Note to reviewers:
Sakurelle – Thanks for reviewing the last chapter! It's nice to have a faithful fan of my story. I read your sequel to Cinder Serenity and loved it!
Bluedragonflyofdestiny – Thanks for reading and reviewing. Not your cup of tea? Is it because it's an AU? I'm not usually a big fan of A Us either, but with the roaring case of writers' block I've got, I've been reduced to posting my earliest story for want of anything better to post.
WolfDaughter – Hi there! It's lovely to hear from you again. I'm glad you're enjoying this even if it isn't my usual RK fare. Don't worry about not having reviewed the earlier chapters, I'm just wildly thrilled that you're reviewing it all. Thanks again!
CHAPTER SIX
"We're going to Japan!"
Each time Mokuba said it, Serenity felt a chill. She had no doubt Mokuba would be going. Seto wasn't the type of man to promise a child something only to snatch it away. The tutor, Mr. Peterkins, was loading on the schoolwork to compensate since he would NOT be going. Serenity summoned the courage to ask him one day why not.
Peterkins sniffed.
"In this household, Miss Wheeler, everything stops for tournaments, including school." And with that he snapped his briefcase shut, and left before she could say another word. It was obviously a sore point with the tutor; however, Serenity could see why that particular decision had been made. Mokuba was so excited just at the prospect of going, that she could imagine once he was at the actual tournament, school work would be the last thing on his mind. Every day in the game room after his schooling was over; Mokuba regaled her with tales about the competitors Seto would be playing.
"There's Bobby Taylor – he's American like us. He just advanced to adult level, but Seto and I think he'll definitely make it to the finals. Then there's Yugi Moto; he's from Sweden. He's half Japanese half Swedish, but he's really short which I guess is rare for Swedish guys since Mr. Peterkins says their ancestors were Vikings and Vikings were really tall and scary! Seto says Yugi has great instincts, but I think my brother has better ones. There's lots of others but they won't make it to the finals."
"Oh they won't?" asked Serenity, amused at Mokuba's air of certainty.
"Nope, they're all lightweights except the top two home team players."
"Home team?" Mokuba made it sound like Minoan game tournaments were like local high school football games.
"Yeah, you know, this year's tournament is in Japan, and the top two Japanese players are Yoshi Takahashi and Kenji Kanazawa. Kenji's nice. I met him before. He's not stuck up or proud like Yoshi. Yoshi's family is almost as rich as we are."
"You're rich?" Serenity asked smilingly. She played dumb, wanting to see how Mokuba felt about his privileged background. So far he hadn't shown any signs of being spoiled despite his rich surroundings.
"Of course, silly. We live in a penthouse apartment" Mokuba enunciated the words with glee. "Seto says most people aren't lucky enough to live in the penthouse. But I think it's a pain to be rich, because I can't go out whenever I want and we need guards around all the time in case I get kidnapped again."
Serenity dropped to her knees, and grasped Mokuba by the arms. "You were what!"
Mokuba blinked at her tone. "I was kidnapped," he repeated. "It's OK you know, I was so little I don't really remember it."
"Who…who kidnapped you?"
"Mrs. Miller." Said Mokuba matter-of-factly. "She was my dad's secretary so Seto trusted her, and when she and some bad men wanted to steal dad's company from Seto, she took me away so Seto would have to sign some papers."
"What happened?"
"Seto and Angus were smarter than her. They found me and Seto got to keep dad's company, so now we have to have guards in case anyone ever tries to kidnap me again." Mokuba sighed. "I wish I wasn't so much trouble."
Serenity grabbed Mokuba to her and hugged him fiercely, ignoring the faint tinge of pain from her mostly healed shoulder.
"You're not trouble at all. Seto loves you! That's why he wants to protect you. Whenever you see the guards just remember that."
Mokuba laughed. "I know that. And just think, Seto makes the guards watch you, so he must love you too!"
Serenity released him abruptly in shock, and sat back on her haunches. How to deal with this unwelcome misconception? "Uh, Mokuba, I don't think it's…"
"Seto loves Serenity, Seto loves Serenity," repeated Mokuba in a singsong voice and ran out of the room, leaving her to follow, exasperated, past the guard, a different one than the day before.
The guards were constantly attending her. They stayed right outside the doorways of rooms with one entrance, and came into the room with her and Mokuba if it was a room with another exit. At times she almost forgot they existed. She'd had to remind herself to keep watching to see if they were ever inattentive enough to slip past them to the elevator. She tried to keep watching up until the day that Mokuba let slip that the elevator had a locked keypad as well, one that he, Mokuba, didn't have the combination to. So much for escaping down the elevator.
As she followed the child down the hall to his room, Serenity thought about her situation again. Being constantly with a kid had its advantages. She was often too busy to brood, but now she couldn't help but wonder what would happen with Mokuba when the tournament was over and she disappeared from his life. What excuse would Seto use for her absence after the tournament?
She doubted she'd live to see it anyhow. After all, once Seto knew for certain that she wouldn't talk, he'd have to more use for her. He'd shown a curious reluctance to torture her, but perhaps that would change as he became more and more desperate to win the silly thing. Once he started that, he'd have to kill her to hide the evidence.
She shuddered. While she was still alive and unharmed, he would have to try to convince the police she was nuts when she went to them and accused him of kidnapping, but that was risky at best, and Seto struck her as a man who did his best to eliminate risk. He was careful, fiendish, and complex. Capable of having Joey killed in the process of trying to capture him, and brazen enough to use the killing as a means to discredit her.
"Ye look like ye've the weight of the world on your shoulders, lass."
Startled, Serenity wrenched her eyes off the carpet she'd been studying dully as she'd walked slowly along the corridor. Angus, the security chief, was leaning in a doorway, arms folded, regarding her with interest.
"I could take the weight off y'know."
His eyes were flat, expressionless. She was reminded of paintings of winter seas, steely grey blue. Serenity couldn't help it; she gave a startled squeak, and padded off down the hall after Mokuba.
o-o-o
It had been a very long day at the office. Seto made it a point to be home by 7:30 every night so that he could have dinner with his little brother before his bedtime. However, lately he'd found himself on the road back to the office as soon as Mokuba retired for the night. Making sure he didn't have a backlog of work waiting for him when he returned from the tournament was the main reason why he'd work after hours, but now there was another reason.
The computer diagnostics and decryption programs just weren't working. No matter how many new configurations he and the few members of his executive staff he trusted tried, they still couldn't figure out what the ancient game was really used for.
He glowered abstractedly at the elevator carpet, running number sequences over and over in his mind. It was about 1:00 A.M.
The elevator doors opened, and he nodded to the guard waiting in the foyer. The guard cleared his throat, so Seto paused. He recognized him as one of the new hires since the culling out the old guard who'd turned on him during Miller's attempted coup.
"Mr. Kaiba? I'd like a word if you're not busy."
"It's past your shift, isn't it?" Seto made it a point to know which guards were supposed to be keeping an eye on his brother, and when they were supposed to be doing it.
The guard colored slightly. "Yes, about an hour past."
Seto paused a moment, then said, "Come to my office," and led the way.
Quickly punching in his number code, he noticed that the guard turned away politely so as not to see it. He was a tall man, brown hair and eyed, and utterly nondescript. His hair was neither too long nor too short, his face was pleasant, but unremarkable, and his expression subdued. He'd have been an excellent spy, for he wouldn't stand out in a crowd at all.
Opening the door and rounding the black marble top of the desk his decorator had talked him into, Seto gestured for the guard to sit down, as he dropped into his own chair. The guard shook his head politely.
"I'd prefer to stand, sir" he said, and did so, squarely in front of the desk, back straight, and chin lifted. He was former military after all.
"It's Dan, isn't it? Dan Stuart?" Seto was very good with names, and the more time he spent in someone's company, the more the background knowledge came back to him.
"Yes sir."
"What is this about?" Seto cut to the chase. He was tired, frustrated, and wanted the five or six hours left of the night to sleep.
"I need to know if I should resign."
This was unexpected. When employees wanted to talk to him, assuming they could even get past Angus or his secretary, it was usually to complain about a policy, make a proposal, or ask for a raise.
"And you've come to me because…"
"It's the girl, sir."
"Miss Wheeler is the reason you want to resign?" Seto sighed inwardly. "What has she done now?"
"Not a thing, sir. But if you're planning to eliminate her, I'd like to resign now."
Did everyone in his home besides Mokuba think he was a monster? Seto knew he appeared cold and remote. He'd cultivated that image after he'd had to fight what he thought were trusted friends for control of his family's company. Never again would he appear the friendly, weak young executive. Look where it had nearly gotten him. Still, it was a bit of a wake up call to see how thoroughly his scheme had worked. Even the hired help, to whom he was unfailingly, if stiffly, polite, thought him a remorseless killer.
"What makes you think I'm planning to 'eliminate' her?"
"She thinks you are, sir."
"And she's said so?" If that fool of a girl had dared to share her paranoid theories with Mokuba, he'd…
"No, she hasn't said anything, but I can see it in her eyes. Whenever Mokuba talks about going to Japan, she gets this look." Dan faltered, then went on. "As you know sir, I served queen and country. Before I blew out my knee and had to quit, I went on several missions. Members of my team went on missions they didn't expect to come back from. Whenever we'd be briefed on such a mission, they'd get that look in their eyes. I've been seeing it in hers. She's convinced of it, and she's beginning to convince me. So, should I resign or not?"
"That," said Seto slowly, "Would be premature."
Dan locked eyes with him a moment then nodded. "Sorry to doubt you, sir. You can rely on me for almost anything, but there are some things I will not do, no matter what the salary."
"Go home. And as far as Miss Wheeler is concerned, this conversation never happened."
"That's understood." Dan left, closing the office door softly behind him as he went.
Stuart was a careful man, Seto reflected. As he recalled, he'd overruled Angus to hire him. Seto sat in on as many employee interviews of security staff as possible after the coup. What was it about Dan that Angus had objected to? Sliding the office chair over to his home computer, he pulled up Dan Stuart's records. What exactly was he paying the man? The same as any other bodyguard. Hmm, Dan Stuart was being paid adequately, but not extravagantly.
Seto pulled up his past employment record. Ah yes, here it was. The knee injury. He'd required knee replacement surgery. Seto and Angus had both been impressed with what they'd learned of Stuart's career in her Majesty's service. Angus had pulled in favors and personally called his references. They'd never learned the classified particulars, but all of Dan's superior officers lauded his loyalty, toughness, and bravery. It was the knee injury that Angus harped on. Seto had overruled him, got the man on the company health plan and expedited the surgery. Since then Dan had been exemplary, never late to work, unobtrusive – which Seto required in all his bodyguards, and never overly familiar with Mokuba.
Mokuba was told he was in charge whenever Seto left, and the bodyguards in the house had been trained to humor him, but only up to the point where humoring him constituted a security risk. Mokuba knew his boundaries and rarely tried to step over them, but some guards had had to be reassigned when they began to treat his kid brother with condescension, or tried to be a "pal" to him. Dan had never crossed the line.
Interesting, that he'd risk his job, a position he clearly wanted to keep, to ask about the girl. Unlike Mokuba, Seto didn't believe in chivalry or heroes. Dan would bear watching. As would Serenity.
o-o-o
Serenity sat at the piano. It was afternoon, and Mr. Peterkins had gone home. Seto had unexpectedly shown up, and whisked his brother off on some sort of outing. This had happened once or twice before. The last time it was the weekend, a few days after Serenity had been abducted.
Saturday afternoon, Mokuba and Seto had gone to the zoo, and a movie. When Serenity realized Mokuba was going, leaving her with just the security staff, she'd locked herself in Mokuba's bathroom until they'd returned, not wanting to run across Angus. Sunday they'd left right after breakfast for church and lunch. At the time she'd been amazed Seto could cross the threshold of a church without bursting into flames, though she hadn't said so to Mokuba. As she'd got the blow-by-blow description of both outings by Mokuba, whose powers of observation were phenomenal, she felt she hadn't missed much.
Today was different. Seto had never come home early from work before. She wasn't sure if she should be worried or not, but she decided against locking herself in the bathroom again. Especially since Angus had gone with them. She knew he was just doing his job, but she had a feeling that when Seto finally got tired of letting her live, her execution would be delegated to Angus. He'd probably been the one to botch Joey's attempted kidnapping. He definitely seemed to be in charge. All the other security guards deferred to him.
Her personal guard today was the one called Dan. His shift seemed to be late morning to early evening. She wondered if he minded listening to her play. The music left in the piano seat by Seto and Mokuba's mother was mostly jazz, with some classical thrown in for good measure. She'd played through Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue twice now. The first time had been uncertain, but her skill was coming back the more she played. Mokuba had proved an apt pupil, confident, patient, with a good ear and a natural talent inherited from his mother. She sighed. When she was gone she doubted Seto would find another piano teacher for him. Suddenly restless, she got up and walked to the door.
Dan was leaning against the wall by the doorway. She paused.
"Can I explore?"
He frowned at her, forcing her to explain further.
"I mean, are there areas I'm allowed to be in other than Mokuba's rooms, the kitchen, dining, and living rooms?"
Serenity had been dying to see what lay down the other corridors. It seemed that this apartment sprawled the entire length of the building. She'd wanted to suggest to Mokuba that he give her a tour, but she hadn't wanted to get him in trouble, and with a guard eavesdropping on every conversation, she didn't want it getting back to Seto. She didn't talk to the guards. Even if they believed that she wasn't crazy or suicidal, they undoubtedly already knew she'd been kidnapped and didn't care.
"Follow me."
Dan led the way to the foyer and down an unfamiliar corridor. He had a slight accent. Most of the guards seemed to be Irish or Scottish, like Angus. Dan showed her the workout area, larger than her entire apartment with a sauna and massive bathroom. It was next to Seto's master suite, which Dan didn't show her, though he explained the layout. They also toured the office area, though once again, Seto's personal area was off limits. When he led her past a slew of doors without pausing she asked, "What's in those?"
"Security area."
At that moment, another guard opened a door and came out into the hallway. Dan nodded to him as they walked past, and Serenity caught a glimpse of TV screen monitors with pictures of various parts of the apartment. A horrible thought occurred to Serenity and her steps slowed so that Dan had to stop and wait for her.
"Dan?" She used his first name without thinking about it.
"Yes?"
"Are there security cameras all over the apartment?"
"Yes."
"Are they…?" Her face felt hot. She knew she was blushing, but ploughed ahead anyway. "Are there any in Mokuba's bathroom?" The bathroom was where she took showers, undressed…
"No!" The man's brown eyes were warm with concern, and he leaned down a bit to speak to her. "There are no cameras in any of the bathrooms. I promise." He was staring at her as if willing her to believe him.
Was this guard actually a decent human being? She'd been so used to thinking of them as the enemy, it never occurred to her to wonder what kind of people they were.
"Er, thanks," mumbled Serenity and began walking again. They were headed back to the foyer when the front door opened, and Mokuba, seeing her, came barreling down the hall toward her.
"Serenity! We're back!" He took her hand. "Did you miss us?"
She nodded dutifully, all the response Mokuba seemed to require.
"I can't tell you where we went though, it's a big secret so don't ask me, OK?"
"I won't."
Knowing Mokuba, it probably had to do with the Minoan Game. As they passed Seto, Serenity averted her gaze and asked if Mokuba wanted to play video games, a topic she knew would keep him volubly occupied so she wouldn't have to stop and talk to Seto. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him motion to Dan and speak quietly to him. Dan had to lean down to talk to Seto too, and Serenity was reminded of how tall the guard actually was. Well, he was probably telling Seto that she'd accidentally seen the security room and was asking about cameras. Seto would undoubtedly think she was planning to try to escape.
Serenity was not looking forward to dinner, but surprisingly, Seto made no mention of her exploration, and even allowed her to escape to Mokuba's room unchallenged after dinner was over.
o-o-o
Another day passed.
For all Serenity knew, it was her last on earth, for the Kaiba brothers were leaving tomorrow for Japan so that they would arrive a day before the tournament began. Mokuba confided that his brother got jetlagged, and always wanted a day to recuperate before a big match.
All the staff seemed unusually tense, preoccupied with getting ready for the journey. Seto hadn't lingered at breakfast, though he'd seemed to be watching her more than usual. Dinner was rushed, and Seto sent Mokuba to bed early, reminding him that they were leaving in the morning.
Serenity offered to help Mokuba pack, only to be told that the maid, Amelia, always packed for him.
"Seto thinks I'll forget my underwear if I try to pack for myself again, even though I only forgot one time!"
That evening, Serenity read two stories of King Arthur instead of the usual one, and after Mokuba fell asleep, she'd let her hand touch his hair gently, before rolling over to face the wall, and her fears.
Tomorrow morning her valiant little knight would be gone. Seto thought that the information Joey left her would help him win the tournament, and if the tournament started without his getting that information, he'd be angry. If he was going to kill her anyway, why hadn't he tortured her for it? Scruples?
The best case scenario for her would be if he decided to let her go and trust that he could discredit her story when she went to the police, or threaten her in some way so she'd have to stay silent, but who could he threaten? Uncle Henry? She'd never been close to him, and besides, he was very old and not likely to last for very long. With Joey's death, she'd lost the only close family she had.
Serenity rolled over on her back and stared at the ceiling.
The worse case scenario for her would be if Seto took his brother to Japan, and as soon as they were out the door, Angus tortured the information out of her, shot her and disposed of her body somewhere. She doubted he'd do it in the apartment though. With the bullet holes, the noise, and the bloody mess to clean up? No, she couldn't see Seto wanting that in his home. So she'd be driven somewhere. Perhaps they'd finally resort to torturing her in a last-ditch attempt to get her to talk and then call Seto in Japan with the results.
Well, if they tried to remove her, she'd fight. It wouldn't do any good, but she'd been passive for too long. She may not have any weapons besides her teeth and fingernails, but she'd use them if she had to. With that resolved, Serenity closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
In the morning, Mokuba woke excited. He dashed to the bathroom, and even showered without being reminded that he hadn't done so the night before. Serenity let her eyes wander the room, registering everything one last time. Mokuba's child sized desk and chair, left slightly out, the big teddy bear on the toy chest, the blue walls, the fluffy carpet, all had been chosen with care by someone who loved Mokuba. She hated Seto for what he'd done to her and to Joey, but she had to admit that someday he'd be an excellent father.
Then Mokuba was rushing out of the bathroom, declaring that it was her turn, and all but pushing her through the door. Serenity took her time showering, blew dry her hair, and put the football jersey back on, along with the underwear she'd washed overnight and hung inside a cabinet to dry where Mokuba couldn't see it. One thing she wouldn't miss, whether she was murdered or let go, was the football jersey.
She hadn't seen her bloodied sleep-T since Mokuba had given her his father's jersey, and supposed it had been thrown away. She took one last look in the mirror. A girl with reddish brown hair and warm brown eyes looked back at her. She was getting used to seeing herself without makeup. She opened the door and left the bathroom.
There, sitting on the floor, surrounded by shopping bags, was Mokuba.
"Surprise!" he shouted, jumped up and shoved a bag toward her. "We brought you presents!"
"We?" she echoed faintly, and saw Seto, arms crossed, leaning in the doorway. Then Mokuba was tugging on her jersey.
"Open them! Open them!"
Bemused, she allowed herself to be tugged to the floor and obediently began opening bags and boxes. There were several outfits, all casual wear, jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, tennis shoes, and a velour sweat suit in an amber color that was perfect. She'd had a favorite dress once in that color. Mokuba wrinkled his nose when he saw her open that one.
"I wanted to get you the green one, but Seto said you'd look better in that color. I think the green one was better; it was the same exact color of Gatorade! Do you like this one OK?"
"I'd like anything you got me." Serenity reassured him. She reached for another bag, and pulled out a suede jacket in chocolate brown that accented her hair color perfectly. She felt her eyes filling with tears. No one, not even Joey, had ever bought her clothes that suited her style and coloring so perfectly.
"Don't you like it, Serenity?" asked Mokuba anxiously.
She drew a shaky breath. It was too much. Directing her gaze at Seto, she said, "It's beautiful, but why? Why have you done all this?"
Mokuba hugged her. "Because we love you, silly." That got Serenity's tears going even more.
Seto straightened. "Come on, Mokuba, don't forget the last gift."
"But she hasn't opened that bag yet!" Mokuba pointed to a pink Victoria's Secret bag with a mischievous expression on his face.
"And she won't while you're in the room." Seto retorted. "I warned you about this. Now help me out here."
They both disappeared, and returned with a suitcase, a large one with tapestry sides – the type that seemed too pretty to trust to the airport baggage handlers. Serenity had to laugh; the suitcase was almost bigger than Mokuba.
"Do you like it?" He asked, beaming.
"I love it! I love everything." She dared to look at Seto. He was looking at her with an expression she'd never seen before.
"Then maybe you'll tell me what a "cup size" is? Seto won't even though he was talking to the clerk lady about it."
Seto coughed hurriedly, and grabbed Mokuba by the hand. "That's it, we're leaving. Serenity needs to pack if we're all going to make the plane."
He turned back as Mokuba preceded him out the door. "The car leaves in an hour. We'll be at breakfast. Join us when you're done."
Serenity remained sitting on the floor surrounded by clothing with designer tags. It would take her at least a year to earn enough extra money to pay Seto back for what he'd spent on the clothes, she thought dazedly.
He wasn't going to kill her. He was taking her with them. She was going to live. With the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders, Serenity grabbed the Victoria's Secret bag, the Velour sweat suit, white t-shirt, tennis shoes, and socks, and disappeared into the bathroom to dress in her first real clothes in over a week.
o-o-o
The plane ride was long. It was, after all, a long way from New York to Japan. Seto spent the first part of the journey working frenetically on his laptop computer. Serenity could hear the keys clicking away at top speed. She and Mokuba played his portable Minoan game for hours, until finally his eyes grew heavy, and she convinced him to watch a video. The Kaiba International jet was a marvel. The first class sized seats all had video screens fixed to the seats in front of them which could be programmed with whatever video you wanted. Mokuba soon fell asleep.
Serenity got up to go find a blanket for him. As she stood, she attracted Seto's attention.
"What is it?" He asked, glancing up from his computer.
Serenity motioned to the seat next to hers. "Mokuba's asleep," she whispered softly. "Are there any blankets?"
Seto turned in his seat and gestured to one of the security guards sitting a few rows behind him to go get one. It was there in under a minute, so Serenity took it from the guard, a lanky Irishman called Finn, and placed it gently over Mokuba. She turned his video off, then tried to settle down in her own seat, but as she sat, she involuntarily glanced back toward Seto, and found him watching her.
"Come here."
Serenity blinked. It was an order, but spoken so softly that in any other circumstances she might have thought it a request. She rose, walked back the three rows of seats and sat across the aisle from him, and waited as he closed the lid on his laptop computer.
"I'd like to thank you for looking after Mokuba."
"I…It's nothing." Serenity was seriously confused. This was the last thing she'd expected. "After all, it's not like I really had a choice." Oh dear, that made it sound like she was complaining about being kidnapped again. "I mean…"
Seto took on that inscrutable look again, and he closed his laptop. "I know what you mean, but you're wrong. You didn't have to keep Mokuba company, or keep him occupied, but you did."
Serenity took a deep breath. There was something about being on an almost empty plane, dimly lit, that encouraged confidences.
"You give me too much credit. I stayed with Mokuba because I didn't think you'd hurt me while he was in the room. That's all."
Why was he staring at her so intently?
"And I suppose that's why you started giving him piano lessons?"
Was he laughing at her? "Uh, no. That just sort of, well, happened." To her horror, Serenity felt her cheeks get warm. She was blushing, and even in the dim light he might notice. To distract him, she changed the subject.
"What are you working on?" She asked brightly.
He went very still for a moment, then reopened the laptop cover, and angled it on the try in front of him so that she could see it. On the screen there were thumbnail sketches of game chips, the antique ones, and at the bottom there was some sort of program running numbers at top speed. He moved his index finger on the mouse, and brought up one of the thumbnail sketches to a larger size. It was a photograph of the silver gamechip.
"This one's yours." He said bluntly. "The rest are from various finds on Crete. They represent the most complete set of game chips around. Andromachus may have seen complete sets of gamechips while cataloging the excavations, but he never used more than three quarters of the original sets when designing his own chips for the modern version of the game he created. These are what the actual Minoans would have used."
"Oh." Serenity managed to say.
He mentioned it so casually, her gamechip. The one he'd stolen.
"I suppose it helps you to play the modern game better if you understand more about the ancient one?" she offered timidly.
Seto leaned back in his seat, his hair falling over his eyes, as his head hit the backrest. He steepled his fingers, and said carefully, "The opposite. I play the modern game to better understand the ancient one, but I assume you already knew that."
Serenity caught her breath, Joey's last warning ringing in her memory. 'Whatever you do, don't tell Kaiba. I think he tried to kill me. He can't know Serenity, the fate of the world depends on it.'
What was she doing? How could she even consider telling Kaiba the secrets Joey whispered to her on his hospital bed, trying desperately to see how important it was to keep the game chip and the real purpose of the Minoan game away from men like Kaiba who would use it for God only knew what ends?
She bit her lip, and stared down at her hands, which she'd clenched together in her lap. She was beginning to trust Seto Kaiba, and that was dangerous. He was still enigmatic, cold in some respects, and very aloof, but the way he cared for his brother, and the fact that he hadn't hurt her when he very easily could have were affecting her opinion of him.
She heard a click, and saw that Seto had leaned away from her to open a small metal briefcase on the seat next to him. He drew something out of it, turned in his seat, and handed it across the aisle to her.
Serenity stopped breathing for a second. There in his palm lay Joey's gamechip. It had been cleaned, polished even, but she recognized the markings on it at once.
"Take it."
Slowly, she stretched out her hand until it covered the gamechip in his. He placed his other hand gently on top of hers, and flipped it over so that the chip now rested in her palm, a cold, flat weight. Then he took his hands away.
"Why are you giving it back to me? I don't understand. Or are you really giving it back?" She wrenched her eyes off the precious chip and looked straight into his.
"For now, it's in your care. As I've trusted Mokuba to you."
Serenity pressed the chip next to her heart and lowered her head. He trusted her? Was he crazy? Was this just a ploy so that she'd feel she had to trust him back?
"Hey! What's that?" Mokuba's blue eyes topped by his unruly mass of black hair popped over the seat top a few rows up.
"Come back and see." Seto invited.
Within seconds the small boy clambered across the seats and down the aisle, and Serenity found herself showing him the gamechip, which Mokuba duly admired.
Very conscious of his older brother listening, Serenity described how her brother Joey had bought it from a friend who'd got it from an excavation site on Crete that no one else had found. She judiciously left out the part about Gus Larson's drug addiction and the fact that he'd illegally smuggled that game chip as well as others out of Greece to sell to support his habit. She also left out what Larson had told Joey about what he saw in that treasure trove of gamechips when he'd first entered the ruin. She told Mokuba instead that it was the last thing Joey had given her, so it was very special to her.
"Then how did Seto get it?"
"Huh?"
"Well, he passed it to you, so how did he get it?"
"Um…Seto?" Serenity decided to let the thief field that question.
He didn't even have the grace to appear uncomfortable.
"I was cleaning it for her." He said and tapped quickly on his keyboard. "When I got it from her it looked like this." He called up a picture of the chip as it had appeared the last time Serenity saw it, still tarnished, with the figures barely legible, and showed it to Mokuba on screen.
"Wow! Were the other ones dirty too?" Mokuba pointed to the edges of the thumbnail sketches showing behind the larger picture.
"Some, but they're all clean now."
"Can I see?"
Serenity expected Seto to fob him off, but instead he surprised her and lifted the briefcase across the laptop, instructing Mokuba to sit down by Serenity. Serenity scooted to the window seat to let Mokuba take the aisle seat across from his brother. Mokuba happily began taking each gamechip out of its place in the briefcase and handing them to Serenity. Each were superb examples, many of marble, some of malachite, and a few gold, and other polished stones she wasn't familiar with. Mokuba recognized some of the markings that were similar to those on modern game chips. He also showed Serenity the tiny holes carved at the top and bottom of each gamechip.
"They don't do that on the modern gamechips you know."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Yep. Seto and I think it's because maybe they used to string them around their neck like necklaces so they wouldn't lose them!"
She laughed. "Wouldn't that have been a little heavy?"
Mokuba crinkled his brow, "Well, if you were small like me, but it wouldn't have bothered Seto any, would it?"
As Seto reassured Mokuba that he could handle wearing a necklace of stone and metal gamechips, but wouldn't think about wearing them to the tournament that way, a thought struck Serenity. Clutching Joey's gamechip, she made her excuses and locked herself in the bathroom, where she turned on the faucet and tested her theory. It was faint, but it was there. The answer to the one question Joey hadn't been able to discover.
Sobered, she returned to the brothers to find Mokuba reluctantly putting all the antique game pieces back in the briefcase. She handed him Joey's gamechip to put away as well.
"But don't you want to keep it?" Mokuba asked, puzzled.
Serenity found the strength to smile at him. "I think it will be safer with the others for now. I wouldn't want to lose it."
Mokuba shrugged. "Okay." He said and put it away.
Oh Joey, how I wish you were still here. Serenity felt suddenly, incredibly alone. You'd have kicked yourself when I told you what you missed. Still, how could you have known? You got the rest of it, I still don't quite know how you figured out all that technical stuff, but even a genius can have a blind side. It all made perfect sense now.
Suddenly aware that Seto was watching her speculatively, Serenity pretended fatigue, went back to her seat and slept.