Star Crossed

Disclaimer: I own neither NCIS: Los Angeles or Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, this story is written for entertainment purposes and is not intended for profit or gain of any kind. This story is fictional and any relation to persons alive or dead is unintentional.

A.N.-The majority of 5Ds names will be the Japanese ones, not the English ones, as such there will be a liberal use of last names in this fic. There is one exception instead of Kiryu, I will be using his English name Kalin.

"See this is what I'm talking about."

"Okay… plan on filling in those of us who have no clue what you're talking about?"

"When a person sees you walking down the street they think, 'large, intimidating, and strong.' What they don't know is what a nerd you are and how excited you are to be guarding a science convention of all things."

"Enjoying going to a science convention does not make me a nerd, and I can still defeat you in any hand-to-hand fight. Besides this isn't a science convention it's a symposium of alternative means of energy."

"First off, yes it does. Second, I'm pretty scrappy, so I'm not sure you can beat me in a hand-to-hand fight. And third, telling me that it's a symposium and not a convention just proves my point of you being a nerd even more. Soon I'm going to find you hanging out in Ops with Nell and Eric more than you hang out in the gym."

"Sure, sure, believe what you want, but when I have to save your butt again, I'm going to remind you of this conversation."

Callen laughed and followed his dark skinned partner, Sam, up the steps of the California Science Center main building.

"So remind me again why we're the ones here and not LA: PD," questioned Callen, blue eyes sweeping the lobby for exits and vantage points.

"LA:PD is doing the main security for the symposium, but someone on the security team for one of the scientists contacted Hetty and asked for one of her teams to act as additional protection. Apparently, there were threats against the project even before they received a spot in this symposium and they only increased after it was announced that they would be in Los Angeles."

"So basically, we're playing babysitter."

"Babysitter for someone who knows Hetty, so I'd watch what you say," Sam thumped Callen on the shoulder as he answered, glaring down at his partner from the corner of his eye.

"True, so who are we meeting?"

"Were you paying any attention when Hetty gave us this assignment, G?"

Callen grinned cheekily up at Sam, "No, I was more interested in whatever Eric and Nell were attempting to blow up. I thought Hetty had banned them from science experiments in Ops?"

"I thought so too," huffed Sam, "We're meeting the head of the security team, someone named Ushio Tetsu."

"Alright, let's find this security team."

Callen and Sam followed the advice of a helpful receptionist and wandered down the appropriate hall until they came to the rooms dedicated to the Kaiba Corporation. A tall man with dark hair, spiked in the front and a jagged scar on the left side of his tanned face, met them at the door.

"What are you doing here, this is a private area," the man growled, puffing up as he looked the two agents up and down, hand twitching for his sidearm when he noticed theirs.

"Easy, we are the agents Hetty sent," Sam held up his hands while Callen fell back to flank him and keep an eye on the hallway.

"Oh, yeah," the man rubbed the back of his neck and looked sheepish as he almost literally deflated in front of the two agents eyes, "well, I'm Tetsu Ushio. It's nice to be working with you."

"Same here, Tetsu-san" Callen stepped forward and held out his hand, "I'm Callen and this is Hanna Sam."

"No need for the honorific. I get the feeling we are going to have a lot of work to do. Luckily we're only going to be here for a week, maybe the Fudo luck won't kick in until we leave." He muttered the last line under his breath as he turned to lead the way into the set of rooms, but Callen and Sam both heard him.

"Sounds like we might be guarding another one of you," ribbed Sam, following their 'gracious' host.

"Hey," Callen clutched his chest in faux-hurt, "I am not the cause of all our trouble."

"No, just the cause of most of it."

"So, Tetsu, why were you so adamant about asking Hetty for extra help on protection detail? I mean, how much trouble can your scientist find in one week?"

Tetsu snorted and flopped back onto the couch, "You would be surprised just how much trouble this scientist can get into." He leaned forward propping his elbows on his knees as he pierced the two seated agents with a sharp gaze, "Alright, this is what is going on. I'm partnered with the Special Investigations Chief of Sector Security in Neo Domino City and a friend of Fudo Yusei the head researcher of the R.R.D. or Reactor Research Department of Kaiba Corporation. Kaiba Corp did not actually send any guards on this trip since Yusei is just going to be giving a speech and showing off a partially-working model of the Moment Reactor. However, when the symposium was first announced in Neo Domino, Yusei started getting more death threats than normal; so, I convinced him to allow me to come with him. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think I can keep an eye on everything by myself, especially since I don't know this city like I do Domino."

Callen raised an eyebrow, "More death threats than usual? What is considered usual?"

"He usually gets two or three a month, but they generally have to do with his career in the professional duelist circuit not his research. They never turn into anything, mainly because he can beat any of them in a duel, but these threats started coming two to three a week and were dealing with his research not his dueling."

"Dueling? Like with swords?" Sam looked at Callen to see him giving the same puzzled look.

"No, not swords, though there has been the occasional knife and other sharp object," Tetsu rubbed the scar on the side of his face, "duel monsters is a card game, originally created by Pegasus J. Crawford, and made popular in Domino City and around the world by Kaiba Seto and Mouto Yuugi. Recently, it's changed from stationary duels to ones called Turbo Duels on motorcycles, so it's a combination race and duel."

"And your friend, the scientist you're here to protect," questioned Callen, "he's pretty good at this?"

"Yusei is currently the King of Turbo Duels, not that he duels very often now." Tetsu stood suddenly and clapped his hands, "I guess I should introduce you to Yusei, he's had enough alone time to settle in. Unless, you have any more questions?"

Sam looked at Callen, who shrugged, before they both stood up, "Nope, we're good, we are going to need to see those letters though if you have them."

"Of course, come on."

Tetsu lead Sam and Callen back out into the hallway and outside to a workshop/warehouse behind the California Science Center where exhibits were put together and stored. Entering the building, the two agents' attention was drawn to the large machine in the middle of the floor. It had a larger circular base with a tall, clear cylinder rising from the middle, and a faint glow seemed to emit from the inactive mass of metal. The second thing they noticed was the set of jean and brown boot clad legs that were sticking out from under the machine, a mass of wires and a box spread around the floor.

Their attention was drawn from the mess and back to Tetsu as the officer stopped, sighed, and pinched his nose between his first two fingers, "Yusei…is that a bomb at your feet?"

Sam and Callen started and Sam quickly approached the box on the floor as a voice floated up from under the machine, "Yes it is, but it's been disabled."

"Please tell me you did not disable it yourself, I am in charge of keeping you alive and I don't want to explain to Martha that you blew yourself up being an idiot," growled Tetsu, stomping up to the legs, completely ignoring the wires and bomb parts that Sam was studying as Callen called the bomb squad for disposal.

Yusei wheeled out from under the machine on his mechanics bench, revealing a black muscle shirt with an odd red symbol on it, black and blond spiked hair, and glaring blue eyes; before promptly rolling back under the machine.

"I know how to diffuse a bomb, Ushio."

"Yeah, well some of us would prefer if you did not just go around diffusing bombs in the middle of crowded civilian complexes, even if it is well done." Sam carried the bomb casing over to a table, nodding to Callen that it was safe to leave it unattended.

Callen watched as Yusei once again rolled out from under the machine, those blue eyes now fixed on him and Sam. Callen was faced with the surreal experience of being examined by piercing eyes, usually Hetty was the only person able to lock him in place with just a look. When that gaze moved to Sam, Callen was tempted to release a sigh of relief. Instead, he looked at a completely exasperated Tetsu who was rubbing his forehead and muttering possible obscenities under his breath.

The sound of squeaky wheels drew his attention back to the scientist rapidly disappearing under the machine again, his annoyed voice drifting back up behind him, "I need to make sure nothing was messed up when they put that bomb under here, you can do what you want, but don't distract me. You know what happens if these things aren't operating properly."

Callen made a mental note to have Eric research what would happen if a 'Moment Reactor' was not operating properly, from how tense Tetsu got at the mention, it should not be too difficult to discover what they were talking about.

"Right, well, this is Hanna Sam and his partner Callen. They're going to be helping keeping an eye on things, attempt to not act like Jack around them."

A quiet chuckle followed the two agents and the officer as they exited the building, Tetsu almost herding the other two out of the building, "How about I get you those letters and you can do what you need to with them while you dispose of that bomb."

"Eric, I need you to find any information you can on a Yusei Fudo and the Moment Reactor." Callen watched Sam covertly meet with the bomb squad behind the Science Center, while he called Ops. Hetty might trust Tetsu enough to allow the undercover team to back him up, but Callen wanted more information.

"Yusei Fudo is a apparently a self-taught genius from the slums of Neo Domino City. There isn't a lot of information from his childhood, until he's about eighteen years old when he was arrested for 'unlawful entry to Domino City'."

"How do you unlawfully enter the city you live in?"

"I'll look into that in a bit. After his arrest, he apparently won some major tournament that made him really popular, then a year later he won another such event. He drops out of the spotlight for a time and shows back up with a job heading up the Reactor Research Department of Kaiba Corporation. Well this is interesting…"

"What is interesting Eric," prompted Callen as Eric's voice trailed off and the sound of clicking keys filtered over the phone speaker.

"Apparently the original director of the R.R.D. was one Dr. Fudo, Yusei's father. He was head of the program and was responsible for discovering the 'Planetary Particle,' which he named Yuusei Ryuushi, and is used to power the Moment Reactor."

Callen waved Sam over as he finished with the bomb squad guys and put the phone on speaker as Eric continued talking, "Other than the mention of Dr. Fudo working on creating the Moment Reactor and Yusei Fudo completing the project close to twenty-one years later, there are no other records that I can access."

Sam and Callen exchanged skeptical looks as Sam leaned over the phone, "So you're saying that this big project that received plenty of publicity; went dormant for two decades and then picked back up with no mention as to why nothing occurred for that period of time."

"Yep, Dr. Fudo was replaced on the project by a Roman Goodwin and then nothing else happens until the current Dr. Fudo restarted the project."

"Well dig deeper," Callen this time, "the way these two talked about the reactor, something big happened that made Tetsu cautious about this one not functioning properly."

"Will do." Eric hung up as Callen and Sam turned back toward the suite where Tetsu was collecting the death threat letters.

"So our Dr. Fudo is a man of many mysteries," started Sam, dangling the hint of something new learned in front of Callen.

"Oh? You mean not every scientist knows how to diffuse a bomb? Who would have guessed." Callen rolled his eyes at his obnoxious partner.

"He didn't just diffuse the bomb, he completely dismantled it. The only thing left in the case was the C4 base, no trigger, no wires, just the container and the C4. That takes a very steady hand and knowledge of how to make a bomb."

"So the mysteries keep building up around this pair. First, Hetty knows Tetsu and believes the threat to be a serious enough one to assign us. Then, we have a scientist who apparently knows more about bombs and bomb making then he should. And finally, the same scientist is the completer of a project that apparently scares the crap out of his self-proclaimed protector and has absolutely no records of it existed for the twenty years between its conception and its completion. Something tells me we're not going to be bored on this case." Callen had to laugh at Sam's huff of annoyance and rueful agreement.

"So you were unable to get any prints or any other information about the sender from these letters," questioned Callen, sorting through the dozen letters scattered on the coffee table with Sam and Tetsu.

"Right, we tested each envelope and letter, but were unable to get prints, DNA, or even a return address." Tetsu leaned back in the armchair and rubbed the back of his neck, "we even had the issue of some of the letters appearing to be hand delivered. No postmarks or any such on them."

"Do you have any ideas about who might have sent them?" Sam held up one of the letters, "some of this language makes it sound like the person might know Dr. Fudo."

"That was our thought too in Sector Security; we've been looking into everyone who was part of the M.I.D.S. project. However, there aren't a lot of those people left alive any more. Oh," Tetsu sat up quickly, turning serious, "don't let Yusei hear you calling him Dr. Fudo, that was his father. You can just call him Yusei."

Callen perked up as he caught Tetsu's slip about 'people not left alive,' "What happened to the people who worked on the original project? Twenty years isn't exactly a long enough time for people to get old and die."

"Well…" Sam and Callen exchanged looks at Tetsu's suddenly shifty behavior.

A voice from the doorway interrupted before Tetsu could continue, drawing everyone's attention to the spiky haired young man leaning on the door frame, jeans and muscle shirt stained with grease, "Hazards of the job when you don't listen to the head scientist when he tells you the reactor will explode if it's turned on."

"Yusei…"

The young man waved off Tetsu's concern and flopped down on the couch while propping his feet up on the coffee table, "If they're going to be helping us find out who is trying to sabotage this event, then they need to know why it's important that nothing happen to the reactor."

Sam raised an eyebrow, "Important that nothing happens to the reactor, not to you?"

"Yes, this reactor is small and doesn't actually produce more power than what is used by one building, such as this one, but if it isn't properly programmed or put together correctly, then it could wipe out seventeen city blocks or a one mile circle. The original reactor was created by my father and his teams of scientists. When it was turned on, it destroyed the city of Domino and created the Satellite."

"So you pretty much brought a bomb into the city of Los Angeles, that someone else then tried to bomb," Callen asked incredulously, sharing an incredulous look with Sam who was leaning forward to lock brown eyes with deep blue.

"If the first one destroyed a whole city, why did you try again, and then make a smaller one to take places?"

Yusei rolled his head along the back of the couch to look at Tetsu, who took up the story, "The first one was tampered with purposely to make it explode. Yusei created a program to prevent tampering and smooth out all the kinks. Neo Domino City has been powered by the one Moment Reactor for almost two years now. The smaller reactor was created to show other cities what they are capable of, and it's mostly harmless, as long as Yusei is the one handling it."

This last was said with a pointed look at Yusei, who simply smirked and rolled his eyes. Sam gave Callen a speaking look before settling back in the chair he was seated in, effectively passing the questioning off to his partner.

"Officer Tetsu said that their working theory is that someone from the original team of scientists is responsible for these threats. Do you have an idea of who might be on that list?"

Brown booted feet fell from the coffee table to the floor as Yusei straightened in his seat, "It's a good theory. The only problem is that there were three people who escaped being in the building when the reactor exploded, and two of those are dead."

"What about the third one?"

"You're looking at him."

Callen leaned back and the room descended into silence, the two agents attempting to piece together the scraps of information that they had been given while Yusei kicked his feet back up on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch, appearing to go to sleep. Tetsu looked worriedly between the two agents and his charge/friend.

Callen was leaning against the wall beside one of the bay windows in the suite, observing the courtyard and attempting to get a feel for the normal pattern of people in the courtyard. Sam had left earlier to take the letters to Nell up in Ops to see if she could find any additional information and to collect any information that Eric might have found. Tetsu had manhandled Yusei into the adjoined bedroom after the group had finished their, mainly one sided, conversation. He had left a few minutes ago to go shopping or some such, leaving Callen to watch after everything. So here he was bored out of his mind and counting how many people came into the building.

The scuff of socked feet shuffling across carpet drew his attention to the mused and ruffled twenty-three year old who was slowly making his way to the ensuite kitchen. Callen would have thought that he had not been noticed if it he had not caught a glimpse of bright blue eyes that assessed and then summarily dismissed him. He had to laugh at the single minded determination of the still partially asleep young man that translated into almost robotic movements as he fixed a mug of tea.

Mug of tea safely in hand, Yusei shuffled over the arm chair Sam had inhabited earlier in the day and perched curled up in the seat, mug carefully cradled against his chest. His huff of amusement caused bleary blue eyes to stop attempting to divine the answers to the universe from his tea and instead focus on lighter blue. Callen smiled and turned back to the window, angling himself so he could see Yusei's reflection in the glass. That moment of clarity before reverting back to half-awake zombie was very familiar to Callen, he had seen it in himself. He was impressed though at the speed with which Yusei had located him and categorized him as a non-threat, before falling back into his semi-conscious state.

"Ushio said your name is Callen right?"

"Yeah, Callen G., I'm an NCIS agent. My boss knows your 'friend?' and offered our assistance."

Yusei chuckled and nodded his head in Callen's direction, "Yeah, Ushio is a friend and I appreciate you helping him with this. He's been worried."

"I've noticed that." Callen dropped onto the couch across from Yusei, "You don't seem very worried though."

"It's not the first time, someone has threatened, or tried, to kill me." A quiet chuckle, "I'm not even sure if Ushio is more worried about my life being in danger, or his life being in danger if he fails at protecting me."

"Would he be in that much danger," queried Callen with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmmm…Crow and Rua would probably yell at him, Jack would pretend not to care and find some way to ruin his life, Martha and Mina would read him the riot act; the ones you might actually have to protect him from would be Aki, Ruka, and Kalin. Individually they are smart enough to make him regret anything, together…" Yusei shook his head and huffed out a chuckle.

"That's quite a few people looking out for you, and don't think I missed that you have a Kalin in that list as well. Goes to show it's a good name for us protective type people."

Yusei looked at Callen in disbelief before bursting out laughing and the door burst open behind them.

Sam ran into Tetsu in the courtyard of the Science Center and together they carried on to the rooms where Callen and Yusei had been left. Sam could only hope that the two had actually spoken words to each other and not just stared broodingly at the walls. From the little interaction they had, Sam could already tell that they should not be left alone for long periods of time.

Eric had informed him, in way too many words, that he had finally been able to discover some information on the first Moment Reactor. Some information, meaning absolutely no usable information about the reactor itself, but plenty of information pointing to a major city and countrywide cover-up of whatever went wrong with the work. The only information about the reactor itself that Eric could locate was written by a reporter named Carly Nagisa and pointed to Yusei knowing more than what he had originally said.

Considering Yusei had beaten out Callen for the top spot in the 'fewest words spoken at an introduction' competition, their best hope for getting any real information at this point, lay with either Tetsu or hoping the two lone wolves could form some sort of psychic connection for relaying information.

Since Callen had been left with Yusei, Sam figured he would start attempting to question Tetsu now, maybe finally get a straight answer from the man.

"So, Yusei said that there were only three known survivors from the reactor explosion. Was everyone who worked on the project in the building that day?"

Tetsu's mouth screwed up in a grimace, "The majority of the records were destroyed in the days following the incident. Yusei worked his computer magic and was able to recover the build data, but I'm not sure if he's ever looked into the employment records. He knows the systems though so maybe he can find something."

"Why haven't you asked him to do that before now?"

"Convincing Yusei to do something to help his own life is a very difficult task, and I don't have the greatest success rate for it."

Sam snorted and shared a wry grin with the Japanese officer, "Oh I know someone like that, trust me. Pain in the butt for sure."

Tetsu returned the grin and opened his mouth to reply before dropping the bag of groceries he had been carrying and drawing his side arm. Sam noticed the open door at the same time and drew his sidearm as well, maneuvering to the side in order to peer around the door frame.

The inside of the room was trashed-one of the armchairs overturned, the coffee table knocked askew, and the shattered remains of a coffee mug were on the floor. The two men carefully swept into the room and split off to clear the suite. Finding nothing, and no one, in any other room, Sam returned to the destruction zone and bent down to study the mess. The chair was knocked over the back pointed toward the door. The table had also been shoved to the side and pointed at the door as well. The cup shards were all generally in one place, as though the cup had fallen when someone stood, not been thrown.

He had to smile though when he noticed something odd in the shards of glass and spilled liquid. Someone wearing boots had purposely stepped in the mess and made sure to drag their foot, leaving a clear path.

"This way," whispered Sam, starting to track the trail his partner had left.

Callen had to give his fellow kidnapee credit; most civilians were not so calm and collected when they were being held at gunpoint by a ranting lunatic. Of course, not being able to hear said ranting lunatic made it fairly easy to be calm, and if the small amount that was filtering through the ringing in his ears was anything to go by, then they were both better off not hearing the guy.

When the door had been rammed open during Callen and Yusei's conversation, one of the three men had thrown a sonic sound device into the room. Callen was ashamed to admit that Yusei had registered the device and begun to move before he had even known what was going on. Unfortunately, even Yusei's quick reaction time had not prevented the device from going off and leaving the agent and scientist easy pickings for the currently ranting lunatic and his two sidekicks.

They had proceeded to force the two out of the room, their hands tied behind their back, and out to the warehouse where the small reactor was set up, which had then led to the five minute rant that they were currently being forced to sit through. Callen had to bury his head in his shoulder to prevent himself from laughing as he watched Yusei roll his eyes, obviously enjoying the posturing as much as Callen.

Hopefully, Sam would return soon and find the tracks he had left behind, because if Callen had to actually listen to this nut job, he might be more tempted to lash out, brain scrambling device or not.

The ringing was slowly quieting into a dull throb that Callen knew was going to become a lasting headache, when the sound of falling metal drew their captors' attention to the door at the back of the room. As soon as the first reverberation of metal on concrete drifted through the air, Yusei lashed out with a powerful kick to his captor's leg, followed by a knee to his face. He spun to face Callen and his captor, lashing out again as Callen dropped to the floor and the head captor attempted to start up the sonic device again. Luckily for Callen's recovering eardrums, Sam did not wait for him to complete the action and instead put three rounds in his chest.

Quickly, Tetsu and Sam restrained the two living captives and Sam called an ambulance before approaching the still restrained men.

Sam cut the ropes binding Callen's arms behind his back, "What was that about being scrappy?"

"Shut up."

"You just got rescued by a scientist. I didn't see you throw a single punch the whole time."

"I didn't see you throw one either," scoffed Callen, rubbing feeling back into his wrists as he watched Yusei pull a computer out from under the reactor, fingers flying across the keys at a speed to rival Eric on a caffeine high.

"Yeah, but I didn't get myself and the person I'm protecting kidnapped. Plus I managed to rescue you," laughed Sam.

The two men joined Tetsu in watching as Yusei's fingers continued to fly across the keys, windows opening and closing so fast that they were unsure how he was able to register what was on them.

Finally, the flashing screen stopped with a picture of the lead kidnapper and a personnel file.

"He was a member of Kaiba Corp until Zero Reverse. His wife was a member of M.I.D.S. and she passed away on that day."

Tetsu scratched the scar on his face, "So all of this was either an attempt at revenge or an attempt at preventing a repeat of the Zero Reverse incident."

"Well hopefully that was the last of it, but I think we'll be sticking around for a time, if only to have some sparring matches. Where does a scientist learn to move like that," asked Callen.

Yusei and Tetsu shared a look before both broke out in loud peals of laughter.

A.N.-Before anyone says that Callen or anyone else is OOC, well for one I'm not those characters, and two-Callen's personality is very much tied into the sarcastic looks and that is very hard to show in writing so I tried to use the best descriptors I could. This fic has A LOT more dialogue than I'm used to including, it was very difficult. Also I Googled Science Centers in Los Angeles, so if someone has a better place, or knows something that actually meets the description I gave, let me know. Thanks