Disclaimer: Same old, same old.
A Dragon's Love
Chapter 24
You are safe now.
"Omaka…"
He can't hurt you now. He will never hurt you again.
"I don't understand…"
I will always protect you. I will not let anyone hurt you anymore.
Ari unconsciously turned towards the voice but could not see its owner. That voice, it was so strong and assured.
"You've hurt me before," she whispered.
I'm sorry. I did not want to.
There was sorrow in that strong voice and Ari felt a tear slide down her cheek. "I believe you."
I will protect you always, Ari.
"Why?"
Because master loves you.
"Ari!"
He calls for you.
"Ari, can you hear me?"
Fingers brushed softly against her cheek, collecting the tears trailing across her skin. Her head rested comfortably against something firm and warm and a scent she distantly recognized and longed for penetrated her senses.
"Ari."
Pale blue eyes fluttered open to dim blue light and drew into focus on the face that hovered above her.
"Seto," she whispered and he smiled with relief, his blue eyes glimmering as he tenderly stroked her cheek.
"You fainted," he said.
"What happened?"
"I deactivated all of the limiters. The Blue Eyes White Dragon drew so much power that it crashed the entire network and shattered the power grid. It will take at least a year to repair the damage."
"It was real," she whispered. "It was really here, a real Blue Eyes."
"Yes. I'm having a little trouble believing it myself," he admitted.
Ari reached up to touch his face and he leaned into her hand, closing his eyes for a moment to just enjoy her touch.
"He told me about…about the other me. How did you know?"
Seto's eyes opened slowly to stare down at her. "She didn't have the proof."
"What proof?"
Turning his head ever so slight, he kissed the palm of her hand. "Proof that she loved me, would die for me. Her features were flawless and for a moment I believed it was you, but they made a mistake, one only I would notice."
"They forgot the scars."
Seto smiled. "Yes."
"How did you know where to find me?"
"I realized it was Omaka behind everything. There was only one place he would go to finish it. Mokuba called my cell while I was en route."
"Mokuba, is he okay?"
"Yes. He told me about Washiro."
Ari's eyes widened suddenly in panic. "Sojo—"
"He was taken to the ER," Seto assured her. "He still has a chance."
"He saved my life."
"I'll definitely give him a six figure bonus for that," Seto smirked and Ari smiled.
"And an all expenses paid vacation, I think," she said and he chuckled.
"Done. Anything else?"
"No," she murmured as she turned her face into his shirt and he hugged her close. "I have everything I need."
"The police should be getting here soon," he murmured into her hair.
"Don't leave me," she whispered, renewed tears streaming down her face.
"Never," he stated firmly as his arms tightened resolutely around her. "I will protect you always, Ari."
He didn't believe in Fate, destiny, all those things that Yugi Motou and his groupies always talked about. But in the moment of terror, he decided if Fate was real then she must hate him with a passion. Silently he wondered how his heart could ever survive such a beating, mangled by Fate's perverse pleasure in suffering and pain.
For years, he kept his heart so carefully guarded against letting anyone in and yet Ari succeeded in breaking those walls down without ever intending to. It was then that he realized the pain he so greatly feared came only from losing what he valued most. Not this time. Not this time and never again. He would fail her no longer.
With that firm resolve he found a strength and speed he had experienced only once before when Fate in her cruelty decided to test the love he was so scared of accepting. Test him she might, but he would not be controlled. He was not going to lose Ari now that she had found her way through the darkness back to him.
That woman possessed his senses so completely he could not even think straight once he found her still alive and alone with a man who had but one irreversible intention. Ari would be dead long before he could get halfway down to the duel arena, so he reached for the one thing that never let him down.
If he could get the hologram to attack before Omaka could react, the blast of energy should incapacitate him even as it had done to Ari months before. To ensure this result, Kaiba deactivated all the safety protocols and allowed the hologram to feed on as much power as it wanted from the system. But he hadn't been fast enough to initiate the attack and only heaven heard him scream her name from the isolation of the observation booth above as Omaka pulled the trigger.
It was a dream. It had to be a dream. There was no other logical explanation. But as a man who never believed in other-worldly possibilities, he began to believe in that moment that something more than technology was watching over the woman he loved.
The computers were sparking frantically from the draw of power the Blue Eyes White Dragon pulled, but he hardly seemed to notice. His favored duel monster was crouched protectively over his beloved and not one bullet penetrated the solid form of energy.
Ari never had the intimidating bearing of a duelist but as she stood up beneath one of the most powerful monsters in the game, her long hair blowing from the gust stirred by the Blue Eye's great wings, she was an indomitable spirit. How he loved her so.
Then everything exploded.
Glass shattered in every direction and Kaiba did not escape unscathed, but his injuries were of no importance to him. He had to reach her, hold her, know for certain that she was all right. Only then would he breath again.
For a panicked moment he feared she would not wake. The Blue Eyes White Dragon's attack had been unprecedented. Could it have harmed the one it was meant to protect yet again? She was covered in blood but so warm to the touch, her breath soft and steady and when she stirred in his arms, his heart jolted back to life. The nightmare was over.
Seto Kaiba brushed loose strands of hair away from Ari's delicate features with extraordinary tenderness. In the comfort of his arms she had allowed herself to slip back into a state of unconsciousness so he had carried her up to his office before the police arrived and turned Kaiba Corp headquarters into a three-ring circus. There were going to be a lot of questions when Ari woke up. They would face them together because he had promised he would not leave her and this was one promise he was definitely going to keep. Besides, he loved watching her sleep. Her peace reassured him that everything was going to be all right in the end.
"How's she doing?" Mokuba asked softly to make his presence known.
"She's still sleeping."
Mokuba laid a hand on his big brother's shoulder and offered him the cup of coffee he had voluntarily retrieved.
"Thanks," Seto, murmured as he took the cup and sipped the hot liquid.
Mokuba slumped down onto the floor beside him and leaned his head against the loveseat Ari occupied. "She was amazing, Seto," he murmured as he gazed at her.
"She still is," Seto agreed. "When she wakes, Inspector Otsuki is going to want to talk to all of us."
"I hope you are planning on going to the hospital to get checked out afterwards," Mokuba said as he looked at his brother.
"I'm fine."
"Sure. That's why you keep wincing every time you move your shoulder."
"It's just a scratch, Mokuba."
The younger boy scowled and crossed his arms. "Seto—"
"For once just listen to your brother," Ari murmured and both Kaiba's turned to her in surprise. She cracked one eye open and then closed it. "He's a smart kid."
Seto grimaced to hide a smile that very much wanted to make itself known. "Fine, if it will make you happy."
"Should I get the Inspector?" Mokuba asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, let's get this over with," Seto agreed.
"It must be crazy down there," Ari said as she opened her eyes again to meet Kaiba's steady gaze.
"The reporters are going to have a picnic with it, that's for sure," he grumbled as he reached out and laid his hand against her cheek. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Ari closed her hand over his and smiled. "I'm not afraid anymore."
His blue eyes softened. "It's all of you in there now, isn't it."
"I was always here, Seto. Just lost for a while."
With his free hand, he started to play with one of her curly locks of gold as it always held a strange fascination for him, the changing shades so much like her spirit, sometimes gentle, sometimes defiant. But always, always it was her. The pieces might have been broken and scattered, but they were all still there just waiting to be put back together.
"What are you thinking?" she asked suddenly and he lifted his gaze to meet hers. After a silent moment, a mischievous gleam crept into his vibrant eyes.
"For being such a simple woman who never asks for anything, you sure have cost me a heck of a lot of money."
Ari chuckled softly. "That bad?"
"Without the safety protocols and active limiters in effect, the Blue Eyes sucked the generators dry and blew the network to pieces. That much energy wasn't necessary but it was as if the hologram wanted to use as much as it could get…and I let it." His eyes narrowed and darkened to a frightening shade and Ari felt her heart skip a beat. "I wanted to obliterate him," Kaiba growled through clenched teeth.
Tentatively, she reached up to touch his face and draw his attention back to her. "Did you?"
"We'll know soon enough," he said. "Either way, he will never hurt you again."
"He would be a fool to try," she spoke softly, her finger slipping back into his thick brown hair. Pulling him down to her, she captured his lips gently and he readily responded to her advance, wary of the chilled response he had come to expect when his persistence scared her. It didn't come and he let his wall of restraint crumble to her submission, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer.
A fleeting fear hovered on the edge of Ari's consciousness, the fear of something exciting yet unknown. She knew she loved this man and she knew she would always be safe with him. His kisses were becoming more insistent, passionate, even primal and suddenly she realized she was free to embrace her future fully now. The haunting memories had been shattered by white lightening.
When she continued to offer no resistance, Seto pulled back to inspect her expression. A strange light flickered in her eyes and she smiled at him shyly as she wound her fingers deeper into his hair.
"I was right," she murmured. "You are a dragon."
Seto grinned roguish as his hand slipped down to rest on the curve of her slender waist. "Took you long enough."
"Hmm," she murmured as she brought him back to her lips and encouraged him to prove just how much of a dragon he could be.
Inspector Otsuki reviewed his notes as he stood between Mokuba Kaiba and a patrolman on the elevator. This night was getting worse and worse, although he had to admit he was relieved that Ari Nieche was still alive. Such a kind young creature didn't deserve the things that seemed to happen only to her. So far he had two corpses, an unconscious felon, a shot up bodyguard, and of course the glue that held it all together, the Kaiba brothers and Ari Nieche. It was a bad case of déjà vu.
I seriously should consider retiring, he decided as the elevator slowed to a stop.
"This way," Mokuba Kaiba waved the two officers after him as he walked down the hallway to his brother's office.
The boy peaked through the slightly ajar door and then suddenly pulled it shut. "Uh…"
Otsuki raised a brow at the boy's reddened cheeks and wide eyes. "Well?"
Mokuba grinned sheepishly. "I think maybe we should give them a minute."
"A minute?"
Mokuba coughed and glanced away. "Or two?"
