Red & Blue, Black & White

Summary: REWRITE. Dragon AU! Seto Kaiba is the lieutenant of the Rafter of Domino Peak, living his days in frustration after the death of his father. Not only is he second-in-command to his lifelong rival, and the only caretaker to his hatchling brother, but his attitude towards his leader has 'earned' him solo patrol duty for the next month. On one of those patrols, he comes across an odd, aggressive black dragon who comes with his own set of baggage.

Pairings: Kaiba/Jounouchi, Yugi/Anzu, Honda/Otogi, other minor shippings will be mentioned as the story goes

Rating: T+, may go up later

Authors Note: This is a short chapter, you can probably skip it I'm sure nothing Earth-shatteringly plot relevant happens.

Chapter 3: In the Dark

"Look at you!" Jou cooed to Shizuka, he was lying on his back and holding her above him with his prehensile talons. The hatchling chirped excitedly - both of her eyes were finally open, even if her newly opened eye was still only half wide. A deep purr rumbled in his chest as he brought the chick close enough to nuzzle "Good for you 'Zuki."

The sound of thunder caught his attention - there weren't any clouds - he quickly rolled back onto his stomach with Shizuka between his front talons, looking out of the tree hollow he saw Kaiba land gracefully some yards away. "He doesn't look away..." He said quietly to his daughter, he stood back up and walked over, Shizuka stayed at the nest but continued to chirp at the pair.

"Katsuya." Kaiba said in a hiss. Jou stopped in his tracks - and immediately cursed himself for it, because that was the exact reaction that the blue eyed white dragon was looking for. "I'm presuming?"

"You can just keep saying Jou, you know." Jou said, trying to make himself sound calm and even, but a dread was building up in his elemental core, and he more than suspected he wasn't doing a good job of hiding it.

"What did you do?" Kaiba demanded, tail whipping impatiently behind him.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that." Jou looked away, keeping one eye on his tiny daughter behind him.

"You're a criminal?!" Kaiba roared, more stating than asking. "A fugitive?"

Jou snorted "A criminal? Where'd you hear that?"

"Your Diamondtooth." Kaiba told him, narrowing his eyes. Jou felt all of his scales bristle. "He stopped by my Rafter last night to talk to my Diamondtooth, he's looking for you."

He felt his flame core heat up, he could feel the organ grind rock and coal shards together, threatening to spark fire "Do you mean Hirutani?" He growled, he felt his pupils practical restrict to non-existence. A rage built up inside, the type of rage so raw, so primal he wasn't sure how long he could control himself.

"Yes. Apparently you fought him, cheated, and then turned tail and ran off to escape punishment? Am I wrong?" Seto demanded, digging the claws of his talons into the soft, peaty ground.

"No… No..." He whispered, his whole body shook as he stared at what once a nest; now only a pile of ashes. He wanted so badly to close his eyes, turn his head, deny the reality of what he was looking at, but he was unable to look away.

At the edge of the destroyed nest he could still see some leaves and grass that managed to escape the fire save for their edges. Amongst the ash and cinders the only discernible that he could see were what broke his heart the most; shards of egg shell… the slight glimmer of lusterless scales and… and little charred bits of… bits of...

Bones.

Tiny bits of tiny bones.

The bones of chicks who never even had the chance to break out of their eggs.

A primal growl broke from the black dragon, and it made even Seto uneasy. He could sense something deeper than rage was over Jou, as indicated by eyes glowing, and his claws elongating in place. Seto bristled a bit when he saw that Jou's spines and horns were also elongating to their full potential. Dragons in their full form almost never did this, they only did this for one of two reasons; their mate and/or chicks were being harmed, or if they were fighting to the death.

"THAT BASTARD!" Jou suddenly roared so loudly all of the birds in the trees flew off and Seto swore the soundwaves made the trees quiver. "THAT - THAT - THAT MURDEROUS PIECE OF-" He threw his dark head back, roaring towards the sky, in this guttural cry a large, blazing spiral of dark red flames spewed forth. Seto couldn't help but be a little impressed, but also slightly intimidated at just how strong these flame were. Even several yards away Seto could feel the intense heat rolling off of the flame breath. "I'LL RIP OUT HIS HEART, HIS FLIGHT CORD, HIS FIRE CORE - I'LL RIP HIM APART!"

"Explain yourself Jounouchi." Seto demanded, in spite of their current situation - something he regretted right away because the indiscriminate eyes of the enraged black dragon focused on him. This was a direct type of aggression, if he couldn't have the true source of his rage; he would take a substitute target.

Jou threw himself at him, Seto tried to brace himself but they ended up tumbling back anyways with the other dragon right on him. Jou jaws snapped close to neck, almost reaching their target if not for Seto's own speed. In their fight before Seto had the advantage with Jou being injured, and while the dark dragon wasn't full strength yet, he was definitely in better shape than before, and his rage was only making him stronger.

Seto rolled back onto his feet and threw Jou off of him, he threw his head back charging a white lightning attack.

Jou planted his feet and did the same thing with his dark fire. Whatever had overcome him… it wasn't just rage. There was something else. Something deeper.

A stream of lightning shout out of Seto's mouth, and a spiral of dark fire was released from Jou's. The two attacks collided and stalled each other, just creating a lot of smoke and a growing patch of burnt Earth where the two beams met. The beams grew in diameter as both dragons put more and more intensity into their attacks.

The black dragon suddenly stopped his attack and ducked to the grounds, making Seto's charged up attack hit the tree behind them, the momentum of his own attack against the tree knocked Seto off of his feet. Jou took the opening and jumped on top of the white dragon, slammed his talons on top of Seto's head and holding it to the ground with all of his weight, leaving Seto's neck fully exposed.

Jou opened his jaws and prepared to close his teeth around the other dragons throat.

Chirp?

His jaw froze and turned slack when a chirping sound started, distant at first but ever closer. Both dragons froze.

The infantile Shizuka was stumbling to them, too young to know what was going on, just knowing her sire was under emotional distress. The newborn chick chirped for his attention as she clumsily walked over, finally stopping when she reached their side, lifting her talons onto Jou's front leg, looking up at him with big, confused eyes.

"I… Shizuka I..." With his child present, Jou's pupils dilated again, and he removed himself from Seto, instead gathering his chick into his talons, holding her close. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… You shouldn't have to see that..." He said quietly, Seto knew he was trying to soothe the chick, but it sounded like he was trying to calm himself down also.

"...Are you going to apologize to me too for, you know, trying to kill me?" Seto muttered, still lying on his back. After all of that, he really just done with this whole situation.

"Yeah… sorry about that." Jou told him sorrowfully, he placed Shizuka down, and knelt down to feed her regurgitation, before carrying her back to the nest.

"... What happened, Jounouchi?" Seto asked, still just lying on his back on the ground.

"How… How could you! They were already peeping inside of their shells!"

"Their existence was a threat to me. Be thankful they weren't old enough to even know they were alive."

"..." Jou said nothing, he had his back turned to Seto, he was facing the tree hollow.

"I can't just allow you to stay here if you're a wanted criminal, Jounouchi." Seto told him simply. Now he was just comfortable lying on his back.

"Don't listen to Hirutani." Jou finally said, his voice was solemn "He's not even a Diamondtooth."

"...What?" Seto asked, finally rolling back onto his stomach.

"Hirutani, he's not a Diamondtooth." Jou repeated "Did you see him with diamond teeth?" The blue eyes white dragon thought about it for a second… and no, he didn't see a glittering set of diamond teeth that were characteristic of a Rafter leader. His teeth were blackened with soot… but that was such a typical thing of those who used fire that Seto didn't even pay attention to the lack of visible diamonds.

"Then why…?"

"He's a usurper, he wanted power all to himself." Jou explained, kneeling down to nuzzle Shizuka's head "When Pegasus died, he became bloodthirsty, he didn't like how the Rafter of the Shadow Forest was becoming more progressive, he especially wasn't impressed that our Lieutenant was a female. So he played dirty and put himself on top, but without diamond teeth, he's not a true leader."

"What does that have to do with you? Did you defect?" Seto asked. Jou was silent for a minute, but he stood up and turned up, and walked over to the pond behind them. He said nothing as he bent down for a drink, but there was a swishing sound instead of swallowing, and he spat the water back out, the water was stained black with soot.

Jou had his back turned to Seto again, but this time he was facing the pond. "Huritani killed all my children, except for Shizuka." He finally said, his voice thick with grief. Seto felt his hackles stiffen with shock "They were only eggs… but they were close to hatching. They were far enough you could hear them chirp in their shells... " He trailed off; Seto felt a twinge in his chest. He now understood Jounouchi's rage; it wasn't just regular anger of someone who'd been attacked, but someone who had almost all of their clutch killed. "Shizuka had hatched first, initially no one knew I had eggs at all, but Shizuka looks so much like me, that when he saw her, he knew."

"Why you?" Seto asked, his tone was soft from pity.

The black dragon was still, and silent. He said nothing, instead he turned his head and looked back at Seto with sad red eyes. He parted his jaws, his crocodile-like row of teeth free of the earlier layer of soot.

His teeth were glittering diamonds.

To be continued...

Authors note: Holy shit Jounouchi's a diamondtooth!

Poor Jounouchi, having most of his unhatched children killed.

More to be explained later, probably a flashback chapter next.