(This fic takes place about six or seven years after Battle City. Battle City is actually Kaiba's last season on the show, and he goes to America with Mokuba to open more Kaiba Lands or something like that, but I set it in Domino anyway for no particular reason. I refer to Ishizu by her American name, since using the name Isis will get kind of confusing later on. I also refer to Odion by his Japanese name, Rishid, since I really don't like the name Odion. I don't know why, I just don't. Also, the formatting probably got all screwed up when I uploaded this chapter, so I apologize if you have trouble reading it. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough..)

~

"So, Miss..uh, Ishtar, is it? Well, Miss Ishtar, you do seem to be our most qualified candidate for the job so far." The man sitting across from her rifled through her résumé briefly. "So it says here that you spent two years serving as the head of the Egyptian Department of Archaelogy. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And you are bilingual."

"Yes. That is correct. I speak both English and Arabic fluently."

"Hmm." The man (Mr. Gotaru, is it?) rubbed his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Ishizu wondered idly what he must have looked like as a child.

"Well...once again, I must say you do seem very qualified for the job. Congratulations Miss Ishtar; you start on Monday."

"Monday."

"Yes. The post of Mr. Kaiba's personal secretary pays very well. Though I must warn you that Mr. Kaiba may be..very, er, temperamental." There was an uncomfortable silence as Mr. Gotaru toyed with his pen. "Well, anyway, I'm very proud to welcome you to the staff of Kaiba corporation." He stood up and offered his hand to Ishizu. On an impulse, she asked a question. "What happened to the last secretary?"

Mr. Gotaru gave her a brittle smile. "Maternity leave."

~

Ishizu jabbed moodily at the elevator button. She supposed she was should be happy about this job (after all, it paid well compared to the numerous other jobs she'd applied for, and Kaiba Corporation was only a short distance from her apartment), but to tell the truth, she absolutely hated the idea of being Kaiba's secretary. Ishizu felt that there was something incurably crude about the idea of being at Seto Kaiba's beck and call. Not to mention the fact that she, an educated woman, was now reduced to making coffee and answering the phone for Kaiba. Then again, she didn't really even want the job anyway. She was only taking it to be near her brother. Marik insisted on living in Domino instead of moving back to Egypt as Ishizu had tried vainly to persuade him to do. He was currently sharing an apartment with Bakura, and Ishizu didn't know whether they were just friends or it was something more than that, but the fact of the matter was she'd really rather not know. Things were much easier to manage when left unsaid. But she had no other choice but to resign her position as head of the department of Archaeology. It was out of the question for her to retain her post once she left Egypt. No, she corrected herself, she wasn't forced. She did it for Marik. It was as simple as that. Hadn't her mother taught her constantly that nothing was stronger than the ties of family? But what it all came down to was that Ishizu had to find a job here if she wanted to stay near her brother.

The elevator dinged as it reached the ground floor and Ishizu stepped off. Various businessmen hurried past her. There was a sterility about Kaiba Corporation, like the feeling Ishizu gets when she walks past an abandoned house. The various businessmen seem to be nothing more than mirages, mirages reflected by the polished marble floor. Ishizu suddenly understood how a caged animal feels. For who knows but she may end up like one?

~

Ishizu reached Kaiba Corporation the next morning at about seven- thirty. She had an office adjacent to Kaiba's, something she doesn't find particularly comforting. Oh well, with some skill and maneuvering she wouldn't have to speak more than she needed to him. She remembered her first impression of him several years ago at the Domino Museum. Cold, haughty and imperious, he had been anything but endearing. She doubted he'd changed much. Her chair squeaked slightly as she sank into it and studied her new office. It was tiny, not much bigger than a cubicle, actually. (Ishizu felt thankful she was not claustrophobic.) Her office was painted with spotless white walls, and smelled faintly of paint thinner and pencils.

At quarter to eight, Ishizu heard voices from Kaiba's office.

"Where is she? I hope you told her I don't tolerate late secretaries. If she's not here by eight, she's fired." There was that all too familiar voice.

A second voice chimed in. "I'm sure she's in her office, Mr. Kaiba."

Ishizu debated inside her head whether or not she really wanted to see Kaiba. Her morning had gone on relatively fine without him, but if she didn't get up there was no doubt Kaiba would fire her on the spot. She sighed and forced herself to get up and walk out the door. Seto Kaiba turned and looked at her from behind his desk. She'd been right; he hadn't changed much at all. There were the same well-cut features and dark blue eyes she remembered so well. He studied her briefly. She, on the other hand, must have been very hard to recognize. She had disposed of her gold braids and loose linen dress, and was dressed instead in a conventional skirt and heels, and wore her hair in a bun at the nape of her neck.

"Well, well, if it isn't Ishtar..I'm glad to see you've given up your fortune-telling frippery and decided to come back to reality. Though I warn you: I didn't hire you to hear you croak about the future. I hired you as a secretary and if you insist on burdening me with your prophetic babble, you can walk out the door and find another job."

Ishizu looked him squarely in the eye. She repressed an insane desire to slap Kaiba and stand him in the corner, like the spoiled child he was at heart. She frowned, wondering yet again why she had taken this job. If she had wanted to hear someone mock her like this, she could have moved in with her brother.

~

Ishizu detested her new job much more than she could ever have imagined. The hopelessly prosaic world of business, she felt, was one that didn't ever allow for the magical side of things. And Kaiba wasn't helping either. He was so constantly provoking, constantly taunting, constantly mocking her. Some days it took every ounce of strength Ishizu possessed to refrain from throwing her papers into his smug, condescending face.

But, as she reminded herself constantly, it was her duty to bear it, even if she couldn't stand it. After all, Ishizu had always particularly prided herself on her high sense of duty and her ability to bear just about anything. But within a few weeks or so, she had more or less gotten used to her new routine. She woke at six, and stood in the kitchen and ate a light breakfast of some kibbeh or tabbouleh and an English muffin. She then showered and dressed, and was on the subway by six-fifty. Once at Kaiba Corporation, she usually spent the whole day on the computer, doing paperwork, or finishing one of the numerous petty tasks Kaiba felt was below him.

One Tuesday afternoon Ishizu arrived home tired and threw herself down on the sofa. She loosened her collar and kicked off her shoes as someone knocked on the door. She was tired; she didn't even want to bother to answer it. She figured if she stayed still, whoever was at the door would decide she wasn't home. She had had a particularly bad day. Kaiba had been in one of his moods and had spent the better part of the morning raging at her, and then the afternoon sulking behind his desk. Well, he hadn't sulked exactly. But Ishizu interpreted that stony silence he maintained for several hours as nothing more than childish defiance. She had left Kaiba Corporation that afternoon with a mixed feeling of relief and anger. On her way home on the subway she thought she that she felt someone try to feel her up, and had promptly smacked the offender on the face with her purse, only to turn around and face a surprised elderly gentleman whose hand had inadvertently grazed her thigh while he was trying to get off. And whoever was at the door was still knocking. Ishizu repressed a growl and got up and wrenched open the door.

Her brother Marik was standing in the hallway.

And behind him, she noticed with a slight frown, was Bakura.

Ishizu bit her tongue and let them in, wishing that she had not answered the door. Marik stared at her for a few minutes with a slightly confused expression. What had happened to his sister, the calm, serene, perfectly groomed Ishizu? It seemed she had been replaced with this loose- collared woman with windswept hair, a tired look in her eyes and a pencil smudge on her left cheek. Bakura walked in with his usual infuriatingly tranquil expression, barely noticing Ishizu at all.

Her brother's purpose in life, Ishizu thought scathingly, seemed to be to make as much possible trouble as he could for her.

Marik and Bakura sat down on her sofa. Ishizu felt with a sense of foreboding that this would turn out to be a very messy confrontation. One that they had put off for too long. Even as she studied her brother, Ishizu felt a slight twinge of jealousy. Face it Ishizu, she told herself, you may not exactly condone some of Marik's choices, but he's undeniably happy, something you wish you could have. It was true, she thought rather bitterly, that she had long since gotten used to dead-end relationships. She remembered Rishid with a slight pang. They had been together for a while, but it didn't work out. True, he was about ten years older than she was, but she still blamed herself. It certainly wasn't Rishid's fault. After all, he was loyal, serious, and undeniably devoted to her and her family- as he'd proved again and again. Then what exactly went wrong?

"Ishizu?"

She blinked. Marik was staring at her with a slightly worried look. All her anger evaporated abruptly at the sight of her brother. Something about his expression recalled the Marik of earlier years, her sweet adoring little brother Marik, untainted and innocent.

She shook her head slightly and sat down next to them.

"Ishizu...we came here tonight because we have something important to tell you..." Marik paused, then continued, "Bakura is planning on moving back to England sometime soon. And I'm... I'm going with him."

Ishizu suddenly felt a surge of vicious anger.

How could he?

She had left everything she knew in Egypt to accompany him here in America.

And now he wants to traipse back to England.

How could he?

Didn't he think about her feelings?

Her circumstances?

The numerous sacrifices she'd made for his sake at one point or another?

But when she spoke, her voice was slow and even.

"Marik...I hope you don't expect me to go with you."

Marik looked at her in surprise. "Ishizu, but you're my sister."

"No, Marik. Perhaps you don't understand me. I as good as gave up my life in Egypt for you. Maybe you can't comprehend how hard I worked to get where I was. I never had an education like yours, Marik. I wasn't the long- hoped for first son. But I came a long way. I spent years studying Archaelogy. I spent years climbing to the top to get to where I was. But I gave that up. So I could stay next to you. And now you want me to do that again." Her voice was still calm, but her expression was fierce.

Marik was silent, but Bakura spoke up for the first time.

"Well, we aren't in any hurry. We won't move for the next ten months, at least. If you change your mind, you're more than welcome to join us."

Ishizu wanted to shake the man violently. Hadn't he heard a word of what she had just said? She glared at him.

"This is ridiculous. I don't have the time for this. If you would be so kind as to leave me alone for now, we can continue this discussion tomorrow." She looked pointedly at the door.

Mokuba Kaiba tapped his fingers impatiently. He loved his big brother, but he had to admit that one of Seto's most annoying little quirks was the fact that it always took him forever to decide what to order off a menu. I swear, he thought, for someone who barely eats, Ani-chan's pretty picky.

Trying to pass the time, Mokuba stared at the other restaurant patrons. A fat man in a suit was speaking vehemently to his dinner companion, a bored-looking woman who jabbed at her shrimp with a glazed expression. To the table next to them sat a woman in her thirties with thick eyebrows and a frilly white shirt and her twin daughters. One was picking her nose, and the other was chewing ice. On the table across from theirs, a solitary woman wearing a white off-the-shoulder dress sat. He craned his neck to get a better look. Hmm...black hair, a not too bad figure...funny, she almost reminded him of someone. The woman suddenly turned around and looked straight at him.

"Seto, isn't that your secretary?"

His brother glanced up. "Where?"

"There. The table in the corner."

"Yes. So?"

Mokuba sprang up and waved eagerly at her. She smiled hesitantly, but came over to their table.

"Mokuba, it is nice to see you." She looked down at him gravely. "And Mr. Kaiba."

Seto gave her the briefest of nods.

"Hey..why don't you join us?"

Ishizu smiled imperceptibly. She'd always preferred Mokuba to his taciturn brother. She remembered him from years ago, at the Battle City Tournament. She was secretly quite fond of him. So devoted to his older brother, and he had that charming naïveté. He reminded her of how her brother used to be.

"Of course. If your brother doesn't mind?"

Seto nodded darkly. Of course, Ishtar shows up, he thought petulantly. He'd been tired from work, and there was the fact that he and Mokuba hadn't spent any quality time together for quite a while now. He offered to take Mokuba out to dinner, just the two of them, but his secretary shows up and worms her way into their meal. But he couldn't refuse. Well, not according to proper etiquette, at least.

While waiting for their food to arrive, Ishizu and Mokuba talked for a while. Mokuba often spent afternoons at his brother's office, so he had met Ishizu again a few weeks ago. He also still remembered her somewhat from Battle City. They talked about Battle City for a few minutes, while Kaiba sat silently.

Kaiba was still annoyed at the Ishizu's intrusion, but he couldn't help studying her. She was a handsome woman, he almost grudgingly admitted. Her profile was outlined by the candlelight, and he couldn't help admitting she had a certain languid grace, with her arching throat and those watery movements that reminded him so forcibly of some mermaid. She had changed a lot since Battle City. She'd lost that somewhat mystical tone and her voice was a little more prosaic, something he felt was an improvement. But she still had that serious demeanor and sphinx-like eyes. She was fascinating. But that didn't mean he was fascinated with her. He considered himself impervious to any woman's charms, no matter how strong. And there sure as hell was no way he was going to fall for his secretary, of all people.

The food soon arrived, cutting short his reverie. Throughout the dinner, thought, he couldn't help noticing that Ishizu had looked tired and worn out. Funny, all his secretaries seemed to have that expression after a while. But then again, he thought scornfully, what heavy responsibilities could Ishtar possibly have to wear her out like that? He remained silent for the rest of the meal.

At the end of the meal, Ishizu stood up and thanked both Kaibas. Mokuba responded effusively, but Kaiba simply said goodbye brusquely, and left.

Ishizu sat on her balcony for a long time when she got home that night. She had felt Kaiba's eyes on her during dinner, and felt slightly uneasy. She always hated being studied. It's not even like he has feelings for me or anything, at least, she mused. But she still wished she'd never gone out for dinner. She had felt slightly restless after Marik and Bakura had left, so she'd driven around Domino for a while, before finally deciding to have some dinner. Who knew Seto Kaiba would be at the restaurant she picked, too? She was still confused about Marik. It was entirely inconsiderate of him to spring that on her like that. But she still yearned to go with him. He was still her little brother. She was attached to him. Like it or not, he was all she had left. Hadn't they been through worse than this before? She had rescued him from himself during Battle City. Mother was right, she thought as she leaned back and stared at the moon. He's my flesh and blood, the tie more sacred than any other. She became lost in a reverie before she was interrupted by the strident yowls of two stray cats fighting with each other on the street. She sighed heavily and went inside.

(..Since I know there are a lot of you out there who can't stand yaoi, I kinda left the whole Marik/Bakura thing open to interpretation. Whether they're friends or lovers, I don't really know, just go ahead and imagine whatever you want. But either way, I don't really plan to go too deeply into Marik's life or anything, since this is a SetoxIshizu fic.

Also, a little note on Ishizu's character. I know in my fic she may not seem exactly like she is on the show, but it's more of my interpretation of her character. Since the show never really went in depth on her personality, I've always kind of imagined her calmness as just covering up a lot of internal conflict and turmoil. I've always felt sort of aggravated at the fact that she just remains so calm about every single thing, so in this fic, I made her seem a little more human. (i.e. random spurts of insanity, reckless driving, and all those other common foibles of human nature...^_^)

And the High priest Seto and Priestess Aishizu parts will be in the next chapter. Hopefully incentive enough for you to keep reading this fic. ^_^ And I just noticed that I seem to always end up writing excruciatingly long and rambling Author's notes for some reason..)