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, Ryou/Marik(not Yami Marik), Yami/Yami Bakura, other minor shippings will be mentioned as the story goes

Rating: T+, may go up later


Chapter 8: Nightmare of the Forest

Seto thought he hated the forested area of the western border.

As it turned out, he hated the Shadow Forest more than he'd hated anywhere else he'd ever been in his over two centuries of life - and he'd been in stuck in a canyon environment for an entire summer for a political mission in the middle of a decade long drought.

The forest of his territory paled in comparison in both thickness of growth and overall darkness, very little light made it to the forest floor with the thick canopy above them, and although Jou moved almost soundlessly as he had the experience to walk nearly weightless, Seto found himself stepping on a loud twig or stepping into a hole every other step. The foliage absolutely surrounded them, making them have to push themselves past the undergrowth and giving them little breathing room, and seemed to go on for leagues both beyond and above them. Never before had Seto managed to feel so big but so small at the same time.

"I hate this place." Seto hissed to his companion, who made a grunting noise but said nothing, as he was currently holding Shizuka in his jaws, which were clamped shut to hold her in place and keep her protected. "I don't know why Darkstalkers love the forest so much." For a moment he thought back to that dream he had a while back that had Jou in it, but he disregarded it.

The forest in it's never ending list of oxymorons and contradictions, was also extremely quiet but very noisy at the same time. The wind that filtered through the trees caused branches and their leaves to shift, and the leaf litter to crackle, there were the occasional cries and songs of small birds, but between these sounds there was a deafening silence.

Jonouchi suddenly stopped, making his companion almost stumble as he hadn't expected it; Seto took a survey of their surroundings to to his relief found that they were in what was somewhat of a clearing, there was a break in the trees above them, although the grass here was a little long and broken only by a small boulder about a quarter the size of a grown dragon.

Jonouchi quietly walked over to the builder and placed Shizuka by his talons; she squeaked a bit in protest, since he'd probably jostled her out of sleep, but he stared softly at the boulder as he sat back on his haunches, wrapping his dark tail around his front talons and Shizuka.

"What, tired?" Seto grunted, expanding his pale wings to their full span now that he had some breathing and stretching room.

"Not exactly." Jonouchi replied, back still to Seto as he faced the rock "My father is buried here, right under this rock." The statement made the blue eyed dragon pause for a second, but he walked up to and sat beside the other dragon as he too looked to the rock.

"Which father do you mean?" Seto asked

"Jounouchi senior." The black dragon said in almost a snort "Pegasus may have been my sire… but he didn't raise me. He means little more to me than my former alpha."

"So alpha is the term you use instead of 'leader' around here?" Seto asked; at first he'd thought it was a weird Jou thing, but Bakura and even Yami used the same word. It wasn't too unusual for different Rafters to use different terms for their leadership after all. Seto had heard all manner of synonymous words in relation to a diamondtooth; from king/queen to lord/lady, but alpha was a new one.

Jou cleared his throat as he closed his eyes, resting his head on top of the rock "Darkstalkers have an old legend," he began "that we were nomadic before we settled in forests, we'd only come out at night but had no specific territory. The story goes that a large scrum of Darkstalkers were getting frustrated because they could not find their niche like the other dragons had - but one day, they were near a forest and watched a pack of wolves work together to take down a large prey animal, before they slunk back into the woods and disappeared. We decided to be like the wolves, we learned from them how to live in the forest where most dragons dare not to venture because of our size affinity for flight… The legend even goes, that it was the connection to the forest that gave us our connection to the shadows, not our nocturnal preference." He explained. "But that's why we use the term 'alpha'."

"A bunch of dragons acting like wolves?" Seto snorted, resting down on the grass "Legends really don't make a lot of sense do they?"

"Doesn't your Rafter have their own legend?" Jou asked, laying down in the grass as well "Usually any Rafter will have their own weird, mystical origin story."

The blue eyes white dragon hummed in thought; Gozaburo wasn't much of a storyteller, most stories he knew he had picked up second hand from other dragons of his peerage. "There's an old tale that our territory used to be entirely fields and plains." He explained "But our original diamondtooth, the founder of our Rafter, loved our home so much he wanted to always be a part of it. They say that Domino Peak, the mountain our Rafter is named after, sprung up overnight from where he was buried."

"And you say our wolf story is unbelievable." Jou teased, holding Shizuka close with his talons.

Seto rolled his eyes "I didn't say I believed such a ridiculous story… Usually there's supposed to be some kind of moral, which is why I don't subscribe to such fables."

"I don't think there's supposed to be a moral to our origin story," Jou said with a thoughtful voice "but most of our beliefs and stories have a running theme."

"Such as; bigotry, stubbornness, intolerance." Seto deadpanned, the other dragon whacked him with his tail lightly.

"No," Jou insisted "we have one goal; we strive to be the nightmare of the forest."

"Geeze, and Yugi says I have an inflated sense of self-worth." The leucistic dragon muttered.

Jou grinned at him initially before he looked back to the rock and frowned, then he looked up to the sky wistfully. "I'm going to have to be the biggest nightmare in the forest if I'm going to take my alpha position back from Hirutani, and the respect of my rafter again." He statement ended off in a growl.

"If you truly want to be a nightmare how about you just make all of your dragons eat catfish?" Seto sarcastically remarked; which earned him a bit of a side-glare.

"Maybe I haven't put my foot down hard enough," Jou said, thinking, as he looked back down from the sky "I tried being progressive… And I'm going to continue us down that path, but if my Rafter will only take an authoritarian figure seriously, that's what I'm going to have to be."

"I suppose that's the problem with backwoods Rafters," Seto commented, ignoring his dark companions growl "Yugi would have been eaten alive if he was the diamondtooth of your Rafter."

"You don't have a very high opinion of your Diamondtooth… do you, Kaiba?" Jou inquired, sounding suspicious and disdainful. Seto couldn't really blame him, since he was a diamondtooth who'd been betrayed by one of his own, but it was still a rude inquiry.

"Don't mistake me for Hirutani," Seto warned, glaring at the other dragon briefly before looking down at his talons "I wouldn't play dirty to become a diamondtooth."

"But is it what you want?"

"I think I'd be more efficient than Yugi."

"Why and how?" Jou pressed.

"Mind your own business stray, I'm trying to help you." Seto hissed in warning before resting his head down on his talons.

Silence, occasionally broken by bird song.

"The sun is setting soon," Jonouchi suddenly said, he stood up slowly and carefully placed Shizuka near Seto "that means the Shadow Forest dragons are starting to stir… I will challenge Hirutani at the main camp just as he did me." He explained.

"Do you think he will play dirty?" Seto asked, grabbing the chick by the scruff of the neck as he too stood up; Shizuka squeaked at being carried different than usual.

"Of course he will; he's underhanded and sneaky even on Darkstalker standards." Jonouchi confirmed, then focused at the shady forest ahead of them "But I'll be expecting his tricks this time..." A flicker of flames ignited around his talons, making the grass around his singe. "However," he willed the flamed down "first things first; we are liberating the dragonesses. I'm getting my Lieutenant back."


The nesting area was marked by the types of trees it had; these trees were all evergreen type, and the area was surrounded by a thick barrier of blackberry bushes, which at this time of year had no berries and was starting to shed its leaves, but it's thorny branches still provided an impressive barrier with it's sheer mass.

The area appeared to be guarded by five male dragons; these were some of Hirutani's more loyal followers, less likely to be swayed by the dragonesses pleas in favor of Hirutani's orders.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Jou whispered to the white dragon "You say hidden here, I'm going to shred these dragons into vulture food."

"You're going to fight five of them at once?" Seto inquired in doubt.

"No," Jou answered, crouching close to the ground "one at a time."

Seto slunk back with the dragon chick, getting behind a ragged clump of blackberry vines while the other dragon started stalking the nesting area.

The nesting area was big enough that there was a considerable distance between each of the posted guards, giving Jou the space he needed. He slunk close to the vine barrier, using the shadows casted by the trees to stay hidden; though he didn't have the element of shadows like most of his Rafter, he he the element of stealth through training.

The first guard was a large dragon with a dark green to pale rust gradient, he appeared to be fatigued, meaning he must have been a daylight guard. He was lying on his belly, lazilly licking between the claws of his talons, he didn't see his true diamondtooth lurking in the shadows.

In a dark flash Jounouchi leapt from the thorny vines and tackled the unsuspecting guard; before the guard could roar to alert the others, Jou slammed his front talon on top of his head and slammed it into the ground, forcing the dragon to lost his ability to open his jaws with the black dragons weight pressing on his head.

Jou lifted his head up high and slammed the side of his head against the top of the other dragons skull - given the hard spikes on the side of his head, this blow completely cold-cocked the dragon guard, who went limp in unconsciousness.

The red eyed black dragon drew his wings close to his body as he slunk back into the shadows and repeated the same thing with the four remaining guard.

Shizuka squeaked, clearly alerted by the atmosphere, Seto tried hushing her but she kept whimpering until he relented, and as he did often with Mokuba he brought her close tyo his chest, and looked her in the eyes; his eyes, and then hers started to glow, as he supplemented her some magic to support her underdeveloped elemental core. She finally quieted down.

Seeing Jou flicking his wing in their general direction in a signal to follow him, Seto crept out of the blackberry bushes, carrying the dragon by the scruff of the neck and followed the Shadow Forest Diamondtooth, but kept enough distance that he's be able to escape if Jou got jumped.

"Mai!" Jou called, whipping his head around in random directions, looking for his Lieutenant.

"D-Diamondtooth?" They heard a meek voice; they turned to see an undersized female dragon who must have been around Jou's age; she was a dragon with lusterless scales that were a dark purple to lilac gradient from top to bottom, bright blue eyes, and strange horn-like projections out of the top of her head that were scale-covered. Seto noticed with a slight cringe that her wings were fastened to her body with chains, preventing her from moving them and presumably flight as well.

"Miho," Jou said softly as he walked up to his peer "Miho are you okay?"

"Hirutani is terrible..." She whispered, burying her head into the dark dragons chest; Seto realized bemused that the whole damn Rafter was touchy-feely, it wasn't just Jou after all. Jou comfortingly brushed his snout against the top of her head in somewhat of a nuzzle.

"I knew he would be, but I'm here to help." He told her softly, then looked to the chains with narrowed eyes "Did he chain all of you?"

"Just the dragonesses… we can't take them off." Miho told her alpha sadly.

"No, a regular Shadow Forest dragon couldn't take these off… Only Hirutani and I have the element of fire." He said, then stood straight up and backed away "Miho I need you to close your eyes okay? I'm going to melt a section so I can take the chains off." She hesitantly nodded and closed her eyes. Jou grabbed the chains with his talons, he pulled trying to get some slack which there wasn't much of. Flame flashed around his talons, and the chains began to glow red; gritting his teeth as the heat absorbed by the metal began burning him, Jou shut his own eyes in pain and tugged the chains hard until they snapped apart.

Hissing, he lightly placed his burnt talons back onto the ground; Miho blinked her eyes open as she almost hesitantly expanded her wings; Seto was surprised to see that she had two pairs of wings; a main pair of wings that matched the rest of her body scales, and a smaller, transparent pair directly under them.

"Thank you." Miho whispered to the red-eyed dragon, flapping her wings.

"Please," Jou started "where is Mai? Is she okay? Tell me Hirutani didn't..."

"She… She's alive." Miho replied; Seto caught the sad tone in her words, meaning there was an inevitable 'but' to what she was going to tell him "But, she's… She's not the same." Miho looked to the ground, downtrodden.

"What do you mean?" Jou pressed; the violet dragon shook her head sadly.

"You should see for yourself..." She explained sadly, then looked over her shoulder "She's over there." She explained, pointing her wing in that direction. Jou nodded and looked back to Seto, he started to walk off and the white dragon followed him; Miho finally seemed to notice the stranger but she did nothing but stare.

As they approached they saw a large blue shape, and when Jou saw it he quickened his steps "Mai?" He asked, raising his voice just a little; Seto saw the dragon did not move. "Mai?" He repeated as he came behind the dragon, brushing his snout against her shoulder.

Strangely, though she didn't have chains around her wings to keep them pinned to her body, her wings were completely limp.

The dark blue dragon slowly turned "It's me Mai." Jou said, looking up to the larger dragon; she stared down at him with hollow magenta eyes.

"Katsuya." She said simply, her voice was as hollow as the look in her eyes; Seto studied her and saw that the dragoness scales were almost faded, even compared to the regularly lack of luster that was typical of Darkstalkers, and she was malnourished, looking like a pelt of scales draped over a dragon skeleton.

Jou looked over his shoulder and motioned for Seto to come closer. "Our daughter… look at her." Jou told her; Seto was a bit surprised, he was under the impression that Shizuka's mother had been a random dragoness, not his own Lieutenant.

Mai looked briefly down at the dragon chick; but then immediately snapped her head away with her eyes shut closed "I can't..." She said.

Jou frowned at her reaction "Mai… don't you want to meet her?" He asked softly, he leaned upwards and rested his chin on her head, Shizuka chirping at their feet. "She's got a little of your eye color, you know."

"I can't stop seeing it..." Mai told him, eyes still closed; Seto thought about it for a moment, and realized she was referring to the destruction of the rest of their clutch.

Jou sighed heavily and sadly "Why haven't you escaped…?" He asked "Like Bakura and Yami did?" She was, afterall, not chained up like the other dragonesses.

Mai was silent, she mumbled something before answered "Hirutani severed my flight cord." Seto's blue eyes widened, he looked behind the female and with a squint he saw a wicked scar in the junction between her wings. The flight cord was a cord that branched off of the spinal cord in the spine. Just as severing the spinal cord took away the ability to walk…

Severing a dragons flight cord took away their ability to fly.

"No..." Jou whispered in shock, with the edge of either anger or despair. "T-That bastard, how dare he. Not only killing innocent eggs, but mutilating our Lieutenant." His voice ended off in a low growl; he nuzzled his friend comfortingly, before turning to Seto "We have to make haste, we're going to liberate the rest of the dragonesses, and once we have them rallying behind us I'm going to give that usuping bastard exactly what he deserves."

Seto flicked his wings "I have an idea." He told him; Jou was a great fighter able to throw off most of his opponents because he was a brawler by nature and nurture. Seto, was a tactician in contrast, which was what they were going to need to overthrow Hirutani, because brawn alone wasn't going to cut it this time.

Jou's pupils dilated, he wrapped his wing around Mai best he could before he turned back to Seto "What's the idea?"

"A plan."


The Shadow Forest Rafter's main camp was distinctive from the rest of the forest for the types of trees it was made of; in this case, redwoods. Ancient redwoods too, some having trunks thicker than the average dragon body length. The biggest redwood was the leadertree; this tree was unique also because it was dead, it's branches completely bare of what would usually be evergreen leaves, and the reddish bark was bleached.

Hirutani stared at at the camp with narrowed eyes as he stood in front of the leadertree, his tail draped over his front talons as he watched a few dragons slink around the camp, just beginning to wake up for the night. The moonlight was gently flooding the camp, making their gradient scales blend in with the contrast between moonlight and tree shadows.

"That is not your place." Shadi said to him from the healers cave; a chain wrapped around his neck with the other end connected to the cave walls.

"Pipe down old man." Hirutani growled, blasting a singular volley of fire at the Sunset. "You'd be wise to know your place."

"I know my place Hirutani," Shadi said, calmly sidestepping the attack to avoid it "but do you?"

"I defeated that runt, who cares if it was fair or square? The only reason he still has those diamond teeth is because he was too much of a coward to stick around."

"Katsuya Jounouchi is the true leader of this Rafter." Shadi said, looking down at the angry dark blue dragon, even as he began to angrily approach him. He stood straight up, even as Hirutani struck him down with his talons, leaving a large slash mark across his muzzle.

"If he was the great alpha meant to truly lead our Rafter, he would have laid his life down for it. But no, he ran away like a coward, hiding behind his brood bitch."

"You will answer to your crimes. Whether it be on this Earth," Shadi looked up, blood oozing down the claw marks but his expression remained clan "or in the Afterlife."

"Foolish old lizard." Hirtani muttered as he turned away from the healer cave; his eyes widened as he looked back to the leadertree.

There stood in all of his strength was Katsuya Jounouchi himself. His tail, underbelly and leg completely healed. His lusterless black scales had a healthy sheen and his red eyes were bright, but enraged. Under one of his front talons was the unconscious body of a camp guard.

When Jou saw he had Hirutani's attention, he stepped over the unconscious guard, walking over slowly with his black wings spread out to their full massive size. "Hello, Hirutani." Jou greeted coldly, his voice edged with anger. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Hirutani growled and started circling the Darkstalker hybrid as well "Well, well," he mocked, lifting his wings upright above him in a threatening manner "if it isn't the prodigal son… or, rather, the coward bastard."

Jou's pupils slitted "You should have quit when you originally surrendered, Hirutani." He growled "You could have lived if you did… but you cheated, you killed my clutch, you mutilated my Lieutenant, you've oppressed the Rafter… you are getting exactly what's coming to you, you bastard."

Hirutani looked around, and smiled as he spotted a few of his loyal followers watching from the shadows. He looked back to the younger Shadow Forest dragon and extended his claws. "You don't have the guts to give it." He growled mockingly.

Jou didn't answer with words; he leapt at the dictating dragon and tackled him right to the ground in a flash of claws and diamond teeth. Jou wrapped his jaws around the back of Hirutani's neck and stood on all fours before picking him up off the ground and flinging him several yards away at a tree. Hirutani hit the tree with a loud smack, the redwood shook as he hit the ground.

Digging his front legs into the ground Jou blasted at him with a large stream of fire; Hirutani flipped back onto his feet and fired back at him with an equally large firebreath; the two fire attacks collided but cancelled as Jou ducked and once again tackled Hirutani, this time pinning him against the tree as he snapped his jaws over and over again trying to grab his throat, with Hirutani just barely managing to evade the bites. Diamond teeth would easily cut through the soft skin and scales of the throat.

Dragons had gathered and were watching; some appearing afraid, some reserved, some even hopeful. Amongst this tempest of emotions from the collective of the Shadow Forest Dragon, the most prominent one was anxiety. Either outcome could have problems; did they want to have an oppressive dictator as an alpha, or a progressive hybrid who might push away their traditions and way of life?

Jou had Hirutani pinned; the blue dragon struggled but the sheer strength of the Diamondtooth was superior to his own; sensing this, some of his followers started to pull out of the cover of shadows, quickly approaching them with the intent of overpowering Jou by their numbers.

When they were a few feet away they heard a rustle and a roar as a flash of lightning struck the ground in front of them; the group of supporters jumped back in surprise as they heard a crack of thunder and a white blur shot out from the trees; once it landed it looked to them with threatening blue orbs and then reared up at them on hind legs.

They looked to each other and backed up slowly; this white dragon was a sight to them - by sheer contrast he was massive compared to most of them, with shining pale scales and grand wings, and the lightning crackling at the corners of his mouth was enough of a threat as he stood between them and Hirutani.

They all had the element of shadows; shadow, however, was not a volatile element, it was used for stealth reasons such as escaping or blinding an opponent, but it could not be used as an attack on its own like lightning or fire could.

"Back. Off." Seto growled, threateningly crouching down with the claws of his talons fully extended "He will fight this on his own. If he can't fight his own fight, he isn't worth following." The looked to each other at his statement, and escaped into the undergrowth of the forest.

"N-No stop!" Hirutani whimpered as the dark dragon closed his crocodile like jaws around the soft scales of his throat "I surrender! I surrender!" He chanted in panic.

The scene was familiar; Jou was pinning Hirutani to the ground, and the blue dragon had no way of getting out of this besides declaring defeat at the claws of his diamondtooth. But would the result change, after everything he had done? Although Jou had Hirutani's neck in his jaws so close that the tips of his razor sharp teeth were digging into the flesh and he could feel his carotid pulse through them; the bloodlust waned, a surrender is a surrender.

"This is your last chance to live." Jou said lowly to the other dragon as he stood up; he walked over him and started to step away towards Seto.

Hirutani, seeing the alphas back turned towards him, immediately flipped back onto his feet and lunged at him in a sneak attack.

In a microsecond, Jou paused, and although he kept his feet firmly planted he craned his head and neck and caught Hirutani's throat in his jaws again.

"Wait-" Hirutani's whimpered.

Blood sprayed the forest floor as Jou snapped his jaws around the vulnerable neck of his opponent; Hirutani went limp as his windpipe and carotid artery were absolutely shredded by the diamond teeth and sheer bite force, but Jou's pupils disappeared as the bloodlust returned and he kept biting down further and further until he had effectively sawed the other dragons head clean off in a mere few seconds.

Other dragons watched horrified, save for the reserved Seto as Jou ripped the former usupers head off and threw it against the leadertree; it fell to the ground with lifeless eyes still wide in shock and fear.

Jou looked to the dragons of his Rafter; the blood covering his maw, and his diamond teeth, glittered in the pale moonlight "I am your diamondtooth." He growled loudly, enough that his subordinates flinched at his tone "And I am done with this distrustful path that Hirutani had set you all on." He looked to the severed head before whipping his gaze back to the Shadow Forest Dragons "If any of you try to pull what he did, you will end up like him. Either bring your comments and concerns up to me and voice them, or if you don't like me as the alpha you can leave. If you want to challenge me, you will die."

He walked to where he was standing right in front of the leadership tree; his talons were inflamed with his dark fire as as was the corners of his mouth, the leaf litter was singed and smoldering where he had walked. As he stood in front of the leadertree, he stood on his two back legs and stood to his full height "I am the Diamondtooth of the Rafter of the Shadow Forest!" He announced in a near roar "I am the true Nightmare of the Forest! And anyone who stands in my way from here on out, does not receive mercy!"

The Rafter was at first silent in shock, but slowly, and surely, as they finally felt all the strength and confidence that exuded from their alpha in waves, they began to call his name out and cheer; a dark cloud had been lifted from the Shadow Forest Rafter, and although they were unsure of the times ahead of them, they were now sure they were in good hands.


Authors note: Hoo boy, that was a hard one. I don't deal with fighting or diplomatic scenes too well. But there you go, Jou get's the shadow forest Rafter back.

So Seto's plan was basically that he would serve to stop Hirutani's followers from assisting their boss; Seto is, afterall, one of the greatest fighters in his own Rafter, he is ridiculously strong for a non-diamondtooth

Interesting tidbit for the future; when a dragon becomes a diamondtooth, they also gain an enhancement of their physical and magic abilities (their strength, speed, durability, elemental strength, ect is boosted by a certain amount) and also a special ability that is unique for each Rafter

Yugi and Jou have actually both been hinted at using their respective powers! Do you think you know what their unique powers are?

Please read and review!