Quick Recap: The brothers fall asleep during the movie and Seto carries his sibling to his room for the night. Seto is concerned about the hacker, and thinks about it before falling asleep. Seto agrees to allow Joey and Ryou to come over to spend some time with Mokuba, and then decides to show Mokuba some things about running the company. He is very concerned that whoever is after them might be more problematic than he initially thought. While Mokuba is outside swimming with Joey and Ryou, Seto gets another call from the mysterious hacker, who makes a threat towards Mokuba.

Disclaimer: We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! nor do we own the items or settings where this story takes place. All we own is the idea for this nifty little story and our original characters. Please don't sue, as all you will get from us is sandwich baggies and some snow that will melt by the time it gets to you.

Title: Clarity
Chapter: Sail
Chapter Written By: Peggi & Resa
Edited By: Dante

Mokuba was in the process of having a splash-war with Joey when Seto walked outside. He didn't even bother to stand far enough back and ended up with splashes of water on his clothes, but he was too concerned at the moment to even care.

"Mokuba!" he called out over the sounds of the splashing.

Joey and Mokuba stopped paying right away, his presence a little concerning to the younger boy, because he knew his brother wouldn't come outside while his friends were there unless it was important.

"Seto, what's wrong?"

"I just received another phone call from the same person as before. I'd like for you to come inside. If your friends are staying, you need to play indoors."

Joey was about to protest, but Mokuba was already heading to the side of the pool. He reached a hand up, and Seto reached down to pull him out of the water. Joey and Ryou swam to the pool steps to get out, but Mokuba was already drying off by the time they got out of the water.

"Ya know," Joey began, grabbing a towel "if someone's after you guys, I can keep an eye on the squirt. I won't let nobody near him. I'll beat them to a pulp if they try taking him."

"As tempting as that offer is," Seto glared at Joey while he helped his brother to dry off faster "I'd rather my brother play inside where I know he'll be safe. This isn't some little game, and I don't think you'll be able to keep him safe. This person has been able to bypass my security on my computer, so this isn't some child playing around."

Joey gave an offended look at the idea that he'd only be trusted with Mokuba's safety if it were a child doing this. Mokuba was heading inside, and Ryou was almost completely dry, but Joey was a lot slower at the process. Seto started to follow his brother inside, but Joey ran in front of him to stop him.

"Hey, hold up. I gotta ask you somethin' really important."

"What is is, Wheeler?" Seto asked with disgust.

"If you and Mokuba are in all sorts of danger with this guy who's after you, how do you know my cousin won't get hurt? I mean, she's been all over the tabloids, and they don't know her name, but wouldn't this guy try to hurt her too to get to ya?"

Seto hadn't really given that a lot of though, mostly because he wasn't used to having someone else in his life to worry about. For once, Joey actually had said something very smart. It suddenly occurred to him that Sephy might not have been calling him because she was angry with him for what happened between them. She might've been calling because she was in some sort of trouble or had gotten a call from the unknown hacker.

"Sephy isn't in any sort of danger, but if it'll keep you out of my hair, I'll have one of the men from my security team keep an eye on her."

"Yeah," Joey gave him a cold stare "it would. You know, it drives me nuts that she's always talking about you, and I don't know what she sees in you because to me you're just an ass who only cares about himself, his money, and Mokuba, but she really likes you a lot. You better not hurt her. We're not close or nothing but if you hurt her I'll kick your sorry ass."

"I'm not going to hurt her, and I won't let whoever is doing this to my brother and I hurt her either. Now drop it, or you're not welcome to stay."

Seto didn't give him time to reply before going back inside. He walked through the mansion to the wine cellar and towards the back of the room. There was a secret passage that led to a room with a computer that he'd set up firewalls himself for. There was no way that the hacker would know about this room, and he was determined to find out who was doing this, even if he had to look into it himself. He also wanted to use the secondary phone line to try and call Sephy and just make sure that she was okay.

He didn't appreciate Joey talking to him the way he had, but he had a point too. Sephy very well could be in just as much danger as he and Mokuba were, and he didn't want her getting hurt. He didn't like people walking into his life for this reason, as well. He didn't like having to worry about another person, but now that they actually had a bond with one another, he would protect her just like he'd protect Mokuba. He let the phone ring but no one picked up, and he tried again. Sephy wasn't answering, but he figured she might also be out. He decided to try back later, but he called his security team anyway and asked one of them to keep an eye on her.

As soon as he got hold of her on the phone, he'd let her know what was going on. He felt a little bit of guilt for not telling her in the first place, especially now that he realized she might be in trouble too. He spent the next few hours on the computer, trying to locate where the calls had originated from. He was coming up empty-handed, and he was very frustrated, but he was starting to feel a little nauseated. He realized he might be hungry, so he headed upstairs.

Mokuba was in his room on the computer, and Seto walked in and sat down next to him, checking the light on the webcam which was off.

"Are you joining me for dinner?" Seto inquired.

"Yeah, I guess so. Hey Seto?"

"What is it, Mokuba?"

"How much longer will we be stuck in here? I really want to make it up to Chou, with me leaving our lunch early and all. If we're going to be stuck here for a while, I kinda want to invite her over."

"I told you that you're welcome to invite friends over, as long as they don't bother me. I'd prefer if you two stay inside, though."

Mokuba just let out a heavy sigh, "fine, we can do that. Just don't embarrass me, okay?"

"Embarrass you? How would I possibly do that if I don't even see the two of you?"

"I dunno. You did kinda embarrass me when you pulled me out of the Market, so I just want to be sure. So, later on do you want to watch a movie with me? We can try the same one as before, or we can try something else."

"I'll think about it. I'm trying to look up the information on this hacker myself, though. I'm not sure I'll have the time."

Mokuba just smiled, "if you can't, that's okay. I can just play Titanfall."

Dinner was very quiet. Seto thought he was hungry, but after just one bite of his roast beef, he didn't feel like taking another. Mokuba practically vacuumed up his meat and potatoes, and was just picking at his broccoli. He noticed his brother wasn't eating, and it worried him a little bit.

"Not hungry?"

"I think I just have too much stress right now to think about eating. I thought I was hungry, but I guess I really wasn't."

"When are you going to go to the doctors like you said you would?"

"As soon as all of this is over and done with."

Mokuba sighed but took the answer. He worried that Seto would just keep putting it off and never actually go through with his promise to see a doctor. He'd managed to finish his broccoli before Seto even forced down the roast beef. He could tell that his brother was lost in his thoughts, and so he didn't say anything. He knew that he'd be up all night trying to track down the person who kept making the anonymous phone calls, so he expected to play his new video game all night.

Once Seto got back to the secret room, he tried calling Sephy again, but there wasn't any answer. He called his security team and they said that her car was there and they hadn't seen her leave or anybody show up. Taking that as a good sign, he called to check and see if his team had figured out who the hacker was, but of course there was no good news there. Seto got back to work on trying to figure it out himself.

It seemed like it had been a very long time, Seto had dozens of tabs open on the computer, print-outs of IP addresses, false identities, and as much personal information as possible posted on the wall of the room. It was a whole jumble of mess, looking a lot like the room at a police station trying to catch some type of serial killer. He had drawn all over maps that were tracing all over Domino for servers that ended up being dead ends, and he felt exhausted. He checked the time and it had only been a couple of hours, until he realized it wasn't even the same day. He'd been so busy trying to figure out who this was, that a whole 24 hours had passed.

He walked into the kitchen and saw Mokuba eating dinner.

"There you are!" Mokuba looked relieved "where have you been, Seto? I was getting worried. You weren't in your bed this morning!"

"I've been trying to find the hacker. I told you."

"You sound exhausted! Did you even sleep last night?"

"No, I didn't."

"Are you getting anywhere?"

"Not really."

Seto managed to eat an entire piece of chicken, but then it was back to work on trying to find this person. He took a bottle of water with him, and Mokuba followed him just to see where he was going. As soon as he realized his brother was heading to the secret room, he stopped just before the door to the wine cellar. He knew what this meant. His brother was going to push himself so long and so hard, and if he didn't find out who was doing this, he didn't know what would happen. He called KaibaCorp and found the team who was in charge of locating the hacker.

"Hey, it's Mokuba. Have you guys found out who was harassing us? My brother is trying to look into it too, but he's not having any luck."

"Sir, no we haven't found him yet. We're exhausting the whole department and its resources, but this person has done a good job of keeping themselves hidden. We'll give Mr. Kaiba a call the moment we find anything at all."

Mokuba wasn't happy with the answer, but figured it was probably the case. By the next day, Mokuba decided to make another call, but this time, he wasn't going to let 'no' be any sort of answer. His brother was going to wear himself out, because it had already been two days that he'd been working non-stop.

Back in the secret room, Seto was thoroughly pissed. He had torn up half of the wall of papers, because he was finding absolutely no answers. He kept having ideas, but every time he came up with a new idea, he came up with nothing. Feeling so worn out, he didn't know how much longer he could keep going. He was staring to feel crazy, and kept thinking he was hearing things. He would hear his cell phone ring, but there was no caller. Kept hearing the door open, but no one was there. Going without any sleep for this long was starting to drive him crazy. He knew he had to sleep soon, but he just didn't want to rest until he found answers. When he heard his phone ring again and no one was there, and heard the door open once more, he realized how light headed he was feeling. It occurred to him that he was actually starting to hallucinate from lack of sleep.

"What are you, the CIA now?" he heard a voice from behind him.

Seto turned around to see Sephy standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?!" he was furious with her for being in his secret room, which she shouldn't even know about.

"Your brother called me. He told me everything. Kaiba, you need to get some rest. Go get some sleep, this can wait. Mokuba isn't leaving the house, so he's safe, and you're going to wear your mind out."

"There's no time. I'm getting close, I just know it. Now get out of this room. You aren't allowed to be in here."

"Kaiba, please. Just get some rest. At least a few hours."

"Why didn't you pick up your phone? I've called you several times," he completely ignored her request.

Sephy just sighed, "I didn't answer because I was angry with you. Now, why don't you just show me what you're doing and I'll work on this and you get some rest. I promise I'll keep working on it while you sleep."

"You wouldn't understand. It's very complex."

"Please just get some rest. Mokuba and I are so worried about you."

"Why would you be worried about me? You couldn't even pick up the phone. I left a voicemail, so you knew it was me calling and you know I wouldn't call if it wasn't important."

"I'm sorry. I just needed some space. I'd chew your sorry ass out right now for putting your hands on me, but right now I'm just concerned. Once you're rested I'll give you a piece of my mind, but if someone is threatening you and Mokuba, I want to help. I'm begging you, just show me how to help and go get some sleep."

Sephy noticed that Seto had checked his phone several times since she'd been in the room, "it's too complicated for you to understand how to do this. Just go away. Leave me alone. I don't want your help."

"Of course you don't. You'd rather just become paranoid and start hearing things."

Seto opened his mouth to protest, but realized she was right. Instead, he sat back down and thought for a few moments.

"Fine. The system is set up already to track the information you put in. I'll show you, and then I want to see you enter a few locations to make sure you understand how to look from one source to another, but if you can't keep up then you have to promise you'll let me be and you'll get out of here."

"Promise."

It wasn't actually as complicated as Seto thought it would be for her to understand, because it took just one time for him to explain before she showed him exactly what he'd just taught her. He did have everything set up so that he could jump from one IP address and source to the next without much effort, so the hard part had already been done on day one. He was actually a little relieved that he wouldn't have to do this by himself, and the second his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep almost instantly.

When Seto woke up, it was dark outside. He felt hungry and so he headed to the dining area to get something to eat. He saw Sephy sitting in the library as he walked past, and was instantly infuriated with her.

"I thought you said you were going to help me!" he was rested enough now to feel combative.

"I am helping," Sephy stood up, walking towards the doorway where Seto was standing.

"How is sitting around in the library going to help me? Do you not realize how serious this is?"

Sephy just laughed a little, "calm down there, cowboy. I was looking up information, just like you showed me, and I had an idea. I asked Mokuba what all this hacker has done, and when he told me about your computer being hacked too and not just the phones, I started to wonder if maybe this person had training in programming. I'm just reading a book on how programming is done, because maybe if we can get inside of his head, we can figure out who this guy is."

Seto had thought about that already, but he hadn't really given it much thought beyond the initial idea. He was so tired before, that he didn't really think it was a good lead.

"Have you found anything out yet?"

"Nothing solid, but I have a few ideas. What if this guy is using a computer to make the phone calls. There are programs you can use to make calls and disguise your voice, so I think it's a waste of time to look up the phone numbers too like you have been. I think we should focus just on computer geniuses and stuff."

The idea actually wasn't bad, and it might open up new thoughts on who this person was, "if you're so angry with me for the way that I acted when I came to your home, why are you so determined to help me right now?"

"I'm pissed at you because you're an asshole sometimes, but this is personal. If someone's hurting you in any way, they're hurting me too. I'm going to help however I can."

Seto took that thought in and a wave of even more guilt came over him. Even after what had happened, Sephy still stood beside him through all of this. He wanted to tell her that it was personal, because there was a chance that she was in danger too, but instead, he was just too grateful to tell her just yet. Rather than a simple thank-you, he put his hand under her chin and tilted her head up to give her a kiss.

Sephy wanted to pull away, because she was still angry with him, but she felt herself melt almost immediately. She was definitely still mad, but she'd let it go at least for now. Once the danger was past, she definitely wanted to have a talk with him, but for right now she was too wrapped up in his soft lips, the taste of peppermint toothpaste, the intoxicating cologne that she loved, and the feeling of his hands wrapping around her shoulders to pull her closer. She put her arms around his waist as she felt his warm tongue enter into her mouth, and despite being angry with him, none of that mattered because Seto Kaiba was currently kissing her and she'd never felt so much emotion while kissing someone. Ever.

Peggi: Mystery hacker, Seto going a little cray cray because of him/her, and a kiss scene between Seto and Sephy! D'awww! And to those of you who are expecting some sass from Sephy over what happened, no worries, because this isn't the last we'll see of that incident!

Resa: I really wanted a hot, steamy adult scene but Peggi said "not yet damn it, we're close but not yet now stop asking". Everyone should pressure her into letting me write that with her. I've been looking forward to it this whole time. Also, Peg you'd better include this in the notes.

Peggi: Yes, well they're barely starting to get close. Hold your horses, miss. Besides, we're focusing on the potentially terrifying hacker, we have more important things to think of!

Sephy: The kiss scene was so cute! I bet Seto is a good kisser! I think I melted just reading about the kiss!

Peggi: Believe me, I melted writing it! A huge thanks to everyone who is reading this so far, who has favorited and/or following the story. You all are just fantastic! Every last person who reads is appreciated, and your feedback is such a motivation to keep writing. Every last comment I get about it fuels me to keep on going! You're all just so perf!