Crossfire

Disclaimer: Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

AN- This is one of the chapters I think is borderline T/M. If you think this should be M, tell me in a review. There are absolutely no lemons in this chapter, but some violence and mentions of rape. Be wary if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.


Ch 3- Bitter Memories

The massive palm of Mai's night stalker reached nearly from ear to ear across her face. Clamped around her fragile jaw with enough force to make Mai's face twist in agony, the hand reminded her of a similar time not so long ago, when she was put in an all too similar situation. The memory she had tried to lock away broke through like a lake through a disabled dam, overwhelming her and adding to her current turmoil.

"Well, well, well look wha' we got here, boys." A voice to her far left came, freeing her from the Hell in her mind and into the Hell she now inhabited in reality.

"Looks like we got ourselves some entertainment tonight!" Another cruel voice came from the same direction the first had.

Tears threatened to escape the sanctuary of Mai's eyes as she struggled to breathe, the amount of oxygen able to travel through her nose now not sufficient to fuel her straining muscles. She'd have bitten the hand of her restrainer had she not feared the diseases the blood may carry, the filthy rat he was.

She let out a muffled whine against the man's hand and thrashed in his grip.

"Save some for later, feisty one!" Her capturer breathed into her ear, sending her into repulsed shudders.

Mai gasped for air as the giant hand was removed from her face. In an instant she was whirled around staring face to face with the man who abducted her. The stench of alcohol, cigarettes, and alleyway seemed to be all his matted clothing consisted of, as if they were not a shabby coat and baggy pants but instead whirls of fumes encircling his unclean body. The next instant she was forcefully thrust back into a wall, her head colliding with the rock hard bricks of the run down building behind her.

Suddenly there were six blurry antagonists instead of three, as her rattled mind temporarily altered her vision. The cold hard exterior of the building supported her a moment as her vision cleared. The three were closing in again, their high mocking laughter echoing in her very ear canals, threatening to make her head implode.

"What brings a worthless bitch like you out so late, hm?" A tall lean one on the right mock soothed, "You could get hurt out here, all by your lonesome."

Mai's face contorted with anger as she glowered at the three. "I'm not a worthless bitch," she growled dangerously.

Their sinister laughter rose once more, echoing not only in her ears but in the alleyway now as well. "Oh really?" the one who abducted her mused, "Coulda' fooled me." His smirk made her stomach churn.

"Now then, let's get going already, I'm sick of games," another of the three stated impatiently, "Let's take this scrawny whore down and get the hell out of here."

"Aye," the lanky one concurred.

Mai cringed mentally as a fourth voice cut into the picture. "You don't want to be doing that," it stated coolly. It held a cold, raspy, calm, yet familiar tone Mai at once recognized. She was at first relieved to hear it, and then her relief turned to embarrassment and shame. Although she shouldn't feel that way, she knew, no one should see her like this. They'd think she was weak, that she couldn't handle herself, like she was worthless.

"And just who the hell are you?" Her abductor challenged.

Suppressing her memories and thinking strategically, Mai decided to take advantage of the three's attention being temporarily drawn off of her. She learned from the last time; she promised herself she'd be ready if it ever happened again. Now it was time to see if she had been true to her word. Taking only a fraction of a second to calculate what to do, Mai had her mind set.

The 'feisty' blonde jumped and spin kicked her leg as high as she could, the side of her high heeled boot striking her blocky abductor square in the side of the skull. He grunted briefly before collapsing into the dank alleyway floor, blood and saliva spraying from his mouth and onto the face of the lanky one as he went down. He slightly bounced as he hit the concrete with an ear splitting smack.

Before her abductor had even hit the ground, Mai had already jumped at the brick wall, kicked herself off of it, and came down hard on the one who didn't want to play games. Feeling bones crack beneath her suede lavender boots, she landed atop the man's back and flipped off of him, landing gracefully in front of the lanky one, whose mouth was dangling open in blunt shock. Before she could do him any damage, however, a stern fist collided with the side of the man's jaw, and the sound of splitting bone echoed through the alleyway seconds before the dull thud of a body collapsing on the filthy ground.

Following the fist and down the arm to the man that had come to her aid, Mai found herself eye to eye with the owner of the fourth voice. Her memory proved to be accurate, because the man at the end of the fist was none other than the CEO of Kaiba Corp. himself, Seto Kaiba.

For a moment neither of them spoke. Their faces were set stern and cold, each a mirror image of the other.

"I suppose I don't need to ask if you're alright." Kaiba spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

Mai rolled her eyes and glared at him, "Thanks, Mr. Kaiba, but as you can see, I'm not like most girls. I don't need anyone's help." She responded icily.

He gave her a stern glare, "Don't take that tone with me, Kujaku," he spat, "I didn't have to be here. In fact, I have much more important things I could be doing, like running a multi billion dollar international company, for example." He replied through clenched teeth.

"Well then we wouldn't want to keep that company waiting now, would we?" She threw his tone back at him.

He visibly started shaking with anger and frustration. How dare she treat him like that after he came to her rescue? She did pull some pretty impressive stunts back there, he couldn't deny, but that didn't give her the right to talk to him the way she did.

Whipping her head around, Kaiba got a spray of hair to the face as she briskly walked off in the direction she was going before her incident.

Infuriated, he stormed after her. "Don't walk away from me, Kujaku!" He seethed.

She whirled around once more and glared him down. Kaiba almost flinched from the intensity of her glare, but kept his gaze steady. Now he wondered what it must feel like to be glared down by him. "Look, Kaiba," She hissed, "I appreciate you coming to help me, but I really don't need it. Now why don't you please go home?" She was determined to show no weaknesses.

Feeling slightly guilty about the way she was treating the man who had not only tried to rescue her, but had also been used and thrown away much like she had, she softened her gaze at him a bit before turning around and stepping away. She sighed, her back still to him, "Sorry, Kaiba. Thanks. Goodnight," She said more softly as she walked off into the night, the clicking of her boots fading away as she did.

Kaiba stood transfixed where she had left him. Watching her form disappear down the street, he tried to piece together what had just happened. He had followed her from the park, keeping a distance between them, until she heard him. He saw her look over her shoulder, although she made it look like she was checking the time- the clever bitch. Realizing she wasn't alone, she panicked and ran. She didn't see the figure waiting in the shadows of the alleyway, so he ran after her. Just as he was about to catch up, the man in the alleyway, oblivious of him, grabbed her and yanked her into the dank alley.

He didn't act right away, he needed information. He also didn't want Mai to think he'd been right behind her. How many of them were there, were they drunk, sober, young, weak? He needed to know to plan his course of action. Once he determined there were three of them, none a severe threat to him, he made his grand appearance.

Kujaku took advantage of his appearance and distraction of the three goons and took two of them out, quite miraculously, actually. Not to be outdone, he made sure to take out at least one of the bastards, but still, he couldn't for the life of him figure out this woman.

She took everything they threw at her, except one thing. They called her a worthless bitch. Anyone paying close enough attention could tell that had hit a nerve. He had a strange thirst to find out why.

From the times he'd seen her she always seemed so sophisticated and a bit snobby, never one to lift a finger for anything. He guessed he misjudged her snobby selfish attitude; perhaps what he perceived was not in fact the attitude of a snob, but simply of an independent person. He could admire that. She was almost like himself…

No, no one was like him. He shook his head and glared at where she had just been. And what of her last words? She was so snappy at him and defiant, and then her demeanor completely changed. Her hard words melted as she finally sincerely thanked him and walked away. Or was she simply a damn good actress? He hadn't been this confused in he couldn't remember how long. Maybe there was more to Kujaku Mai than met the eye.

Sending one last death glare at the sidewalk, he strolled off in the other direction, back to his limo. Mokuba would be worried about him by now.


It was well past midnight when Mai was finally ready to go to bed. She had taken an extremely long shower, scrubbing herself so ruthlessly she bled in some areas. She couldn't seem to wash off the stench of the three men, although she knew it was long gone. The stench that plagued her now was in her mind, her memories, to be more exact. Exhausted, frustrated, and confused, Mai flicked on the lights to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. Upon retrieving her glass and filling it, Mai noticed her answering machine was blinking '3 new messages'.

Dreading what she would be hearing, she pushed play.

One of her least favorite voices of the moment rang through her apartment as the message started. "Mai, Mai, its Jou. I just got back, I'm hoping you got home ok. I really want to talk to you, please pick up the pho…" Deleted.

Next message, "Mai, it's Jou, it's been almost a half hour, are you home yet? I'm getting worried, please pick up the phone, I need to know you're alright…" Deleted.

"Mai, its midnight and you haven't returned my calls, I'm worried sick, Mai, if you don't call soon, I'm going to call the pol…" Deleted.

End of messages.

She should call him, it'd cost them both if the cops were out looking for her unnecessarily. She picked up her receiver and hit speed dial 2. She'd need to remove that in the morning.

Jou answered so quickly it made Mai jump. Fumbling with the receiver, Mai silenced Jou on the other end.

"I just took a shower, Jou, I'm back now, I'm fine. Bye."

She went to hang up. She should have hung up. But Jou's persistent shouts kept her on the line.

"What took you so long?" He demanded from the other end.

She didn't want to tell him. Didn't want anyone else to know.

"I didn't see my messages."

"Bullshit," he called her bluff from the other end of the phone.

"I was at the park longer that I thought, ok? I needed to think. Goodnight, Jounouchi," she said more sternly.

"You're not telling me the truth-" She hung up on him. She couldn't take any more of this.

After disconnecting the phone, she aggressively grabbed her glass and hit the light switch off.

In her bedroom, she took a sip of her water and set it down on the table. It tasted bitter, coppery. It wasn't the water she tasted, it was blood. She scrubbed her teeth with the same savage intensity she had her body, causing the toothpaste she spit out to be stained red instead of a clean fluffy white. She'd definitely be sore the next day, that's for sure. No one would know about that either. Kaiba had better keep his mouth shut, or he'd pay.

Lying back in the soft warm comfort of her bed, the blonde's thoughts drifted on the arrogant CEO.

Something bothered her about his arrival. Something other than the embarrassment she felt when he did, but she was too tired to put her finger on it. The last thought running through her mind before troubled sleep took her was the sound of a splintering jawbone echoing off a cold alley wall.

It was so black she could barely see. Thick, soupy fog clung to her exposed skin as she ran through the empty streets. No one was in sight, no one there when she needed someone. Big surprise. The warped buildings and street signs loomed over her, bending and taunting her. "You can't escape, you can't escape!" they chanted as they swung to and away from her. She felt much like Alice in Wonderland, only this land was far worse than any Alice had come in contact with.

Giant looming shadows were closing in behind her. "Get her, get the bitch!" They shouted from behind, only their voices seemed to be swirling at her from all directions. The scenery started spinning, and Mai lost her balance and fell into a black puddle on the sidewalk.

In an instant they were all on her, ridged, claw like fingers ripping at her skin and clothes. She tried to scream for help but no sound came out. There were no lights in any buildings to signify anyone being within earshot, anyway.

The many shadows united into one that seemed to tower over even the distorted buildings. "This oughta' teach you never to run away from me, you useless whore!" It screeched at her, making her want to vomit.

Ripping every garment on her body off, it scratched and tore at her skin; she could feel the stinging ripping of her flesh and the warm flow of blood over her sensitive body.

The shadow figure leaned over her, its putrid breath hitting her face from all directions.

This time when she screamed, the sound rang out, only instead of echoing off of the alleyway walls, it echoed off the walls of her bedroom.

With tears streaming down her face and gasping for breath, Mai sat up in bed, covered in a cold sweat. She could hear a pounding noise coming from somewhere. She thought it was her own heartbeat, until she realized someone was frantically banging at the door.

She shakily stood up and wiped her tears, making her way toward the door.

She heard the jingling of keys in the lock and the door swung open, revealing a frantic Jounouchi on the other side.

"Mai, I came over to check on you and heard you scream. Are you alright?" he made an attempt to touch her face but she stepped back.

"I'm fine." She glared defiantly. "Give me your key."

"But Mai,"

"Give it to me," She extended her hand.

Jou looked defeated as he took the key of his key ring and placed it in the palm of Mai's outstretched hand.

"Now leave," she pointed coldly to the open door.

"No, I want to make sure you're alright!" he persisted.

"I said I'm fine. I don't need anyone, now go!" she raised her voice.

"But.."

"Just please go." She softened her tone.

"Fine," He half whispered. "Just promise you'll call if you need anything."

She didn't answer.

"Promise," He said firmly

"Fine," she answered and pushed him out the door, locking it behind him.

Once she heard him get into the elevator, Mai slid down the back of the door, crying into her hands.

It's over, it was a long time ago, and it's over. She told herself, attempting to calm down. It wasn't as bad as it is in the dream, it wasn't as bad, she tried to convince herself.

No one could find out, they'd never look at her the same. She felt filthy again, disgusting. Wiping her tears she went into the bathroom to take another shower.


Kaiba sat on the edge of his bed, musing over what he had discovered so far.

She is angry at Jounouchi.

She likes to prove she can take care of herself.

She snapped when she was called worthless, and defended me when she found out I had been... used.

There was something about that last thought that made Kaiba wonder.

Something happened to her in the past. Something she doesn't want anyone to know about. If I can find out, I can use it to my advantage. Make her confide in me, not him. That would work out wonderfully for my plan…


AN- Ok, please review this chapter and tell me what you think of it so far. It was long, I know. Any suggestions, comments, or improvements you can think of please say it in a review. Thanks, and have a great day ;)