Silver Angel: Hello minna! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I had it all planned out, by I got sidetracked, and my Ken muse hooked my into starting another story about him. In any case, I'm back, and I submit this chapter for your (hopefully) approval. ^_^





Chapter 9: Crossing Swords

Seto Kaiba was angry. No, to say he was angry would be an understatement. Say instead that he was furious, and you would be closer to the truth. Bad enough that Yugi had been the one to defeat Maximillion Pegasus, and save him and his brother, but now this! Lady luck seemed to have turned against him, and was working with Circumstance to make his life a living hell.

Aside from the fact that he was in Yugi's debt, things had started off normally enough. He had left the castle in duelist kingdom, scoffing the whole way home about that pretty blond girl's talk of magic. What was her name again? Sarah? It didn't really matter, except for the fact that her wise face seemed to stick in his mind.

"Sooner or later you are going to have to trust someone. You will have no choice." Her last cryptic words before he had left stuck in his head. He didn't need to trust anyone! He got by just fine on his own! Still, what she had said bothered him. Especially considering the situation he was in now.

Reminded of where he was, Seto cursed, and struck his fist against the stark white wall. He had just gotten out of Pegasus' hands, and now here! He was someone's captive again! At least this time he had his soul, but in a way that was worse. This time, he was all too aware of being at someone else's mercy, and this grated on his nerves like someone's constant off-key singing.

He had left that stupid island, dragging a protesting Mokuba all the way with him all the way to his helicopter. The first order of business when he had reached his office was to get rid of those meddling directors of his company. They had tried to get rid of him, but their plan had backfired. Instead, he had fired each and every last one of them.

The sweetness of victory had not lasted long however. Soon after regaining control, he had accepted a visitor into his office. Not unusual, considering the number of people who had business propositions for him everyday.

Instead of the middle-aged man he was expecting however, a teenager had walked it. Platinum shoulder length hair hung about his face, and strange lavender eyes had been the first things to make him feel nervous. It wasn't that purple eyes were so uncommon, of course; it was the glint in them. A glint that reminded him of himself, only crueler, and slightly insane. Teenager or not, this was not a person to be messed with.

He had found out exactly how true that feeling was, when he woke up several hours later, with no memory of what had happened. One moment, he had been in his office, the next he was in this room, with that strange person watching him and laughing. It galled him to watch, as the stranger had laughed and told him how easy he was to control. That he had made Kaiba set up a tournament as a trap for an old friend.

Now all he could do was wait. He would have to wait until that jerk came back and let him out, or until someone realized that he was missing. "Fat chance of that," he muttered to himself, as he waited for the platinum haired idiot to come back, so that he could punch him.





"Battle City is a new tournament set up by Seto Kaiba," Serena explained. "Considering how suddenly it came about, I would bet that he started advertising it almost as soon as he came back." She sat back into the couch, leaning into Yami unconsciously. "I'm not quite sure how it works yet, but I'm assuming it follows most conventional rules."

Yami's eyes widened almost imperceptibly as he felt Serena lean into him, but he decided not to comment on that. "Do you think he set it up because of Yugi?" he asked, proposing one of his suspicions. "He seemed awfully upset when he left Duelist Kingdom. Maybe he wanted to challenge Yugi to prove that he was better?"

Serena nodded thoughtfully. "That could be," she agreed. "In any case, I need to sign up for it. I had a - well, you might call it a premonition." Her gaze grew in intensity as she spoke. "One of the bearers of a Millennium item will be there. A particularly strong fragment of Chaos has taken control of him." Her eyes started to get worried. "In addition, there will be. something else there. Three somethings actually; and powerful."

"Do you have any idea what they are?" Tea spoke up. "I mean, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go into the tournament blindly."

"Yeah. I remember when Yug and I started dueling at duelist kingdom. Those new rules were a big surprise." Joey added his own two cents. "If there's gonna be something special at that tournament, it would probably be better to check it out."

Yugi stared at his friend for a moment. Joey was the last person anyone would expect to say look before you leap. It just wasn't in his nature. He did have a point though. Chasing after evil spirits was dangerous enough, without adding some other powerful creature to the mix.

Serena nodded. "Yes, I plan to look into that." She told them with a dismissive wave of her hand. "In the mean time, I think I should go sign up for the tournament. And Yugi and Yami too, if they agree."

Yami and Yugi nodded their assent, but before Serena could get up, Tristan broke in. "Don't you need a deck? I mean, you can't duel without one" He felt slightly foolish for stating the obvious, but he was curious. Serena had come from out in space from what he knew. Where would she get a dueling deck?

Serena smiled at the question; a slightly sad smile, but a smile all the same. "I do have a deck," she told him. "If you would like to see.?" She trailed off, and pulled out her specially made deck. "I think I'll have a few tricks up my sleeve." She told everyone. "I have a few.custom made cards."

She smiled at Pegasus at the last, and Yami couldn't help but feel a flash of jealousy. 'She couldn't like Pegasus! She was supposed to like him!' He blushed slightly as he remembered how she had leaned on him a few minutes ago - was still leaning on him in fact.

Everyone oohed and aahed at seeing her one-of-a-kind cards. "Cool!" Joey exclaimed, taking a long look at the card, which represented Pluto. "What card is this? I've never heard of the Guardian of Time before."

"That's because it's a brand new card that I had Mr. Pegasus make for me. It's the only one of its kind." The sad look returned to her eyes, as Joey commented on the card's special ability to stop the opponent for two turns once each time it was played. "All of the cards have a special ability," she told them, showing off her 'friends'.

She held up the Shaman of Ice card. "This one lets you look at your opponents hand once each time it's played, and this one;" she held up the Priestess of Fire, "lets you look at the top card on your opponents deck, without them seeing it. All the abilities can only be used once per play, but still, I think they'll be useful, ne?"

Yami was off in his own world while he looked at the cards. By strange chance, or Destiny, Serena had heard Yugi's call, and had come when he played the angel of light. Looking at the cards, he noticed two in particular. The Guardian of Time, and the Sovereign of Silence looked like Pluto and Saturn.

Yugi grinned at her. Even though the abilities only worked once, they would still be a big advantage for her. Only the most experienced of duelists, or those with a Millennium item could hope to counter her. "No one will stand a chance with that deck. Especially seeing as you have some really good magic cards too. Mirror force, and some of those original magic and trap cards will make you unbeatable!"

"That's what I'm hoping Yugi. Only the person possessed by Chaos, and perhaps you and Yami will have a chance at getting to the finals, so I intend to be there too, in order to stop this fragment." She smiled again, this time in anticipation. "What are we waiting for though? We have to sign up before all the spots are taken!"



"Hello, we would like to sign up for the tournament." Serena told the bored looking official at the booth, pointing to herself, Yami, and Yugi. "Names.?" "Serena Moon, Yugi Motou, and Yami Motou." Yami and Yugi had decided to pose as brothers, seeing as they looked identical.

The official perked up slightly at the sound of Yugi's name. "The world champ is here?"

Yugi blushed slightly at this, and hung his head. "Yes, I'm the one who beat Seto Kaiba," he said, shooting an apologetic glance at Yami. The aforementioned spirit only 'hmmphed' quietly, and crossed his arms, pretending to look bored. While Yugi was interrogated by the official, Yami sidled closer to Serena, trying not to attract any attention while he did so.

Serena smiled slightly at what Yami was doing, while pretending that she didn't notice. While she had tried not to admit it at first, she did have feelings for Yami, if only because she felt he understood her so well. When Yami was close enough, she reached out her hand to grasp his, watching in amusement as the light blush that was already on Yami's cheeks intensified.

"Well come on then," she said, turning and dragging Yami with her. "We better go get ready! Places to go, people to duel.you get the picture!" Without another word, she pulled the still blushing Yami behind her as she started for the arena.

The blond girl did not even notice the obstacle until she bumped into the person, falling backward to the ground. Jumping up and apologizing profusely to the person she had hit, she began brushing the dust off her skirt. "Gomen, gomen, gomen." she trailed off as she looked into a pair of eyes as violet as Yugi's.

A hard look came into her own eyes, as she felt the aura of Chaos radiating off this new person. She also felt the open hostility towards Yami, and gripped his arm protectively. "Sorry about that." She told him, her manner not seeming at all apologetic. "We'll be going now." She gave Yami's arm an insistent tug as she walked away.

"What was that all about?" he asked her.

"I think," she said, her hands clutching her deck of cards. "That we've found what we're looking for."



Silver Angel: Well minna? What did you think? Again, I would like to apologize for being so late with this, but I got sidetracked with another fic. Like I told you earlier, my Ken muse snuck up on me, hit me over the head, and tied me up till I agreed to write a fic about him.

Ken: Yeah, but you know you wanted to write a fic about me.

Silver Angel: Last chapter I put up, I got a review telling me that Bakura is Ryou, and Yami Bakura is Bakura. In reply, I would just like to say that I am perfectly aware of this. However, I watched all the shows in the dubbed version, and they put the names the way I used them. That's the reason I'm using the dubbed names too. I'm less likely to screw up and have both sets of names, if I work with what I'm most comfortable with. ^_^

Anyways people, I tried to put a little more plot into this chapter, so I hope you like the results. Also, did I do okay with Kaiba? I find it kinda hard to relate to his character, so I'm not sure how well I did. Still, I hope you liked it. The next chapter will probably have a duel, and possibly bring back one of the scouts.

Oh! And a Yu-Gi-Oh plushie of their choice to anyone who can guess how I'm gonna bring them back. I think it was kinda obvious, but that could just be me. ^_^

Review Please!