Declaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

FIRE IN THE SOUL

A part of him knew he was dreaming. There was no other logical explanation for what he was seeing. But that didn't make it any less terrifying, nor did it change the fact that he was going to relive one of the most awful moments of his life (previous and current) again.

The darkness was everywhere. The black tentacles were wrapped around her from all sides and were freezing her skin. The shadows writhed excitedly as they waited for the next feast. He could see every small detail, feel the evil in this wretched place, far away from the world of the living. He could sense the fear – and the pure hatred – of the cursed souls trapped here. His hands clenched into fists. This place was for the wicked and corrupted souls.

She shouldn't have been there. It wasn't right! Her soul was so pure and good…

Yet she was. He continued to stand there completely immobile, staring unblinkingly at her seemingly lifeless figure. He wanted so much to reach out to her, to call her name, to do something to help her…but he couldn't. It was like his body wasn't his anymore – no matter how hard he tried it just wouldn't listen to his commands.

And so he was forced to stand by and watch as the only woman he had ever loved was pulled completely into the never-ending darkness around them.

No. He wasn't going to allow this. He had already lost her once, he wasn't going through that hell again. She didn't deserve to spend eternity here, in the Shadow real, only because she had given her life to save him. Now it was his turn to save her.

His blue eyes narrowed threateningly and seemed to glow from the fierce fire burning in them. Gathering all his strength and powers, he opened his mouth and called out one word which shattered the darkness like a lightning bolt in the night sky.

"KISARA!"

. . .

Seto Kaiba woke up suddenly, drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily. Closing his eyes for a second, he ran a trembling hand through his wet hair.

A dream. It had only been a dream…or more likely a nightmare…

The sun light was streaming through the gaps in the heavy curtains hung on the French windows in his bedroom. Because of the brightness Seto had to cover his eyes until they got used to it and only when he put his hand down did he noticed that he was alone in bed. Chuckling quietly to himself, he decided that it would be better to get up and try to save the cook from his fiancé's wrath. For some strange reason the two didn't get along at all. As a matter of fact, yesterday when he came home from work, he found them at each other's throats. The confused young man could only guess as to what had happened to cause World War III but he assumed it had something to do with the half-cooked chicken on the table. Of course, like every sensible young man he didn't try to break up the fight but when things progress to flying kitchen appliances he found himself hard pressed to do something. So he called Mokuba to deal with the insane she-beast…I mean the two ladies, and very calmly walked to his room where he most definitely did not hide until it became clear that everything downstairs was OK…and there no bodies to burry.

Pulling the covers off him, Seto got up slowly and carefully. His shoulder still hurt from the accident a few weeks ago. The scientists who work for him on the new hologram system apparently hadn't done their math properly because as soon as they had tried to do a test run, the systems had been fried which had produced a small fire, which had caused mass panic amongst the personal (you would think they had never seen fire before), which…well, let's just say things from bad to worst and it wasn't even noon yet. The result in the end had been that Seto had ended up with a slightly sprained shoulder and damages for millions, most of which had been cost by his own employees.

"Perhaps I should consider the option of hiring new personal…like robots. At least they have no trouble following orders and don't run around like chickens without their heads at the sign of the smallest problem"

With these comforting thoughts, bussing in his head, Seto went to get ready for the start of yet another day.

Freshly showered and dressed, he made his way to the dining room where it was most likely to find his missing fiancée. A little smile graced his lips – he knew how much Kisara liked to get up extra early just to make his breakfast herself before the cook caught her.

The smile suddenly fell from his lips. His thought went back to the dream, the memories that wouldn't leave him alone no matter how many times he tried to shove them into some distant corner of his mind. They would always escape and come back to haunt him. Why couldn't he forget the past? Why did he keep remembering those awful years before Kisara's return, filled only with loneliness, work and his little brother? Why couldn't he let it go and move on with his life, be happy with the woman he loved without the dark touch of the old fears and memories freezing his hear again and again?

Why?

Hadn't he and Kisara suffered enough? Hadn't they gone through everything fate had thrown their way and won? Didn't they disserve to finally be happy together after so many years apart?

Question after question…they were bussing like annoying little flies in his head as if their only purpose was to bring Seto one hell of a headache and make him go back to the darkest period of his life…a life filled with nothing but coldness and without the smallest flame to warm him…

Three years ago Seto Kaiba was just an ordinary CEO of the world's biggest gaming company (okay, maybe there nothing "ordinary" about that but modesty is a virtue…and it's not one of Seto's traits). Everything was going well, at least from financial point of view, because he was dealing with the enormous hole in his chest by burying himself in work. To everyone else he was a very successful young businessman who could have everything with a snap of his fingers. The only person who had any idea of the raging storm inside Seto was Mokuba but even he didn't suspect to what extent Kaiba's loneliness had sunk its clutches into him.

And then it happened – he had to go to Egypt to finish an important deal. Of course, he could have sent one of his assistants (supposedly they were qualified for this kind of thing)…but he didn't. Or more likely he couldn't. Something was calling him, pulling his entire being with invisible threads towards Egypt and its hidden secrets…

And so the young CEO went to the land of sands and pharaohs, ready to close the deal as quickly as possible and return home. Unfortunately, however, even the best-made plans sometimes fail, as Seto found out first hand, because he spend most of his time not signing beneficial contacts or having productive conversations but instead trying to get rid of a fire-breathing she-demon. Ishizu Ishtar – director of the Museum of ancient history in Cairo - had apparently got in her head that he was the reincarnation of the high priest and cousin of some long-dead pharaoh from five thousand years ago, who was thought to have had magical powers. When Seto had asked her how she knew all this Ishizu simply pointed at a golden necklace around her neck and said that it showed her the past and future. The following awkward silence didn't seem to bother the director because she just calmly started explaining the mechanism of reincarnations, past lives and the powers one soul could inherit when it's reborn. It seemed to fascinate her a lot because she was so into her explanation that she missed the slow but sure retreat of the CEO, who probably broke a few worlds' records in order to get to his hotel room.

The next couple of days were spent playing cat and mouse all over Egypt. However, that game ended when Ishizu finally managed to drag Seto into some dusty old room next to the newly-found tomb of High priest Seth (in Seto's opinion the resemblance between this and Ishtar's stories was completely coincidental). But he couldn't say the same about the big stone tablet in the middle of the room or the two figures carved on it, one of which could have passed as his twin brother.

Seto felt cold shivers going down his back. He walked slowly towards the tablet, completely forgetting Ishizu's presence. The closer look confirmed that it was indeed his face, carved for all to see, and the rest of him dressed in ancient Egyptian clothes fit only for someone of great importance…someone like the High priest. Lowering his eyes, he took notice of the second figure, lying on the ground, and his double (because that was most definitely not him!) was hunched over them as if trying to protect them from some evil force. The long hair gave away the secret of the figure's sex and her face, although covered in dust and half-turned so it wasn't completely visible, made his heart stop for a second. Logic dictated that it was impossible to know this girl from anywhere but it didn't change the fact that she was so familiar to him as if he had known her all his life.

Till this day Ishizu is still unsure how Seto got out of that room so quickly.

That very same night the young CEO dreamt of golden palaces and kings, and hot sand under the scorching sun…and a girl with fiery blue eyes and snow-white hair.

The rest of his trip wasn't any better. As much as he wanted to deny everything he had seen and forget Egypt and the tablet, and Ishtar's crazy theories, Seto simply couldn't force himself to deny the existence of that girl. Of course, he knew that it was possible for her to have lived at some point in the past and for someone to have decided to carved her face for all eternity…but for him to know her…no, it was impossible. He was only nineteen, not five thousand and nineteen. And he definitely wasn't the reincarnation of some priest who supposedly had served a pharaoh in ancient times!

Yet the fact remained. He knew this girl – he was as sure of that as he knew that there were pyramids in Egypt. His heart, so long ago chained behind an unbreakable icy wall of fear, uncertainty and a fierce need to be the best, for the first time ever called out and silenced Seto's steel logic. It was as if with every beat it cried one word…one name.

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

A day before the planned flight home Seto decided, contrary of every neuron in his brain, to go to the room with stone tablet one last time. He tried very hard to convince himself that he wasn't going there to say goodbye to someone who had probably been dead for the last five thousand years or so and the only thing left of her was a face carved in stone…because it wasn't like that! At all!

It was a well known fact that Seto Kaiba had admirable skills in the field of denial and self-delusion.

Sooner than he would have liked, Seto found himself in the same old dusty room that had turned his life upside- down in a mere seconds. Everything was the same, including the tablet. Staring unblinkingly at the part of her face that was visible, Seto felt his earlier certainty that this was just some mumbo-jumbo melted away like sand through his fingers. Without clear thought he made the last few steps that separated him from the images and gently pressed his palm to her face. Standing so close fir the first time, the CEO noticed another figure, standing above the two on the ground. It was vague and unclear but it didn't stop him from identifying it as a dragon. And he would have betted his own company that the dragon had blue eyes and white scales…

Suddenly Seto was struck by the crazy idea that the dragon could help him somehow.

"This is what happens when I listen to Ishtar's insane stories!" he thought angrily but didn't remove his hand, nor did he step away from the tablet.

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

His was pounding so fast, it was like it wanted to fly right out of his chest.

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

This was crazy. Absolutely crazy! He wasn't some High priest from five thousand years ago. He was Seto Kaiba – CEO of the world's biggest gaming company. Nothing more, nothing less!

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

There wasn't any way he could've known…

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

He didn't even believe in magic and stuff like that. Besides, he could have just seen her picture in a textbook or something.

Kisara. Kisara. Kisara.

No, no, no! It wasn't possible! It wasn't…

"KISARA!"

It took him a second to realize that the scream, filled with so much pain and loneliness, had come from his own mouth.

Closing his eyes, Seto allowed every thought, fear and doubt to leave his mind until there was only Kisara with her snow-white hair and fiery blue eyes. Now was the moment of truth. Whether it was possible or not, he still wasn't sure but he knew one thing – he needed Kisara. His heart called out her name with every lonely beat and he was completely powerless against it.

"Blue-eyes dragon, hear my plight, my most trusted comrade! You, who have always protected me in the past; you, who brought her to me once, bring her to me again! Bring me Kisara!

Seto sent the thought towards the surrounding darkness in the small room, somehow knowing that it would be heard.

And heard it was…

What happened after that was like blurry spot for Seto. He could vaguely recall the roar of a dragon and a bright light that chased the shadows for a moment. Next thing he knew he was surrounded by darkness again but this time he could see another figure not far from him.

Kisara.

He saw how the shadow creatures' black tentacles were trying to wrap around her, to pull her into the never-ending darkness and make her one of them…and he couldn't do anything. He felt like he was paralyzed in his place. If only he could reach out towards her, call her name, do something to help her!

And then he heard her voice.

"No! I would never want to forget him! NEVER! Because I love him! Do you hear me? I love him! I love Seto! And I will always remember him!...Even if he forgets me."

"No, I could never forget you!"He thought desperately, hoping she would hear him. "I wouldn't! I love you, Kisara!"

And with those words ringing in his ears and a wild fire in his eyes, Seto clenched his hands into fists and called out:

"Blue-eyes White Dragon, I summon you! Destroy the shadows!"

The darkness around them disappeared and Seto opened his eyes to the most beautiful site ever – sitting in the cold floor in the small dusty room, he was holding in his arms Kisara with her white hair and fiery blue eyes.

"Welcome home, Kisara, my love!"

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Blinking a few times, Seto shook himself from the memories and realized that he had stopped in the middle of the corridor. Shaking his head angrily, he continued towards the dining room. After about twenty minutes of successful navigation (according to reliable sources the Kaiba mansion is bigger than the White House) he ended up at the doorstep just in time to see his fiancé, dressed in a simple T-shirt and pants, putting the breakfast on the table.

"Good morning, sleepy-head!"came her voice, as soft as silk and filled with undeniable happiness. It was the most beautiful sound in his world. "You sure took your time getting here. But now you've finally arrived, which is good because I made your favorite."

One look at the table's contents assured him that it was so but luckily for the food his appetite had suddenly vanished…well, for food, anyway…

Her eyes were so sincere, filled with love and happiness, so beautiful with the burning fire in them. He couldn't look away.

And it was in her eyes that Seto finally found the courage and strength to break the last chains, holding him back and tying him to his dark past. Because the past was only that – the past. He couldn't change it and frankly he didn't want to. There wasn't any point in torturing himself with such thoughts any longer. What he had to do was stop looking back and look forward, towards the future where waiting for him were Kisara and a whole life of love and happiness. Their life.

The loneliness that had once nearly consumed him was now just a distant memory.

"A life that looks like it's going to be…very interesting" Seto thought as he took note of the playful spark in Kisara's eyes, while he was bending down to give her a kiss for good morning.

Neither of them remembered the breakfast on the table or the cook, locked in the closet, until the late hours of the afternoon.

. . .

Somewhere in Egypt stood a woman with a golden necklace around her neck and a smug smile.

"Another job well done." she said and headed towards the Valley of the Kings.

According to the Millennium necklace in a hidden tomb the trapped soul of an ancient pharaoh was waiting for her …