Chapter 17

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Serenity ran out of the mansion at Duke and she ran past him, making him follow her. She stopped soon enough to let him catch up and he did, panting a little.

"What's up?" He asked

"Nothing… Kaiba… someone's buying off his company and causing a commotion. I feel--" She stopped when she heard snickering. She turned around and saw Duke laughing.

"It's the work of a genius." He shook his head with a smile on his face. She frowned.

"What?" He asked, as if he was innocent.

"What do you mean work of a genius?"

"Well I mean what I mean...Finally Kaiba gets some torture. He never knows how it feels. He's always the almighty Seto Kaiba… Now he's falling and if the man behind this scheme succeeds then it's a work of art. Genius." He said smirking. "I've always wanted to taunt Kaiba...Once he falls, I'll get my chance." He said, as if proud to do something like that.

"What the hell do you mean?" She was getting angry.

"Man... I never knew you were this slow... I mean I always thought you were a bit of a dunce..." he muttered on…

"Look you son of a bitch.1) Seto will never fall, especially to you.2) What makes you think it's a guy?--" He interrupted her.

"I said genius. It can't be a girl." He shrugged as in telling her duh. (I always thought he'd be a real sexist..by the way he treats his fan girl when he duels Joey adn Yugi...)

She slapped him, kicked him where the sun don't shine, kneed him in the stomach and whispered in his ear with a bitter tone

"I happen to have a higher IQ then you...I can't believe I ever kissed you..." She spit at him and ran off towards her house. Soon, reporters were swarming around Duke, making up stories from what they had just seen. As she came home, she ran through the doors and into her living room, hoping to find her brother. She did, and the rest of the gang as well. The news was on.

"It seems that Duke Devlin, owner of Dungeon Dice Monsters, an accompanying game to Duel Monsters has just tried to seduce Mr. Kaiba's girlfriend." A clip of Serenity kicking him and whispering in his ears was played on the television. She blushed. She did look scary.

"Care to explain?" Tea asked.

"You know how like a month ago there was this thing about me and Kaiba?" She made sure to walk slowly, expressing herself with hand movements and making sure to say Kaiba, not Seto.

There were several nods.

"And how they thought I was his girlfriend..." She dragged out girlfriend.

Many more nods.

"Well and then when I was walking home from Shia's…" She paused. "Since there were sudden family issues that popped up and they had to leave…" She looked around the room at everyone, making sure no one was suspicious. "--when I bumped into Kaiba. He told me about Kaiba corp. going and down and we had a little chat. Then Duke came along and offered me a ride home. I said sure." She stopped.

"And…?" Joey made hand movements telling her to move on.

"Well, I got really mad at him cuz' he was being very rude and sexist." She huffed and then blushed. "And then I did that." She pointed at the T.V. as it was replaying the event.

There was silence in the room and then-

"We should go cheer up Kaiba…" Yugi suggested

"Is that all you can think of Yuge?" Joey asked. "Serenity said Duke was being sex-ist. How can he even think that about my sista'?" He said, getting up and clenching his fists. "You did the right thing Serenity…" He nodded in approvement. Everyone in the room just shook their head.

"Hey, Joey, you know that sexist means--" He was cut off by Mai.

"Don't bother." She just sighed. "I think we should go see Kaiba and see what we can do." She said. There were murmurs of agreement saying that they should look out for a friend. In actuality, they just had nothing better to do. Serenity shook her head.

"No. We'll just be a distraction to him. He looked really worried when I saw him. I think he said either Pegasus or Allistor was behind this or something." She muttered on.

/Allistor? Pegasus? No…That's not possible…Could it be…/ Yugi discussed with Atem in his mind link.

"Guys…I have something important to discuss." He said and half the people who had left came rushing back in as Joey yelled at them to get back.

"What Yuge? What happened?"

"We got a letter from someone….umm…two days ago. It was threatening us about taking Serenity's soul and Kaiba corp. We ignored it, thinking it was a fan girl or someone like that but I don't think so anymore." Yugi said nervously, playing with the chain that connected to the millennium puzzle.

"My soul?" Serenity asked, confused. Of course she didn't understand, she had only experienced parts of Battle City and never went through Duelist Kingdom, Doom, or Atem's memory. She knew little on the fact of how it felt to be pelted into the darkness of the shadow realms, have your soul trapped in a flimsy piece of cardboard, or be in the line of thousands of other souls just to be fed to a terrible beast with the power of the gods.

Joey hesitated on explaining how it felt. He himself had been part of the thousands in line ready to be fed to the Leviathan, and it felt worse than hell could possibly be imagined. Everyone in the room felt uncomfortable as memories of the past flooded their minds. Yugi had been captured by the oracle curse, Joey had also been trapped by the oracle curse, Mai had been thrown into the darkness by Yami Marik, Marik had been sealed away by his own Yami, Ryou the same, Tea had been controlled by Bakura many times, and Atem's soul had been sealed away in the puzzle for five thousand years. The only ones who had never been into the shadows were Serenity and Ishizu. But of course, Ishizu knew how it felt. She had gone through hell in her visions and her distinctive memory of her past life didn't help her mind either. So basically, Serenity was the only one who didn't understand. She was innocent in this category and everyone in the room wanted it that way.

She decided to leave it alone after feeling the uncomfortable aura's coming from everyone.

"Maybe we can just go offer some help..." Yugi said, trying to make people forget he ever said anything.

"yea. Yuge's right. We should go help out Kaiba." Joey said. He didn't want sister to get involved with their miseries. (A/N: BTW. I think Joey is one of those people who gets really mad easily but forgives easily as well. So it's like he gets mad at Kaiba, sometimes only a small anger, and sometimes a large anger, but he always ignores it and forgives him cuz he knows that Kaiba is on their side...)

Before they knew it, all of them where outside and soon were standing in front of Kaiba's mansion.

"Serenity, maybe you should knock. He knows you the best." Mai said, shoving her in front. She nodded meekly and pressed the intercom button.(is that it? that word just popped up into my head.)

"Name?"

"Serenity Wheeler."

"Ok come rig--"

"Also. Mai Valentine, Joey Wheeler, Yugi Motou, Marik Ishatr, Ishizu Ishtar, Atem um...just Atem..., Ryou Bakura, and Tea Gardner."

"I'm sorry. I have instructions telling me only to let Ms. Wheeler in."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Mai said.

"Kaiba! You better let us in!" Joey said.

"Kaiba. This is important. This could save your company." Yami, wait no, Atem said with his deep voice. (A/N: WAY too deep)

"Sirs, madam, Mr. Kaiba is not here--" But before she could finish, someone interrupted her.

"Yes. I am here. Now what did you say about my company?" Kaiba's hoarse voice came through the speaker.

"We ain't telling ya anything unless you let us in!" Joey said.

"So what's it gonna be?" Mai yelled.

"We're running out of time! Yugi got a letter threatening to take Serenity's soul and the fall of Kaiba corp!" Joey yelled.

"Way to keep a secret.." everyone murmured.

"Alright. Come in. It better be good though or else." They heard a beep and the gates opened letting them in to the Kaiba mansion.

The bolded part, as some of you might've recognized, is taken from episode 159 of Yugioh dubbed version. Anyways, thanks for the reviews. Hope more are coming. I'll update soon!