A/N: Due to my recent unemployment, I will probably be updating more frequently until I find another job. This story is going so well, I'm a little it's going to turn out better than my actual book.
As always, feedback is permitted/encouraged/requested. I'm trying to refine my technique.
"Yugi's flying back today." Mokuba mentioned as he seated himself at the dinner table. Gozaburo Kaiba had grown up poor and, upon earning his fortune, spared no expense when it came to his estate. The dinner table was stereotypical of rich western European royalty, unreasonably long and narrow, complete with the castle's king sitting at the head.
"Since when was he gone?" Seto asked, not looking out from behind his newspaper.
His brother's first instinct wasto chide his brother for not even noticing his friend's absence at the first VR test, but Seto had made progress this past week and decided to let this oversight be overlooked.
"Since he flew to New York for Tea's baby shower. I'm hoping he'll have something from Detective Wheeler he can share with us at our next meeting."
A pocket door rolled opening and a servant escorted Ishizu into the dining room. "I hope I'm not late," she said, using the empty space of the of the table to lay out a series of scrolls and set up her laptop. It had become their daily routine to meet up at Kaiba's mansion away from potential Coliseum infiltrators at work. They discussed new theories and findings over dinner and Ishizu was home before Sabrina suspected anything.
"Not late at all," Mokuba smiled as he stood to help her with her seat. "I'm assuming you'll want to eat first and open the forum after?"
"Actually, no. I found something. It's boring translation work, but it might explain what's happening now and why it's happening now."
Kaiba put his paper down, finally intrigued enough to listen.
Ishizu unrolled a scroll, using the centerpieces on the table to hold down the corners. "These are transcripts from all the wall hieroglyphs in the tombkeeper's underground lair. The further back into the chambers you go, the older the writing. Some of the glyphs are so old, we didn't have much to compare them to and left gaps in the translation. However, since the age of technology has allowed for the mass sharing of new discoveries and with an increased pool of text we can look at the whole script with fresh eyes. I went back to a section I worked on just five years ago and am realizing I may have had it all wrong."
"The whole translation?" Seto raised an eyebrow.
"Not the whole thing, but the tenses of the verbs." She indicated a certain glyph repeated throughout the scroll. "Verbs are hard to communicate via pictures so what I used to read as a punctiliar even was actually a perpetual one. Everything in this record, from the resurrections of the shadow games to the Pharaoh battling it is in present tense, when everyone assumes it was aorist."
"Break that down for two non-linguists," was Set's way of asking politely.
"When you talk about the future and you say something like: 'I want to ride in a hot air balloon.', it's clear you intend for that to be a one-time thing. A punctiliar event. But when you say: 'I want to work at KaibaCorp.', you intend for that to be an ongoing process. The thing is, both of those are indicated in the same verb tense in the old language and you can only tell them apart with contextual clues."
Seto stood and walked toward the section of the table Ishizu had set up, studying the glyphs for himself as if he understood them. "You're saying everything that happened with Atem and Zorc and the end of the world was supposed to be a perpetual thing? Atem went into the afterlife, he can't come back again. Trust me, I've looked into it."
"The writing doesn't mention Atem by name, it just says pharaoh. I use to think it was because he was literally 'the nameless pharaoh', but with the verb tenses corrected, it looks more like it's referring to the pharaoh's office, not one ruler in particular. The struggle in perpetuity would be whoever the pharaoh at the time fighting any 'dark' entity to resurrect the shadow games."
"So this is just supposed to happen every few years?" Mokuba asked.
"From what is implied in the text, every five generations, so every 125 years."
"That doesn't make any sense either. The last time this 'perpetual prophecy' manifested was ten years ago. With Yugi." Seto objected.
"I don't have an answer why it's happening again so quickly. I'll have to do more research, but regardless of why, the stage is being set. Last time the role of Pharaoh was played by Atem via Yugi, and the role of 'dark entity revitalizing the shadow games' was Zorc via Bakura. This time, the actors are different. The pharaoh would be…"
"Set." Kaiba answered for her, "And Coliseum is the antagonist?"
"If I'm right, then yes. History is repeating itself within this paradigm."
"And how are we to succeed?" He pushed off the table and began pacing, " Am I supposed to do what Atem did? Use my 'ba'," he drew out the a and added airquotes to make the concept sound more ridiculous, "to seal away the evil temporarily until I can find a way to defeat them for good even though they're going to come back in a few hundred years where my soul will be sprung loose by some hapless teenager attending Ouran Academy whose grandfather gave them a millennium item? I mean, how much like the first time around is this supposed to be?"
"The records aren't that specific, Seto," Ishizu said calmly, "Our line is sworn to protect the monarchy.
These prophecies are for my office to guide and provide aid for the pharaohs as they battle evil, not a play book for how the pharaohs are to seize their destinies."
"What does that leave us with then? Sitting around, waiting for Coliseum to make a move so we can counter it? I don't like being reactionary." Seto shook his head. He finally managed to stop pacing and lean with his back against the table."
"I don't like it either," Mokuba concurred. "If we are going to win, we have to be on the offensive."
"There are still a few things we can do to keep their organization at bay." Ishizu promised. "They don't know about the prophecy. They don't have the first-hand experience we do with the shadow games. We can sit on this information and use it to our advantage. And for that reason," She pulled an external hard drive from her purse. "All of the translations are now off my computer and any cloud storage. They're here and only here, and only the three of us know that. I'd like to give them to you for safe-keeping. I will only have physical copies of the untranslated portions of the underground chambers and will translate them in fragments, only uploading them here."
"That's the most secure you can have it while still working on it," Mokuba assured her. "We'll keep in in one of our safes to ensure its protection."
Ishizu handed the hard drive to Seto. "It would be best if you didn't know what was on the drive, in case you are at any point captured or interrogated by these people."
"Kidnapping is Mokuba's area of expertise. I'll make sure neither of us access or share this information."
"Thank you."
A servant stepped in sheepishly, looking to Mokuba silently for permission to announce dinner. Mokuba nodded, waving her in. Behind her, a string of three more servants entered setting food at the end of the table the brothers and their guest would be eating, remaining careful not to stray too far down to see what they were working on. Seto had instilled in them a healthy fear of prying into business matters.
"Yugi will be with us at our next meeting. Hopefully, he'll have something from Joey he can share." Mokuba said as dinner was winding down.
"Good," Ishizu commented, her phone jingled. "Oh, it's Sabrina. I'd better get going before she gets suspicious." She stood hastily, laying her napkin beside her plate. "Thank you for the dinner, it was delicious. Please give my compliments to the chef," she said as she gathered her things from the other end of the table.
Mokuba stood to follow her. "I'll walk you to your car," he offered.
"Oh. Thank you," Ishizu smiled, "I guess I'll see you again on Monday, Seto."
"Have a good weekend," Seto said, forcing himself to engage in the pleasantries of saying goodbye, though he stayed at his seat rather than stand to see her off. He finished his dinner and then retired to his office before his brother returned.
There was no pressing work to be done, but his fingers drummed on the desk calendar as they sought for something productive to do. He was not accustomed to being idle and very much didn't like the sensation.
He found his violin. It took time to tune but the effort was relaxing. Placing it under his chin, he played. No specific tune in particular, just letting his fingers find the notes and move about to regain some of their old dexterity. He wondered if Sabrina played any instruments, but immediately chastised himself mentally for letting his thoughts stray to her. She might very well be working against them. She didn't particularly like him, and she already had a boyfriend.
A knock interrupted his random overtures. "Come." He permitted entrance.
"I was thinking again," Mokuba said, poking his head in.
"Should I put on a helmet?" Seto asked with a quiet laugh, setting the violin down.
"No, but it's about Sabrina and our little problem. He seated himself in the leather chair opposite the desk.
"What's your idea?" Seto asked.
"If we suspect Sabrina is an agent for Coliseum sent to gather information and cause havoc, why not test the theory? Remove her from the equation and see if Ishizu is targeted again or if Coliseum gains any more information. If cutting Sabrina off also cuts off the suspicious activities, we'll know it's her. If they persist, we can clear her of any wrongdoing."
"And how do you suggest we remove her from the equation?"
"She's still injured. You can order her to stay home or to work from home."
"That still puts her in the same house as Ishizu. Would that really keep her out of the way?"
Mokuba thought. "You could relocate her. Try to get her at one of our offices in the states. She'll probably say yes to be closer to her mom and her boyfriend."
Seto frown, doubting. "She was willing to move away from them, and if we pull her off this big project, won't it look suspicious. I do like the idea of removing her from the equation to see if things even out, but if we don't do it carefully, they'll know we're onto her or arouse the suspicion of whoever is actually involved. Let me think about it for a bit, and I'll let you know when I have a solution I think will work."
"Yeah, just let me know." He waved a goodbye as he headed out, closing the door behind him.
The truth was, Kaiba already had a solution in mind, but he knew his younger brother wasn't going to like it, because he didn't particularly like it either.
Balthazar Nmir had had just about enough with the yappy American on the other end of the phone. He held the receiver away from his ear just to give himself a break, much to Maple's displeasure.
"You told me your men were prefessionals! You promised me no one would get hurt!" the voice on the phone said with an accusatory tenor. "You gave me every assurance, Mr. Nmir. Every assurance! I was under the impression that Coliseum was a reputable organization that was able to deliver on its promises! I hope you're prepared to reimburse my girlfriend for the injuries she sustained or I swear you mutamaddid xawalaat…" Balthazar hung up the phone.
"He sounds like a dissatisfied customer," Maple mused without looking up from her laptop."
"He can get over it. It's not like he was a paying customer here," Nmir retorted. He noticed the light on his phone blinking, indicating he had a call waiting on another line. "Do you know who's on like two?"
"Brian Harker, if you're ready for that headache."
Nmir swore under his breath in Arabic. He picked up the receiver again, exhaled deeply and pushed the button to connect the call. "This had better be good news," he growled.
"I can guarantee it's the best news you've heard all day even though it's not the news you were hoping for."
The Egyptian sat back in his chair, rubbing his brown. "You didn't get the laptop, did you?" he half asked, half snarled.
"Nope," the Irishman replied cheerily. "And ore likely than not, we've blown our chances of ever getting since now Miss Ishtar knows what it is we're after."
"And yet you have the audacity to claim you have good news?"
"I found one of the dragons."
Balthazar sat up, fully attentive. "The eye works?"
"The eye works."
"And do you have the dragon with you now?"
"In a manner of speaking. It's the lawyer's girlfriend, the one who works for KaibaCorp. She will certainly be under closer surveillance now, but she won't be going anywhere anytime soon. We can collect her at our leisure and when we are more prepared to, how shall we say it, contain, what's inside her."
"I think I got it!" Maple said with the excitement of the success of a major breakthrough. She looked up from her perch on the conference table surprised to see Mr. Nmir smiling.
"Well, Mr. Harker, I hate to cut you short, but I've other matters to attend. Keep a close eye on our new asset."
"That won't be too difficult of a task."
Balthazar could hear the smirk on his face from ten thousand miles away. "Keep me posted," he ordered before hanging up.
"Did he win the lottery or something?" Maple asked, "You are never that happy with the mick."
"In a manner of speaking, yes we did hit the jackpot," Balthazar said, "It's almost as if Fate herself is smiling upon us. Now, let's see if this software of yours actually works."
Set sat in his home office with his arms crossed. Twice, his hands reached to his phone to page his secretary but restrained himself. The third time though he followed through, disgusted with himself. He'd found Pegasus' private number in the KaibaCorp's private registry, staring at it for fifteen minutes before dialing on his landline office phone, sighing as the dialtone turned to dull ringing in the earpiece.
"Hello," came the modulated yet upbeat tone of the Industrial Illusions CEO.
Seto had to push down a small wave of nausea before speaking. "Pegasus, it's Seto Kaiba!"
"I know."
"I would like to make you an offer. One I believe will benefit everyone involved."
"Hmmmm…" Pegasus mused, "Why do I get the distinct impression this is not about the licensing the next generation of Duel Monsters cards?"
"Because this isn't a normal business call." Seto had to take a deep breath. His ever-nonchalant attitude always made Pegasus difficult to talk to. "I was hoping you could hire away one of my best graphic artists…just to avoid any trouble."
"What kind of trouble are we talking?"
"The kind Yugi and I keep getting into," Seto replied vaguely in case either line was tapped. "I fear we are putting her in an unwarrant amount of danger here. Coliseum has targeted members of my team and I don't want her to keep getting caught in the cross fire. Her house was robbed, she was assaulted and I fell it is in her best interest if she were to receive a generous offer to work for Industrial Illusions.
"I can assume then we are talking about the Kisara in this scenario."
"About Sabrina Harrison, yes," Seto felt the urge to correct him. "She's a brilliant artist and would be an asset to your team. I've sent you an email with pieces of her work, both on screen and paper."
"You know who I meant, Kaiba," Pegasus chided, "But I must ask, what makes you think she'd want to come work for me in the first place?"
Seto stiffened in his chair. 'Because…because she admires you a great deal, and you know it. She told me once you inspired her to pursue her artistic career and were the closest thing she had to a hero."
"She was quite enamored with me, wasn't she?" Pegasus asked smugly.
"Seeing as I can't exactly fire her without suspicion, I concluded the best way to quietly get her away from Domino and KaibaCorp was an enticing job offer from her dream employer." Seto said, trying to keep the conversation on track, "You would get a valuabe asset to your team, I would get her out of harm's way and she would be back home, working for her long-time inspiration. Everyone wins."
"It sounds like you have everything planned out. However, you haven't factored in the issue that Miss Harrison is a liability. How can you guarantee to me that whatever 'trouble' she is gravitating won't follow her to Industrial Illusions?"
"Frankly, I can't. Which is why I am prepared to off you however much you choose to offer Sabrina to sign on with your company plus any damages should she incur any after transitioning over."
"I'm looking at the portfolio you sent me. Her work is incredible…and you're going to reimburse me whatever amount I pay her? Benefits and all?"
"Every penny," Kaiba promised.
"My, my, Seto Kaiba. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you cared about this girl. I daresay you've grown up. However, as I am not in the market for another graphic artist at the moment. I'm not sure I could accommodate her."
"Don't play coy with me. I saw how you were with her while we were in New York. You clearly enjoyed her professional conversation and the kind of attention she was giving you."
"Certainly," Pegasus scoffed. "She's a young, talented, and might I add, very attractive woman. Who wouldn't enjoy that? Besides you, of course."
"And yet, despite all the likeable things about her you don't want to bring her into your team?"
Pegasus chuckled. "More I'm reluctant to indulge you, Seto Kaiba. Despite how professional you wish to sound, what you are in fact doing is asking me for a favor. With our history, with how you've acted toward me in the past month alone, why would I ever want to do you a favor?"
"Because if you do this for me, I will ow you. And you know I make good on keeping my ledgers balanced."
A short silence was followed by a suppressed laugh as Pegasus processed the subtleties of Kaiba's desperation. "A year ago, you would have fired a woman who might be in some kind of danger without any explanation, even if it was for her own good. Now, look at you, asking your own nemesis for help, just to keep some girl who may never return your feelings safe. I'm touched, really. I een thought for a moment there you were going to say please, but…"
"Please," Seto cut him off.
"I beg your pardon?" It was genuine shock in his tone, but not displeasure.
"Please, for her sake, offer her a position at Industrial Illusions and get her out of Coliseum's reach, and I will do whatever you want for compensation on top of the financial reimbursement."
"Before I agree to this, you know for certain that Coliseum is not targeting her specifically?"
"We're certain. The thief who gave Sabrina a black eye was looking for Ishizu Ishtar's laptop. There was a translation on it they want. Sabrina was just the unfortunate roommate who happened to stumble on the crime."
"What kind of text?"
Seto immediately regretted giving too many details. "I don't know much, It's a codex of all the duties and ceremonies of the tombkeeper's office."
"Does Coliseum know she's the blue eyes white dragon?"
Seto inhaled sharply. "We're not even sure she's the blue eyes white dragon. We just know she's Kisara. Her ka might have remained with her soul when it reincarnated, it might not have. Even Ishizu isn't sure how all of this works."
"I see. Very well. I will invite Miss Harrison to an interview and offer her a considerable sum to sign to join my art team. I can't guarantee she'll say yes, though."
"She has no reason not to."
"For my own sake, I hope you're right." Pegasus disconnected the line, sparing Kaiba of having to thank him.
He took a few deep breaths before smiling to himself, leaning on his desk and steepling his fingers. He was still a master at maintaining control.
Much like his older brother, Mokuba enjoyed watching people. He took note of the way people walked or sat, but unlike his brother, who only used it as a means to read and manipulate people, Mokuba enjoyed the human aspect of it. Sitting in the cafeteria, he could tell which individuals loved their work, which were tired, which where sleeping together, and it was all beautiful to watch. He took not with the energy Sabrina entered the seating area that day. She was conversing congenially with Karen, despite the bruising on her face only partially healed. The blood had dried from a deep purple to a wine red; the stitches gone but the scar still bright pink. Still, she had something extra, something Mokuba hadn't seen in her since that night they'd gone to Times Square a few months back. Whatever it was, he was happy for her.
After he'd moved on to observing other members of the Project Dawn team, Sabrina appeared before him, a printed paper in hand.
"Tell me honestly. Is this your doing?" She said, unable to suppress her smile.
Mokuba furrowed his brow but smiled back. "What?"
She handed him the paper, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet as Mokuba read, his demeanor quickly changing from sympathetic excitement to concealed rage. It was an email addressed to her from the personal email address of Maximillian Pegasus.
'Dear Miss Harrison,
I recall our conversation a few months back when you mentioned you were fond of Broadway Musicals. As it so happens, I was gifted with two box seat tickets to the Minskoff Theatre's production of The Lion King and immediately thought of you. The date of the production is April 3 (one week from tomorrow) and I would be honored to escort you to dinner before and an evening on the town afterwards and can even provide you with transportation as my sponsored Duel Monster's team is in Tokyo for a tournament and will be returning to New York two days before the performance. I'm sure they wouldn't mind one extra person on the private jet. Please accept my humble invitation by responding with your personal information so I can add you to the flight manifest immediately.
I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Love,
Max
P.S. I also have heard you are something of an artist and would love to see some of your work if you wouldn't mind bringing it with you. M.P. '
"When did you get this?" Mokuba asked, handing the paper back to her quickly.
"This morning!" She giggled. "And you didn't set this up? Or Seto?"
"No. Why?"
"I don't know," Sabrina sat across from him, but barely touching the seat. "I just figured Mr. Pegasus would have already forgotten someone like me. But you, and Seto. You have connections. It just seemed like a nice…brotherly thing you'd do for a sister, and I knew Seto would never do anything like this, but I figured if anyone was going to do something super cool for me, it'd be you."
Mokuba was dumfounded. "I…no…we…We don't really keep in touch with Pegasus that much. I think you just must have made that much of an impression on him."
Her eyes lit up, almost glowing with excitement. "Really?"
The younger Kaiba wanted to snatch the printout from her hands, tear it to shreads and tell her what kind of man Maximillian Pegasus was but forced himself to smile for her sake…for his sister's sake. It was weird thinking of her as a sister, but she evidently thought of him as a brother. Did she see Seto as a brother as well?
"Apparently so," He finally eeked out. "Go. Have a good time. I think you should still be at home recovering anyway."
"Thank you!" she said, pushing herself out of the chair. "I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it. Did you read the part where he said he 'immediately thought of me'?"
"Yes I did," Mokuba replied with no enthusiasm.
"I have to go, my lunch is over, but I'm going to Broadway!" She let out a tiny, feminine squeal of excitement Mokuba could have sworn only mice and other rodents could produce. She clearly wanted to talk about it more but the clock forced her to skip away back to the elevators and return to her floor to work.
Mokuba looked down at the rest of his food, his appetite completely gone.
He was too angry to eat.
Seto had elected to eat in his office, ordering his food delivered via elevator. He had to work out rearranging the VR testing floor to allow the Project Dawn team the access he promised him while still allowing the other projects to remain on schedule.
"Mr. Kaiba, you're plate's here," Yui's voice said through the intercom.
"Thank you, Yui. Send her in."
The door opened, but the usual foodservice employee was replaced with his younger brother, wearing an expression that indicated he knew. Mokuba tersely placed the food on his desk. The brothers stared at each other, engaging in another silent battle of wills.
"You didn't have to sneak in like this," Seto finally said.
"I didn't have an appointment," Mokuba countered.
"I knew you wouldn't like it, but you have to trust me." Seto said, getting straight to the point.
"Like you trusted me enough to run it by me first? Seto, you said you'd let me know when you had a solution!"
"And I knew you'd strike it down the second I suggested it because it's Pegasus and you hate him."
"Oh, you don't?" The lividity in Mokuba's voice was evident now.
"I wouldn't send him a Christmas card, but right now he's our best bet to do everything we want accomplished. If Sabrina goes back to the states, she'll meet up with Pegasus and want to stay there. He's prepared to offer her a job and a significant signing bonus, enticing enough she'd actually consider it. Industrial Illusions has information that Coliseum wants, and if she's working for Coliseum and that information is leaked? Well, better them than us."
"And if she isn't?"
"Then she's out of harm's way. Either way, it's best for us."
Mokuba pursed his lips, taking a few breaths to calm himself down. "You're right, but I don't like it." He said. "I don't trust him, Seto. He plays dirty."
"I know. But for now, we're taking it one step at a time. Isolate Sabrina. Observe the difference. Go from there."
Mokuba nodded, pacing the floor of the office until he had finally calmed down enough to return his breathing to normal. When he was ready, he headed to the door, looking over his shoulder to make one last remark before he left.
"If he lays a finger on my sister, I'm going to kill him." He said sincerely.
"And if you do, I will help you destroy the body." His brother replied with equal sincerity.
Mokuba smiled as he left. He knew deep down that he and his brother would always have each other's backs.