Hey everyone! Ready for another chapter?

Teribane: No need to beg! Have another chapter! Actually, it was your review that reminded me that it has been ages since I have updated! Most of this chapter was all ready written, I just had to add the end of each scene, but I was procrastinating like I always do. So, thanks for the review/jumpstart! I really was stalling. Haha

TheUn-POP-ableBubble: Can I just point out that your username is really hard to type? And thanks for the review, and I agree! It is really creepy. That is one of the reasons I find this so difficult to write, and why the updates take so long. It is the craziest thing I have ever written, so it is very new to me. Kara is your favourite, eh? She is forreal the hardest to write as. I'm putting off her chapter for just that reason. I guess you could call this chapter Krin's, the previous (?) Kisara's, and Kara's chapter is going to get here eventually. I know what is going to happen, but I am terrified to write it! Haha- thanks for sticking with me!

Cayannamon: Hello again! I'm glad you enjoy Mokuba's cover, because I think I took like, ten minutes trying to decide which monster he would go with. Isn't Kisara odd?

H-bomber: Thanks! I'm glad you like her, because I think I would die if I had to be in a room with her for too long.

AlchemicBankai: (Did I spell that right?) It is a shame I don't update faster, I agree entirely. Blame it on laziness or a busy schedule, either one. Both are completely true. Exodia in parts? That would be hilarious! I might have to add that in for comedy at some point. (Working out scene in my head as I type this) Hope you like the chapter!

AyaseFanGirl: I don't really have a friend who inspired Kisara. I know people who I based parts of her off of, but not one person in particular. It is more like the common teenage girl who has a crush on a cute boy. Enjoy!

LionDancer17: She certainly isn't. Haha- I cut it off at a very good time for Seto I do believe. Just in the nick of time! And is she the same as the person? Who knows? I certainly don't. And that, of course, just means that I haven't decided how it would influence the plot. I'll try and clear it up later on.

se-tar: Too bad this chapter isn't too exciting. It is more a set-up for the next few chapters really. Maybe that is why I didn't get inspired to work on this one? I guess that means that I need to make the next few more interesting. NOT SAYING THAT I DON'T LIKE THIS CHAPTER OR ANYTHING! (I just felt that I needed to clear that up).

Seto K4iba1: Some times, I have mistake in my writing. Haha- that is certainly one of them. I try to proof read, but by the time I get the chapter typed and completed, and the review responses all written out, I'm ready to update. I hadn't even considered how people were getting out of Domino. I think I might have to give that one to the Underground Railroad. It would certainly be helpful here.

j bear: I hope this one was worth it too! And you probably will see from him again at some point. Hope you like the chapter!


Seto's POV

I hid my face, pushing it as hard as I could manage into the cool surface of Krin's scales. Thousands of feet above the ground, I knew that the last thing I needed to be worried about was the cold. But Krin's flight was so smooth that the thought of falling didn't come across my mind. It was the biting winds constantly hitting me that were my mind's companions. We had only been in the air a few minutes, but I had all ready lost the feeling in both of my hands.

Krin hadn't mentioned where we were going. His only order had been "Climb on" just before he had transformed into his monster form. That left my imagination to fill in the rest, and I wasn't having much luck with it. After all, what knowledge of these monsters did he really have? The only thing I had really learned about them was that they were insane, and incredibly possessive.

I couldn't even open my eyes to look at the ground below because all most as soon as I opened my eyes they would begin burn and dry. So I was stuck simply holding on and praying that this flight wouldn't last much longer.

My prayers were answered. After only a few more cold minutes, I felt Krin begin his descent. Within moments, he was on the ground and I immediately slid off his back. I had never been more thrilled to put my feet on solid ground. I kept my eyes closed however, knowing that Krin was about to shift back into a human.

Through my closed eyes, I could feel the heat from the light Krin's change released. Once the light faded out, a shiver ran down my spine. Even though the temperature was much warmer on the ground than in the sky, it still didn't make the cold leave my body.

After I opened my eyes, I started to rub my hands together, noting the odd shade of blue they had turned.

"Follow me." Krin commanded, and knowing better than to disobey, I followed.

I had been in this area of Domino several times. Not for business, but this was near the orphanage home where I had grown up. It had been a long time since I had come down here, and it couldn't have changed more.

The orphanage home had been in a good area of town, but now, the buildings looked like the rest of the city. Some had fallen in, windows were boarded up, doors were missing or hanging off their hinges and the like. But even with these changes, the place was alive with activity.

In a crowd such as this, Krin didn't stand out. Among all the other deformed human figures, Krin seemed all most normal. I kept close behind him, nervous to be left alone in this particular group.

There was one voice that could be heard over all the others. I glanced in the direction of the sound and saw the reptile figure standing on a stage in the midst of the beasts. It had a chain in it's hand, and when I saw what it lead to, I froze in horror.

Krin stopped the moment that I did.

"I said follow me." He said, speaking over his shoulder.

I couldn't respond. In fact, I only faintly registered him speaking. I was focused on the small boy on stage with a chain around his neck. The boy couldn't be older than ten. He was crying openly, trying to tear the collar off his neck.

Krin turned and followed my gaze up to the stage. "It's a slave market. Keep moving."

When I didn't react, Krin grabbed my arm and began to drag me through the crowd.

We moved towards a small building on the opposite side of the street. I decided that the less I looked around, the better off I would be. In such a short time, I had seen so many broken faces that it hurt me not to be able to help. And it served as a reminder that I was in the same situation as the boy on the stage.

We entered the old office building and were immediately met with an exclamation.

"Krin! It is about time you came by. We have so much news."

"You have managed to receive news?" Krin questioned. He closed the door behind him and walked over to the girl behind the desk.

"I never said it was easy. We had to send Ryo out." She replied. Her eyes cast downward at the mention of the name.

"And?" Krin asked.

"The news was transferred, but Ryo received too many injuries."

Krin just nodded to that. "I brought my slave to look at the computer."

I didn't say anything. I was just glad to know the reason for being brought along.

"Does he know anything about them?"

"Don't most humans?"

They both turned to look at me, as if waiting to hear what I had to say on the subject.

"Where is the computer?" I asked.

All three of us walked down a hallway and into a back room. I immediately saw the computer and groaned. It had to have been one of the oldest computers in existence.

"It just stopped working." The girl said.

"It might just be easier to get a new computer." I stated.

"There was a file on this one that we need." Krin answered.

"I can try. I've never used a computer that was this old though." I said, unsure as to whether or not I would ever be able to get that thing working again.

The two beasts went to sit at a table a few feet away from the computer. I moved to examine the computer. For a long while, I didn't even touch it. All I did was stare at it, and try to identify each part. The technology KaibaCorp had used was so much more advanced than this computer, which looked like it came in the late eighties.

I finally summoned up the courage to get on the floor to start taking it apart, and when I did so, a wave of calm came over me.

For all the time since the monsters had arrived, I hadn't done anything relating to my old job. Building my computers and machines had been a way of releasing stress. This was the first chance I had to take a moment to forget the beasts sitting a few feet away from me and to just work with my hands.

Within minutes I had disassembled all most all of the computer and had the parts sitting around me. If there was one thing in the world I knew how to do, it was put a computer together. If it had been a normal, modern computer, I probably wouldn't have given it much thought since construction of electronics was all most second nature. But since it was so old, it took me a while to identify each part.

"What did you learn from Ryo?" Krin asked. I don't know why I was surprised that he wasn't whispering, but I was. I just assumed that I wasn't supposed to be listening so they would whisper. Maybe this conversation wasn't a secret.

Then again, how could I tell anyone in my position? It could very well be a secret, but one that I had no way of sharing.

"He died before we could receive all the word from the other end, but he managed to get out this. Two weeks. That's how long we have until the other side begins their march." She answered.

"Then we need to be ready to move within the week." Krin responded. "How quickly can we gather everyone?"

"Maybe five days?"

"Excellent. Have we discovered the main gathering yet?"

I kept my hands busy, trying to pretend that I wasn't listening. In all reality, I was incredibly interested in what they were talking about. But I was worried that if they noted my listening, they would stop talking or start speaking in whispers. So I made sure that I continued working while they spoke.

"Not yet. But it is just a matter of time. Our spies have been following several key members of the dark, and we should soon know where they are hiding during the day."

"Is there anything we can do to help them move more quickly?" Krin asked.

"That file is the only lead we have. I don't think it is a coincidence that the computer suddenly broke down."

Krin agreed. He looked over to me and watched as I worked. It was obvious now why I had to be here. They needed someone who could fix the computer, and they needed it done quickly. I recalled telling Kisara that I was a computer technician. She probably mentioned it to Krin, and that is why he believed I could fix it.

I glanced over my work. I had a good amount done. I hadn't actually noticed if there had been a problem with anything, but if this didn't work, the monitor might just be broken. In that case, they would just need to find a new one.

I put the cover back on and clicked the power button. I heard the machine whir into life and a smile came on my face.

"Is it working?" The girl questioned.

"I think so. Something must have come loose or a wire came unplugged." I responded.

She jumped to her feet and ran over to where I was sitting. She grabbed the mouse and started trying to click.

"It isn't doing anything!" She exclaimed.

"You have to wait for it to come on completely." I answered, getting to my feet.

Krin came to stand next to me as we watched the monitor light up. I was amazingly glad that I had successfully figured out how to work a machine that was made before I was born. That fact that I had done it for Krin only slightly took away from the accomplishment.

"Well done." Krin said. He then turned to the girl. "Is the file there?"

"Yes." She said, smiling. "We've got everything here we need. I'll make sure the others see this."

"Then I'm going to go back. I'll come back tomorrow to help send out the word to the other cities."

The girl nodded, too distracted by the file she was examining to answer.

Krin started to leave, so I followed behind him. I couldn't handle the thought of staying in the slave market any longer, and all though I hated the roof of KaibaCorp, I would rather be there than here.

When I stepped out of the room, I noticed an open door at the end of the hallway. Krin walked in the opposite direction, so I turned to follow him.

"Seto!"

I turned around at the sound of my name and was met with the slamming of a door. The door that was open a moment ago was now closed and two men stood beside it.

"What are you doing?" Krin asked, noting my sudden stop.

That was Mokuba's voice. I had to go and see if he was in that room.

Krin walked back over to me, and for the second time today, grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction he wanted to go in.

"Eventually, you'll do what you are suppose to."

I knew that I was suppose to get to that room. Krin wouldn't let go though, and I was pulled back down the hallway, staring after the closed door and the two men standing outside.


Mokuba's POV

I knew that I shouldn't have stopped running. Nothing should have been able to distract me from my flight, but I let my curiosity get the better of me. I could hear shouting coming from a block over. Of course, knowing that the world was full of demons, I should have assumed that the cause of the noise was not a human.

But I wasn't thinking. I had to know what was going on, so I jogged over.

When I heard the shouts getting louder and louder, I slid against the nearest wall and began to edge my way closer. I moved very slowly. If anyone was looking my way, I didn't want a sudden movement to draw attention. Moving right against a brick wall shredded the palms of my hands, but I didn't dare pull them off the wall.

I stopped when I ran out of wall to hide behind.

Then taking a deep breath, I leaned over to look at the source of the noise.

There was a large crowd of what appeared to be a mix of human and beasts. Hundreds of people and monsters were walking around, mingling with one another. They were speaking loudly, and that is what I assumed the cause of the noise I heard was.

There was a stage in the middle of the crowd, and standing on top of it was what looked to be a man. I couldn't say that it was exactly a human because it had the skin of a lizard. Green scales covered every section of its skin, even travelling all the way down to its tail. No one seemed to notice the reptile until it spoke up, and it's voice was loud enough to be heard over all the other voices.

"Attention ladies and gentlemen, faires and dragons, zombies and fish, light and dark! Come up one and all to bid on the fine mechanise about to be displayed!"

I looked around, but saw nothing that was for sale. I examined each section of the street, trying to find anything that it could have been talking about. Finally, my eyes fell on something in the back. It was far enough away that I could only see the top of it, but I still could tell what it was.

Cages. Several rows of them lined up the sidewalk going all down the block. I couldn't see what was inside of them, but I didn't have faith that it was a good thing.

"Bring up the first item for sale!" The lizard man announced.

Now, all eyes were on the stage as a incredibly large man walked up dragging a small girl with him. She was terrified, with tears pouring down her cheeks. She was using every ounce of strength to pull out of the man's grasp, but he was too strong for her.

It was a slave auction. It didn't take me long to figure that out. And as soon as I did, I turned to run away from the crowd. But I was all most immediately stopped when I ran into a form behind me.

"Well, what do we have here?"

I couldn't do anything more than mumble a few words about just leaving, but when I tried to step away, a hand on my arm stopped me.

"Are you trying to escape boy?"

"No, I-"

He didn't let me finish. He spun me around quickly, moving his grip from my arm to hair and proceeded to drag me from my hiding spot.

No one even glanced our way as he pulled me across the street. He pushed his way to the side of the road with the cages and I struggled to keep up with him. If I slowed down even the smallest bit, he ended up pulling my hair so hard that I lost a good deal of it.

As we walked by the cages, I noticed how full they were. Each one was jammed with people, most all of them younger than me. It appeared as though all of them were crying, or had been crying recently. They were screaming out, begging someone to help them. I didn't blame them, from what I could tell, their situation was only about to get worse. And I couldn't say anything better about my own. I was being pulled into a building behind the crowd, to a location that I didn't want to find out. But the misshapen man kept his tight grip on me.

Once the door closed behind us, the noise that had drawn me to the street was instantly silenced. The only sound coming from the building were distance footsteps coming from a source that I couldn't see.

The building was formerly on office of some kind. Not for any big business, but the front room was a waiting area, complete with a desk and an old computer. But we didn't stay there long, there was a long hallway in connection to the waiting area, and that was where we were headed.

I could hear voices coming from the doorway at the end of the hall. The door wasn't closed, and I could just barely see what was inside. From a distance, it seemed as though a few children were sitting against a wall. However, once I drew closer, I could see the chains.

That was where it dragged me. We entered the room, and it pulled me over to an empty spot directly across from the door. I didn't try to fight as he chained me in place. All I did was sit there and close my eyes, wishing that I had never stopped.

Once I was secured, he left the room, leaving me with the other kids. None of them looked up to see what had happened. All eyes were staring straight at the floor, and most all of them were crying.

I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. I couldn't believe that I had been so dumb to stop and watch some beasts. Seto had managed to go in and out nearly every night since the monsters came and just now got caught. I was out for a day and I got caught.

It made me feel like crying, but I held back the tears. I had to find a way out of this so I could find Seto. He needed to hear what Yami had said. And I needed to make sure that he was all right.

The door reopened and the man who had grabbed me reentered, along with someone else. They walked straight to me, and I could tell that the other children in the room were relieved that the two coming in weren't coming for them. They all buried their faces and leaned away. They knew something that I didn't.

"This is the boy I found just outside. Is he one of ours?" The misshapen man asked his friend.

"No, I don't recognize him. Check to see if he is someone else's human."

The second man who spoke looked incredibly normal. I couldn't decide whether or not he was actually one of the monsters. But he had to be. Why would a human work with them?

The man who had pulled me off the street knelt down next to me and pulled my head down and brushed the hair away from my neck. He felt around, even a few inches below my collar, before turning to the other. "No, he isn't marked."

The human man-beast also bent down so he was at eye level with me.

"Have you been chosen?" He asked me.

I didn't answer him. Either choice would end up badly for me. If I said yes, I might be sent back. Then Kuriboh would never let me out of his sight, or near kitchen utensils. But if I said no, I would just be sold as one of their slaves at the auction outside. Being a slave didn't sound appealing.

While I was thinking over my options, I stared at him. I was trying to decide whether or not he was a beast by his appearance, but he seemed normal to me. So after a minute or two, I realized what he was. Any human should have to blink several times in a minute. He hadn't even done it once.

"You are not going to answer me?" He asked, tired of waiting for my reply.

"I suppose it does not matter." He said, getting to his feet. "I have a way of knowing these things. I can practically smell it on you. You belong to someone, I just cannot tell to whom."

"He escaped then?" The other man said, his tone astonished.

"It has been known to happen. But do not worry, it does not happen very often. If anyone has reported a missing boy, I will find out about it." The non-blinking monster said. He looked down at me. "Maybe I can have you home by tomorrow."

Both men began to head out. I watched them as they walked to the door. Just before they closed it, I looked past them into the hallway and saw a familiar face.

"Seto!" I shouted, desperately hoping that he would hear me. As Seto started to turn his head, the beasts closed the door, locking me inside.

I waited. Maybe he had heard me and would come to see who was shouting his name. Maybe he could get me out of here.

But he never came. No one came into the room. And before long, I found myself in the same position as the other children in the room. Knees pulled close to the chest and staring at the floor. However, I hadn't given up. I was staring at the floor a few feet away from me, where I noticed a paper clip resting.

I was far from giving up.


So, this took a really long time. I know. I just went through a move and adjusting to a new semester, and that is really my only excuse. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! And I am really sorry about the wait. And I know that this chapter is about 4000 words, but it seems really short. Does it seem short to anyone else?

Review Please! (Remember: It was a review that got me to update this chapter!)