The first time Seth saw the dragon, he was a terrified child.

His village was burning all around him, the screams of his people tearing at his ears. Men ran through the ruins, killing and looting as they went. Even as he watched, he saw a child cut in half with a single blow.

"No!"

A man grabbed his arm, an ugly leer spreading across his face as he pulled Seth closer, the blood glistening on his blade…

And then the dragon rose up from the flames. Lightning tore into the men all around him. Seth could feel the heat of it on his face. All around him, the raiders screamed and died. They ran and also died. Seth could only gaze in wonder, staring until the dragon disappeared from sight.

He walked across the desert then, became a slave, a scribe, a sorcerer. But the dragon always lingered in his mind.

The second time Seth saw the dragon, he was a man grown.

He was no longer the frightened child who had screamed for his mother in the light of his burning village. He was a mage, a priest in the Pharaoh's palace, the king's most trusted adviser. He no longer flinched from blood; he had spilled too much already and had lost too much of his innocence.

He hung from the wreckage of the dueling platform with nothing but darkness beneath his feet. He could pull himself up…but that would mean dropping the unconscious woman dangling below him, and he had gone too far to give up now.

But if he did not do something soon, they both would die.

The criminal above them leered, his monster rearing back to strike.

And then the dragon rose up as the girl's eyes glowed green. Lightning tore into the man above them. The criminal tried to pull back, but the webs holding him up shredded in the fire.

Seth stared at the girl as he was pulled to safety. He let the healers fuss over him, and sat still while Aknadin yelled at him. But it was the dragon that he thought of, the power that was finally at his fingertips.

The third time Seth saw the dragon, he was a man about to die.

All other means had been exhausted. They had tried weapons of war and desperate duels with desperate men. They had tried spells and armies. They had even prayed to the gods, though few found it easy to believe in them now. They had stepped over so many bodies to reach this point.

And in the end, for nothing.

And so Seth stood on the field of battle, staring out at the ruin that had once been his homeland, and readied himself for a last, desperate stand. He was the last, the very last. When he fell, the priests of the Millennium Items would be nothing more than a memory.

Before him, the demon loomed. Its huge black wings were folded against its back, its teeth bared in a dreadful parody of a smile. Its red eyes gleamed. He wanted to hate it, wanted to curse it and kill it and leave his country in peace. But he was tired, so tired… No! He would not take his doom hunched over waiting like an old, sick man. He ran straight at the monster, the Millennium Rod shining in his hand.

And then the dragon rose into the air. Lightning arced from open jaws and struck the demon. It shrieked its pain, drowned by the dragon's cry, and struck. The dragon spun, dodged, attacked again.

For one glorious instant, Seth allowed himself to hope.

And then the dragon fell, its battle cry becoming a shrill whine. Its wings tattered and torn, it plummeted to the ground. Seth cried out, knees buckling, the pain too much to bear.

But in his last moment of consciousness, his thoughts were not for the Pharaoh, or for the devastating ritual he had helped create, or for the world that would be destroyed if that ritual failed.

"I'm sorry, Kisara," he whispered as darkness fell. "I tried."

Five thousand years later, his reincarnation held the dragons in his hands. He knew and cared nothing of their significance to his predecessor, and cared less about talk of the past and destiny and all the other crap Yugi seemed to believe in with such readiness. But the dragons did mean something to this man, and that itself was something. Little else did.

And while he went through his daily routine, attending board meetings and ruthlessly destroying his competition, the dragons always lingered in his mind.