mind. Reporters hounded him with questions, people gossiped about him at school in front of him, and Wheeler took every chance he could to gloat to the CEO with as many insults as he could think of.

At least Yugi made the mutt stop if he did it when the shorter was around… But he was also driving Seto crazy. Even after their duel and the awful way the CEO had treated him, even after defeating Seto, he was still trying to befriend him. Why? Why didn't he leave Seto alone like everyone else did? Why was Yugi so persistent? So… So... Nice?

Of course, Mokuba wasn't being very helpful either. He encouraged the dweeb patrol's attempts to invade Seto's life. It felt like every day was a battle with his younger brother when it came to them.

"Big brother, it's not healthy for you to be working all the time! This is the fourth day in a row you've stayed all night!" The younger exclaimed,"It's not healthy, you should take some time to rest and be a teenager!"

Seto sighed, rubbing at his temples. "I don't have time for that, Mokuba," He countered,"I have a company to run, remember?"

"Yeah but you don't have to be there every waking moment of your life!" Mokuba argued back,"Roland told me that you're like three weeks ahead of schedule. Can't you take that free time to… Oh, I dunno… Hang out with someone?"

The CEO sighed, swiftly closing his laptop. "And who on earth would I-" But his train of words screeched to a halt when he saw the look in his brother's eyes. "No," He quickly snapped,"No I am not 'hanging out' with Yugi and his dork fest."

"Oh come on!" Mokuba whined,"I know they've been asking you to come and hang out! Just say yes! Just once! You'd be surprised how much fun you'll have!"

Seto turned to face his brother fully. "The answer is no, stop pushing it or else I'll ground you," He threatened, sweeping his laptop onto his arms and heading towards the stairs. "Goodnight."

Mokuba sputtered a bit, and then yelled,"I'll get you to hang out with them one of these days! You'll give in eventually! I'm very persuasive!"

No you're not! Seto thought to himself. You're just extremely stubborn! But… It runs in the family. We'll see who wins this.

Although Mokuba was wrong about being persuasive, but he still giving Seto a run for his money.

The little punk started inviting Yugi and the gang over more often, coincidentally around the time Seto would get back from work at Kaiba Corp.

The first few times, it caught him off guard but he got the hang of the pattern very quickly. He made sure Roland always warned him if they were there or not. Still… He didn't think it should be a situation at all.

Why can't they just leave me alone? He wondered. Even after the way I treated them, they're still being kind to me… Even Wheeler is trying. I don't understand… Do they truly want to be my friends..? But why?

Seto groaned and stopped walking, pinching at the bridge of his nose and leaning against a nearby tree. "Wasn't the whole point of me taking the long way home to avoid these things?" He asked himself. "Why am I still thinking about it?"

He leaned his head back and turned his blue eyes up to the stars, trying to focus on anything but those intrusive thoughts; The silence of the surrounding trees, however, left him with no way to distract himself.

Until a scream rang through the air.

Seto's eyes widened as he turned to face the expanse of trees behind him, where the sound had come from. He held his breath and listened closely, trying to convince himself that he may have just been hearing things. But not even a second after that thought, there was a second, even more panicked screech; This time it was followed by a deeper, angry voice that seemed to yell back.

Something pulled him towards the noise and, without thinking, Seto followed that instinct. He held his briefcase close and maneuvered through the bushes and trees as quietly as he could, making sure to follow where the sound seemed to be coming from.

Perhaps since he was so focused on finding the source of the screaming, he had no clue how much time passed before he came upon what he was looking for. He pulled a tree branch out of his way, only to quickly duck back behind it when a flurry of movement caught his eye.

Peeking through the leaves carefully, Seto noticed there were two people in strange black cloaks holding down what looked like a tarp. In the middle of the tarp, something was thrashing and struggling. He heard the muffled screaming sound from underneath it… The same screaming he heard from afar.

"Hold still, you bastard!" One of the hooded figures yelled.

"Did you bring the drug? It's supposed to work on them!" The other said.

The first figure gasped, as if he had forgotten, and reached into his pocket. "I do!" He exclaimed,"Quick, let's use it before-"

He didn't get to finish his thought, because Seto's briefcase slammed into his head and sent him crashing to the ground. The second hooded figure cried out in surprise, dropping the tarp and whipping around to face were the case had come from.

Seto, already out of the bushes, quickly punched the man in the face. He fell to the ground as well, and then didn't get up.

The CEO watched both of them for a moment before turning around to the tarp. Whatever was underneath it had stopped moving. What? He wondered, grabbing the tarp and throwing it off. "Hey, what are you-"

He froze, blue eyes widening in shock. Instead of a person or a child or… Whatever else could have been underneath the tarp, it was a dragon.

The tiny thing that was about the size of a Labrador puppy curled in a ball, but its wide blue eyes and black pupils stared up at the CEO with fear. The dragon's sleek body was a white but every scale seemed to shimmer the moonlight. It had a long, slim tail that curled around the rest of the body with small ridges appearing near the end.

The wings were rather large on such a small creature, nearly covering it entirely. He could see their paws, which looked to have small grey claws. On its head had four appendages on the back of its head that looked almost like ears and were lowered completely down. It had a short neck and the tip of its pointed nose was a speckled silver.

"Oh my god… No way..." Seto whispered in awe, gently kneeling down. "A dragon… A real dragon.."

He slowly reached his hand out, causing the ear appendages to raise in surprise. It let out a nervous squeak, curling into itself even closer.

"Hey, Hey.." Seto whispered in an uncharacteristically soft voice. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

He lowered his hand palm up, showing it to the creature. The dragon slowly began to stick their head forward, sniffing at his fingers the slightest bit. They looked like they were going to lean forward, but then their eyes moved to behind Seto with a panicked yell.

The CEO only had enough time to turn around and see the hooded figure from before and then his eyesight exploded with specks of black and white as pain erupted in his head.

When his vision cleared, he was laying on the ground, in between the hooded figure who was digging in his friend's pocket while the white dragon was several feet away pressed up against the trees.

"I've had enough of this!" The man yelled, pulling out a tranquilizer gun with a strange green liquid sloshing around inside. "You'd better be worth it, you stupid lizard!" He pulled the trigger.

No! Seto thought but at the same time he wasn't, tossing himself from in between them to in front of the dragon and waiting for the pain of whatever was in that dart…

But nothing happened…

Slowly, he opened his blue eyes all the way and saw that the hooded man's jaw had dropped. Surrounding both him and the dragon was a strange, shimmering bubble, almost like a protective dome. The dart from the gun now lay on the ground, useless.

Seto suddenly felt a strong, burning sensation on the top of his right hand, making him hiss in surprise. He lifted it up to his eyes, and saw that it was glowing a bright white What's happening to me!?

Then, the glowing began to fade and the steaming stopped. But instead of the smooth, pale skin, there was a large mark. It was a silver dragon head outlined with black, and he could see the dragon's long body wrapped around his wrist and then went under his sleeve.

He stared at the mark for several seconds, and then looked back at the hooded figure. His jaw was dropped, and the gun had fallen to the ground. "No…" The man croaked,"I-impossible!" He then turned and grabbed his half-awake companion's hand and ran, both of them leaving without second look back.

Seto spent a few seconds taking deep breaths and staring at the mark on his arm in confusion. The strange dome was gone, but the mark was still there. What is this? Is this… Magic? He growled at himself. Impossible! Magic doesn't exist! But… But what other explanation is there? It doesn't make sense!

Seto groaned, forcing himself to his feet. I have to go home… I have to… Go…

But the second he took a step forward, his vision seemed to spin around in circles. Suddenly, his face met the ground, and everything faded to black.

The sun was in his eyes, the chirping of the birds was very loud… Almost right in his ear! And his bed seemed a lot harder than normal.

Seto groaned, wearily blinking his eyes open. That was a really weird dream… He thought, rubbing his eyes to clear away the fog that seemed to cover them.

He turned onto his side, feeling something tickling at his cheeks. Opening his eyes all the way, he found himself staring at the same blue pupils of the dragon from his dream. Seto then screamed out in surprise and lured into a sitting position.

Gasping for air, he looked at the dragon, then his surroundings, and then at his arm. The mark was still there…

"It wasn't a dream…" He realized aloud, looking back at the baby dragon. "Oh my god, that wasn't a dream…"

A curious chirp caught his attention, and he saw the little dragon's head was tilted as it looked up at Seto. Then, its eyes twitched and it leaned its head back and threw it forward, sneezing and sending a tiny plume of flames out in front of itself.

The CEO stared at the little dragon in shock for a moment, and then turned his attention back to the clearing. Although the tarp and the dart were still there, he saw no sign of the attackers from the night before.

Turning back to the little dragon, he carefully picked her up. Her? How do I know that? And held her against his chest.

"I can't leave you here," He decided,"Those creeps are probably going to come back, and I won't let them hurt you anymore."

He looked down at the dart and slowly placed his boot over it, crushing through the soft metal and thin glass. He then wiped his foot on the grass, grabbed his briefcase with his free hand, and hurried away from the clearing as a strange emotion seemed to overflow his body.

I don't know what's going on… Seto admitted to himself. But I do know that those guys were up to something bad, and I need to keep her safe. I WILL keep her safe.

The little dragon watched her rescuer curiously, and then gently nuzzled against him once more. Her blue eyes began to glow, as did the marking that now wrapped around Seto's right arm.

Although he didn't know it yet, Seto Kaiba had just become part of something much bigger than he realized.