A/N: Chapter three is up! Many thanks to Tawnykit, for her suggestion on using a different language to name Seto's ship. The name I settled on was Inabikari, which means "Cloud to cloud lightning" or just "lightning" in Japanese. It's a nod to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Lightning!

Disclaimer: See the previous freakin' one! I don't want to repeat myself.

Yu-Gi-Oh galaxies: The Sphinx Crystal

Chapter Three: Strange Happenings

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A few days into their journey, Mokuba finally decided to ask Seto where they were going.

"What planet are we headed for, big brother?" Mokuba questioned, hanging over the back of his chair and spinning around.

"Draconia," Seto replied. "We'll be there in a few more hours."

"Okay," Mokuba said. "Where on Draconia are we going?"

"There's a clan of Draconians that have been kind enough to offer us lodgings."

"What do Draconians look like? Are they friendly?" Mokuba asked curiously. Liasara peeked out of his pocket and stuck her little mouse tongue out at Ilena. The wolf daemon rolled her eyes.

"Some clans are friendly, some are warlike. However, they never attack without reason. As for what they look like, well, you'll have to wait and see."

Mokuba's anticipation grew as they continued to travel trough the stars.

……………………………………………………

Seto first realized something was up when the ship's com device beeped, signaling that it was picking up something. He quickly pushed the button so the holo relay would show up and also so the beeping would stop. Seto glanced at the copilot's chair next to him, where Mokuba was curled up under Seto's coat. Liasara was snuggled as a ermine on Mokuba's shoulder, both of them fast asleep. Seto gave a sigh of relief that the signal hadn't been loud enough to wake up his brother.

Seto focused his attention on the holo readout in front of him. His eyes widened, then narrowed as he saw what the ship had picked up. A distress signal, and the holo in front of him displayed the ship that had sent it out. It was an odd shaped little craft of a design he had never seen before. It appeared heavily damaged.

Ilena looked at Seto. "Are we going to help them?"

Seto turned the ship in the direction the signal was coming from as a reply. He pressed a few controls, hoping to get a communication through to the damaged ship.

"This is Seto Kaiba, captain of the Inabikari,"Seto spoke into his comm. system. "Do you need assistance?"

A young voice replied, "Assistance? Yeah, that would be nice. Half my ship was blown away, after all."

Seto gave a small chuckle. "I can see that. Just hold on; our ship will be there soon."

"Can you take my ship in? I think I can fix it."

"There's plenty of space in the cargo hold for it. Don't worry. What's your name?"

"Suikin Lightningpaw," the voice replied. "I'm from…well, nowhere near here, anyways. It's hard to explain."

"Are you a human?"

"No. I'm a Kitsune."

"I've never heard of that species before…well, we're almost there. I'll talk to you then," Seto deactivated the comm. device, then turned to his daemon. "It looks like we've picked up a new traveling companion."

……………………………………………………

The ship was so heavily damaged that Seto couldn't see how Suikin expected to fix it. The blue and silver vehicle's entire left side had been burned, and the metal (or whatever it was) that the ship was made of had buckled and was dented in several places. Seto had never seen any weapon that could do this kind of damage, but then again, this ship was strange and probably reacted differently to weapons than the ships he knew of.

The owner of this ship, Suikin Lightningpaw the Kitsune, was just as strange as the ship itself. She was small, about three feet tall at the tips of her ears. She looked like a fox, but no fox Seto had ever seen. Suikin's fur was black with a light blue marking her underbelly, ear tips, paws, and tail tip. Her eyes were bright green, with a bright blue lightning-shaped tattoo under each one. Her only clothing was a faded red cloth that was wrapped around her neck like a scarf, and a round clay charm on a string.

Suikin ran back and forth across her ship like a squirrel, sometimes pausing and clinging upside-down on one side as she studied a particular burn or dent. All the while, she was talking to herself, and to the ship.

"Well, that's a nasty burn, nothing some more star metal won't fix, but I don't know if they have any of that here…you've certainly been banged up a lot…" Suikin hopped off the ship's hull and landed next to Seto.

"Well, if I can get my paws on the right material, I can fix that ship up right as rain," she paused and glanced up at Seto. "Now, I want you to tell me exactly where I am, please."

"We're close to Draconia," Seto told her.

Suikin threw up her paws in frustration. "That tells me nothing, Mr. Kaiba. I need to know what galaxy I'm in. I don't have any idea."

"This is the Tuatara Galaxy…wait. You're not from this galaxy? How is that even possible?"

Suikin looked hard at the twenty-five year old bounty hunter, then at the tawny wolf sitting at his side. The Kitsune waved a paw at the damaged ship behind her. "It starts with this. My ship. It's called an Ark, and it's…a form of biotech. It's alive, and sentient. It's in pain now…but anyway, every Ark comes with a special sort of hyperspace drive. Except…except it takes nowhere near as long as hyperspace travel to get to its intended destination. It only takes a matter of minutes."

Suikin paused and looked at Seto. His face was expressionless, but she could tell he was interested in what she was telling him.

"Anyway, this drive can also be used to travel to a nearby galaxy. However, when I engaged this, something went wrong. The drive shorted out, but sent the Ark through anyway. That's what damaged it, and stranded me here."

There was a moment of silence.

"What's the name of your home galaxy?" Seto asked.

"I don't really think it has a name," Suikin replied apologetically. Then, she gestured towards Ilena. "Tell me about your…friend." She had been going to say "pet", but something had told her that would be rude.

Seto laid a hand on Ilena's head. "She's my daemon. Her name is Ilena. Don't the humans in your galaxy-if there are any-have daemons?"

Suikin shook her head. "No, no one has daemons where I come from. Why, is that wrong? Does everyone have daemons here? I know I don't have one…where I come from, "demon" is a word used to denounce something or someone evil."

Seto felt a small twinge of shock. A galaxy where no humans had daemons? That seemed wrong. "Well, it's…unusual. Where you come from, daemons must be inside their humans instead of out. Aliens don't have daemons."

"Ah," Suikin said. "Then I'm normal either way, then."

Seto nodded, then turned at started to leave the cargo hold, Ilena moving silently beside him.

Suikin started to follow him. "Where are you going?"

"To the cockpit. I need to check on my brother, and get us back on course."

"Oh, okay. A little brother?"

"Yes. He's ten." Seto continued ahead, reaching the cockpit. He turned around, and pointed to one of the rooms in the walkway. "You can stay in there and rest. I'll come get you when we land."

Suikin gave a salute. "Yes, sir!" She turned around and went into the room, eager to rest after her long, stressful journey.

……………………………………………

Mokuba and Liasara were still sound asleep in the copilot's chair. Seto pulled his coat up closer around his brother, being careful not to touch Mokuba's daemon. Even though both brothers were extremely close, the unspoken law forbidding the touching of a daemon that was not your own still prevented them from touching the other's daemon, even by accident. Of course, it was not really a law, more of a feeling. It was a terrible breach of etiquette; something so personal and private as someone else's daemon should only be handled by their own human.

Mokuba stirred slightly, and Lia yawned, changing into a small, bright-colored bird. "Seto?" Mokuba asked sleepily, sitting up. "Are we there yet?"

Seto sat down in his seat, busy getting the ship back on course for Draconia. "No, not yet, kid. We had a small delay. We picked up someone from a damaged ship."

Mokuba blinked. "We picked someone up? Who? Why was the ship damaged? Did someone attack it? Was-"

Seto cut him off. "You can ask her later, kid. She's in one of the empty rooms, resting. Her story is a strange one, and I'm not the one to tell it."

Mokuba sighed, disappointed. "Oh, okay." On his shoulder, Lia fluttered her wings irritably.

Seto gave his brother a small smile. "We'll arrive at Draconia soon. You should go get ready."

Mokuba nodded, and with Lia bounding ahead of him as a rabbit, he went to get his stuff together.

…………………………

The space station where Yugi Motou and his brother Yami worked was just as busy that day as any other day.

So busy, in fact, that no one noticed Katrina and her fisher daemon.

The young woman had pried open a panel in one of the station's walls. With Martin her daemon keeping watch, she set about cutting wires and reconnecting them in the wrong place.

Finally, she was done. Katrina carefully put the panel back into place, aligning it just right, so that it looked as if no one had touched it.

Her daemon looked at her. "Did it work?"

Katrina nodded. "Yes. Their communications are down. By the time they realize it, and figure out how to fix the problem, it will be too late for them to send out any distress signals."

Martin's gaze swept over the station. "What does he want with the station, anyway? He'll soon have an entire city under his control, so why a space station?"

"It's in case the first plan fails. He needs to have a…back-up laboratory."

…………………………………………

Suikin splashed water from the refresher's sink onto her face. Well, to tell the truth, she had no idea if they called it a "refresher" in this strange galaxy anyways. Seto had woken her up a few minutes ago to tell her that they would reach this Draconia planet in about twenty minutes' time.

Running her fur dry with a towel, the Kitsune made her way towards the large bed (well, it was large by her standards!) and sat on its edge, chin in paws.

Everything here was so different…would she ever get home?

She had left her door open; being furred creature, she had no need for clothes and therefore no need really for privacy when she cleaned up. Besides, she wanted to know when they had landed, and it would save time if Seto didn't have to open her door.

So, with the door open, it was hard to miss the young boy who peered around it, curiosity shining in his eyes as his cat daemon leaned against his leg.

Suikin looked up, smiling. "Hello."

"Um…hi," The boy suddenly looked nervous. "I…we were wondering…that is, Lia and I wanted to know…"

Suikin flopped back on the bed with a pretend groan of annoyance. This must be Seto's little brother, she decided. Suikin had a little brother of her own; she knew how to deal with them.

"You wanted to know about me. Seto has a big mouth, eh?"

Mokuba bristled at that statement, and Lia changed into a small dragon and bared her fangs at Suikin. "Seto does not have a big mouth! Don't talk about him like that, it's rude and…"

Suikin sat up, grinning. "Oh, relax, kid, I'm just kidding."

Mokuba's anger faded away, and Lia changed into a mouse and crept up to his shoulder. "Oh. Well, I'm, sorry for getting mad…I just don't like hearing people talking bad about my big brother…"

"Hey," Suikin said suddenly. "I just noticed something. Your daemon has changed shape twice, but I was with Seto earlier and his daemon didn't change once. Why is that?"

"You don't know about daemons?" Mokuba asked, curiously.

"No," Suikin said. "Humans don't have daemons where I come from. You see, I'm from another galaxy, and…"

Suikin repeated the explanation she had given Seto, and Mokuba listened, wide-eyed. Liasara even changed into a lemur so she could be wide-eyed too.

"Another galaxy? Wow…"

Suikin was watching Liasara curiously. "Aha. There. Your daemon changed again!"

Lia wrapped her lemur tail around Mokuba's wrist as the little boy explained daemons to Suikin. "Well, this is Liasara, but I just call her Lia. She can change because I'm still a little kid. Y'see, when people grow up, their daemons can't change anymore. They just settle on one shape and stay that way forever."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But I don't want Lia to ever settle. I like it when she changes. I don't want to grow up, and she doesn't either."

"I don't want to grow up either, but it happens to everyone eventually. My species stay kids for thousands of years, but we eventually become adults…I' m just over nine hundred years old, but I'm about the same as you," Suikin told Mokuba, enjoying the look of surprise on his face.

"You're…over nine hundred? Wow! And you're still a kid?"

"Yep."

"Wow," Mokuba said again, before remembering that he hadn't really introduced himself yet. "Oh, I'm Mokuba, by the way."

"My name's Suikin," The young Kitsune offered her paw, and Mokuba shook it.

"Hey, Mokuba? Suikin? We're landing on Draconia now," Seto had arrived in the doorway, his wolf daemon beside him. Lia, still in lemur form, jumped off Mokuba's shoulder and led the way to the cockpit, her tail held high in the air. Once they arrived, Mokuba, Seto, and Suikin settled into the chairs there. Ilena lay on the floor next to Seto, and Lia leapt onto Mokuba's lap. Mokuba wrapped his arms around his daemon and looked at Draconia's jungle through the veiwscreen.

"Hey, Seto, where is the clan where we're stating?"

"It's on a beach. We're almost there," Seto replied, as the jungle thinned out and was replaced with cliffs and dunes. They could see the blue sea sparkling in the distance.

"Reminds me of home…" Suikin murmured to herself, in voice so low that no one else could hear it.

The ship Inabikari came to a graceful, swooping landing on the beach. Seto stood up, and activated the exit ramp. "There's a small procession waiting for us out there. Mokuba, remember, behave yourself. And Suikin? You too."

"Yes, mother," Suikin and Mokuba chorused together.

Seto gave them a mock glare. "Cut it out, you two. You've only just met and already you're best friends. I think we should warn the locals, Ilena," Seto added to his daemon.

"Hey," Mokuba protested. "Seto, we'll be good."

Seto smiled. "Well, that's nice to know. Come on."

The small party made there way outside; Seto lead the way with Ilena at his side, followed by Mokuba, who was carrying Lia (still in the shape of a lemur) in his arms, and Suikin, who walked next to Mokuba.

A Draconian with brown hair strode forward at the head of three others. He was dressed plainly in a sandy colored tunic and pants. He held out a hand to shake Seto's.

"Welcome to the Oceanic Clan, Seto Kaiba. We're so grateful you've come. My name is Byron. I'm King Russo's Captain of the Guard. Come with us, there's a dinner being held for you back in the clan cave. Who are your companions?"

Seto introduced them. "This is my little brother Mokuba and his daemon Liasara, and this is our new friend, Suikin Lightningpaw."

Captain Byron nodded. "Very pleased to meet you all. Now, if you could follow me…"

Mokuba was looking at the Draconians, his eyes wide with fear. Lia became a mouse and hid in his hair.

There was no mistaking it. The creature in his dream had been a draconian. But…Mokuba relaxed slightly. There was no danger here, these Draconians were obviously friendly. Mokuba ran after his brother, with Lia taking on the form of a gull and flying beside him. Suikin ran after them on all fours (she ran faster that way), and the travelers headed into the fire lit caves that were filled with the smell of good food and the warm feeling of being among friends.

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A/N: So, that's the third chapter. You should bloody well read and review it, I stayed up all night working on this.