Lightning-Dono: Talk about mild drama (Referring to end of the previous chapter). O.o And happy Veteran's Day to all! Okay, not HAPPY Veteran's Day, but something like that.

Answers to the Reviews. DUH.

can't think – Yes, poor Isis...I can only slightly imagine her crying a bit, though. xD Heh, you like that line, don't you? xD;

Seto: ((cackle cackle cackle)) ((bounces up and down in chair)) (They don't allow asterisks. Darn it!)

Lightning-Dono: o.o; Wow.

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Rishid and Malik had their forks suspended in the air, stunned as they watched the strong woman sob into the table.

Malik awkwardly dropped his fork with a clatter and ran over to aid his sister. "Are you okay?" He asked, his tone of voice carrying the worry of someone who had just witnessed a car crash.

Isis continued to shake, but there was no reply. Just a couple of forlorn sobs that pierced the still air.

He proceeded to grabbing a box of sandy-colored, scented tissues and thrusting them to Rishid.

"Don't just sit there, help her!"

Rishid stared at the box in his arms as though he had never seen such a thing before in his life. "Uh...All right." He approached his half-sister carefully, pulled a piece of tissue out, and stood there, planning out some strategic moves.

From behind Isis, Malik poked her. Isis wasn't very pleased by this.

"Leave me alone!" She bellowed, raising her head for a split second to shake loose strands of hair from her face. She was caught by surprise when Rishid tilted her head up with two fingers, carefully placed below the chin, and dabbed at her cheeks lightly with the tissue. Rishid looked more like he was applying make-up to a movie star rather than soaking up tears from Isis's face. He continued to dab meticulously until Isis shook him off and padded up the creaky stairs, drying her eyes in humiliation.

"Well, that settles that." Malik returned to his seat at the table and quietly resumed eating.

Rishid just stood stark still in his spot. "I think he likes her more than we know," he concluded seriously before uttering a soft prayer for Isis and sitting down.

Up in her room, Isis was tossing things into a valise, fuming as she did so.

"I can't believe I just broke down infront of them!" Over her shoulder went a wooly undershirt. "What an insult to my reputation!" A shoe went flying into the wall, which caused a small commotion downstairs, mainly involving Malik suddenly telling a horror story about Isis being thrown into a wall. "Not quite," Isis said furiously under her breath as she latched the buckles on the valise and tossed it onto her firm bed. "I'm leaving a couple days early. I don't need to go by plans anyway. Probably couldn't stand another minute of Kaiba's obstinacy."

She spent a few moments surveying her room, picking out select items to bring with her. "I might not return for a while, so I should take what I can." But on her search, the only thing she found was something she held very dear.

A picture of Malik, Rishid, and she out fishing by the Nile River. They were all so innocent, so cheerful, not at all as dark as they were now. Malik was clutching a flopping fish in one hand while Rishid, though in stately clothing, raised his fishing rod over his shoulder and was smiling. Isis sat in the high grass, waving to the camera man, presumably a fisherman.

Unbuckling her valise, she smiled at the picture in a heart-felt way. Hugging it close to her chest, a tear streaked down her smooth cheek as the memories rushed through her mind.

Those moments where she had spent so much time comforting her brother, assuring him that his yami wouldn't be bad, even though deep in the wells of her heart she knew better. The times where she had to tell Kaiba to understand that his ancient past was more than he thought it was so many times that she wanted to just scream in his disbelieving face. And those times where she saw him dueling so valiantly, even against Isis herself, battling for his future.

But even more, she reminisced on the days where darkness was brought upon them. When Jounouchi lost his soul dueling against her only brother, taken over by an angry force brought forth within him. Flashbacks that contained nothing but colors that whizzed by that displayed the future.

"The future is so complex...How foolish did I have to be to think I could see into it from a silly necklace?" Isis thought to herself as she neatly placed the picture under a folded shirt in her valise, buckling it again. "I sound like Seto now...But if I am to like him, aren't I to think like him to?"

Isis, not being an expert at deep romance, pondered upon this for a while. She turned to face the mirror on the side wall of her room. Her turquoise eyes were showing signs of tiredness, as were her arms that were limply hung at her sides.

"I suppose I should get going now." Picking up her valise, Isis stalked out of the room with a sense of strength and pride she had inserted into herself. If she was to face Seto, she needed this sudden burst of confidence to defend herself or he'd injure her spirit more than needed.

She walked out on an unsuspecting Malik who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, dealing cards to Rishid, who he had forced into playing.

"You're leaving now?" He questioned in surprise, turning his head in her vague direction.

"Yes."

Malik, in turn, jumped up off the ground and threw his arms around his older sister. "I'm sorry if this seems sentimental and all...I mean, the hug. But be careful around Kaiba."

Isis wrapped her arms around his shoulders and patted his upper back with her slender fingers and femininely-shaped hand. "I will."

Her brother let go as she unlocked the door quietly slipping through the opening.

"Ra, keep her safe," Rishid personally told Ra in a quick whisper before Malik found his place on the ground.

"Now, a second round of Blackjack, right?" Malik challenged happily. Rishid groaned for they had been playing for half an hour now and Malik still wasn't satisfied.

"As you wish, Malik."

Isis strode through the streets, her right dress slightly blowing in the sandy winds that blew through Cairo. People everywhere held cloths up to their noses and mouths to filter the air of sand.

She arrived quickly at the airport as their home was very close to the industrialized section of the subdivided city.

Isis was to board a scheduled flight that evening for the center of Kitakyushu, a major city in Japan where Kaiba had his secondary headquarters. She had heard previously on the news that he would be holding a press conference there regarding a new version of duel disks, but she wouldn't wait.

With a feeling of importance, she knew that what she had to say was much more important than new technology. That could wait as many people could already do without the change (Economic suffrages were one thing. Not that many people can afford to buy a new duel disk.).

No, she was going to announce her affection for Kaiba right infront of the whole Kaiba Corporation committee that was to be there and make the man she was after turn red.