AN: That is not enough reviews, my dear readers (if any be existent, lol)! Anyway, school started today, so I decided to finish up this story. Hope you like it! Thanks to everyone that read it and reviewed. Your helps are most appreciated. Thanks again!
"Chess?" Kaiba's cold cobalt eyes narrowed, and a grim smirk stole his features. "I am game." Calmly now with a new resolute light in his eyes, he stepped onto the board. Almost instantly a gleaming crown of obsidian appeared and rested on his pale head.
Connor said with a soft laugh, "Let the game begin then, my friend."
"Wait a moment." Isis suddenly said, and she stepped onto the board as well. "I am afraid you will have to play both of us."
The man looked at her with amazement, before shifting his gaze to Kaiba, then back again. "Aww, How sweet," He said scornfully, "You would be his queen."
Kaiba flushed just the slightest, and Isis seemed unperturbed. "Yes, in a figure of speech." She answered calmly. Reaching into the shadows about her, she pulled a long bow of ebony with a quiver of arrows fletched with feathers of desert kite. Standing the weapons beside her with an easy grace, she looked back at the man coolly.
"If the lady insists, then I am sport." Connor said with a cruel curl of lips. "King pawn up two." The marble statue suddenly sprang to life and moved up two spaces.
Kaiba did not hesitate, "King pawn up two."
The game had begun. Kaiba watched as his opponent set up a traditional Sicilian defence with a few original twists, and a perpetual smirk was on his face. He had a perfect strategy to tear through such defence. He scattered out his pawns to make way for his pieces.
"Knight take bishop at D3." He commanded, and watched with grim satisfaction as his black rider decapitated the white bishop with a single swipe of blade.
With a snort Connor countered the seemingly amateur move, "Knight take knight at D3."
"You fell into the trap without so much as a backward glance." Kaiba laughed, and he sounded smug. Indeed there was just one opening in the fortress of white army now, about to be torn down from there.
Kaiba began to declare his move, "Queen to..."
He suddenly stopped, as if a new thought had struck him. He turned a little and glanced towards Isis, a faint trace of fear in his eyes. His plan was a reckless one that involved sending a lone queen into the very heart of the enemy's forces. Normally he would not hesitate, for even if his queen was trapped and taken, it would be well worth it. But it was no longer a simple chess match, this was a Shadow Game; and his queen was no longer a wooden sculpture, it was a living, breathing Isis.
He hesitated, and for a moment his mind was frozen. Isis looked at him pointedly, before moving up to the square of d4. With an uncanny speed she strung the bow and notched an arrow, aiming at the white king. "Check." She stated simply.
With a growl Connor moved out of her path. Isis laughed softly, and turned. Her arrow flew and struck the white castle sitting in the corner. Following the arrow, she glided over to the corner of the board, a lone dusky figure in the mass of white. Kaiba could feel his fist clenching and unclenching with an anxiety he had never felt before.
"So you dare to come down all the way here?" That was Connor's voice sneering coldly. "Surely you won't think of leaving so soon?" He laughed and moved another piece to block her only exit at g2.
"Isis..." Kaiba growled in a low voice, trying vainly to suppress his worry. He knew Isis was in grave danger. Of the three pieces surrounding her, only the knight at g1 was unguarded. But any decent chess player could see that the knight was not safe for the taking, for countless traps were waiting behind. But without hesitation Isis plunged another arrow into the white knight, and took its place swiftly.
"Isis!" Kaiba shouted.
Connor laughed hysterically and said, "Oh my dear woman, whether you really don't know how to play chess, or the pressure has gotten to your hand. By taking my knight, you have just written your own death wish. Queen to d2." The white queen moved obediently to the position. "You are trapped for sure, dear."
"Bishop to e3." Isis declared coldly. "Now Connor, choose. Do you rather have me, or keep your own queen."
The man stared at her incredulously, and finally he said with a snort, "What made you so sure I wouldn't want you instead?"
"Because I know you can not afford it." Isis replied calmly.
Finally after a long and hard glare Connor withdrew his queen, emptying out the strategic position. Two moves later, Isis was back on her own side of the board again, standing alongside Kaiba in the black army. "Clever manoeuvre, but way too risky." Kaiba said quietly.
"It didn't seem well to waste all of your set ups." Isis said lightly.
"Don't take this so lightly!" Kaiba said with a flash of anger, seizing her wrist with a grip iron force. "Don't do it again, I don't like people interrupting my game plan." His voice was harsh, but his hand was cold with lingering fear. Isis said no more and turned away from him. The game went on, and the shadows pressed thicker and blacker.
Kaiba was determined to not send his queen into play once more. In his fervent mind he told himself he could triumph over Connor's crippled force even without his queen. Isis watched the unfolding game with troubled eyes, yet still she said nothing. The game soon turned into a battlefield of inexpressible strangeness, for both players were concentrating on setting up their own strategy, and their pieces seldom even touched.
Finally Connor took the offensive. He swooped down a bishop and took Kaiba's last knight. He laughed sinisterly and boasted, "Check mate in three moves, my boy. You can see it as well as I do, can't you?"
Kaiba's face was a shade paler, and fire was in his eyes. His fist clenched tightly, but he said nothing. For a long while he stared at the board silently and didn't make a move. There was fear in his eyes. Isis suddenly broke the silence. She declared in her cold and calm voice, "Bishop to a6, and check."
With an unimpressed grumble Connor moved one space. "What do you think you are doing?" Kaiba whispered fiercely.
"Don't worry, I have a plan that will win us the game in three moves." Isis said coolly and ordered the other bishop in position and checked once more. That forced the white king to move one more space, almost in the very corner.
Kaiba watched and instantly knew what Isis was planning. His eyes narrowed, and he cried loudly, "Absolutely not! What made you think you will be safe?"
"He won't touch me." Isis said mildly. "It would be the end of him."
"Even if he retrieves, he will still be checkmated the next move."
"Which is exactly the purpose." Isis said pointedly. "It's an assured victory."
Kaiba stared at her, his eyes hard and cold like ice. Finally he said, his voice ringing steel, "No."
"Don't be obstinate, Seto." Isis said wistfully. "There is no other way. If we let this chance slip away, we will be facing inevitable defeat in three turns. I would rather not be banished to the Shadow Realm for eternity to come."
She didn't wait for a reply, but glided to the very corner of the board, right beside the white king. She regarded the man coolly and said, "Check."
Connor was by no means blind. He had seen the certain defeat, and he stood frozen for a long while. Finally he laughed hysterically, a sound so sharp and harsh like the cackling of crows. "Mine, oh mine." He said, and strangely he sounded truly mirthful. "Aren't you clever as a devil? It seems I have grossly underestimated you both. Oh dear, what must I do? I will be checkmated next move no matter what I do!" There was an eerie comedy in his voice. With a sigh of overblown drama he pulled forth his long white sword and held it before him ceremoniously.
"Are you forfeiting the match?" Isis asked, a faint trace of surprised joy in her voice.
"Actually, not quite..." The man laughed again.
A flash, and the sword had pierced through Isis.
Time itself seemed frozen. There was not a stir about them. Finally Isis let out a strangled gasp, and fell to her knees.
"Isis!" Kaiba shouted.
Isis turned to him and cried wildly, "Don't move!"
Her face was drawn with pain, but her blue eyes were fierce. Kaiba could feel himself froze once more, his feet planted firmly in the midst of his own battle of wills. There was now a fleeting relief in Isis's cobalt eyes, and she smiled lightly, before her eyes fluttered closed, and she crumpled to the ground.
Connor laughed again. "Well, since I am going down, I must drag someone along with me." He said viciously, watching the form of the fallen woman slowly untangled into thread of darkness. "She is awfully pretty isn't she? You like her, no? Well, what a shame she will be stuck with me in this lovely place for all eternity to come." He finished with a malicious glee.
"Why don't you shut up!" Kaiba barked ferociously, his eyes aflame with fury.
He wasted no more time and ordered, "Castle to b1, and checkmate."
Connor did what was the only thing left to do: he laughed. He was laughing manically, his dark eyes brimming with tears even as he faded into the shadows. Soon he was gone. Darkness stirred, and began to engulf everything. The board and the fallen pieces melted and were swiftly evaporating into the dark, including the still form of Isis.
"No!"
Kaiba dashed forward and took Isis's vanishing form in his arms. "No!" He cried. "Don't you dare!"
She felt cold like Arctic ice, and light like a feather, almost weightless. For a while her form held still and stopped fading, but still the shadows danced about her hungrily, eager to claim their prize. Kaiba could feel waves of relentless shadows washing over him, pressing him for what is rightly theirs.
"No." He said fiercely in a low voice. "Get back to the hellhole where you came from, and leave her alone. I won't let you take her."
There was an odd silence, then the distinct feeling of disdain. The shadows pressed still. With growing fury he cried out, "Release us! I am the victor of this shadow game, and I claim her as a prize. I have earned my way out of this realm!"
The shadows hesitated, and slowly circled about him, pondering its next move. He stood up swiftly and glared at the endless dark. A slumbering power seemed to wake within him suddenly as he stood there in the midst of shadows. The eye of Horus now appeared on his forehead, glowing with a brilliant light that pierced the darkness about. "Release us now!" He spoke, his voice low but imposing. "In the name of Ra and Horus Reincarnate I command you. Release us from this realm!"
With one last angry stir the shadows retreated, and revealed the same white pebble beach on that lonely island. The water was still black, and the sky still grey, yet the air felt freer, without the haunting feeling of a sinister presence hovering near. Kaiba breathed again and looked down at the still form in his arms. She was pale, and still cold, but she was solid once more, no longer insubstantial and weightless.
"Isis..." He murmured, his voice quivering just the slightest. He dropped to his knees wearily, and pulled the form in his arms closer. She was cold, so cold, and for a while he despaired.
Just then her eyes opened. She looked at him, before asking softly, "Seto, are you alright? You seem a little shaken."
He stared into her cerulean orbs, and he was speechless. Suddenly with joyful fervour, he bent forward and kissed her. She was still cold like ice, yet she tasted divine. A moment I would purchase with eternity of hellfire, he thought fervently, and closed his eyes.