Chapter 11:

Title: Shadow Wars Inc.

Author: Fairyfae

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: SetoxYami

Genre: Action, Romance

Spoilers: None of which I am aware.

Warning: Cussing, minor making out

Disclaimer: Me no own...TT (Snuggles Seto plushie)

Summary: Memories long since forgotten have reemerged to haunt Seto. The world is suffering random and unimaginable attacks. Seto suspects his company is involved in weapons dealing and a Pharaoh is brought back to life for a limited time to stop a supernatural disaster and to save his undeclared love

"She's Awake! She's Awake!" A small, dark body weaved around furniture and bodies, vibrating in excitement before settling in front of two seated figures. Grabbing one hand from each individual, he leaned his entire small body back and tried to pull the two seated people up only to bounce back and forth insistently as the adults remained seated.

"Seth, calm down. We'll be with you in a moment. Why don't you go spend some time with Bella before we get there? Prepare her for some of the questions that we'll have to ask her." Yami's deep voice rumbled, tinged with accents of suppressed good humor.

Seth tilted his head slightly to the side before bouncing from foot to foot, "Oh! Okay. I can go do that!" Looking to Seto and still bouncing with joy he asked, "I can tell her about her new name can't I?" At Seto's nod, the young child dropped both Yami's and Seto's hand, turned almost on point, and exited the room with hyperactive speed.

Bakura looked at the two seated in different chairs across from him, Seto in an armchair and Yami on the side of the couch closest to Seto. "Looks like you've made a new friend, pharaoh." Bakura turned a hard stare on Seto "Just remember, I am not babysitting."

"As if I would ask you to. I don't need two psychotic children sharing my last name. Aside from corrupting the boy, too much time with you would probably traumatize the poor girl for life." Seto scoffed, placing what was left of his morning coffee on the table beside him. Despite himself, he felt good that the boy had recovered so well with an additional night sleep. He had seemed so down and out, insisting that he sleep in the same room with the girl. Whereas yesterday, Seth seemed unsure of any of his new family, now he seemed confident that together they would beat up the bad guys and save the day. Seto suspected that Yami had given the boy one of his absurd pep talks but, regardless of its cause, Seto was grateful for the boy's improved state. After all, their ability to lift up depressed individuals was one of the reasons he originally allowed Mokuba to make friends with Yami and his crew.

Bakura just tilted his head, "Oh. Like you won't end up traumatizing them both anyway. If you ask me, you're headed for trouble with those two. I mean, just look at them. The kid named his sister beautiful. Talk about trotting the incest trail."

"Don't be any more perverted than necessary, sicko." Seto threw back, "They are only six or seven years old. They don't think like that." Seto continued in an easily audible whisper, "As if I would ask you about children, Freak."

"Hey, when I was a kid…"

Yami cut in, "Please spare us the details. I am sure neither of us want to know about your more questionable childhood exploits."

Bakura grumbled, "You never know Pharaoh. You might learn something from them."

Between arguments Yami, Bakura, and Seto had been seated in the den since six o'clock that morning going over what they knew and how the pieces could possibly fit together, a true act of determination and frustration seeing that they hadn't collapsed into their respective beds until after midnight. So far, some of the best puzzle masters in the world could still not reconstruct the whole picture. Something was still missing. They would have to question the girl.

Yami stood up, "We should go now. We don't know how long she'll stay awake."

"I agree." Seto also stood and the two moved towards the door. Turning back to Bakura, Seto asked, "Well? What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation."

Bakura snorted, "You want me to help you question a girl…a little girl? Are you crazy? The only thing I know to do with a female requires handcuffs and a locked room and she would have to be older. And I haven't even done any of that with a woman since I widened my horizons to include men. How about you two go play dollies with pretty, pretty princess and I go compile files on the current Kaiba Corps. executives for the boy to look over."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow and ignored the earlier part of Bakura's statement, "That shouldn't take you more than thirty minutes."

Bakura just smirked, "I know. I wouldn't want to be mistaken for a hard worker. I have a reputation to maintain."

Kaiba scowled in return, "I assure you, your reputation as a slacker was never in any danger." He turned on his heals and stomped out of the room, slamming the door. Now he was in a wonderful mood to question a frightened child. As if their lack of success in solving this damn espionage bullshit wasn't enough to put him out. Damn, why did that stupid thief always have to piss him off.

Abruptly, Kaiba was shoved face first into the wall on his left, his body pinned by a smaller figure, arm pulled sharply behind his back. "What the fuck!"

"Seto." Yami leaned forward and whispered in his ear, gently nipping on the lobe before returning to speak again in a sharper tone, "That is the second time you've walked away from me in as many days. I am really getting a bit tired of that."

Seto's breath quickened as he felt the other release his arm only to push a compact body full-length against him. Instead of giving into the warmth produced by the other's breath and body however, Seto concentrated on the parts of his chest that smarted from harshly contacting the wall and the ache in his back from his partially healed wounds. Finding strength to resist desire in his discomfort, he snapped in an angry voice, "What do you think your doing? What are you talking about?"

Yami slowly dragged his tongue up the side of Kaiba's neck before answering. Seto, without thought, leaned his head to the back and side giving the other greater access. God that felt so good.

"The first time was when you walked right by me yesterday night, leaving Seth on the sofa and stomping off. And I had been so worried about you. That was very rude of you dragon." Yami returned to the base of Seto's neck and nipped lightly at the joint of neck and shoulder, "The second time was just now. You slammed the door in my face on your way out of the room." Yami gently raked blunt nails down Kaiba's side creating channels in the lightweight cotton-blend shirt. "If you keep upsetting me like this, I am going to have to penalize you."

Seto couldn't suppress a moan but he did manage to reverse the situation using his greater body mass. He was not going to be Yami's plaything. He was the dominant one in this relationship. He pushed off the wall and spun, neatly pinning Yami to the wall, arms braced on either side of the other figure, both of them now facing each other. "Don't think that one night of sex gives you any right to me. You're mine to use when and where I want. Not the other way around."

The pharaoh's eye's darkened to a bloody crimson, "Oh, really. I suppose you cuddled up to me like a teddy bear last night because I mean so little to you. Do you wrap yourself bodily around all your possessions?"

Color stained Seto's face, "I did not cuddle up to you. I do not cuddle."

Yami just smirked and used Seto's proximity to his advantage. Carefully he slid one leg between the slightly parted knees of his captor, thigh brushing inner thigh, a bare millimeter from…harder things. "That's funny because I remember very clearly being pinned by your arms and legs on either side of me. Similar to right now." Yami leaned all the way into Seto, again talking directly into his ear, "You want to know something really kinky?"

Seto fought to keep his eyes from shutting at the exotic, husky tone now being directed straight to his brain by the figure in front of him.

"You purr in your sleep my lovely dragon. A deep, contented, vibrating purr." Yami began to pant lightly, aiming his breath so that Seto could feel the action on the corner of his mouth. Slowly, Yami began to sway in a steady, erotic rhythm, each rock forward causing his thigh to barely brush the bulge in Seto's pants. "It practically drove me insane with desire...hearing you purr. I wanted to stroke every part of you to see if I could get more of that soft, vibrating sound. I wanted to see if stroking you would make you purr, hiss and arch like a cat in heat."

Seto leaned his forehead against the wall to the right side of Yami's head in an effort to control himself. Yami allowed a triumphant grin to curve his lips at the effect he had on the other, before continuing in an even deeper, throatier voice, "My dragon." Yami moved one hand to clutch Seto's hair, the other glided down the cloth covered back to grasp Seto's tight, clothed bottom. "Would you purr for me if I gave you some cream…some sweet, thick, luscious cream? I think you would. I think you would lap it all up with relish, pink tongue curling, eyes closed, back arched. I can't wait to see that cream coating your lips and chin, body languid and content, purr drifting softly through your lips."

Seto groaned loudly, head turning to the side so lips could nuzzle Yami's cheek. Almost absently, Seto allowed his lips to trail over Yami's brow, down the bridge of his nose, and to his lips before settling into a deep, tongue-thrusting kiss.

Yami moaned deep in his throat, indulging in the other's passion for a minute before gently pushing Seto back. Blankly, Seto blinked at Yami, who stepped passively around the stymied figure of his lover. "Come my dragon. Seth is waiting for us to go question his sister. We must not leave him dangling for to long." Yami turned and walked away from Seto, towards the children's room.

Seto was startled out of his dazed state by the sound of clapping.

Bakura, leaning casually in the den's threshold continued to clap, "Stellar performance priest. I must thank you for a wonderful morning of entertainment. I always love to see you assert your…dominance over your employees."

Seto's mind finally engaged and his eyebrows lowered to meet in the center, "Shut up Bakura and get to work."

Bakura just snickered as Seto turned and stomped away, "Lovely comeback priest. Your in top form today." Bakura watched the sensuous sway of Seto's hips until the slamming of the downstairs bathroom door blocked his view, "Top form indeed."

Seto entered what had once been his room to see both Seth and Bella kneeling on the bed staring intently at something situated between them. Seto started to announce his presence when the young girl jumped to her feet on the bed and giggled. "I win, Seth. I beat you fair and square."

Seto's attention was drawn to the side when he heard Yami congratulate her, "Very good Bella. That was an excellent strategy."

So that was it. Yami had come in and made up one of his idiotic little games for the children to play. Seto growled drawing the attention of the room's three occupants. He was still angry at Yami for his little trick earlier. Taking in all the figures he noticed the hesitant smile on Seth's face and the frozen look of terror on Bella's. Damn. He'd gone to all that trouble to calm down and one look at Yami caused him to scare the children anyway. He could practically read Bella's mind right now. He was sure she was in the 'just don't make a sound and stay perfectly still' mode. With that 'deer in the headlights' look maybe they should have named her Bambi. Grief. Just call him Seto, Terror of Children Ten and Under Everywhere. He met Yami's eyes only to see condemnation there. Inevitably, that put his back up. It wasn't his fault that Yami had pissed him off so much earlier that he couldn't stop himself from scowling. Yami should learn not to start things that he wasn't willing to finish…immediately.

With an exasperated sigh, Seto put his face in his hands, "Would you two stop looking like I'm going to eat you. If I were planning to do that, I would have brought the soy sauce. " Seto's comment managed to startle a giggle out of Seth and Seth's giggle managed to relax Bella…a little. Seto walked over to the bad and sat on the edge, right next to the chair in which Yami was situated.

Seto directed his attention towards Bella. He tried to soften his normal demeanor but if the look on the young girls face was any indication, he was failing horribly. Looking at her now, Seto's mind struggled to make the connection between the girl that had attacked his brother and the terrified girl he had made his daughter. Holy hell. What had he gotten himself into? Seto looked steadily at Seth who then climbed behind his sister on the bed and embraced her, "Don't worry Bella. This is the man who said he would help us. He understands and he promised he wouldn't blame us."

Bella leaned against her brother and craned her neck to look into his face. Seeing Seth's encouraging smile, she returned a shy one of her own before looking back at Seto.

Quietly she whispered, "You gonna keep us?"

Seto looked at a loss. Hadn't Seth already told her that. Geez, he had always been horrible with girls. Why couldn't he just let Seth ask her questions and then get the answers from him.

Seto was relieved when Yami leaned over and answered for him, "This man has said you are his and he always keeps his word. Don't worry, of all the men I know, this one takes the best care of what is his."

The little girl gave a brief smile before sitting up away from her brother. Tentatively she offered, "I know stuff that my brother," she giggled. Apparently the word brother was going to be novel for a while, "doesn't know."

Seto managed a small smile of encouragement, "Anything you could tell us would help."

The little girl just nodded then seemed to drop her head in contemplation, "Did I hurt your brother?"

Seto tensed and Yami reached over to place a hand on his shoulder. He was going to have to get used to these sudden changes in topic if kids were going to be around. He reminded himself to stay calm. Taking a deep breath. "No. You didn't. 'They' did."

The girl looked up at him in shy inquiry, "The people who controlled you are the people who did all this and I am going to punish them for it but I need your help to do that. Will you help me?"

Suddenly, a brilliant smile crossed the girls face, "You're going to help us!" She launched herself at Seto and clung to his neck. Seto blushed and looked at the amused face of his lover while patting the girl awkwardly on the back. Over the young girls head he mimed the word help at the room's other two occupants drawing another laugh from Seth and an arched eyebrow from Yami who just leaned back to enjoy the show. Seth apparently took pity on his new father, however, and went to retrieve his sister.

Bella now bouncing slightly on the bed let out an outpouring of words. Apparently Bella was a talker. "I can tell you lots of stuff. Oh. But first I need to tell you how to help your brother. Since I have a brother now I should help you help your brother. After all it is kinda my fault that he's hurt now, huh? You know that my monster is a snake right? My monster is not like Seth's," another giggle. Apparently their new names were funny too. "My monster was a meanie. He used to use his poison to hurt me all the time. Yup. So they had to create an antidote for me to be any good. Oh, the monster never killed me cause he needed me to live but he was such a butt-head. He wanted control and I couldn't give it to him so he was mean, mean, mean. But because he was such a dumb-dumb, I now have an immuny…inumy…immunity, that's it. I have immunity to him. So now you can use my any bodies to make an any dote." Seth's hand gently covered his sister's still moving mouth.

"See. I told you my sister would be useful," Seth offered.

Seto stood up as his mind caught up with the torrent, "We can make an antidote using your antibodies?"

The girl looked at him in exasperation, "That's what I said isn't it." Suddenly she squealed as Seto picked her up and threw her in the air only to catch and hug her moments later. "Thank You, Thank You." He mumbled into the girl's hair before coming to his senses. Quickly he placed the girl back on the bed and self-consciously straightened his shirt. He scowled at Yami who was hiding a belly laugh behind a fist.

This time the girl didn't cower at the site of Seto's glare. This time she burst out in laughter, her face glowing. "You're a funny man. I like you." Seto huffed. At this point he wasn't sure that his life was getting any better. Now he had a six/seven year old girl that liked him. Great.

"Ummm" the girl stopped laughing and tried to get Seto's attention away from the nice guy who played games with her and her brother, "Do you want to know more stuff?"

Seto shook his head in disbelief. He almost forgot to keep interrogating her in his excitement. Yes, he could now save Mokuba sooner than he had thought, but that didn't eliminate the looming threat. What was becoming of his once extremely organized mind? "Yes. Please." Seto sat back down on the bed.

The girl leaned forward and Seto could tell he was in store for another outpouring, "Okay. Where to begin? I guess you know about where we were raised because 22," giggle, "I mean Seth knows all about that. Welllll." The girl put a finger to her chin and pondered for all of a split second, "I guess I can begin with my programming since that is what eventually got me here. Well, kinda. You see originally Seth was programmed to kill you and I was programmed to be sold to a fighting group in some other country but then, when this rich looking guy sold me to this other rich looking guy named Mr. Sho. Wait I don't know the name of the guy who sold me. Anyway, Mr. Sho bought me."

Kaiba broke in, "Mr. Sho? Did he have an unusually sharp cleft in his chin. He's looks somewhat like a drowned rat?"

The girl looked up at him with surprise, "Yah! How did you know that?" A look of wonder crossed her face, "Are you psychic?" Another of Yami's laughs received a glare.

"No." Seto's eyes narrowed.

"Hey Mr. Seto…I can call you Mr. Seto right? My brother said I could. Well anyway. Mr. Seto, do you have something wrong with your eyes because you're always squinting. Maybe you should see a doctor bout that." More laughter received more squinting.

"No." Seto winced and braced himself, "You left off with Mr. Sho having bought you."

"Oh ya. Well, Mr. Sho bought me and…well he didn't really buy me. He was the man that was supposed to deliver me to the fighting people in, ahhhh…South Africa. That's it. He was supposed to deliver me to South Africa but then Seth got mad and destroyed stuff. I wish my monster liked me than I could have broken their control too but my monster was a meanie. Anyway…"

This time it was Yami that displayed the bravery to stop the flood, "You keep saying 'your monster.' Are you saying you can only call one kind of monster?"

"Well duh. Didn't Seth tell you that?" The little girl turned to glare at her brother who only shrugged.

"I have two, but Gigi and Fufu came as a set."

Seto looked at Yami, "Is that important?"

Yami returned the look, the weight of his considerable knowledge behind the gaze, "I think so. In most cases, if a person can only call one monster, that monster is tied to their soul. It's their soul monster."

"And that means what exactly." Seto couldn't prevent skepticism from coloring his words.

Yami's lips pursed, "Nothing at the moment. We need to know more."

Meanwhile the children on the bed had been looking back and forth between the two figures. When both adults returned their attention to the children on the bed, Bella started right back on her soliloquy as if she had never stopped. "Okay. So, my monster is a meanie and it wouldn't help me rebel. But, you know what? Because my monster was so mean to me, I developed immune…ummmm…drugs don't work on me. So when they move me around and try to make me so I can't understand them, I can. But I pretend like I can't. That way I can listen. And one time, when they didn't know I was listening, I heard Mr. Sho say that once Seto Kaiba, that would be you," the little girl pointed at Seto, "was out of the way, Kaiba Corp could officially go back into the weapons business and the partnership between Expire and Kaiba Corp. that started back when Kaiba Corp. was run by some Hobo Bozo guy, could be above ground…whatever that means. Anyways…"

"Stop." Seto's voice was rough and abrupt. "Did they say Gozoboro?"

The girl rolled her eyes up as if that would help her think and then she giggled, "Oh ya. That's what they said. Back when Gozoboro ran Kaiba Corp., Expire and Kaiba Corp. had a partnership. Why? Did you know him?"

Both Yami and Kaiba's eyes met. Seto began to recount what they knew, "Gozoboro was in the headmaster's office, all those years ago. His visit wasn't just to get an heir. It was probably also a cover to hide the fact that some of the children were going missing." Seto put his head in his hands. How did he miss that. Gozoboro was always smoking those damn cigars. The only time Kaiba had seen him without one was when he had thrown his own damn ass out the window. Millions of smoke filled memories flashed through his mind. Memories of him being whipped with smoke drifting by his head. Memories of him studying with smoke drifting by his head. Of course Gozoboro was there. It had already been obvious that Kaiba Corp was involved somehow and Gozoboro would never have let anything go down without him knowing about it. "Mr. Sho was not an executive back then. He was one of my father's head lawyers. He was in on all my father's main dealings. Damn, why didn't I see this."

Yami continued, "So back then, Gozoboro, his lawyer Mr. Sho, Mr. Hatahori who we've identified as former CEO of Hydra Corp. and current head of Expire, Mr. Wilton, Margaret, and some lab coat that worked for Mr. Hatahori all made a deal. That is what started all this."

"Sounds like it." Seto met the worried eyes of the two children on the bed and tried to reassure them, "Don't worry. You're telling us a lot. Please, if you know more, don't stop now."

"Okay," Bella's voice was a little more subdued, slower, "Ummm. I stayed with Mr. Sho for a while. About a day or so when a man showed up, I guess to take me to South Africa. The man, I don't know his name, said something about Hydra and Kaiba Corp. having received some kind of payment for me and that I should be handed over but Mr. Sho said there had been a change of plans. He said something about you being a problem Mr. Seto. He said he needed to keep me in reserve to get rid of you if there original plans didn't work. The man was mad and said that it didn't take one of us," she gestured to herself and her brother, "to get rid of one man. He said that he would get rid of you and that then Mr. Sho had better hand me over. Ummm…something must have gone wrong because the next thing I knew, I was being reprogrammed to kill you. It was kinda sloppy reprogramming though."

Seto voice dark and full of anger broke in, "Hence the reason you attacked Mokuba instead of me. Don't cower." Seto ordered, "I already said I am not angry at you."

"Yes Mr. Seto." The girl whimpered a bit.

Seto softened his expression to the best of his abilities, "Just call me Seto, okay."

She gave a watery smile, "Okay. I think that's all I know anyways."

Seto nodded, "That's plenty for now. It's been a long morning. Why don't you two take a nap?"

A knock on the door was followed by the immediate entry of Bakura. Seth bent down and whispered in his sister's ear, "That's the crazy one I was telling you about." The girl's wide eyes stayed fixed on Bakura as he strode across the room.

"What is it?" Seto asked and Bakura handed him a file.

"The pictures of all the executives in your company as well as Mr. Hatahori are in there. Don't expect me to do anything else for the rest of the day." Bakura turned and was about to leave when the girl tentatively touched his arm, "Hi. I'm Bella."

Bakura's nose wrinkled in disgust as he looked at Seto, "It touched me. Tell it not to touch me."

Yami towards Bakura and picked Bella up, "Don't touch him dear. What he has, it's contagious."

Bakura snorted and walked out of the room to the sound of Kaiba's order, "Meet us in the den in ten minutes. I think we might be able to start putting this puzzle together."

Intrigued but determined to be defiant, Bakura replied, "I'll see to it I'm there in an hour."

Kaiba looked at Yami as he placed Bella back on the bed. Now facing the two children he asked, "How about I ask you a few more questions and then we all go out to get lunch? You two can take a nap later."

The kids bounced up and down on the bed enthusiastically, "You're taking us out to eat? Isn't that cool Seth. I've never gone out to eat before."

Seto nodded, "Just for a bite and then I want you to talk to a doctor. One that can use your antibodies to make the antidote for my brother." Before Seth could protest, "And Seth will stay with you. I'll give you my cell phone number so if the doctor does anything you don't like, you can call me. Remember, you're a Kaiba now and all we really have are each other. Okay?"

Both Seth and Bella nodded in agreement.

Yami just raised an eyebrow and questioned, "What about the meeting?"

Seto smirked, "I really wasn't planning on having it for another hour and a half. I need to get my thoughts together."

Yami laughed and the two children giggled.

Seto continued to flip through the file until he found a particular picture. He turned the photo so both Bella and Seth could see it. "Do you recognize this man?"

Seth did an amazing imitation of Seto's growl, "I think that's him…That's the man that bought Bella."

Bella craned to look at the picture, "Hey. That's Mr. Sho."

Seto nodded and returned the photo to the file pulling out a picture of the orphanage. "Do you recognize this place?" Seth nodded no but Bella gave an enthusiastic affirmation. "Yup! But I don't think I was supposed to."

Seth looked at his sister, questions in his eyes. Turning to face her brother, Bella answered his unspoken inquiries, "You remember when they put us to sleep and sent us away to the new lab."

Seth nodded.

"Well, I wasn't asleep. I was just pretending. Tranqs. don't work on me either. That's the place we grew up in."

Seth just shook his head, "That's impossible. That place has windows. The place we lived in didn't have any."

"Of course silly. Geez. Boys." Bella rolled her eyes. "You remember that elevator, the one we were never allowed to go on."

Seth nodded.

"That elevator took us up to that place when we were sent away. We lived underneath that place."

Seto looked at Bella and then Seth, "Seth, you once said that you could hear children's voices and a train whistle at night when you lived in the facility where they raised you."

"Yah. That's right."

"Well, the tracks pass by that orphanage and there is a regular train that takes that route every night at 21:00 hours. Does that sound about right."

"I guess so. I'm not to good at telling time. It was pretty late though."

Seto slammed a clenched fist into the bedpost, "Damn, all this time and they've been abusing children right under our noses."

Yami moved to reassure him, "Calm down. You're startling the children."

"It's okay Mr. I think we're getting used to it." Bella leaned over the side of the bed to recover something that dropped out of the folder. "Here Mr., I mean Seto. You dropped something." Bella moved to hand the picture to Seto only to stop, "Oh. Look. It's the man who handed me over to Mr. Sho."

Seto snatched the picture from her fingers earning him a glare from Yami, "Are you sure this is him."

The girl nodded.

Seto pursed his lips. "Look Yami. It's Mr. Hatahori."