I finally decided to update a little sooner, seeing as I had time on my hands. Actually, I just had some ideas running in my head for once. That's why this one is longer, too, than most of the other chapters…
Thanks to my reviewers!
lilxangelxsweetz: Thanks! Hope you like this chapter, too!
bingbing: You didn't read chapter 8 yet, did you? Your review says chapter 7…just make sure to read that one before your read this, or it'll make no sense…thanks for reviewing all the way from the other side of the world! You have no idea how much I appreciate that!
Labeled ya sis—in other words, my sister: I do? Really? I didn't think that her thinking parts made much sense…kinda sound like randomness to me…but I'm glad you think it makes sense.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this chapter or the last or any other chapter I forgot to put the disclaimer on but the chip and the window device. And the symbol...
So, here's the chapter that, hopefully, hasn't had you waiting forever…
Serenity came back into the room to see Kaiba putting the chip into his computer. She closed the door behind her, then stood uncertainly as Kaiba started to type something on the keyboard, not sure if he wanted her to see what was on it or not. Fidgeting with the door handle behind her, she hoped Kaiba would at least tell her to do something other than stand there. Standing in one spot, unnoticed, always made her feel just as nervous as being told to stand in one spot, noticed. Especially in front of an intimidating man like Kaiba.
"Come here, Serenity," he said, not looking away from his computer. Obediently, she walked over to where he was sitting. "I need your help again. This memory chip has some crucial information on it. If any of us miss anything, the other will probably find it." He looked behind him where she was standing beside his chair. "Can I rely on you to do that?"
She nodded. He scrutinized her for a few seconds, as if trying to find the worth in her standing there and being able to find anything else. She felt uncomfortable again, with the blue gaze prying into her, as if to see if she was really worth all of his time and effort. But he turned away soon enough, leaving her wondering what had just happened.
The thought soon escaped her mind though, for something more important. She watched as Kaiba clicked on an icon on the computer screen, and a window immediately popped up, filling the whole computer screen from corner to corner. Blank and black at first, nothing on it, it soon blinked and showed a man in a business suit. Both of them leaned in a little closer to watch, one slightly curious, the other dangerously finding the key in destroying the enemy.
The man was sitting behind a huge desk, reclined in his chair, his black suit jacket unbuttoned to show a crisp white shirt and a formal patterned crimson tie. Grey eyes peered sharply below slicked black hair, bits of gray streaking the hair at the temples. He looked at them through the screen like a hawk. "So, Seto Kaiba, have you finally found the chip?" A smirk crossed his face, belying his voice. It was pleasant-sounding, not far from sounding like a doctor attending on a patient. But there was the underlying tone that suggested he didn't really care as much as he put up, and that all of it was an act. The combination almost made him sound like Pegasus, but without the drawl and a bit more sly. "Of course you have. How else would you be seeing this?" The smirk turned into an almost twisted grin, genuine but a hint of mocking behind it.
"So we meet again. Oh, don't worry, we still have your brother. He is still safe…or as safe as he can be as a captive." A low laugh escaped his throat. "You have no need to worry about him. Not one hair will be harmed on his head." The smile was gone from his face. "But no need to talk about that. He is not the topic of our conversation."
He leaned forward in his chair. "I think you know what I want. You've seemed to make a point of it ever since you talked to my men last weekend. Your company, Seto Kaiba. I want KaibaCorp. You have some valuable information that I would love to have. Of course, you would never give it to me, so you only leave me with the choice of taking it from you by force. Hence, the borrowing of your little brother. Or how else would I persuade you to let me have it?"
Kaiba growled at the back of his throat at the usage of words, but didn't say anything. Serenity looked at him, surprised by the noise, and saw his eyes flashing a bright blue, still fastened like a predator on the screen. She quickly looked back, remembering Kaiba's words to try and catch everything, just in case the other one missed it.
"It isn't a hard task I'm asking of you, Seto Kaiba. Give me your company willingly, and you get your brother back. Don't worry, you will still have money to live decently and survive pretty much like you are now. It will seem the same as always, you will just have your company in reliable hands. In fact, it will seem as if nothing ever changed. There will be a bit less work on your hands, too. What a bargain. So why not hand over the company? That's all I'm asking of you, that's all I'm asking. Just hand it over, and everything will be fine.
"Of course, this is where your brother does become important to us…If you choose not to hand your company over, we might…let's just say that we'll have to make it easier for you to give us what we want. Maybe we'll go a little farther…what do you think? I think that it's pretty fair…We get what we want, you get what you want. We don't get what we want, you don't get it, either. All of it is just simple logic."
He leaned back in his chair again, a genuine yet mocking smile on his face once more. "So, Seto Kaiba, what do you think? Simple, no? I'll be waiting for your call…" Once again, the despised smirk was back on the face. Then the image of the man was gone from the screen, and it left the computer with a black window, several small numbers blinking repeatedly. Something slammed, and then it became a black screen.
Kaiba's eyes narrowed dangerously. He didn't ask Serenity if she had seen anything. She hadn't seen anything anyway… Instead, he went to the phone and punched in the number he had scribbled down—Serenity then realized that the slam had come from him shutting a drawer in which he had gotten out a pen and a small pad of paper to copy the number down—standing over the desk with his whole body rigid with anger. His teeth were gritted together, and his hands were clenching the phone and the desk so hard that his knuckles turned white. His eyes were flashing a vivid blue, like lightning.
"Hello?" Serenity heard dimly.
"It's Seto Kaiba, President and CEO of KaibaCorp. Get your goddamn boss on the phone. Now." His voice was dripping with venom.
The voice on the other side said a few words. Serenity could barely even hear that someone had replied. Kaiba turned to her. "Go find another phone and listen," he hissed at her. "Make sure no one knows you're on. Hold the phone upside down if it helps." Then he turned back to face the phone, staring at the screen.
Serenity hurried back to the room she had been in. She vaguely remembered seeing a phone in there; she hoped she hadn't been mistaken. As soon as she was several yards from Kaiba's office, she ran to the room. At the door, she let herself take a few breaths as not to let the other person on the line know she was there by her quick breathing. She then walked into the room, closing the door behind her, and picked up the phone and listened. She was mildly surprised that she had missed nothing of the phone call. Not even the greeting.
"Hello?"
"It's Seto Kaiba. You sent me the chip. You wanted me to call, didn't you? Or was that number just a piece of decoration?"
"How nice of you to answer so soon. Of course I wanted you to call. What decision did you come up with? Are you calling so soon because you are so eager to give up the company for your little brother?"
"Shut up, moron. You should know I don't give up my possessions so easily. If I did, wouldn't I have already given your boys the company by now? But of course you're not smart enough to observe that, so I have to give it to you word for word."
Static.
"Sometimes, it takes the right words to wound the heart. I was under the impression that maybe a few words from a skilled businessman could make you think over your previous decision."
"Give that philosophy crap to someone else. I know all I need to know about it already."
"Seto Kaiba, you are a fool to think such things. No one can know all that they need to know, no matter that they've learned from age one to age ninety-nine. Or longer."
"I said cut it out with the philosophy already. I don't need to hear it."
"What does a young, arrogant, power-abusive boy know about such things? What you are taking as 'crap' is the basis to living life as a human. Without it, we would just be a bunch of uncivilized animals running the earth."
"I know plenty. I may be arrogant, but I know my bounds. I don't abuse my power, like you do. Or why else would you be thinking you could force another man to give up his thriving company?"
"You're nothing but a boy. Maybe that's why you would rather have a company than keep a younger brother? It might be too much for you to handle. After all, intellectual minds like us rarely know how to care for young children. We are destined to make the world a better technological place, not to baby sit little kids."
"Non-intellectual minds like you, you mean. I've taken care of him all my life. I don't need lessons on caring about someone from you. I can handle doing both at once. Isn't that what I've been doing every since I was a young child? And on top of that, I've been able to become a successful businessman. Shocking, isn't it? Don't think you're doing me a favor…you aren't."
"I never said I was, did I? Assumptions always lead to the downfall of a man."
"Can it with all of the philosophical shit already! I'm not calling you to have a friendly conversation about philosophy and logic. Or were you planning to share some theories, too?"
"No, not quite."
"Then get to the point already. Why the hell did you want me to call?"
"As I said before, I wanted to know your decision, Mr.Kaiba."
"And as I said before, I'm not giving up anything. Must I spell it out word for word again? When I say I don't give up my possessions easily, I mean exactly what I say."
"I'm afraid I wasn't very clear. Let me try it again. I wanted you to call to share your decision with me. In other words, whether you wanted your brother safe or your company."
"What do you mean if I want my brother safe? What did you do to him, you bastard? If you even so much as put a cut on him, you're not going to live to see the end of the month. You'll be lucky even to see Christmas—"
"Mr. Kaiba, be reasonable here. All I want is KaibaCorp. Is it really worth it to hurt a kid on such important business matters?"
"It doesn't matter if it's worth it or not. You'll do whatever it takes to get my company. You're no different from all of those other fools who tried to take it. You've kidnapped my brother; now you'll do whatever it takes to get my company. And the fact that you'll fail won't be different, either."
"No need to be so fancy, Seto Kaiba. The only thing you need to say is that you value your company over your brother. How sad."
"What makes you assume such stupidity? If you think what I just said was fancy, you're even less intelligent than I thought. My point was that I'll keep both."
"Sorry, but that isn't one of the options you have. You keep one, or you keep the other."
"If it's only by your words that it isn't one of my options, then forget it. Your word counts as nothing."
"Even if it is only by my words, I won't give you a choice. Will you be a caring older brother, or will you let him stay here with us, orphaned twice, for the sake of money and fame?"
Silence. Voices in the background.
"Hmm…let me think. Keeping my company means no little brother to take care of, but keeping my brother means less profit, or none if no one will give me a job, which I highly doubt if I needed to find another one. Now, which is more important? Easy enough to say my brother. You're more stupid than a dog if you think that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up so easily to have him back. A businessman like you should know that anyone who gives up that easily would never make it far in the business world. Maybe that is why you want my company? Because yours is crumbling and you need something to support it?"
"Of course not. I simply—"
"Let me tell you something. I've had enough of you. I don't care why you want my company; I don't care what you need it for. Name any price or say any reason and it will never be good enough. I worked hard to make it into something like this, and I'm not going to throw it away just because someone tells me to. If anyone wants it, they can fight for it. Of course, they'll never get it."
"Mr. Kaiba—"
"Didn't anyone tell you that it's bad manners to interrupt someone? I'm not done yet."
"Who cares about—"
"Let me tell you one more thing, and you'd better be listening. My brother is worth everything to me. Even more than my money, my fame, my company, and any of my other possessions combined. Everything in life goes after him. Nothing is worth risking his life for. If anything was, that would be millions of possibilities for him to be injured or killed.
"But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up anything. I don't live my life by doing what others tell me and giving up so easily. I've fought for everything I have, and I still do. Nothing changes. So giving up my company isn't a possibility. It's the second hardest thing I have ever fought for, my brother's life being the first. I'll find a way to keep both. I fight to the end, not when I see a glimmer of hope or a small chance at victory. So don't think you're going to get what you want. And don't think you're going to get away with this so easily, either. And when I succeed, you'll wish you never even thought of my company or my brother in the first place."
"Seto Kaiba—" Click.
Serenity shakily put the phone back in its cradle, shocked by everything she had heard. Everything was moving too fast today, too fast for her to keep up. It was overwhelming her like a huge wave at sea. Barely anything was registering in her head anymore. She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes.
"I suppose you know all of it now," a cold but tired voice said. She looked up quickly at the voice and saw that it was Kaiba, leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed. "Anything you think I should pay extra attention to?"
"Um…well, I think there might be something…" She wasn't very sure of everything she had heard, and didn't feel very obliged to voice it all out. Especially to a Kaiba who had been shouting at a man just a minute before.
"Just tell me this time. I don't want to suffer your tears and embarrassment again to get it out of you."
She gave in, too tired to let her embarrassment stop her. "Well…when you first said something about not giving up your company so easily…I thought I heard a sound. There was static overlaying it, but I heard something. It wasn't the man you were talking to, I know that, because…well, it sounded like a voice or something. But he talked through that…sound…so I suppose it wasn't him."
"I heard it too. But it could be a TV, or a radio. I'll puzzle through it later. What else?"
"I heard it a few more times…um…nothing other than that, I guess." She looked down at her fiddling fingers.
Kaiba stayed silent for a moment, looking at the phone as if there were more answers there, then abruptly turned away. "It's five now. I need you to do something quick for me, if you'll stay a little longer. I have an errand to run, now that I have this information."
Serenity looked up tiredly, and emitted a small sigh. There was more? She opened up her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Kaiba. "Look, if you're too tired to work anymore, then go home. You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
"Uh—um—no, I…I didn't mean that…" She fought for the right words. "I—I'm just a little tired, that's all. If there's anything I can help with…I'll do my best to help."
"A tired person won't be able to do the work right. Just go home." He started to walk towards the door.
"Wait!"
Kaiba stopped at the door. "What?" He sounded mildly impatient and annoyed.
Serenity hesitated for a second. What made her say that? "I..I…never mind," she said quietly.
"What is it now?" He turned back to face the room, running a hand through his hair. "Spill it out or leave. It's been a long day, and I'm not in the mood to wait."
"Well…you were so kind to me today…I just don't want to act ungrateful, that's all." She looked down once again, feeling foolish.
"Acting ungrateful? Hardly. So is that your offer to help me, or am I taking it wrong?"
"I want to help."
"Okay then." He walked over to the desk she was sitting at, dug through the pocket inside his trench coat, and put two small objects before her. They were the chip and the small device that had opened the window. "I want you to examine these for any names, labels, whatever. We have some information, but we don't know who has Mokuba captive or where. Most likely, they made these themselves, or else my company would be useless to them. So anything on it—any print or logos—may give us some clues. Search them carefully and thoroughly."
She looked at them for a moment, wondering if her eyes would hold the strain, then pushed the thoughts away for a more important one. "You said you were going on an errand…How long will it take for you to get back? So I can tell you if I find anything?"
"I won't be back for awhile. Get some paper and a pen and write down or draw anything you find. When you're done, leave it with the devices in the second drawer of this desk on top of the things that are in there and lock the room. I'll come in here later to pick them up and examine them more closely. You can leave after you're done." His blue gaze looked down at the small objects for a second, then back at her. "I'll see you tomorrow." With that, he turned for the door, trench coat swirling, and left the room to do his errand.
Serenity watched as he closed the door behind him, then moved her eyes down to focus on the devices lying on the desk before her when the door stood closed. Picking up the memory chip carefully, she turned it between her fingers. There was small font on it, but it was engraved and hard to read. Sighing, she took out pen and paper, then turned on the desk lamp for better light.
With more light, she saw that there was a symbol on top of the print. She squinted at it and moved it a bit so the light would catch it better. It appeared as two sticks at first, but as she studied it a bit more, she saw that the logo consisted of…two swords crossed above the hilt. She puzzled over it. Crossed swords? What company or corporation would use something like that as a logo? But she didn't contemplate on it for too long. It would be Kaiba's job to figure out who it was and what it meant, not hers. She took up the pen and sketched out the symbol and a few words, then making sure that it was exact except for its size being a bit bigger, put the pen down and took the memory chip back into her hands for more examination.
Peering at the print under it, she saw that there was nothing relevant. There were small numbers telling the maximum amount of memory it would store, but nothing else. She turned it over carefully several more times to make sure she didn't miss anything, then put it down and wrote a few words down. She drew a line to separate her notes on the memory chip and the small device that had opened the window—she still had no idea what it was called—and she put the pen down once again.
She was more nervous at examining the small device. She wasn't sure how it worked, and wasn't sure what it would do if she accidentally pressed anything. When Kaiba handled it, nothing had happened, but there was still always the small chance that something dangerous could happen… But what was the logic in that? Her fears still in her head, even as she tried to calm herself down, she kept it on the table and examined the side closest to her. She was looking at the wrong side, though; nothing was on there but little scraps of a glue-like substance that had kept it on the side of the window. Gingerly, she flipped it over. There was a small button in the back, small enough that only a pen—or a hook, as in this case—could trigger it. There was also the same logo of the crossed swords on it, too. A few alien-looking …things…were on it, no doubt to make the mechanism work. There were a few warnings about using it, but nothing else.
Knowing that she would have to hold it and turn it under the light to tell if there were any details she missed, she sighed. But she picked it up anyway and held it closer to the light. Nothing. Every side, even the thin sides to the flat, elongated, cube-like object, were plain except for the glue and the logo, the warning print, and the unfamiliar details on it. There was not even a scratch marring the surface of it.
She put it back on the desk, picking up the pen once more. She scribbled down a few notes, then stared at the two objects lying on her desk. Why did these objects have to end up in and on the walls of KaibaCorp? From her point of view, they just made things more complicated. But in Kaiba's point of view, this was probably one of the keys things to finding his brother again. Sighing yet again, she scribbled down a few last notes and recapped her pen. Folding the paper like an envelope, she wrote down "Notes on chip and device" on the outside and put the two objects inside it. She opened the second drawer and put it near the front of the drawer. She thought it was the wrong place to put it at first, finding nothing inside the drawers, but put it in there anyway. Kaiba's memory might have slipped again; it wasn't impossible. He was human, and he had been too busy to remember every small detail about every room in his corporation's building.
Serenity closed it and looked around the room once. Seeing nothing amiss, she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, making sure it was locked. She picked up her things from the small waiting room by Kaiba's office, then walked to the elevator and waited for her trip down to the street and back home for the night.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I have no idea when the next one will be up…school will be here soon, and before that, I have marching band camp…but I'll try and update as soon as possible! That still might not be for another month... Review, please!