Blue Destiny

by E.J. Lawrence

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Or so Seto Kaiba learns as his world is turned upside down by a young woman who is determined to capture one of his Blue Eyes White Dragon. But how do you stop a girl who's willing to use everything against you, even hi

6. Chapter 6:Tug of War

Blue Destiny

            Copyright information: Yugi-oh, the title and characters are all owned and copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi, and Weekly Shonen jump publication. Viz, and 4-kids are owners of the manga and anime of Yugi-Oh.  Upper Deck and Konomi are owners of the trading cards and video games. All likeness to persons living or dead is purely coincidence.

            Author's note: So folks what do you think now? I'm waiting to see if anyone thinks that Gwen's a good villain. ^_^

            Revisions: I did some math, and came to a discovery. So I had to change the ages and fix some spelling. Sorry about that. 0_o

            I should note that I'm using the names from the original version of the show and comic. So here's how they are set up. Yugi Moto =Yugi Mutou, Tristan Taylor =Hiroto Honda, Téa Gardner =Anzu Mazaki, Joey Wheeler =Katsuya Jonouchi, Duke Devilin =Ryuji Otogi, Seto Kaiba =same, Mokuba Kaiba =same, Maximillion Pegasus = Pegasus J. Crawford.

Chapter 6: Tug of War

            Mokuba got up extra early the next morning. He pulled a piece of paper from his jeans pocket and unfolded it. A phone number was written inside, and Mokuba glanced it over trying to memorize the number. He crept from his room and checked in on his big brother; Seto was fast asleep, much to Mokuba's relief. Careful not to make to much noise he slipped down the stairs to the living room, and picked up the phone. If he was caught now he'd be in big trouble. Mokuba looked at the number one more time and then dialed it.

            "Come on, pick up," he muttered as the phone rang on the other end. He hoped that someone would pick up soon, Seto would be waking up and Mokuba had no idea how to explain making a phone call this early in the morning to his brother.

            "Just calling for a pizza," Mokuba could joke, but Seto wouldn't buy that and the jig would be up. Seto would find out about Gwen, and more importantly he'd have to stare into his brother's disappointed and hurt face. Everyone thought that Seto didn't get hurt by things people said to him, Mokuba knew better. His brother was good at covering it up, but every time someone said something bad about him when they didn't even know him, it hurt Seto in some way. That was why he acted so arrogant, he wasn't about to let anyone know that they did managed to wound him.

            Mokuba sighed heavily, no one was picking up. Just when he was about to hang up a groggy voice came on.

            "Hello?"

            "Gwen is that you?" Mokuba asked.

            "Yeah, this is Gwen," she replied and seemed dazed. "Who's this?"

            "It's Mokuba," he replied sounding a bit hurt. Was it that early that she couldn't recognize his voice? Maybe she was still half asleep, that had to be it.

            "Mokuba? Wha…why are you calling at," he heard her shuffle something around and then she yelped. "Five-thirty in the morning?! Kid, what are you doing calling me this early? Didn't you ever hear of sleeping in late on Friday?"

            "No, listen Gwen, I needed to talk to you," Mokuba explained rather quickly, and kept glancing behind him, watching the stairs to make sure Seto wasn't coming down yet.

            "What's so urgent that you need to talk to me this early?" Gwen asked in a worried voice. "Wait did something happen to you?"

            "No I'm fine," Mokuba reassured her. "But the thing is that I can't see you today. I'm sorry."

            "Why not?" Gwen asked, she sounded upset, and a bit miffed. "I thought we were going to check out the rides at Rio today."

            "I know, but, something came up."

            "And that would be…." She left her sentence hanging and Mokuba gulped. He sucked in some air and said rather quickly.

            "My brother got tickets to see a baseball game in San Francisco, and we're going to be gone all day."

            "Is that all?" Gwen asked calmly. Mokuba was surprised she didn't sound upset at all by this.

            "Yes."

            "Ha, then there's no problem," Gwen replied, and Mokuba could see her smiling. "Listen, go there and have fun, eat a few hot dogs, check out the stadium. Just enjoy your time there."

            "Okay I will," Mokuba said and he said good bye to his friend, and hung up. Now he felt better. Gwen wasn't mad at him and soon he'd be on his way to see a baseball game with Seto. It was going to be a very exciting day.

            At her home Gwen sat up in bed and hit her speed dial then clicked speaker phone. Downstairs Donovan heard his phone beep several times and answered.

            "Donovan."

            "Donovan, I need you to find out if there are any tickets left for the Giants game this afternoon," Gwen told him with a sly smile on her lips. "We're going to see a baseball game."

            From breakfast on Mokuba talked non-stop about what they were going to do when they got down to San Francisco. 

            "And we'll check out the cable cars, and go looking at all the cool boats at the harbors. Oh and we have to go see that new Magic and Wizards museum that opened up. And the bridge too, that huge Golden Gate bridge, can we check that out Seto?"

            "So basically you want to go to all the tourist traps," Kaiba said as he took a sip of his morning coffee. He frowned; the chefs in the kitchen didn't have the foggiest how to make a good cup of coffee at all.

            "No, I just want to see all those cool sights that they show in the movies," Mokuba told him. Seto smiled, he was glad his little brother was so excited. And, he was also glad that it took his mind off the boardwalk. Seto knew one thing, he wasn't about to let anything distract him today. He even told Amy to tell anyone that called that he was too busy to talk, and that they would have to wait until Monday to talk to him.

            "So," Seto said as Mokuba finished his breakfast, "are you ready to go?"

            "Yeah!" Mokuba exclaimed and jumped out of his chair. "Hey race you to the car."

            Seto thought about this for a moment, "You're on."

            Mokuba knew his brother was faster, that was why Seto gave him a head start. By the time they reached the bottom, Seto was already ahead of him, and leaning against the closed door. Seto had urged Mokuba on by teasingly taunting him, 'Hurry up slow poke. I thought I saw a snail rush past you.' Mokuba huffed a bit, and laughed seeing his brother look slightly winded as well. "We'll I might be slow, but at least I don't look like I'm wearing blush."

            "Well that does it for morning exercise," commented Smith as he let both young men into the car. "I hope you two enjoy the game. Should be exciting. Been a life long Giant's fan myself, you know."

            "Who's playing?" Mokuba asked Smith, while Seto closed his eyes and rested. He knew that this was going to be a tiring day, but it was going to be well worth it.

            "The San Francisco Giants verses the Chicago Cubs," Smith said smiling. "I remember when I was a whole heck of a lot younger that the Cubs made it to the play-offs in sixty-six. Back then it was a heck of a lot cheaper to go see the game. Not that it matters to you Mr. Kaiba. I'll bet that you could buy the team in one swoop."

            "And the stadium," Mokuba added laughing. Seto let out a sniff, him buy a baseball team? What rubbish, but if it could rake in some money to fund his park then maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. Mokuba was busy talking to Smith as they drove the long way to the stadium. So Seto just kept his eyes on the passing scenery. Now and again he mentally admired the architecture of the surrounding houses. They got onto the freeway, and still Smith was telling Mokuba all about his favorite team. Who the players were, their statistics, the RBI's of the best players, he even told him about how the new stadium was built. Seto found it interesting in a 'Something to think about later' way. Mostly though he was board, he wished he had taken his lap top to do some work, but he'd promised himself that he would not think of work at all that day. So he stayed silent while his brother and his driver went on with their strange conversation. It wasn't until they went over the Golden Gate Bridge that Seto perked up. He really had always been impressed with this particular structure and marveled at how long and strong this bridge was.

              "Check it out Seto," Mokuba said pointed out the Pacific Ocean, and then the city on the other side. "We're almost there! This is so cool, thank you Seto."

            Seto gave his little bother a soft smile, and tussled his hair. He really gave Mokuba a look over, and realized that he looked older, and it made Seto a bit sad. He could remember when Mokuba was born, he'd only been five at the time, and here was this small thing with a lot of black hair on its small head. His fingers had been so small that Seto wondered how it was that such a tiny thing could make it in the world.

            "Hey," Mokuba's voice broke into Seto's thoughts, and Mokuba grabbed him by the arm pulling Seto to his side of the car. "Look at that."

            Mokuba had pointed out a rather large glass building that looked very impressive from the freeway. Seto tapped Smith on the shoulder, "Pull off, I want to see that place up close."

            Smith nodded, and got into the exit ramp. He drove down several blocks and past a number of high-rise office buildings. When they came up to the large glass building Kaiba and Mokuba were surprised to see that it was empty. The parking lot was deserted, and Seto had Smith pull up to the front of large office building and what he saw out front made him pause. There were two very large Blue-Eyes White Dragons seated before the entrance. Mokuba hurried over to the doors and looked for any notice of who owned the building. He shook his head when his brother came over.

            "No name, no nothing." Seto said, his eyes taking in the whole property. "It's like this place was built then abandon, still in perfect condition."

            A thought flashed into his mind, this was the ideal sight for an American headquarters for Kaiba Corp. Not only was it large enough to hold a large amount of workers, but it also already had his symbol right out front. And the best part was it was far outside of Venture City and away from Gwen Scotts.

            "It's perfect," Seto said out loud, and Mokuba glanced up at him.

            "What's perfect, big bro?"

            "This place," Kaiba explained. "It's the perfect place for an American headquarters for Kaiba Corp."

            Mokuba looked over the building; he had to agree with his brother. It was a great place, and had lots of space. As Vice president of Kaiba Corp. Mokuba knew that one of the most important aspects of business was how you presented yourself to others, and this building made for an excellent image of Kaiba Corp. He smiled at Seto, who seemed off in his own dream world, and Mokuba took his hand to wake him up. Seto looked down and asked, "Well?"

            "I think it's perfect too," Mokuba said and Seto nodded at him in agreement.

            "Ahem," Smith coughed and the two boys turned around. Seto had forgotten that he was there, and looked a bit sheepish. He liked Smith, he was a good worker, and was at least someone he could trust with Mokuba. "I hate to break up this moment, boys, but don't you have a game to get to?"

            "Oh yeah," Mokuba grinned awkwardly at Smith who smiled back. "That's right, I forgot. Ready to go yet Seto? Ah Seto? Big Brother?"

            Kaiba was watching the dragon statues in the front, he let go of Mokuba's hand and walked over to the first dragon. He looked up at it, and a memory flashed in his mind. Or was it simply a dream? He'd been having these more often lately, ever since Malik and Ishizu Ishtar used their Millennium items on him. He found himself in a dark room; it felt warm, and smelled like sand. He was kneeling before a bed made of wood and leather straps, and a young woman with blonde hair was lying on the bed looking very sick. In his hand he held the very rod that Malik Ishtar had used during Battle City. Seto knew that there were at least three people standing behind him. One was a tall man with a beard, and he swore that he had the same eye that Pegasus had. Next to him was a woman dressed in robes, she had a hawk crown on her head, and Seto caught her reflection in the rod's top. Her face reminded him of Ishizu Ishtar, but this woman was older. Beside the woman was a short man, with an ugly face, who kept looking between the tall man's face and that of the woman. Obviously there was a tension between them, Seto decided, but he couldn't tell what they were thinking. He stared at the young woman before him, she seemed very familiar to him, but he didn't know where he'd seen her face. He frowned; what was he doing here? Why now all of a sudden. It was then that he heard a noise in the corner of the room, and turned his head. There was someone in the shadows. Someone small who didn't want the other's to know that they were there. Although Seto couldn't tell if the person was sitting or standing, he did know that the person was crying. For some reason he wanted to see what this crying person looked like, but as he turned to look the person's head lifted and he only got a fast glance of greenish eyes, then he saw Mokuba. His brother's worried face loomed into his, and Seto snapped out of his dream.

            "Seto, Seto," Mokuba was saying and shook Kaiba gently. "Seto are you okay?"

            "Huh," Seto shook the dream from his mind and gave a reassuring grin to Mokuba, who smiled back relieved. Seto turned his head and called over to Smith, "Smith."

            "Yes sir?" Smith replied, he was watching his watch making sure of the time for them.

            "You have a camera in the car?"

            "I think so," Smith said puzzled by the request.

            "Get it, would you." Seto told him and jumped up on the statue's base; he grabbed Mokuba by the hand and pulled him up.

            "Seto, what are you doing?"

            "You always said you wanted us to go riding on a Blue-Eyes Dragon," Seto said lifting Mokuba up and giving him a boost onto the large dragon's wing. "Well it might not be a real Blue-eyes, but it's the next closest thing."

            Mokuba let out a laugh, as Smith came back holding a small camera. "Okay now both of you, say 'Cheese'."

            "Cheese," shouted Mokuba, and Seto leaned back against the wing, looking as casual as he could, with a smirk on his face. As Smith flashed the picture Seto knew that he was going to have it blown up and put in the mansion as a portrait of the two of them.

            When they got to the game Seto hurried over to the box office, and secured three tickets. Mokuba rushed over asking, "Who's the third ticket for?"

            "Smith," was all Seto said headed over to the car. He walked over to where his driver was waiting, and handed him the extra ticket. "Here, when you're done parking, come in and join us."

            "Sir," said Smith smiling brightly. "I haven't gone to a game since I was a teenager. Thank you very much!"

            Inside Mokuba and Seto found their seats, and Smith soon joined them. Seto looked around at the many people that had come to see the game. There were fans that simple wore hats designating their favorite team, other's went all the way out with replica uniforms. Seto snorted thinking, "These baseball fans really get into their teams, don't they."

            "Hey, what's going on down there?" Mokuba asked Smith, and he pointed out a group of boys about his age all shouting at a player in the field.

            "Oh, that," Smith mused happily. "See, players sign the balls that kids bring here. It's a big deal to get a famous player to sign your baseball, or bat in some cases. They can be worth a lot of money, but if it's your favorite player then it's extra special. You try and see how many autographs you can get. See."

            "Yeah, it sounds like fun," Mokuba said, then grimace, "Darn, I don't have a baseball."

            Seto looked around at the venders, and spotted one selling some baseballs. He stood up and told Mokuba to wait, then hurried over to the vender. "I'll take one."

            "Eight ninety-five, Mac," said the vender. Seto knitted his brow; Eight ninety -five! That was enough to buy a ticket to a movie. For one baseball, it seemed rather outrageous. But he pulled out his wallet and shelled out the money, and the man gave him the baseball.

            "Eight ninety-five for a piece of cloth and sawdust," Seto thought heading back to his seat, but if it made Mokuba happy then it was worth it. Kaiba plopped the ball into Mokuba's hands when he returned, and Smith got up with Seto's little brother.

            "Okay, come on, and I'll show you how it's done. Were going to get the best player to sign you're ball first okay."

            "Great," Mokuba cried and the two walked down towards the crowd of kids. Seto relaxed in his seat, No work, no worries, no Yugi, and no Gwen Scotts. Everything was exactly as it should be. He closed his eyes, intending to rest a bit longer when he heard mumbles of dissatisfaction coming his way. Peeking open he saw Mokuba coming back with Smith, who looked rather annoyed, but Mokuba was saying something to the driver.

            "It's okay; I didn't want his dumb signature anyway."

            "Something wrong?" Seto inquired as they both sat back down. Mokuba looked over at Smith who crossed his legs and leaned against the arm rest and grumbled.

            "Can't believe he wouldn't sign it, of all the lame brained excuses…doesn't have time for silly things like signing a baseball. Not like we asked when they were in the middle of changing teams, you know."

            Seto looked at Mokuba and whispered to him, "Okay what happened?"

            "This player, Frank Murphy, he's an out fielder for the Giants, and suppose to be really good at hitting, he didn't want to sign the baseball," Mokuba explained. "He wasn't signing anyone's and was really mean about it too, and when Smith asked him what his problem was, he told Smith, 'Go take a damn flying leap old man, ain't ya a bit to old to be bugging players about autographs. I've got no time to waste with you, or your grandson over there, so take a hike."

            "Really," Seto said. "He said this, did he? Mokuba give me that baseball, would you."

            "Here," Mokuba said handing the ball over to Seto. Kaiba got up and headed down to where the boys were still grouped. Smith watched him with a puzzled look, and asked Mokuba.

            "What's he doing?"

            "Getting an autograph," Mokuba said in a knowing tone. His big brother couldn't stand people that acted like jerks to kids; he'd seen him do this before at other places. When Seto put his mind to get something, there was no way to stop him. There was a glint that came into his eyes, and Mokuba knew when he saw this that his brother meant business. Seto stopped behind the group, and scowled as he heard what the kids were saying.

            "Can you believe him," one girl said to an older boy. "Like he doesn't care."

            "Yeah, but he's such a good hitter," said another boy.

            "He didn't have to act like such a jerk," said a third boy. Seto noticed that this boy, in particular, looked rather sad. He sniffed, and Seto noticed that the boy's eyes were welling up with tears. "I just wanted an autograph for my little brother that's all."

            He'd heard enough, Seto pushed past the children, and one of the older one's shouted, "Hey man wait your turn."

            "You want an autograph or not?" Seto asked him looking down at the boy, his eye narrowed, and the boy backed down. "Better."

            "Don't even bother man," said another boy shifting his cap. "That Murphy's a hard head; he won't do anything for anyone. He even said you had to pay him if you want him to sign a ball. He won't listen to anyone at all."

            "Oh, he'll listen to me," Seto said dangerously. The boy snorted and gave him a 'Yeah right,' look. To which Seto smirked, "Just watch."

            He put his index and middle fingers to his lower lip and let out a high piercing whistle that caught the attention of several players on the field. Including Frank Murphy, who was the closest and who glowered at Seto.

            "Murphy, I want to talk to you," Seto called out to him. When Murphy didn't come, Seto climbed over the ledge, and was going to jump onto the field, but the kids grabbed him and pulled him back.

            "You can't do that," said the girl. "Security will throw you out."

            "Well then," Seto thought, "I'll just have to get this worthless piece of slime to come over here then."

            "Hey Murphy," Kaiba shouted out. "Are you deaf or just stupid?! I said I wanted to talk to you, or are you to much of a coward to take up a challenge!"

            That caught Murphy by surprise, and he marched over. No one called Frank Murphy a coward, especially not a skinny punk, and got away with it. Frank growled when he came up to the wall where Seto and the other kids were standing. The older man glared fiercely at Kaiba, who gave him a look that said 'You're not even worth my time, you looser.'

            "So what do you want, punk?" asked Murphy, who was ticked as it already was. He didn't need this sort of aggravation, and he wasn't some dog that was whistled at.

            "I want you to sign this baseball, and then I want you to sign all the other balls for these kids," Seto said and narrowed his brow. "And then I want you to come into the stands and apologize to an older gentleman."

            "And what makes you think I'm going to do this," Frank chuckled. "What are you going to do that tough guy?"

            Seto grabbed him by the uniform and pulled him close to his face, and said in a low voice, "Because if you don't I will make your life a miserable hell, starting by shoving this ball so far up your ass that the only way you'll ever be able to pull it out is if you used a high powered vacuum, and even then it might be lodged in to deep to pull out. That's what I'll do, Frank Murphy."

            "Who the hell do you think you are, Punk?" Frank asked nervously, and Seto smiled viciously.

            "My name is Seto Kaiba, and I can become you're worst nightmare. So I'm saying this only once, you either sign these baseballs, or you will be sorry."

            Frank's face changed from one of fear, to one of recognition, and he croaked, "Wait, Seto Kaiba, aren't you the Duel Monster's world Champion?"

            "Yes, what does that have to do with anything," Kaiba asked getting suspicious of the player. He dropped Murphy and the outfielder pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Kaiba. 

            "Here, could you please sign this for me; my son is a huge fan of yours."

            Seto took the card and looked at it. The card was a level six Sky Dragon, a rather non impressive card as it was only at 1900 in attack and required two tributes. Rather he could use a four star Gemini Elf card and got the same effect in battle. Seto looked down at the baseball player, smiled coolly, and then tore the card in two.

            "Nope," he threw it back at Frank who looked on in shock as the pieces of card fell to the ground. Seto leaned over the wall and looked Frank in the face, "Now how does that feel, Frank. You like being shunted aside like the worthless trash that you are? Well that's how you make these kids feel, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm a business man, and I'll make you a deal.

            Seto reached into his pocket and pulled out his side deck, "I happen to have a duplicate of the card I just ripped up. I'll sign it for your son, if you agree to sign all these kids' baseballs, and sign anyone who asks you today for free. Then you'll apologize to a friend of mine, and get him sky box seats for the rest of the season. Agreed?"

            Frank Murphy nodded, and the kids held out their pens and baseballs. Seto watched as he signed each and everyone writing a message for each of the kids. When he finished, Seto handed him his ball, and said; "Now this one, you just need to put your name on it."

            Frank yanked the ball out of Seto's hand and scrawled his name on it sending dark looks towards Seto. When he finished he shoved the ball into Seto's hand, and Seto pulled out the second Sky Dragon. He scrawled his name on the back of the card, and gave it to Frank, who quickly shoved it in his pocket. As he turned to go, Seto shouted after him. "And Murphy, I expect those passes by the end of the game, or I'm going to find you and we'll test my theory about your rear end."

            The kids laughed as Frank Murphy marched back to finish off his warm ups. Seto turned leave when the boy with the cap stopped him.

            "Hey man, thanks."

            "Whatever," Seto said shrugging his shoulders, just then the girl grabbed him by the arm. She had a Magic and Wizards card in hand, Lady of Faith, and showed it to him.

            "Please, Mr. Kaiba, can I have your autograph too," she asked sweetly. Seto blinked, but took the card and signed it for her, and then the other kids pulled out paper and cards for him to sign too.

            "I saw you during the last World Championship, that was so cool how you pulled out the Blue Eyes on that one guy," said a boy.

            "Yeah, and Battle Ox is also my favorite! Don't you have that in your deck?" asked another boy, and Seto nodded as he signed the boy's Minotaur card. Several minutes later Seto made his way back to his seat. It was strange, having all those kids wanting him to sign their cards. Normally no one asked him at school, or maybe it was because they avoided him, whatever the case was it wasn't usual for Seto to be treated like a celebrity. It felt nice to be shown that kind of admiration, he rather liked it. At least here he got treated with the respect that a champion like himself deserved.

            Upon returning to his seat he flipped Mokuba the ball, "Here, enjoy."

            "What did you say to him?" Mokuba asked, "He looked scared."

            "Let's just say I treated him the same way he was treating everyone else and leave it at that," Kaiba replied. The game started just then, and Seto settled back in his seat. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to get to relax at all.

            By the fifth inning Mokuba was pooped out, the Giants were leading five to two, and the Cubs were up now. Smith had been explaining the rules of the game the whole time, so it was hard for Mokuba to concentrate on the action on the field. He was hungry, and got up. Seto grabbed him by his shirt as he climbed over his brother's long legs and turned to go up the stairs.

            "Where are you going?"

            "To get something to eat," Mokuba said and Seto followed him. "I'm coming with you."

            "Seto, I'm okay, I'm eleven now." Mokuba protested but his brother didn't listen and tagged right after him. At the concession stand Seto and Mokuba waited in line. It was there that Mokuba spotted white hair being blown from behind a pillar. He glanced up at his brother, then at the line, and darted out.

            "Hey, where are you…" Seto called to him and Mokuba shouted back.

            "Bathroom! Be right back," When he rounded the corner a hand grabbed his shoulder, and he was about to yelp when the person turned him around. 

            "Gwen, what are you doing here," Mokuba asked, Gwen put her finger to her mouth and he went quiet.

            "I came here to see the game," she explained. "So how do you like so far?"

            "It's okay, I got an autograph from a player," Mokuba told her and Gwen nodded. "Hey where are you sitting?"

            She pointed up, "In the sky boxes."

            "Huh, how were you able to get a sky box, we have to sit in the main area." Mokuba told her and Gwen chuckled in her kind way.

            "That's easy, I own one of the boxes here," she explained and reached into her purse pulling out a pass. "Listen, if you get board sitting down in the main area, just come on up. Show the guards this pass if they don't believe you, okay. See you about the seventh inning?"

            "Uh, sure," Mokuba said and she kissed him on the cheek. Then winking Gwen went up a flight of stairs, and Mokuba went back to see his brother. When she reached the upper decks where the boxes were, Gwen let out a laugh.

            "He could only secure main section seating, oh how pathetic!" She knew Mokuba wouldn't be able to resist coming up to see what the skybox looked like, and when he came up there, she'd keep him busy. Soon, very soon, she'd have him wrapped around her little finger. Oddly though, as Gwen took her seat, she thought to herself how nice it would be to have his company around her. She'd grown use to Mokuba, and was beginning to wonder about herself, and how she felt about this kid.

            Mokuba, in the meantime, ran back to where Seto was waiting for him, and shoved the pass into a pocket in his jeans. Seto was holding a hotdog, with the works, and two sodas, one that he was already sipping. He handed the dog to Mokuba who asked, "Where's yours?"

            "Not hungry," Seto explained as they headed back down to the seats. "Find the bathroom alright?"

            "Huh?" Mokuba mumbled biting into the hot dog, "Oh yeah, just fine."

            Seto nodded, but was wondering if Mokuba was just making it up. He knew that the washrooms were in the opposite direction of the way Mokuba ran, but he wasn't about to say anything yet. He still couldn't prove that Gwen was there, but he had a hunch that someone was watching them. Whenever he'd had the chance Seto would glance around the seats, and twice he'd seen someone dart away from their seat when he caught them looking at Mokuba and him.  This little game went on through most of the early innings. It was only recently that the person had not appeared again. Seto decided to watch the game a bit, just so that he would be able to say that he had seen some of it if anyone at the office asked him how it was. The Cubs had just scored, but were still trailing by a run, and it was the top of the seventh.

            "Come on boys," shouted Smith to the team, "Send those Cubbies back to their gum park!"

            "Gum park?" Mokuba asked, and Smith explained that the Cubs team played in a place called Wrigley Field, which had been owned by the company Wrigley's who made chewing gums. Mokuba thought this was funny so he joined in with Smith in shouting for the Giants to win. Unfortunately it appeared that all it did was make the Cubs score another two runs, and the crowd moaned. Finally the pitcher struck out the latest batter, and the two teams were going to change places. Mokuba reached into his pocket for his napkin to wipe his hands off, but touched the pass that Gwen had given him.

            "Listen, if you get board sitting down in the main area, just come on up. Show the guards this pass if they don't believe you, okay. See you about the seventh inning?" she'd said to him, and he looked over at his brother. They were suppose to spend the day together, and he wasn't about to leave Seto alone. After all he was doing this for Mokuba, he'd gone out of his way to get him the autograph, and –even though he looked bored –Seto was enduring the game just for Mokuba. Mokuba was torn, he wanted to see Gwen and check out the sky box that she was in, but he didn't want to leave his brother either. Maybe if he just went up for a few minutes Seto wouldn't notice, he'd say that he wanted to get a souvenir, and then slip up by Gwen. Five minutes that would be it.

            Mokuba got up, and Seto shot him a look, asking, "Where are you going now? You're not hungry again are you?"

            "No, I just wanted to check out the souvenirs," Mokuba lied, he felt his voice falter, but tried to look happy. In his mind he kept thinking, "Five minutes, that's all, just five minutes."

            "Why not wait until after the game," Seto asked. "The Giants just took the field."

            "Well they'll be a lot of people after the game buying gifts," Mokuba explained. "I might not be able to get one…"

            "Just wait until the ninth, and then we can go and check and see if they have any of those silly fuzz balls with the feet," Seto joked. Mokuba sat down; he'd never be able to convince his brother to let him leave now. Seto changed the way he was sitting making it harder for Mokuba to climb over him in order to get out. He crumpled the pass in his pocket, Gwen would just have to wait, Mokuba decided.

            "Already the middle of the seventh and he's not up here yet," Gwen mumbled to herself, and crossed her arms. Beside her a gentleman sat looking at his watch.

            "Ah, Ms. Scotts," said the man, "I really have to get back to my family, they'll be waiting for me and…"

            "Trevor, you're going to stay here and wait until I tell you to leave," Gwen barked at him, and the man became quiet. Had it not been for her connections, this blow hard would never have made it in the movie business. She bit her lip and turned on her phone. Kaiba had to be behind keeping Mokuba from coming up to see her. Well she could fix that little problem. She dialed his cell number, but got his office.

            "Hello, Kaiba Corporation," said Amy.

            Gwen pinched her nose and talked through her teeth, making her voice sound different, "Hello, I'm calling to speak with Mr. Seto Kaiba, I'm a designer at Industrial Illusions, and I wanted to show him some of our newest rare cards…"

            "I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba left strict orders that he is not to be disturbed today," Amy informed her. "You'll have to call back on Monday."

            "Damn," thought Gwen, "I would have thought a guy like him would have been happy to get an interruption. I'll just have to try another way."

            "Oh," said Gwen in her strange voice, "Well can you tell me at least where he is."

            "At a baseball game in San Francisco," Amy said plainly then added. "Would you like to leave a message?"

            "No, no, I'll get a hold of him, Good-bye then," Gwen said and hung up. She quickly called down to her spy and said. "Mark got a job for you, I need you to call the main office here at the stadium, have them page Seto Kaiba, say that it's urgent and that you have to talk to him. Got that, don't stop until they make a public address paging him, okay. Thanks."

            She sat back and smiled as the man named Trevor looked at her puzzled. Gwen smiled thinking, "Trust me Kaiba, I will beat you yet. And then I'll take either your cards or your brother…who knows…if I play my cards right I'll get both!"

            The beginning of the eighth inning made Mokuba tense, the score was tied, but he kept looking up at the sky boxes, and wondered if Gwen was sad because he'd let her down. He fiddled with the ball in his hand, and Seto noticed this.

            "Hey," he leaned over and said in a low voice, "If you want right after the game we'll go to the harbor and check out those boats that you said you wanted to see."

            "Sure, "Mokuba said glumly, and Seto watched him in wonder. Before he'd gone to the bathroom Mokuba had been fine, he'd acted like he normally would. But now he had fallen silent, and was acting like he didn't care about anything."

            "You feeling okay, kid?" Seto asked and brushed Mokuba's forehead to feel for a fever, he was cool. "That hotdog taste okay?"

            "Oh yeah, it was fine," Mokuba told him trying to smile but all he could see was Gwen looking very sad, and lonely. Seto was about to ask if Mokuba wanted to go home, when the public address system went on and he heard a voice say very loudly.

            "Would a Seto Kaiba please come to the main office, there is an urgent phone call for Seto Kaiba! Would Seto Kaiba please come to the main box office…"

            "Damn," thought Seto and he got up. "Smith, could you please watch Mokuba for me, I'll be back as soon as I find out what moron is paging me."

            Smith nodded as Seto headed up the stairs to the back, thinking, "This had better be important, because if it isn't, someone's going to be out of a job."  

            Mokuba waited several seconds until he couldn't see his big brother anymore, and got up to go up the stairs. Smith called to him, "Mokuba, where are you going to? You're brother will be back soon enough. Stay here, you'll miss the game."

            "I'll be right back," Mokuba shouted as he kept climbing the steps, "I need to go see something. I promise Smith, five minutes!"

            Mokuba ran up the rest of the stairs and down the concourse, pushing past people as he went, and then up the stairs that he saw Gwen go up. He climbed them two at a time, and found himself in a rather plush looking hallway. There was a mural of several famous Giant players, and stats about each of them. Doors were marked with numbers, and Mokuba pulled out his pass, it listed the number five for the skybox. Counting down he walked further from where he'd come in, and found skybox number five near the end of the hall. He also found an officer wandering down towards him, and paused when he saw Mokuba.

            "Excuse me, young man, you're not suppose to be up here if you don't have a pass," explained the officer, and Mokuba quickly showed him the pass Gwen had given him. The officer looked it over and waved him two doors down from where they stood. Mokuba thanked him and knocked on the door. Inside Gwen was saying something to the man named Trevor.

            "Remember, be nice, or I'll tell you're wife about that blonde that I saw you with last week."

            "But I keep telling you that she was an old high-school friend that I was talking to, that's all!" Trevor said to her, and Gwen smiled.

            "I know that, but will your wife really believe it?" She got up when she heard the door knock, and Donovan opened the door. Mokuba peeked his head in and Gwen rushed over, Mokuba noticed at once that she looked very happy to see him. "Mokuba, I thought you weren't going to come up and see me."

            "It took me a bit, but I made it, like I promised," he said as she gave him a hug. He liked that a lot, Gwen had a very soft touch.

            "Mokuba, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine," Gwen said ushering him over to the man named Trevor. Mokuba gawked when the man stood up; he was very good looking like a movie star, and smiled brightly. Mokuba knew who he was before he even introduced himself.

            "I know who you are," Mokuba said when the man extended his hand and shook Mokuba's. "You're Trent Trevor. I've seen all you're movies, Mr. Trevor," –then he added –"Well all the movies that are not rated for older adults. My brother says not until I'm older."

            "You've got a very smart brother," said Mr. Trevor. "So Mokuba, Gwen's been telling me a lot about you. Vice president of Kaiba Corporation, an excellent video game player, she told me you were the only person to beat her score in the arcade in Venture. So how do you like California so far?"

            "It's very cool, Mr. Trevor," Mokuba said and Gwen grinned. Mokuba talked a long time with Trent Trevor, and forgot about the time. Gwen was counting on this, and she made sure that when Trevor left Mokuba would stay a bit longer.

            "Want to check out the big screen TV?" she asked and tuned it to some cartoons. "How about something to eat, lots of food from the park up here, they supply it."

            Mokuba snacked on some veggies and dip, and played a bit with Gwen who said they should try and rename the players. The new names were very goofy, like Bug-Eared Grace, or Slip and Slide Sosa, and Midget Murphy. It was when Mokuba noticed a clock on the TV screen that he realized how long he'd stayed.

            "Oh no!" Mokuba thought seeing that he'd stayed a half hour instead of the five minutes he promised. He got out of the expensive recline that he was sitting in and headed for the door. "Gwen I have to go. Seto will notice that I'm gone, and he'll be worried."

            "Oh," Gwen said looking sad. "Well, um, can you come back?"

            "No, after the game we'll be going down to the harbor to check out the boats," Mokuba told her. Gwen nodded in a knowing way. "I've gotta go, Bye."

            "Bye for now," Gwen said, and made a mental note to have her car follow Mokuba's after the game. Mokuba headed down the hall, and back down the stairs. As he came down he was surprised to see Smith hurrying over to him.

            "Mokuba, where've you been? I've been looking all over for you," Smith told him, huffing and puffing. "You're brother going to be back any minute. Come on, we've got to get back to the seats before he comes looking for us."

            Mokuba nodded, and felt bad. He should have kept a watch on the time that way Smith wouldn't have gone looking for him. He knew that Smith could get into trouble lying to Seto, and that made him feel even worse. As they hurried back to the main area Smith asked, "Where were you really?"

            "I…" Mokuba started to say that he'd gone to see a friend, but stopped. He didn't know if Smith knew about Seto not wanting him to see Gwen, so he fibbed, "I went to see the skyboxes. I heard some kid say that they were really cool, and I snuck up there for a while, and got lost."

            "Well, you should have just asked your brother to take you," Smith scolded him kindly. "I'm sure they would have let Seto Kaiba go check out the skyboxes."

            Mokuba nodded and asked, "Are you going to tell him?"

            "No, but you can't go doing that again," Smith told him, but smiled. "I remember when I was you're age, I use to try and sneak into the players club house. So I won't tell. You can count on me."

            Mokuba thanked him and they went down to the seats where Seto was waiting looking very upset.

            "Where were you?" He asked Mokuba. "You know better then to go running off on your own; this isn't like Domino City, Mokuba."

            "Sir, it wasn't all that bad," Smith cut in and explained that Mokuba had gone to find out a vender selling some bobble heads. "See I wanted to get one as a gift for my granddaughter."

            "That's still not a good excuse for him to go running around on his own," Seto said, he was still mad, but decided that it was better to let it go. Mokuba was back, and he was safe. The phone call had been a prank, someone claiming to be a designer at Industrial Illusions, and Seto had had the call traced to the park, and asked security to find the man. He'd talked to the man, and while they were talking the security guards found him and led him out of the park. As they took him out, Seto had asked why he had called, and the man smiled in a way that gave Seto a chill. On his way back Seto had noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and turned just in time to see a man that he recognized. Edward Donovan, and that meant one thing, Gwen Scotts was at the ballpark. He'd run back to his seat, hoping that Mokuba and Smith were still there, but when he arrived, he saw that neither was where he'd left them. Seto's heart went into his throat, and he thought of only one thing. Gwen must have ordered the phone call as a distraction to get at Mokuba. But then why had Smith disappeared, he only hoped that nothing had happened to the old man. That was why he was so upset when he saw the two of them come back together, and had snapped at his little brother.

            When the game ended, Cubs loosing nine to seven, Seto ushered Mokuba right to the car.

            "Seto, what about the souvenirs," Mokuba asked, and Seto shook his head.

            "Not now Mokuba," the faster they got out of the ballpark the better he would feel. Little did Seto know that they were being tailed; Donovan was watching them leave and reported to Gwen that they were in the parking lot.

            "Well then get the car, and I'll meet you out front," she hissed into her phone and smiled to herself. This was going to be fun.

            The ride to the harbor was quiet. Mokuba watched his brother nervously, as Seto tapped his fingers on his knee. Mokuba knew that Seto was upset, and he wasn't looking at Mokuba. So it was a surprise when his big brother spoke kindly a moment later, "Sorry about the attitude back there. Just frustrated, that page turned out to be a crank call."

            "Oh," was all Mokuba said and looked down at his feet. It was rare for his brother to apologize for what he did, and Mokuba would have been happy to hear it. But he was feeling rather bad about what he'd done at the ballpark. He'd snuck off, defied his brother and lied to his friend Smith. Not to mention nearly getting both of them in trouble with Seto, who could have fired Smith if he'd wanted to. Seto picked up on the look and poked his brother.

            "Stop," Mokuba said, and Seto poked him again, only in a different spot on his arm. "Quit it."

            Seto poked him again, and again, only now he said, "Poke," each time he did it. Mokuba tried not to giggle, and Seto kept poking him. "Poke, poke, poke."

            "Seto, stop, or I'll get you back!" Mokuba shouted, and Seto had a look of mock offence.

            "Poke," he said without poking Mokuba, who shouted.

            "You want me to get you back! You know I can."

            "No you can't," Seto said, and poked him again. Mokuba launched himself at Seto, intending to tickle him, but Seto caught him by the arms, and started to tickle him instead, saying "Poke. Poke. Poke."

            Mokuba shouted through laughs, "Seto, Stop. Hahahaha, it tickles, stop!"

            By the time they got to the harbor, Mokuba was worn out. His face was red from laughter, and both brothers felt a lot better. They started touring the harbor, Mokuba running ahead of Seto and pointing out all the different types of ships. For a while things seemed to be running smoothly until Seto yawned and sat on the grass.

            "Huh, don't tell me you're tired," Mokuba asked his brother who nodded. "Aww come on Seto…"

            Seto got up, and stretched, while he was tired he wasn't about to disappoint Mokuba. They walked a bit farther, and Seto spotted a rather nice looking yacht. He was watching this, when Mokuba looked at another ship and saw Gwen waving to him. She beckoned him to come over, but he shook his head and pointed to his brother. She pretended to dry her eyes, and begged. Seeing her look like that Mokuba bit his lip. He wondered what she wanted, but didn't know how to get away from Seto. That's when he spotted the crates by one dock. He slipped away from Seto and hid behind them.

            "So what do you think of this one," Seto was asking, when he glanced over at his side and saw that Mokuba was gone. Smith was just coming back with some shaved ice and he saw Seto looking around frantically.

            "Sir," Smith started to say when Seto said.

            "Mokuba didn't come over by you did he?"

            "No," Smith shook his head. "He's run off again?"

            "I'm not sure," Seto admitted. "Look, you head up that way, I'll double back, and he may have gone ahead of me. If you see him, call me."

            Smith nodded and tossed the shaved ice. Seto turned and headed back down the dock calling out for his brother. While Smith headed up the pier, shouting out for Mokuba. Mokuba waited until both Smith and his big brother were well down the dock before he crawled out and hurried over to the ship where he saw Gwen wave at him. She was already down on her landing; in her hand was a glass of juice. She smiled when she saw him.

            "Come on in, and check out my ship," she invited, and Mokuba shook his head.

            "I can't Gwen, I almost got into trouble at the ballpark," Mokuba told her and she clasped her hands together.

            "Please, pretty please. I really want you to check out my boat. I swear, only a few minutes."

            Mokuba looked into her pleading blue eyes, and fought with in his mind with himself, "You know you can't, this was supposed to be your day with Seto, don't go on."

                "Come on," said his other side, "Seto let you down a number of times, remember what he did during Duelist kingdom, and then with Noah…He didn't even care that he was dead. So why shouldn't you do what you want to?"

            "Because he loves you Mokuba," the first voice said. "He took this day off just to be with you, and he wouldn't do this for anyone else, you know this. So tell your friend no. If she's really your friend she'll understand and not press it."

            "But look at her," said the second voice, "She likes you, and you like her. I mean she's kissed you twice already, so why not take a chance…"

            Mokuba made up his mind and followed Gwen into the ship, but he resolved that he would only be there for a few minutes, no more no less. Gwen took him around the ship, showing him all the rooms with many different decorations. She was happy that he was impressed with it, "I'm going to sail around the world one day on it. It's called the Sapphire Dragon."

            "You know how to sail a ship?" Mokuba asked her and Gwen nodded. There was more to Gwen than met the eye, and Mokuba was happy to have her as a friend. Seto knew how to fly a plane, but he didn't know how to sail a ship at all. "Could you teach me some day?"

            "Be happy to," Gwen told him and showed him the bridge, and tried to explain all the knobs, buttons, and levers that helped steer the ship. Mokuba kept an eye on the time on Gwen's watch, and when about ten minutes were up he quickly said.

            "I have to go now," She seemed disappointed but agreed, and took him back down to the main dock. "By the way, how did you know we'd be at this dock?"

            "I didn't it must be fate," she laughed.

            "Or destiny," joked Mokuba, and Gwen finished.

            "Blue Destiny, to be precise," and she gave him a long hug. She looked up behind her little friend and saw Donovan watching her. He looked rather displeased, but she didn't care. It was none of his business what she did with the little fool, and the less he knew the better she felt. After all she was starting to doubt her own plan, and that bothered her. The more time she spent with Mokuba the more time she wanted to spend with him. He made her feel less lonely, something she'd not felt in a long time. When she let go Mokuba ran down the landing pad and she waved at him.

            Mokuba rushed back down the dock and soon spotted Seto who was talking with a guard, asking if he'd seen a little boy in a stripped shit, with black hair and blue eyes.

            "Seto," called Mokuba and Kaiba rounded on his brother upon seeing him.

            "Mokuba Kaiba," he said, his voice low and he looked very angry. Mokuba knew that when Seto used his full name he was in for a long talk, however, Seto just knelt down and hugged Mokuba tightly, then said, "Don't do that to me. What's going on here, why do you keep disappearing like this? Are you trying to scare me on purpose?"

            "No, I'm sorry, "Mokuba apologized, he really was. "You seemed tired, so I thought I'd let you rest and I'd go look at some of the smaller boat. I'm sorry I scared you, but this one captain let me on his boat."

            "Mokuba, you know better then to go onto strangers," Seto started to say but Mokuba quickly cut in.

            "It was one of the business men that you talked to before, remember, he's related to Otogi, Yugi's friend. The guy who came up with Dungeons, Dice, and Monsters, that's why I went on. Really, Seto, it's true."

            Seto sighed, "Well, next time let me know before you go running off."

            "Okay," Mokuba told him. "Um, can we go ride the trolley cars now?"

            Seto shook his head and let out a laugh, he'd have an easier day at the office. He called Smith and told him that Mokuba was okay, it relieved the older driver. On the way to down town San Francisco Mokuba told Seto and Smith all about what he saw on Gwen's ship, leaving out the fact that it was Gwen's ship in the first place. The trolley car ride turned out to be the only time that Gwen didn't turn up, and Mokuba began to wonder why Gwen was showing up where he and Seto went. Part of him wondered if she was following them. But he dismissed that idea, and decided that it was just a coincidence that she'd shown up. After all she may have decided to go to the game because she figured she wanted to see it too. Or maybe she had tickets before hand. Mokuba felt sure that it was all just a bunch of chances that led Gwen to finding them. He put it from his mind and just hung on tight to the trolley as it took the passengers down hill.

            The last stop of the day was the Duel Monster's museum. And this was the one place Seto seemed the most comfortable. He liked the way the place was set up, and had several areas dedicated to the best players all over the world. To his annoyance he found a section set up about Yugi Mutou. Of course there was one set up on him, but it was in with several other champions that were on one wall section. Seto recalled a phone call early last year just before the New Year where he was asked if he wanted to donate some of his dueling cards to a special exhibit being created in California. He'd told the person on the phone that he wasn't interested, and now he some what regretted this decision.

            At first Mokuba just looked over the different duelists that they had set up special exhibits for. Each had the duelist's name, their stats on wins, and a quote about how they feel about dueling and Magic and Wizards in general. The museum also had a box that held copies of the duelist rarest cards and their decks. Mokuba though this was all very cool, until he came upon a picture that had everything removed around it, even the name of the duelist. He looked at the picture; it was of a young man with black hair, and blue eyes. He was holding up a set of cards, showing them to the photographer, and looked rather proud of them. The cards were all very powerful dragons: Emerald Dragon, Tyrant Dragon, Death Vorstagalf, Serpent Knight Dragon, and one that Mokuba couldn't see. Mokuba read the plaque, "Duelist information removed due to request by family. Please forgive this inconvenience." 

            "What are you looking at?" Smith asked coming over and looking at the picture, "Oh, are these tournament winners like your brother?"

 "They're what you call 'Elite Duelists'. People who've made a big name for themselves in tournaments and championships," Mokuba tried to explain to Smith who each of the duelists were, and how they wound up being in the 'Hall of Champions'.

            "That girl right there, the one with the red hair, she's the European Champion," Mokuba explained to Smith. "Seto met her once at a tournament, she's really good, and likes to use fire type monsters. And the guy there with the spiked hair, and nose ring, his name is Steven Wallace, he was the World Champion before Seto beat him."

            "And what type of deck did he use?" Smith asked, taking off his cap and wiping his brow. The museum lights were hot, and it made Smith very warm, especially since he was wearing his black chauffer uniform.

            "Um," Mokuba thought, trying to remember, it had been a year before, and the new World Tournament was going to happen in the fall. Steven Wallace had a very strong deck, but Mokuba had been paying more attention to his brother at the time, so he was having a hard time recalling the exact type of deck the old World Champion had.

            "It was mostly a Thunder deck," Seto said coming over, and looked at the picture of Steven. He sniffed; the young man had been a rather poor duelist as Seto remembered, much like Jonouchi, nothing like the guy before him. Seto though had long forgotten that man's name. He'd retired his post the year before, and officially gave it to the second place winner, Steven Wallace. Seto at times wondered if he'd have gone against that duelist would he have had more of a challenge. Winning an easy duel bored him, and that was why he wanted to beat Yugi, he was one person that actually was a challenge to Seto, on all levels. Yugi was always saying that it was his heart that helped him win, namely because his grandfather had made the deck he dueled with, and his friends were always giving him cards that represented them in some way or another. So in effect he was dueling with each of his friends' hearts in his deck. Seto didn't buy this, although he did have some respect for Yugi, he still believed that it took more skill then luck to win a duel. Regardless of how much heart you put into a draw, it still came down to how much skill you had to create a good combo.

            "Well, what a pleasure," a voice said and a man in a brown suit came over to Kaiba and Mokuba. "Mr. Seto Kaiba, the one and only World Champion, a real honor to have you here in our humble museum."

            "And you are?" Seto asked as the man extended his hand.

            "Oh I'm sorry," he excused himself. "I'm David Regent; the curator of the Duel Monster's Museum. Appointed by Pegasus J. Crawford himself, I'm certain he would be thrilled that you came to see his latest masterpiece. It will really cheer him up to know that there are no hard feelings about the situation with your brother…"

            Seto looked at the man's hand, then at his face, and gave him a cold glare, and said, "Come on Mokuba, this place suddenly got too crowded."

            "Seto, where are we going?" Mokuba asked as he followed his brother out of the room. Mr. Regent looked on with some mild surprise, as Smith quickly tipped his cap at him, and followed his bosses out of the hall. Seto went up five flights of stairs before he felt he was far enough from Regent, he needed to defuse that rather completed moment. He still had not forgotten what Pegasus did to Mokuba. Regardless of the reason why –Seto had learned through some connections about Cecilia Crawford and how Pegasus was going to use Kaiba technology to bring her back from the dead –he would not forgive what the head of Industrial Illusions for bringing such pain on Mokuba.

            "Seto, are you okay?" Mokuba asked, and Seto took a deep breath before he spoke.

            "Yeah, I'm fine." He looked around at the many paintings on the walls. "Where are we?"

            Mokuba pulled out his map, and looked it over, then said, "It says here that this is the Art Gallery. This is all the original paintings from Industrial Illusions. Hey you think they may have the Blue Eyes here?"

            "Could be, lets got take a look," Seto suggested as they went into the gallery. Below on the lower level where the Kaiba brothers had departed from Gwen Scotts was staring at the picture that had no name. She crumpled up her map, and gritted her teeth. She threw the map to the ground, and stormed out of the room, determined to find Regent and ask him why that picture was still up. She stormed up the stairs in hopes of running into Regent, to her surprise she saw Mokuba walk into the gallery with his brother and Smith.

            "Well, well, now this is a twist," Gwen laughed and followed them into the gallery. It was very quite here and several people were admiring the art work. There were rows and rows of paintings on walls that were set up like a maze that led to the center of the room, or that led to some sort of dead end. Seto frowned; it would be just like Pegasus to create such a game within his museum.

            "You think we should split up?" Mokuba asked Seto, who nodded.

            "Would be the fastest way to find the painting we want," he looked at Mokuba's map, "Smith can go down that way" – he pointed left –"While we head right."

            "Okay, that sounds fair," said Smith as he turned down a path way on the left adding, "If I find it I'll come get you two."

            Seto nodded as he and Mokuba took the right path and headed past several paintings of powerful fiend cards. Mokuba spotted several of Seto's cards right away, including Sword Stalker, and Yugi's Skull Demon. The path narrowed and forked at several intersections and the brothers soon found themselves walking in circles. Seto became exasperated, "This place is ridiculous. You go one way and you wind up back where you started. There's no end to this…"

            "Well, maybe we should double back," Mokuba suggested, and looked down another path. "Or I could go this way, and you can go that way…"

            "And let you disappear on me again," Seto said crossing his arms. "Not a chance. You stay here, I'll go that way. Don't move."

            Mokuba watched his brother until he'd gone around a bend, and then looked back at the map. Maybe there was a smaller map of the room on here somewhere, he wondered searching the fold up map. As he looked around for any indication as to which way to get out of the maze, a voice behind him said.

            "I can take you to the center," Mokuba turned and saw Gwen standing behind him. However rather then looking happy to see her, he gave her a suspicious stare.

            "Gwen, what are you doing here?" He asked her as she came over to him. Mokuba backed up, he didn't know why, but he felt the sudden urge to run away from her and find his brother. In the dim light of the room, Gwen looked very pale, and ghost like. Her eyes gleamed out in the darkness, and had a wild, fiendish aura to them. "How did you find me? Are you following us?"

            Gwen stopped; she put her hand down, as she was reaching out for him. Mokuba asked again, "Gwen, are you following us?"

            She smiled, "Now why would I do that?"

            "Because you're everywhere we are," Mokuba told her bluntly. "And it's getting a bit creepy. I told you we were going to the ball park…"

            "And I bought those tickets weeks ago," Gwen told Mokuba, putting her hands on her hips. "So what's the problem?"

            "Then you show up at the harbor where we were," Mokuba cut in, watching her carefully. "But I didn't say which and you some how got there ahead of us…"

            "So I went to go on my boat, so what?" Gwen spat back, she looked upset at his accusation, but still kept her face calm.

            "But the same exact harbor, Gwen," Mokuba said nervously. "And now here, even though I didn't say tell you where we were going."

            Gwen rolled her eyes, "I came here to check out on something, okay. It's not like I knew you would be here." And this was true, while the other meetings were concocted so that she would be where Mokuba was, this was an honest chance that she found him here, "So, so I happened to be at the ball park, and I happened to go to the same docks. But that doesn't mean I'm…wait you think I'm stalking you, Mokuba? Am I right?"

            Mokuba didn't meet her eye, but gave a slight nod. Gwen let her mouth open a bit with surprise. Had she gotten so lacks recently that he'd begun to doubt her. She pressed her lips together; it cut her deep that this little boy would think of her as a stalker, something that she would never be. Just because she was planning on using him, didn't mean she would go as far as stalking him to get her way. She still had her pride, and that was one thing she wasn't about to loose.

            "Mokuba," she pouted her eyes blearing with tears. "How can you say that?"

            "Well, it's a bit strange, you know. You being here, and ever where else," he said still not meeting her eyes. Gwen let the tears slip down her cheeks, and sniffed some.

            "I see. So did you're brother put this in your head?"

            "What do you mean by that?" Mokuba asked her, and she gritted her teeth.

            "I know he doesn't like me, and doesn't trust me. But I didn't think he would make you think I was evil. Just because I told him I didn't want to sell my land to him, he thinks that he can go and break us up as friends."

            Mokuba gave her a bewildered look; Gwen smiled inside realizing that his brother had told him nothing about their meeting. Well, she figured, she could use this to her advantage. She shook slightly as she let more tears run down her face. "Don't give me that look. You know very well what I'm talking about."

            "No I don't, "Mokuba told her honestly. Seto had said very little about his meeting with Gwen, and refused to talk about it for some reason or other.

            "Well you're brother asked me if I wanted to sell my land, and when I told him that I didn't want to he made it very clear that he'd find a way to get me to sell it," Gwen said plainly. She brushed away the tears as she went on. "He obviously figures that turning you against me would make me want to sell it to him. But I can't that land is very important to me. He doesn't understand this, he said…said…"

            "Said what?" Mokuba asked now worried. He knew that Seto could be very difficult with people that were unwilling to give him what he wanted. Gwen looked around as if to see if anyone was around and bent low to Mokuba as she spoke.

            "He said he'd get that land no matter what. And now suddenly I've been having a terrible time with business, and people are afraid to make deals with Blue Destiny."

            "But what does that have to do with Seto?" Mokuba asked and Gwen looked very scared.

            "Mokuba, how well do you know your brother? Because the man I met in that meeting room is very different then the boy you know as your brother. I talked with one vendor who my family has done business with for years, and he told me that he couldn't work for me anymore. And do you know what he said when I asked him why?" – Mokuba shook his head, his eyes were wide.  –"He said that he was told by men that if he did business with me, he'd have to deal with Kaiba Corp."

            Mokuba looked down at his shoes; he'd thought Seto had given up those tactics a long time ago. Apparently he'd gone back into being the ruthless business man that Gozaburo had trained him to be. Mokuba felt tears coming into his eyes, but he wouldn't cry. Why should he believe Gwen, he'd only known her for a week or so, but then again why would she lie to him about this. She had nothing to gain, and she had something that Seto wanted, and it made sense to Mokuba that he would go after that land with all that he could. No one refused Seto Kaiba that was a fact. Or those who did tended to change their minds after a while. Only a few ever really got away with saying no to Seto. Mokuba balled up his fists, he wanted to yell, "It's not true Gwen, and you've got it all wrong." But he didn't, instead he just slumped to the floor and covered his face saying, "I'm not suppose to even see you Gwen. Seto made me promise that I'd never see you. He says that you're dangerous."

Gwen sat down before him and felt her own tears come into her face. She'd not meant for him to cry, but she needed to get him to believe her, and if she could convince him in this way, then that's what she would do. She gently wiped his cheeks, and he pushed her hand away. "Mokuba, I'm so sorry I told you that, but you had to know. Would Seto ever tell you about this? I mean, don't you find it odd that he would say that about me? I'm younger then him by a year, I just turned fifteen, and he's going to be seventeen isn't he. So am I so dangerous? You know me Mokuba, have I ever tried to do anything dangerous to you?"

Mokuba shook his head, and Gwen went on. "So why don't you ask him about it if you don't believe me."

She got up and departed, leaving Mokuba by himself. In his mind he watched a tug of war between Gwen and Seto, with him being the rope. Seto had never said why he hated Gwen so much, but he was now determined to ask him as soon as he came back. Mokuba stood up when he heard footsteps coming from the same direction that Seto had gone. His big brother came into view a second later, looking slightly tired but happy.

"Found it, come on." Seto said, and Mokuba followed slowly. He was upset about what Gwen said and wasn't sure if he could believe her.

"They have it in the center, along with the Black Magician," Seto explained as he led Mokuba down several paths and past many paintings of cards. When they did reach the center Mokuba was surprise that there were two paintings of the Blue Eyes, one the original painted by Pegasus, and a second that had a plaque that just said 'Anonymous Artist.' The first was very nice, and Mokuba really liked it, but the second was amazing. The Blue Eyes looked very real, and very strong. It seemed to be dancing in the air, with its wings unfurled. Mokuba got closer to the painting and read the initials that the artist left.

"JS," he said aloud, and looked up at Seto.

"I want this," Seto said to no one. "You think they'd sell it?"

Mokuba suddenly frowned; why did his brother want everything that he saw. He understood him wanting the Blue Eyes, but this was taking it too far. This picture was meant for the Museum not for him.

"No, and I don't think you should go demanding for things that people don't want to sell," Mokuba spat, and stormed away.

Seto followed wondering, "What the hell was that about?"

When he caught up with his little brother outside of the gallery; he grabbed Mokuba by the shoulder, but Mokuba shook him off. "What's the matter now? Why did you go off like that in there? All I was doing was saying that I wanted to buy it. I know I can't, but that doesn't mean I can't think about it."

Mokuba turned to face his brother and blurted out, "What happened at the meeting with Gwen?"

"What?" Seto was utterly confused now, why was Mokuba asking about the meeting now of all times. "Why do you…"

"Tell me what happened," Mokuba said his eyes bright. "Please tell me the truth, did you threaten Gwen?" 

Click, the light bulb went on in Seto Kaiba's head and he looked directly at Mokuba, "She's here isn't she. Did you see her here Mokuba?! Did she talk to you, tell you something?"

"Seto, just tell me what happened at the meeting…"

"Not until you tell me if she's here," Seto said so loudly that some people stared at him. He didn't care, let them look. Mokuba scowled back and crossed his arms, shaking his head.

"You first, I need to know right now…"

"Not until you…"

"I'm not telling you anything Seto," yelled Mokuba who was really angry. How could his brother keep this from him? He'd thought he'd changed after Battle City, thought that Seto was going to act like the brother he use to be, before he became obsessed with beating Yugi. But now he was taking that frustration out on everyone else, including someone that Mokuba really cared about. Gwen was one of the first girl's he'd ever thought of outside of being a friend. She wasn't like Anzu, who he thought was okay, she was different and special. "I'm supposed to be the Vice President of Kaiba Corporation. I should know what's going on, okay, but you always keep me in the dark. You're always keeping secrets from me, so why should I tell you anything?"

"Fine," Kaiba said coldly, his eyes narrowed. He'd never felt this angry at his little brother; right now he thought that Mokuba was acting like a total jerk. But he sucked in his resentment, and told Mokuba his side of the story. "You want to know about that witch I'll tell you about her. I'll tell you what type of person she really is. A ruthless cold hearted bitch. Gwen Scotts only cares about one person, Mokuba, herself! She came in to that meeting with one goal, to make it very hard for me to get Kaiba Land up and running. Yes I threatened her, but only after she threatened me. She made it very clear in her offer that she would only give me the land that I need, if I give her something specific. But I refused, and she warned me that she would come after my jugulars, in short my weakest point, and that would be you Mokuba. She's using you to get to me, to get to something that I have. Why it is, I don't know, but she's not going to stop until she gets it. So there you go. Satisfied?! You're friend is nothing but a liar. I don't know what she told you, but none of it is true."

Mokuba stared at his brother; he'd never seen him look at him with such extreme dislike. Mokuba didn't know which one to believe: Seto said that Gwen had given him an offer, but what ever it was he wasn't about to give it up or Gwen, who had said that Seto was determined to get the land no matter what. He felt torn, and hurt, and didn't know what to do or who to talk to. He just wanted to get away from his brother, and was glad to see Smith who had just come out of the gallery.

"Boy some of those monsters in there can give the old Hammer movies a run for their money," He looked from Mokuba to Seto and back and at once knew that they had had some sort of fight. Mokuba was the first to speak.

"Mr. Smith, can I go back to the car?"

Smith looked to Seto who glowered at him, and Mokuba felt like kicking his brother in the shin. But just said, "You don't have to listen to him, I'm you're boss too you know."

"Listen," Smith said calmly and gently ushered Mokuba towards the stairs. "Lets you and me go down to the dinning room on the lower level, they've got some good Italian ice down there. We can have some and let you two cool off, okay."

Mokuba nodded, but shot Seto a look of utter contempt. Seto didn't even look back, but before Mokuba got to the second landing Seto leaned over the marble railing, and shouted, "Mokuba, what did she tell you?"

Mokuba looked up, and shouted back, "You keep your secrets, I'll keep mine!"

Smith quickly, but tenderly, pushed Mokuba down the stairs way. Seto watched them until they were gone, and then he slumped against a wall. He shot anyone who looked at him a stare that asked, 'what are you looking at?!' that made the party move away faster. He felt angry, but at whom he wasn't sure. Himself, for not telling Mokuba about the meeting and explaining the whole incident with the Blue Eyes to his little brother, Mokuba, for believing someone else over him, or Gwen, for putting ideas in his brother's mind. How he hated her, and when he found her he'd make sure that she wouldn't bother Mokuba again. Seto was about to go back down to the lower level, when he heard foot steps stop right behind him.

"Hello, Scotts," he said in a low voice as she came around to face him. Her eyes were bright, and she smiled at him, like a cat that had swallowed a cannery.

"Ah, hello, Kaiba," she said and then added, "Here with your brother then? Like this place. Has a nice echo, makes it easy to hear arguments you know"

Seto snapped; she was making small talk like she had no idea what had happened. But he knew that she had to have been nearby the whole time. He grabbed her by the arm and shoved her against the railing. Gwen laughed at him, and purred, "My, my, quite swift aren't you, run track at school?"

"Cut the crap," Seto spat and held her by both her arms. "What the hell have you been telling my brother?"

"I don't see how that's any of your," Gwen started to say so Seto squeezed her arms a bit harder making it clear to her that he wasn't kidding around. "Why do you want to know?"
 

"Because he just asked me why I threatened you and the only person in that room that heard me say anything like that was you," Kaiba stated and his face twisted into rage. "So, tell me right now, what lies have you been feeding him?"

Gwen smiled again and zipped her lip, that was it for Seto; he pushed her up higher over the railing, whispering, "This is about three stories straight down, Scotts. I wonder how long it would take for a person to fall from this height and hit the ground."

"You wouldn't dare," Gwen hissed, and Seto let his grip relax. Truth was, he wouldn't, and he was no murder. He'd threatened to kill himself and Pegasus, but while he would kill to keep his brother safe, he didn't know if he could really push her over the edge. Rather he was just going to scare her. Gwen glanced down, and Seto noticed at once a change came over her. She was no longer smirking, rather her face became even paler then she already was. Her eyes dilated into small pools of blue and she started to shake.

"No, daddy no," she whispered and shuddered in his grip. Seto watched her as she began to twitch and her face twisted into panic and fear. Either she was doing an acting job worthy of an Emmy or, Seto thought and then comprehended, "or she's having some sort of attack."

"Daddy, don't please, bring us down Daddy," Gwen shouted and tried to pull free of Seto who was now trying to pull her back from the railing. Below Mokuba and Smith were just coming up the stairs when they saw Seto yank Gwen from the railing. Seto pulled her back over to the wall, where she slumped onto the floor, still shaking and muttering. Her eyes were far off, as if she was seeing some sort of private hell, and Seto took her by the shoulders calling out her name.

"Scotts, wake up, you're in a museum. Come on you moron, get your senses back," Seto shook her slightly, and Gwen finally snapped out of the daze she was in. When she looked at him, it was a look of someone who had just relived the worst moments in her life. Gwen gave Seto a hard shove, pushing him to the floor, and yelled, "Keep away from me!"

She got up and bolted from the scene back into the gallery, this just as Mokuba and Smith came onto the landing of the top floor. Seto got up, and rubbed his shoulder, which was sore, and he knew his cheek was bleeding. She'd managed to scratch him when he'd pulled her from the railing. Mokuba looked at his brother then to where Gwen had run, but asked nothing.

"I think," Smith said carefully, "That we should all go home now."