Author's note: Sorry to begin with a note, but I want to apologize for the wait and once again thank everyone for their extremely kind support. Thanks to every single one of you who has taken the time to write a review or favorite or follow this story. Now, on with the chapter:

warning: mild profanity ... long-winded exposition ... technobabble ...

1/27/2014: Added author's note.

10. Plan of Attack

Somehow I lost touch
When you went out of sight
When you got lost into the city
Got lost into the night.
"We Float" ~ PJ Harvey

The next Monday, Atem spent the morning reading, then he spent the afternoon floating a ball of mercury in an electromagnetic field. He had to admit that the experience was exciting and fascinating, but he didn't think it got him much further toward figuring out a way to truly set Seto free.

Atem walked wearily to the elevator, his mind swimming with the information he'd consumed over the day. If only I could speed up this process! he thought. He pressed the down button with a sigh.

When the doors slid open to reveal a figure standing inside, Atem was so surprised that he almost forgot to step in—both because he had never encountered an occupant in the elevator going down before, and also because of the unusual appearance of said occupant. The person standing there was almost as tall as Seto, but had long, straight, shiny pink hair, and a lavish, frilly suit to match.

"Hello, sir," he said. "Are you posing for Dartz?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes," said the man, with a flip of his colorful hair.

And as that brilliant hair flipped before his eyes, Atem noticed that a blob of pink paint had attached to the ends of a few strands.

"Pardon me, sir," he said, stepping in behind the man, "but I'm an admirer of my employer's talents."

"Hmph."

Trying to be inconspicuous, Atem quickly rifled through his pockets until his hands fell upon a small packet of tissues. That would have to do. He pulled one out and waited.

When the elevator slid to a stop, he purposefully stumbled forward against the man, simultaneously wiping the little blob of paint onto the tissue.

"Get off me!"

"Pardon me!" Atem exclaimed, letting the man go. He received a backward venomous glance as the man swished off. Atem smiled. The way that man flings his hair about, no wonder he caught some paint. Atem only hoped that Dartz hadn't noticed.

He had been planning to stop by Seto's office anyway, but now he had a perfect excuse. He headed toward his car with some excitement, trying not to hurry his steps too much.

"Motou Atem? Oh … Kaiba-sama isn't in a meeting, so I have orders to allow you straight in, sir."

"Thanks."

Atem moved forward. The area in which Seto's assistant sat was some sort of large waiting or lounge area filled with comfortable furniture. There was even a bar. Atem smiled at the posh surroundings and secured a soda from the bar.

Atem opened the door slowly and quietly so as not to disturb Seto while he was working, but then paused when he discovered that he was about to interrupt a conversation. As he was closing the door, he caught a scrap of conversation. "… Atem?"

Hearing his name, he paused, then heard Seto's voice. "It's been … hn, about a week and a half now." A little bit of consternation slipped into his voice as he went on. "It seems a great deal longer than that."

"Because of that picture?"

"That must be it."

"Nii-sama?"

"What is it?"

"Is that why … never mind."

"If you want to know something, go ahead and ask."

"Is that why you let him hug you like that? I mean, that's—it's just weird."

A pause. "You think so?"

"Uh … I didn't mean it exactly like that. It's just that you don't let people do stuff like that."

"I see. Hn." There was another pause, then Seto said, "This is different."

"Duh. I can see that. I want to know how it's different."

Yet another short pause. "I don't know if I can describe it. It's … complicated."

"How complicated can it be? You know how you feel about him, don't you?"

"I … I know how hard it is to be away from him … and how I was … but I'm not certain how much of it is because of that damn painting. We have to work out this thing with Dartz before I can think of anything else."

"But—"

The strain he heard in Seto's voice was beginning to make Atem feel anxious and guilty, so decided he should stop hovering and knocked on the door. Entering, he said, "Your assistant said to come on in."

"Good," said Seto. "I was just filling Mokuba in on what's been going on. There are some things I need to talk to you about as well."

"First, though, can I show you something?" Atem pulled out the tissue. "I managed to get a tiny sample of the paint. It was clinging to a man in the elevator and I didn't have anything but this to put it on, so—"

"Pink?"

"Yes, this man had pink hair."

"Pink hair? Sieg von Shraeder?"

"I don't know who it was. But do you think that this is enough?"

"It will have to do. I've made do with less."

Atem wondered what he was talking about for a second, but before he could ask, Seto had trimmed the excess material from the tissue, produced a small vial from his desk, and tucked the tissue inside. "This will be very helpful when we go in."

"When we go in?" Atem asked, stunned.

"Of course, I'm going to have to study this stuff first, and it's too bad we don't have a sample of that crystal to examine, but, yes. I want to go in there as soon as we can."

"Not that I want to drag this out, but won't it take a while to investigate that sample?"

"It will take a little time, but I'm expediting it," Seto said with a smirk. "Meanwhile, I looked into it, and discovered that Dartz does use ordinary, garden-variety computers to run his building and, more importantly, his security. It should be a snap for me to break in when the time comes."

"But—"

"There are times when it's useful to know a computer expert, right, Mokuba?"

Mokuba blushed a little and said, "Yeah, Nii-sama."

Atem glanced over at the boy and wondered what scrape he might have been pulled out of, exactly.

"Of course, Mokuba's no slouch himself. The other thing is that if we get in and up to the top floor, we probably won't encounter much resistance."

"And why is that?"

"I sent a man to hang out in the neighborhood around Paradise to pick up on the local gossip. From what he could pick up from the bars and restaurant chatter, virtually no one at the company is allowed on the top five floors of the building. Some people think that the whole upper section of the building is vacant. In any case, it seems that only a few people are aware that anything goes on up there and even fewer are allowed on those floors."

Atem scowled. "But there doesn't seem to be any security at all. I mean, you can punch in any floor into the elevator."

"It might be that someone monitors the elevators, but only when a button to one of the top five floors is pressed. There's so little traffic to the top floors, the threat can be evaluated and the elevator can be stopped if needed."

"If that's the case, how would we get you up there?"

Seto gave him another tight smile. "There are ways around that." Seto handed his brother the vial and said, "Could you deliver this for analysis right away? Tell them that it's the president's request."

"Sure thing, Nii-sama." Mokuba scampered from the room.

"Your brother is really energetic," Atem commented, looking after him.

"Yes."

"Seto …" he sighed. "I guess you need to work."

"Yes, I do."

The two stood looking at each other for a long moment, then finally Seto said, "You're welcome to stay and read or whatever."

"Thanks, I think I will." Atem silently cursed himself for forgetting to bring a book in his excitement, but spotted a deck of cards on the shelves in the conversation area and soon absorbed himself in various varieties of solitaire laid out on the coffee table.

Before long, Mokuba arrived bearing a pitcher of lemonade. Atem settled in quite comfortably with Seto quietly working in the background and Mokuba popping in and out.

Atem had planned on stopping by the game shop early, but ended up barely making it by closing time.

A few weeks passed by. For Atem, the days drifted past in a dizzying barrage of mind-bending information and practice. During his breaks he continued to browse through the bookshelves, searching for nuggets of valuable information. Some of the books were fascinating, but not terribly promising in his opinion, like the book labeled Geomancy that he'd stumbled across. He'd decided to leaf through it for a few minutes on a whim and had to force himself to yank his head out of it a couple of hours later to return to his lessons.

Forcing his attention back on his alchemy book, he began to read about the electromagnetic effects that guide chemical reactions.

"Influence these effects and you can influence a reaction. The skilled practitioner can use these effects to control chemical reactions."

This was just one of hundreds of concepts that set his mind spinning. "The human body is like a battery." "Matter itself remembers." "Each point in the universe has its own unique perspective."

Atem discovered that he was slowly learning the basics of material science, the study of elements and the basis of the transmutation of elements. This is the foundation of alchemy, he thought. The search for the Philosopher's stone itself. That catalyst that transmutes lead into gold.

Idly, as he studied the properties of elements, Atem wondered what other useful transmutations Dartz might have in his alchemical cookbook.

During the evenings, Atem tried to stay on top of how things were going at the game shop, but it wasn't easy. He had an almost continuous strong urge to drop by KaibaCorp, and despite Seto's open invitation, he still felt guilty and resisted the urge as much as he could lest he abuse the privilege and get in Seto's way.

As far as the game shop was concerned, Yugi reported that Raphael had been working out surprisingly well, which almost disappointed him. On the other hand, Yugi and Anzu had become almost inseparable, and Atem saw her at the shop whenever she had a night off.

On the other hand, Anzu had already had a big discussion (or was it an argument?) with Jounouchi about how she didn't actually break up with Atem. This led to several calls from Jounouchi asking what the hell was up. Atem had listened to the messages, but kept delaying responding to them. He wanted to be with Seto—really with him—before he said anything about it. He was beginning to wonder whether he was superstitious.

Atem was taking his afternoon break one day when he heard a soft musical lilt—his new ring tone. Glad that he finally changed its tune, he pulled out his cell phone. "Hello."

"Atem? It's Seto. I have something to show you. If you have time, stop by KaibaCorp this afternoon."

"I'll come right over after work if it's convenient," Atem said.

"Good. I've cleared my schedule, so come right in. I'll expect you."

Atem smiled to himself and decided to get back to his studies. He was glad to have an excuse to stop by and see Seto.

The last couple of weeks when he'd given in and dropped by KaibaCorp, Atem had been slightly surprised to find Mokuba absent. Apparently Seto had sent him on a short business trip. Atem had wondered whether Mokuba's absence was due to the fact that he was dropping by now or because Seto was reluctant to make commitments in his current state. Still, he hadn't been able to bring himself to breach the subject.

This time, when Atem knocked softly on Seto's office door, he entered, only to find the large desk manned by the younger Kaiba.

Speak of the devil … or imp, in this case …

"Hi, Atem," he said, "I guess you're looking for my brother, huh?"

"Well, yes, this is his office, isn't it?"

"Right, right!" Mokuba said, hopping off of Seto's large desk chair and coming around the desk. "I get back here and find out he sent me off so that he could push himself extra hard without having to listen to my nagging. He finally konked out a couple of hours ago. He didn't have any more meetings on his schedule, so I canceled his training session and had Isono help me move him into the bedroom." Mokuba moved off to the side, through the meeting area and toward a inconspicuous door in the rear. "If you have something that's really important that you need to talk to him about, I guess it'll be OK to wake him," with this Mokuba opened the door, "but I'd really rather let him get some rest. He pushes himself as it is, but lately he's been getting hardly any sleep at all."

Atem peered into the room. It was really quite small and plain, just a bed and chair. The windows were covered by heavy drapes, so it was quite dark, but Atem could still make out Seto's sleeping form on the bed. Even from this distance, Atem could see that his face looked uncharacteristically vulnerable in slumber, which tempted Atem sorely to join him.

He sighed and turned to Mokuba. "Could I stay for a little anyway?" he asked. If he just went home without being near Seto for a while, he knew that weird feeling would start becoming intolerable again.

Mokuba softly closed the door and said, "Sure. I want to talk to you a little, anyway."

"Go ahead," Atem said, sitting down in a chair in the conversation area. He felt slight trepidation at what Mokuba might ask.

Mokuba settled in opposite and said, "The reason he's been stretching himself so thin is because of this Dartz business."

"I'm sorry—" Atem began.

"Are you kidding?" Mokuba said, waving a hand. "None of this is your fault! I'm really glad you're helping us with this." He began to fidget a little, looking down and clutching at the fabric of his pants. "If anyone's to blame, it's me—not that Seto's said anything to me about it. But it was me who started all this."

"Seto mentioned something about that …"

Mokuba colored. "Yeah, it was that stupid celebrity auction. It was for charity, and Seto never gets out socially, so … I thought maybe some nice girl—" Mokuba cast a quick, guilty glance in Atem's direction, turning even redder, "—would buy an evening with him, but it turned out to be Dartz. I can't believe that I wanted him to pose for that painting!" Mokuba exclaimed, releasing his pants to clutch handfuls of his thick mane of hair.

"Mokuba …" Atem said, leaning forward and patting him lightly on the shoulder, "how were you supposed to know what would happen? A painting is supposed to be harmless, right? … Right?"

"Y-yeah," he said, relaxing a little. Then, suddenly, he looked up and blurted, "Are you my brother's boyfriend? He wouldn't say exactly."

Atem smiled a little and said, "Well, we're a little busy now trying to figure out this problem with Dartz. Did he describe it to you thoroughly?"

"Yeah. He didn't tell me about the bad dreams. Not in the beginning." Mokuba glanced at the closed door with what Atem thought was a hint of reproach. "But now he's told me all about them and what it's all about, best as he can figure it."

"Good."

"I'm glad you're helping with this."

"No problem. I'm glad that your brother decided to let me."

"So … are you his boyfriend?"

"You're persistent."

"It's just the way you were looking at him just now."

Atem hoped he wasn't blushing, and said, "And how was that?"

"You kind of looked like he was the cutest thing you'd ever seen—Like we'd put a basketful of kittens in there or something."

"No!"

"Puppies at the least. It was embarrassing. Really."

Now Atem was sure he was blushing. Then, when he unexpectedly heard Seto ask, "Why didn't you wake me?" he looked over his shoulder, cheeks aflame, hoping to hell that Seto hadn't heard this last little exchange.

"Nii-sama! You've hardly gotten any sleep at all!" Mokuba protested. "You need some rest or your mental faculties will suffer. You know that."

Seto waved it off impatiently, saying, "You know I have something important to show Atem," then turned to the man in question. "Come. I think you'll be interested in this."

Seto led the way to the elevator with Atem and Mokuba in his wake. Soon they were on the fifth floor in the midst of a large number of laboratories.

"I don't understand," Atem said.

"You mean you thought we manufactured games?" Seto smiled. "You do realize that my father's company was originally a weapons manufacturer, correct? When I sold off the weapons assets, I retained a few divisions: game theory, software development and electronic engineering along with some of the associated patents, and these labs. The labs are a bit of a luxury, but I was reluctant to let them go. We use these to analyze failures in hardware production and for materials development and testing. It's not really enough work to justify the department, so we do subcontracting as well. But, I must say, it really came in handy for this situation."

"This situation?" asked Atem. "You mean analyzing the paint?"

"Here we are," said Seto. "Let me show you."

Seto pulled out a card and put it up to a magnetic reader, then looked into a scanner. "Retinal scan," explained Mokuba.

The lock popped open and the three entered. Atem looked around curiously. It looked very much the way he expected a lab to look, with lots of spic and span white surfaces and modern equipment—quite different from his own laboratory. Seto led him past some researchers to a bench in the back, where an experiment had been set up.

"I had an analysis done of the paint sample you secured for me," Seto said. "That sample was invaluable. From that information, I created my own oil paint sample." Seto pointed to a large tube of cerulean blue that sat behind a blob of paint in a petri dish.

"A commercial oil paint?"

"I don't need to make the paint from scratch, only add the additional components," Seto said, pointing to a jar marked Dartz mixture #3. "I chose a color rather than white so that it would be obvious where the paint was on the canvas."

Seto started walking, leading them out of this lab and down the hallway. "The hard thing is to determine the composition of the crystal that produces the radiation that acts on this paint."

"Isn't that impossible?" asked Atem. "We don't have a way of reproducing the radiation or getting a sample of the crystal."

"What if I could find something similar?" Seto asked as he opened another security door. "Something like meteors containing aqua stones that have peculiar properties. With my connections, I was able to retrieve one of them."

"Are you saying that this sort of thing is naturally-occurring?!"

"Not on this planet."

Seto led them to a bench on which three small aqua stones were mounted on plastic stands plus another jar of paint. A large meteorite lay on a pallet nearby. Atem could see a couple more traces of aqua imbedded in the meteorite. "How did you get that?" he asked with a trace of wonder.

Seto shrugged. "While I was working on this, I had a thought and called a few of my contacts in the government who have access to certain information, such as strange phenomena connected to specific meteors. When these phenomena occurred, agents were sent in and the offending material removed for study and safe-keeping."

"What kind of phenomena are you talking about?"

"Disappearances, items floating, apparitions … any number of unusual things. Actually, when the government agency collected these things, it didn't know what to do with the samples and it ended up filed away in a corner somewhere gathering dust. I had no trouble securing a sample."

"No trouble?"

"This stuff was collected years ago. They had no idea what they had then, and by now I'm sure interested parties have lost track of it. So we were fortunate."

"But these things are remarkable!" Atem said.

"You haven't seen what they can do," Seto said. "But even if these stones are the same substance as the Oracle Stone we saw at the Paradise building, they're small and contain a great many flaws. They wouldn't do for Dartz' purposes. Fortunately, I only want an idea of what their properties might be."

"I wonder why Dartz didn't procure these samples?" Atem mused. "Aren't they a problem for him?"

"This was way before we were around. He had no security reason to bother collecting it way back then, and he doesn't seem to care what research others do. I wouldn't be surprised if he developed his version of the crystal independently. That's the process he seemed to describe. I think we're extremely lucky to have found something in nature that has any of these properties."

"Perhaps you're right; he doesn't care. He seems to feel completely independent of others and considers himself to think along different lines from the rest of humanity."

"What are you waiting for, Nii-sama? Show the mirror!" prompted Mokuba.

"You recall that Dartz demonstrated what the crystal did to white light."

"Yes," said Atem. "It created some sort of rainbow spectrum."

"That's right. Here, I'll shine a beam of white light. Mokuba, could you turn off the ceiling lights for me?"

"OK!" Mokuba ran over to the door and hit the switch.

"Now, if I put up a mirror …" Seto took a mirror and placed it in front of the beam.

"It passes right through!" Atem said with surprise. "But there's a layer of metal in there."

"Exactly. If I were to place my arm in front of the beam it would pass through that as well. I wouldn't recommend it though. We don't know what effects this radiation has. Now … the tricky part. If I take some of this paint and expose it to the light …" Seto dipped a paintbrush into a jar of Dartz mixture #3 and placed it into one of the colored beams emitted from the crystal. "Good," he said. "Now, we apply it." He dabbed the paint onto two separate scraps of canvas.

"Since I'm not creating a simulacrum and exposing my subject to the light from the crystal, the second canvas serves as the linked object. You see? These two canvases are twins. Therefore …" he said, taking a painter's knife and scratching across one of the canvases. "Look at the other canvas, Atem."

Atem looked at the other canvas and it looked similarly scraped. "What …?"

"You've seen this sort of thing before," Seto said. "Haven't you?"

"I've seen … a painting move."

"Exactly. This is a similar phenomenon. Now," he said with a triumphant smile. "Proof of concept."

Atem pressed his palm to his forehead. "I see this, but I still don't understand how it works."

"Don't worry about it," said Seto. "I haven't figured out all the details myself either. All I can figure out is that somehow exposing the two linked items—in this case, it's the paint—to the radiation from the same crystal at the same or nearly the same time links the two items."

"Neat, huh?" said Mokuba.

"I guess …" said Atem, "if one of the linked items isn't your brother. Now that you've figured how you can do this, the question is, how do we undo it?"

Instead of answering, Seto opened his briefcase. Inside was a black electronic device roughly the size of a cereal box.

Atem looked at the panel of the device. There were a multitude of dials marked wavelength 1 through 50, a switch set to On, and a red button marked Engage. The first 23 dials had been set. On the end of the device was something that appeared to be an emitter of some sort.

Lifting the device, Seto pointed it at the stone and pressed the red button. A bright yellow light burst forth. When it hit the aqua stone, it seemed to turn into mist, then vanish.

"What the hell?" said Atem.

"The light dissolves the matrix holding the crystal structure together. Then the elements that make up the crystal simply vaporize."

"I can't believe it."

"You haven't seen the most important part yet," Seto said, turning back to the scrap of canvas. He took the knife and scraped the paint in another direction. "Look at its twin."

The second painting was unchanged.

"Destroying the crystal unlinks the paintings!" Atem cried, excited. "I can't believe it's so easy!" Without thinking, he lunged forward, hugging Seto.

"I'm not sure I'd call pulling all this together exactly easy," Seto complained, frowning and struggling a bit in Atem's grasp. "You have to destroy the crystal in this specific way. This essentially disintegrates it."

Atem, remembering where they were, let go, embarrassed. "Uh, I don't mean that … I just—I didn't think that just destroying the crystal would work."

"I see," Seto said, his annoyance dissipating. "At any rate, I want to plan on destroying the main crystal as soon as possible. Is that acceptable to you?"

"Yes! Yes, let's do it."

The next week Dartz announced that he had to go to Paris on a business trip. Atem immediately took the opportunity to call Seto and suggest that this might be their best opportunity.

That Wednesday, Atem met Seto at the little café around the corner from KaibaCorp for croissants and coffee. Seto arrived dressed down in plain jeans, t-shirt and denim jacket, but still carried his metal briefcase.

"I'm not sure that the clothes keep you from standing out," Atem commented.

Seto simply sat and, placing his briefcase on the table, opened it, revealing his crystal destroyer.

"So, are you sure that will take care of the crystal?" asked Atem.

"Yes, by my calculations, it should. The output is adjustable, and I can also take readings and make changes as needed."

"These pyramids?" asked Atem, looking at three small items in the case.

"Those are sensors, in case I need to take readings."

"Looks like you're fully prepared."

"I don't know about 'fully,' but I don't want to take the time to prepare further. I think we can get the job done with this. Your help has been inestimable. The only thing I'm concerned about is whether there's another one of those crystals."

"He told us that it took him decades to grow this one."

"I'm hoping that he was telling us the truth—and that even if he's currently growing another, it won't be ready for some time yet."

"He shouldn't be able to use a new one against you in any case—I don't think," Atem said.

"That remains to be seen."

"Something I hope won't have to be tested," said Atem.

"The other thing … I wish I didn't have to mention, but are you ready in case of trouble? I can get you—" Seto produced a small handgun from a jacket pocket.

"No!" Atem felt bad about the outburst, and stopped himself, taking a breath. "No, I'm sorry, I think I can handle anything that comes up without that," he said.

"You're good at fighting?" asked Seto, concerned.

"Not so much that; I'm quick on my feet. I can usually figure something out."

"Very well," said Seto, "I'll trust your judgment, but I'm bringing this along, just in case. Let me know if you change your mind."

"You're not planning on using deadly force, are you?" Atem demanded, surprised.

"Only if I'm forced to."

Atem didn't even like the thought of that. He reached out and placed his hand on Seto's, focusing his attention in a heartbeat. "Seto," he said, "I know that I suggested that this might be our time, but maybe we should think about postponing this operation—just for a little longer. I mean, we could use a little more information about that top floor … and what we might be up against, and whether what we're trying might actually work—"

"I know, Atem, and everything you're saying makes sense. But we can't know whether the device works until we get to the crystal in any case." He sighed. "If you must know, I don't want to wait."

"But what about Mokuba? If anything happened to you—"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking about. I'm not any good to him the way I am now. I can't trust myself. Dartz can take control back any time he wants." Seto's hand went to his forehead, massaging his temple. "When I think what he might … Atem, I can't wait. Waiting means risking my company and, more importantly, Mokuba. I'm at his whim, Atem. That risk is so much greater than any risk I'd take trying to destroy that crystal."

"Still, Seto, I don't think Dartz will do anything right now because—"

"Because he's got you under his thumb?" Seto said, leaning back and folding his arms. "Maybe not, but I don't trust him. I can't. It would be one thing if it were just me, but he could potentially hurt Mokuba through me. I can't let that happen. I'd die first."

"Seto …" Atem searched his eyes, then finally said, "You're right. Let's go."

"You don't have to come. I could do this alone."

"What? There's no way you're going alone, so lets get going. I want to get this done as soon as possible."

"Besides," Seto muttered as he got up, "I don't like the thought of your working with him."

The two made their way down to the street where Kaiba compressed his tall frame into Atem's little car with some difficulty. After he pushed the front passenger's seat all the way back and found himself still cramped, he asked, "How do you deal with this?"

"It's never been a problem for me. Please bear with it until we get to Paradise."

"If it weren't so conspicuous, I'd switch to one of my vehicles right now."

"But we need to use something that won't be noticed, and my car is supposed to be around."

Seto sighed and shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a position that wasn't completely cramped. He wound up pressed a little against Atem, who would have found it very pleasant if it weren't quite so distracting. Atem could only be glad that the drive wasn't a long one.

"I'm going to go in the back way and let you in," Atem said as they pulled into the neighborhood of the Paradise building. "That way you won't have to worry about being recognized."

"Hn."

Atem parked a couple of blocks away. Seto opened his briefcase, further cramping the front seat momentarily. "What are you doing?" asked Atem.

"I'm turning on this device. It needs to warm up."

"You couldn't do this at the café?"

"No, it doesn't need that much time. That would just drain the battery unnecessarily. Now, just in case," Seto went on, looking at Atem seriously, "you should know how to operate this thing. It's easy enough."

"What is it that I need to do?"

"It's already set up. By the time we get up there it should be warmed up and ready to fire. Just aim and press the red button."

Atem looked the device over once again and nodded. "No problem."

"If these settings don't work, I might have to adjust them, but I'm hoping this will work." Seto snapped the briefcase closed.

The two walked in from behind the building, trying not to attract too much attention. They entered through as side entrance with no problem and as they walked down the hallway, Seto handed Atem his briefcase and pulled out something that looked like a cell phone. "You're not making a call!"

"No, I'm getting ready for the elevator."

Atem lifted a questioning eyebrow, but they had arrived in front of the elevator by that time. When they stepped in, Seto tapped the screen. "Done," he said.

"What's that?"

"If security takes a look at the video feed, they'll see a previously recorded video of just you going up. It will also signal that you've gotten off at your usual floor rather than the top floor."

"That's fantastic!"

"Hacking into their system was easy. For someone who's remarkably advanced in other ways, he's applied surprisingly pedestrian security."

"That's odd."

"He keeps such a low profile that I don't think he expects a high-level threat."

Hubris, wasn't that what Isis said?

"That wasn't very forward-thinking of him."

"Besides, how many people know what he's doing up there? In any case, he probably has something more formidable waiting for us at the top."

The doors slid open and they stepped out into the large hall. Seto tapped his phone again. "What are you doing?" asked Atem.

"Look at the elevator."

Atem turned and noticed that the indicators weren't lit. "You cut the power." It was hard to tell, since the large hall was well-lit by sunlight streaming through the crystal windows.

"This should buy us some time," Seto said.

"But they'll know we're here."

"All they know right now is that the power went out. It will take them a little while to determine why it went out and longer to get up here. By that time with any luck our work will be done," Seto said. "But we can do one thing to delay them a little longer. Where are the stairs?"

Atem led the way over to the stairwell. Seto pulled out two wedges from his pockets and jammed them firmly under the doors. "This should hold any intruders for a few minutes," he said. The two moved forward toward the room containing the Oracle Crystal.

"Why don't you turn around and go back where you came from?"

The man making that suggestion came from the direction of the crystal room. Another biker-type, Atem thought, looking at the guy, who was dressed in heavy boots, jeans, and a t-shirt. He wasn't that tall, but he had a tough air that reminded him a little of Jounouchi—enough that he kind of wished he'd invited Jounouchi along. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Valon," he said with a smile. "You've done well, but please head for the emergency exit. Your luck has run its course."

"I don't think so," said Atem, taking a step forward, but then Amelda stepped out of a room right next to the crystal room and stood in front of its door. Seto slid his phone into an inner pocket of his jacket and subtly shifted next to Atem. Atem barely glanced sideways toward him, sensing he was ready to spring into action at any moment.

Think, Atem! Atem exhorted himself, realizing that he'd brought little with him. Clenching his fists, he noticed the handle of Seto's metal briefcase pressing into the right one. Right, he thought, taking another step toward Valon, who was nearest.

But Seto had already moved past him with surprising speed. Atem almost stopped to watch, but Valon made his move and Atem had to react to counter him, swinging the briefcase around so that it viciously swatted Valon's grasping hands. "Ah!" he cried, pulling back his hand and taking a step to the side to carry himself wide of the blow and past Atem.

Atem was dimly aware of a flurry to his side and a little ahead as blows were thrown and countered, but he was too busy to check to see how Seto was doing against Amelda. Atem swung around to face the rear, leading with the briefcase. As expected, Valon was rushing him from that direction, but had ducked low to avoid the flying luggage. Adjusting, Atem twirled the briefcase like a baton, redirecting its momentum and bring it down and out toward Valon.

It connected with a sickening crack. Valon dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Lightly turning on his toe, Atem started to bound over to Seto, but stopped in his tracks. Seto had Amelda on the floor in the crystal room in a chokehold.

"One moment," he said.

"Are you all right?" Atem asked, arriving at Seto's side.

"Me? This guy is the one who's out of it," he said with a slight chuckle. "Shouldn't you be asking after him?"

"Hmph."

Seto produced several electrical ties from a pocket and handed Atem a few. "You really are prepared," said Atem.

"I don't see any reason to allow these guys to interrupt us again. Secure that other guy."

Atem hurried into the other room and linked Valon's wrists and ankles with the ties.

Oh. Right. He still had the briefcase. Laying it on its side, he took out Seto's device. Then he stood and walked into the mirrored room. The huge crystal stood in the center shining with its own inner light. It was almost a shame to destroy such a remarkable thing.

Seto was still bent over Amelda, between Atem and the crystal. Atem paused, wondering what was taking him so long. "Are you OK?" he asked.

"Fine," was the muttered reply.

"You know, Seto, you had me worried there for a second," he said, carefully taking aim at the crystal. "Shall I?" he asked, but he wanted to wait until Seto moved out of the way before pressing the button.

"Wait." Atem froze at the tone of Seto's voice, confused. He looked at him carefully. He was still bent over Amelda's unconscious form, his bangs hanging over his face, obscuring his eyes.

"Seto—?"

"You could have had it all …" the voice was distant, flat, dead. But also, worse, it was weird: attenuated and almost … bubbly.

"Seto, no …" Atem stared at him, despairing.

"This man, Seto, always getting in the way. And you, always so hasty, thoughtlessly allowing yourself to be distracted from your studies … How shall I punish him, Atem? How shall I punish you? Shall I take your toys away from you?" With that, Seto straightened, and Atem found himself staring into deep blue eyes that were totally blank.

Atem's mind scrambled in a panic. How …? And then he realized. A simple call from Amelda. The little crystal. The one Dartz always wore around his neck. He could do so much with that? Atem's knees almost buckled from the discovery that he'd so seriously underestimated Dartz. What was Dartz doing, anyway? He could almost picture Dartz whispering into the ear of the misty purple version of Seto, forcing him to parrot his words in that strange, robotic voice.

If I destroy this crystal, Atem wondered, would it truly free Seto? This was the one that was used in the creation of the painting, after all. But if they're linked like Dartz said, then what?

But his reverie was interrupted by a click so loud in the silent room that it seemed deafening. Then Atem saw it.

It was the sound of the hammer of Seto's revolver being pulled back. The barrel of that revolver was now pressed up under Seto's jaw, aimed directly upward toward his brain.

"S-seto?" Atem managed, nearly choking. All the air seemed suddenly to have been sucked from the room.

"After a fashion. But if you value Seto at all I advise you to drop that device. Now."

Author's notes ...

Must ... post ... chapter ...

Again, sorry for the wait! (Fell down a couple of rabbit holes as well as having some difficulty getting this right ... ish ...) But, yes, an even longer chapter for y'all. Actually, I was originally planning to cut this one in half and post them one right after the other, but the first part is so very heavy in exposition that I changed my mind. This way at least it's part of what's hopefully a larger, somewhat more interesting chapter!

Once again, thanks to my beta! There have been (once again) a few last-second changes mostly in view of the upcoming chapter, for flow and setup. I probably should send it back around, but I'm lazy and I really want to finally get this thing out! My beta commented that this was a bit predictable, but, hey, I'm happy when my story has any plot! One of the things I'm working on ...

I'm just thinking this chapter has virtually no romance. Sorry about that.

Wow, all the awesome reviews! You guys are spoiling me (so please don't stop! ;) )! A bushel full of thanks to each one of you! :) I have once again received some favorites for other stories during the interim, so if you happen to have favorited or followed this or another story, please accept my heartfelt thanks for that as well.

[Lengthy character note next four paragraphs. Detour as needed.] As to Kaiba ... I believe I've posted a character note before, but I feel I need to elaborate. Keeping him in character has been particularly challenging for this story and I'm not sure how successful I've been. Opinions apparently vary! Keep in mind as well, that my baseline is the Japanese anime version of Kaiba who, while still tactless, rude, and dismissive (even belittling) of Atem's friends (particularly Jounouchi), at least acknowledges facts thrust in his face. Argh, I don't want to do a character analysis, so I'll skip that and get to it. I seem to have inadvertently set myself a high degree of difficulty with the premise of this story. (IMO, Kaiba's a difficult enough character to write under ordinary circumstances, BTW.) Because of the portrait device, I have Atem meeting the "inner Kaiba" before he meets the "outer Kaiba"; that is, a more honest, less defensive version of Kaiba. Because of this, I decided that I had to skip through a lot of the initial defensive layer that I expect from Kaiba due to his abandonment issues. However, because he already relates to Atem in an unexpected way, he feels awkward and strange about it, which I've tried to get across.

I believe it might have helped if I wrote from Kaiba's point of view, but since everything had been third-person Atem, I thought adding an additional point of view so late in the game (Kaiba himself was introduced a few chapters in) would just feel weird in a story that was weird enough to start with.

This is not to say that I have been completely successful in handling the character challenge I've set for myself! I'll admit, I can't even say that I'm completely satisfied with how that aspect of the story is turning out. All I can say for sure is that I'm doing the best I can. I guess I can do a rewrite if I ever figure out a way that I think works out better. As I always say, your mileage may vary ... But I do hope that you enjoy the story and forgive any character flaws that I may inadvertently commit.

If you want Kaiba's motivation for his rather impetuous kiss in the last chapter, I'm more than happy to supply it, but it is complex and the discussion would be long and possibly boring. If someone asks, I'll add a note about it as well. ;)

Really no chapter notes this time ... thank god, no? Character notes instead. Sigh.

Just a song note, sorry for posting from the same album, but I couldn't quickly find one I liked from a different one and I wanted to get this posted, darn it! Besides, good album.

1/27/2014: Sanis-chan PM'd me with a really cute illustration for this chapter, which you can check out if you like at (i44 dot tinypic dot com slash oqc753 dot jpg). (Sorry that I can't provide a direct link!) Thanks for sharing, Sanis-chan! :)

Preview?

Not this time! More of Atem, Seto, and Dartz, for sure! ;)