A/N: Apologies for the slow update! Anyway here's Chapter 12 and I hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/ favorited and followed. Honestly, it is the positive feedback from you guys that motivates me to continue writing!
Chapter 12: Out of the Shadows
The shadows receded, revealing the unconscious forms of the two duelists. Kaiba's eyes zeroed in on the silver-haired girl, whose deck was scattered about her.
"Kira!" he called, racing to her side. His heart pounded. Please let her be ok.
"Seto!" he heard Mokuba's alarmed voice calling out to him but it didn't matter in that instant. All that mattered to him at that moment was that Kira had survived her duel with Weevil.
The younger Kaiba brother frowned. It seemed very out of character of Seto to be showing concern to someone who was practically a stranger. And wasn't Seto the one who had wanted to kick Kira out of the competition? He sighed as he dashed down the steps to join his older brother. He didn't understand how Seto's mind worked sometimes.
Kaiba kneeled beside Kira and checked her pulse. He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Hey, wake up," he muttered, gently tapping her pale cheeks. No response. He tried again, more vehemently this time but to no avail.
"Kira now is not the time for playing around. Get up!" he hissed through gritted teeth, his initial relief quickly turning into annoyance. Was she just playing around with him? He shook her shoulders but still no response.
"Um, Big Bro…you should stop that. I think they need a doctor" Mokuba mumbled. On one hand, he was worried about Kira and Weevil, on the other Seto's behavior was seriously puzzling him. Seto had rarely shown any compassion for others, believing that people were mostly expendable. Around them, the crowd broke out in nervous whispers and pointed at the two unconscious duelists. Mokuba sighed. This was going to be a PR disaster.
"Get the medical team here now!" Kaiba barked, seeing Roland racing towards him with two more black suits in tow. "If they are not here in 5 minutes they are all fired!"
"Yes Sir!" they chorused and busied themselves yelling orders into their cell phones.
Kaiba's eyes landed on Kira's duel disk. Her Blue Eyes White Dragon card gleamed faintly and went dim. He blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things, it had been a very strange day after all.
"Kira!" he heard a familiar chorus of voices behind him.
Great, the dorks are here.
"The medical team is on its way. They must have collapsed from exhaustion," Kaiba reasoned before Yugi could open his mouth to speak.
"Oi Kaiba you know dat's not gonna help! It's a Shadow Game we're talking about!" Joey huffed.
"You're delusional," Kaiba stood up and narrowed his eyes at the Mutt. "There must be a logical explanation for this!"
"When are you going to stop acting like such a know it all and admit the truth!" Joey retorted, his fingers clenching into tight fists. He was enraged! People were getting injured because of the Shadow Games and Kaiba was acting like it didn't matter at all! He ought to punch that rich snob in the face! His fists unclenched as he felt Mai's reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Not now Joey," she sighed, taking in the scene and mentally shuddering. The Shadow Games left permanent scars on every duelist that had participated in them.
"Wait a minute guys, if it's a Shadow Game, how come they are both unconscious? It should only have been one of them!" Duke wondered aloud.
"That's right!' Yugi exclaimed. He rushed over to Kira side, feeling Kaiba's icy glare on him. He glanced the Life Points counter on her duel disk which read 100. The girl had just won by the skin of her teeth.
"Kira won…" he murmured.
"Pharaoh." He heard a voice calling out to him. It was a soft gentle voice, yet he could sense the melancholy in it. For a brief moment, he saw a flash of the Blue Eyes White Dragon standing behind Kira's unconscious body and then it was gone.
His suspicions were right then. He glanced up at Kaiba. Kaiba had called out for Kira to use her Blue Eyes during the duel, so he must have known she had it in her deck. He wondered if he should tell Kaiba about his connection to Kira, not that the cocky CEO would have believed him anyway.
"I don't get it Yuge," Joey scratched his head, nudging Weevil's conscious body with the toe of his shoe. "If Kira won, why did she pass out?"
"I'll explain later Joey," Yugi replied. "It's kinda complicated…"
"Are we going to talk about how Kira has a Blue Eyes White Dragon in her deck?" Tristan frowned, gesturing to the card on Kira's duel disk. "I can't believe she has that card. Rich Boy must be fuming right now!"
"Not now!" Kaiba thundered, shooting Tristan a look that could have frozen hell over. Tristan took a step back, reeling from the force behind Kaiba's outburst.
"Mr. Kaiba, the medical team is here!" Roland panted, gesturing to the medical team behind him who immediately set to work loading the duelists into stretchers.
"Make sure they are ok, I will not be held liable for any injuries they may have sustained. If anything goes wrong, it's on you," Kaiba growled at the doctor, who turned as white as his coat.
"I'll do my best Sir…"
"Kaiba…" Yugi began but was interrupted by a swarm of reporters shoving their camera into Kaiba's face.
"Mr. Kaiba! Can we get a statement regarding the duel that just happened between Ms. Stieber and Mr. Underwoord?"
"Is it true that you gave one of your Blue Eyes White Dragon cards to Miss Stieber? Why did you do that?"
"Some people are saying that KaibaCorp got hacked and it was an illegal card that Mr. Underwood played. Can you comment on that Mr. Kaiba?"
"Enough! Get those cameras out of my face!" An irate Kaiba swatted at the paparrazi angrily. His blood boiled as the cameras kept flashing. When were they ever going to leave him alone?
"What my brother meant to say is that we will be giving an official statement later. KaibaCorp is very concerned about the wellbeing of our duelists and Ms. Stieber and Mr. Underwood will be getting the best medical care to ensure their speedy recovery. In the meantime, we are looking into the situation and we will update the media as soon as we can. In the meantime, we ask that you give us some privacy while we devote our attention to resolving this matter," Mokuba cut in, leading this crabby older brother away. That seemed to appease the press who turned their attention to Yugi and friends instead.
"Mr. Muto, as the reigning Duel Monsters champion, what do you have to say about the caliber of the participants of this tournament?"
"Can you comment about the results of the previous duel?"
"Mr. Wheeler, are you going to settle your personal feud with Mr. Kaiba in the dueling arena?"
"Er…" Yugi and friends mumbled nervously as they grappled with the press's questions. Trust Mokuba to use them as a diversion!
"See you guys in the office later," Mokuba mouthed, feeling slightly apologetic though he had no choice. What was going on with Seto? He was ordinarily pretty adept at handling the press having been rigorously trained by Gozaburo but his older brother was just all over the place today. Something was definitely up, and he knew Kira definitely had something to do with it.
"I didn't need your help," Seto mumbled under his breath once they were out of the arena and in the privacy of his office.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Mokuba demanded. He realized his tone of voice might have come across as rude but he hardly cared anymore. "You've been acting so strange recently ever since you met that Stieber girl. And now she has a Blue Eyes in her deck? Tell me you didn't give away one of your most precious cards to her!"
Kaiba sighed, he guessed now was as good a time as ever to try and explain the situation to Mokuba.
"First of all, my Blue Eyes White Dragon cards matter to me more than life itself. I would never give them away to anyone. As for Kira's card…well, it's authentic. It's the original that Pegasus made, it never went into circulation."
"No way!" Mokuba's eyes widened. A fifth Blue Eyes? And the original one at that. A card like that was priceless. "How would someone like Kira have access to such a card? Unless of course, she is not who she says she is…" he always had a nagging feeling the girl wasn't quite who she seemed to be.
"Her real name is Weiss…Kira Weiss," Kaiba inhaled sharply. Somehow, he felt as though he was betraying Kira by revealing her secret though there was no way to protect her secret after she had played her Blue Eyes in that duel. By tomorrow, the press would have figured out her true identity and her story would be on the first page of the newspaper.
"Weiss? Not that family…." Mokuba gasped. He had read about the tragedy that had befallen the Weiss family in the papers. At one point, they had been investors in KaibaCorp as well, though Philip Weiss went bankrupt shortly after his wife's passing.
Kaiba nodded his head in response.
"You're ok with Kira having that card?" Mokuba ventured after some time. He knew Seto was proud to be the only person in the world who could wield the Blue Eyes White Dragon card, surely he must have felt some resentment towards Kira…
"What do you mean?" Kaiba demanded.
"I mean…you did tear up Yugi's grandfather's card…you said other duelists are not fit to wield its power! And this is the original Blue Eyes White Dragon Card we are talking about, it just seems like you should be angrier?"
Kaiba considered this briefly. Mokuba was right…but he somehow felt an inexplicable bond towards the silver-haired girl. He didn't consider her to be a friend (he didn't have time for those) but she was somewhat…special.
"It's complicated," he settled on that in the end, not wanting to dwell too long on the subject.
"Oi Rich Boy! You left us for the paparazzi dogs!" Joey growled as the office door swung open.
"Please, you should be flattered the press still cares about a half-baked duelist like yourself," Kaiba retorted, folding his arms across his chest.
"Sorry guys," Mokuba smiled sheepishly. "I needed a distraction until we can figure out what to tell the press…I mean this situation, it's crazy!"
"It's alright Mokuba," Yugi replied "Kaiba, we need to figure out what to do next! Now that we know Scorpios has found a way of bringing back the Shadow Games…"
"Yoohoo Kaiba-boy, we need to talk!" sang an all too familiar voice from the door.
"Oh great, now Pegasus is here too?" Kaiba gave his younger brother a sour look.
"I didn't invite him," Mokuba shrugged.
"Looks like the whole gang is here, how fun!" Pegasus chirped as he entered the room.
"PEGASUS?" the gang chorused, shocked to be the flamboyant CEO of Industrial Illusions here.
"He's one of our VIPs for this tournament," Mokuba explained. "We invited him to give out at prizes at the end of the tournament."
"Fine, let's talk," Kaiba gritted his teeth, sinking lower into his seat. This day just kept getting worse and worse.
"So I see you've met my god-daughter Kaiba-boy, very pretty yes?" Pegasus smirked. He hadn't seen Kira and Alini in years and had tried to track them down to no avail. He had been beyond shocked to see Kira in this tournament, but given the girl was the living host of Kaiba-boy's precious Blue Eyes White Dragon, he should have known that she would seek him out eventually. Oh, boy, was he going to relish taunting the proud CEO about this.
"What is your point exactly?" Kaiba growled in response.
"Wait god-daughter? You mean Kira is…?" Tea gasped. Yugi's eyes widened. Now that sure made things more complicated…
"What's going on?" Duke asked. "Who is Kira exactly?"
"Her name is Kira Weiss, if you want the full story, read the papers tomorrow," Kaiba grunted. "What's the deal with her anyway? Why does she keep collapsing? It's been the second time since the beginning of the competition, if this keeps up people are going to think I mistreat my tournament participants."
"Ahhh…my god-daughter has a rather…strange medical affliction, don't worry she will be fine in no time." Pegasus gave Yugi a cool look. Yugi-boy sees the White Dragon within her as well.
Yugi flinched, even without his Millennium Eye Pegasus had a way of looking at people as if he were staring deep into their soul. He definitely knew about the White Dragon!
Kaiba felt a sense of relief wash over him that Kira was going to be ok.
"As for Mr. Underwood…, I'm afraid his soul belongs to the Shadow Realm now. But that's what I'm here to discuss as I assume Yugi-boy and friends are too."
"Yeah dat's right! We need a plan to take down those Scorpios goons!" Joey clenched his fist. "I won't let them take any more innocent souls! Weevil may have been a twerp but even he doesn't deserve this!"
"Hmph," Kaiba snorted.
"I know you don't believe in the Shadow Games but people are getting hurt Kaiba! You saw what happened today. There must be other duelists in this tournament who have that Feather of Ma'at card too!" Yugi exclaimed.
Kaiba didn't look convinced. He was tired of this spiel. Time after time Yugi and friends had kept badgering him for help, claiming that the world was under attack from some ancient evil and the only way to stop the evil was for him to team up with them
"Look Kaiba-boy, your friend is right. We have to put a stop to this!" Pegasus exclaimed, slamming his fist down onto the table. "Enough people have suffered because of those wretched games, we need to prevent any more from falling victim to them!"
Yugi's phone began to beep, breaking up the tense silence in the room.
"Hello?"
"Yugi! It's Ishizu!" she sounded a little breathless on the other line. "I think I've found something on this Scorpios!"
"Wow great! We're kinda gathered in Kaiba's office so I'm just going to put you on video call alright?"
Kaiba mentally rolled his eyeballs as the Ishtars appeared on the screen. Not those Egyptian freaks who turned his Battle City tournament into a circus and made constant cryptic remarks about his supposed ancient Egyptian past.
"Don't waste my time," he remarked coldly.
"Oh you're going to one to hear this Kaiba," Ishizu replied levelly. "I was doing my research on Scorpios and I came across a tablet that was recently excavated from the Valley of Kings, from the tomb of Pharaoh Seto I, First of his Name."
Kaiba felt his stomach lurch a little at the mention of his name but shook it off. It was just a coincidence.
"Let's see it then."
Yugi and gang gasped as the image of the tablet filled the screen.
Kaiba froze in his seat. This had to be a joke…
"Oh my! That's the Blue Eyes White Dragon battling a Scorpion monster!" Pegasus remarked. "And look at the two people controlling the beasts. That's Pharaoh Seto over there…and who is the sorcerer controlling the Scorpion?"
"That's what we want to find out."
Yugi shot Kaiba a look but the CEO did not look fazed.
"So what?"
"So, it means there's definitely some connection between this Scorpios and your ancient past Kaiba," Marik interjected, shooting the CEO a smug look.
Kaiba snorted in reply.
"What else is there on the tablet Ishizu?" Yugi asked.
"Well…there are some inscriptions on it but they seemed to have been worn away with time. It's going to take some time before we can try to reconstruct the text and decipher it. I've informed Professor Hawkins and he has promised to work on it as soon as it's ready. Of course, having access to KaibaCorp's databases would very helpful as well."
"Alright, my Grandpa will have it figured out in no time!" Rebecca cheered.
"I'm happy to lend my assistance as well, I have spent many years studying the ancient Egyptian artifacts. Perhaps I can assist Professor Hawkins on deciphering the text," Professor van Allen offered.
"Look, you dorks may believe in this ancient Egyptian hocus pocus but I certainly don't!" Kaiba sneered. "I will track this Scorpios down personally and make them pay dearly. I don't need your help! No one tries to interfere with my company and gets away with it."
"Seto…we don't have any other leads on Scorpios…and if we don't stop them soon, they might do some serious damage to our reputation. I mean today was a disaster as it is. If we cooperate with Yugi and Ishizu, we can make much quicker progress!"
Kaiba's eyes narrowed at his younger brother. Mokuba was taking Yugi's side?
"Please Kaiba, they are after my god-daughter as well…I've failed in my duty to take care of Kira and her sister, I don't want any more harm to come to them. Philip would never forgive me." Pegasus implored.
Kaiba wasn't sure what was more shocking – the fact that Pegasus had stopped calling him Kaiba-boy for once or that the narcissistic man actually cared for another person other than himself. And Kira…
"What do they want with Kira?" he questioned. He still hadn't quite figured out what Kira had to do with all of this though strangely, he felt an instinct to protect the girl.
What is happening to me? It shouldn't matter what happens to her. She's just a random stranger.
Was she? The girl had saved his life without even thinking twice. Not to mention she had a Blue Eyes White Dragon. The original Blue Eyes White Dragon. Nothing about this situation made sense.
"Even if I could explain, you wouldn't believe me anyway…" Pegasus sighed.
"She's very connected to your past Kaiba," Ishizu said knowingly. She had seen the spirit of the White Dragon within the girl's body. If only Kaiba knew the truth about his connection to the girl! Perhaps he wouldn't be so quick to dismiss her people's heritage. "If only you looked into your heart you would know the truth."
"Seto…" Mokuba looked at his big brother. He wished his older brother would just lay his pride down for once. Seto might have been a cynic but this might be the only way to protect KaibaCorp from Scorpios.
"Please Seto…it's the only way to stop Scorpios and prevent history from repeating itself!" a soft gentle voice whispered.
Huh?
"Only the White Dragon was capable of defeating that beast. They need you! Please, Seto…"
"Fine," he muttered, hitting a buzzer on his desk. "Roland, give Ishizu Ishtar unlimited access to our databases. See to it she has enough funds for her research, I will pay for it out of my own pocket if need be. And let me know immediately when Ms. Weiss is awake, I need to talk to her."
"Yes Sir!" came the frantic reply.
"I knew you would come around Kaiba," Yugi smiled kindly, glad that the CEO was finally cooperating.
Kaiba rolled his eyeballs at his long-time rival.
"This doesn't mean I believe in magic, I'm doing this for my company. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard the reputation of KaibaCorp."
"Or maybe for Kira," Tristan snickered, exchanging a look with Joey. They had certainly caught on to the fact that there was definitely something going between the CEO and the silver-haired girl.
Kaiba's death glare was enough to silence them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi spied the figure of the White Dragon crouched in a protective stance behind Kaiba.
"Good luck Yugi, I'm sure the Pharaoh will be cheering you on from the afterlife. Please look after Seto for me…he's very stubborn. And my host too. She could use a friend like you."
"Of course."
The Pharaoh had no memories of Egypt after handing over the throne to Priest Seto so he couldn't rely on Atem. Their only chance of defeating Scorpios would be to tap into Kaiba's past life memories. And for that to happen, he would have to find a way for the proud CEO to admit that magic existed first, which was no easy task. His obsession with the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the serendipitous arrival of the silver-haired duelist could prove to be the tipping point though.
Kira. Kira is the key.
End of Chapter 12
A/N: Thanks for reading and please leave a review! I love hearing feedback from my readers and it helps me to improve on this story for you guys! Please expect updates to be slower, I am trying my best but it's been pretty hectic at my internship and as much as I love writing, honestly I just don't have the energy to write sometimes. I write as a hobby so I know if I keep putting pressure on myself to stick to a strict schedule, I'm probably going to get frustrated and not finish the story and that would be terrible. I'll try my best to update every 2/3 weeks at the least. Thanks for understanding! :D
