8. Blue-Eyes

Bringing Mokuba with them to dinner had been a good choice, Kaiba reflected. Unlike his brother, Kaiba was not a social creature by nature; the closest thing to socializing he ever did was the various affairs he attended on behalf of Kaiba Corp, and the occasional hook-up with what Mokuba liked to call his "fangirls." The latter followed a pretty standard script: dinner at a pretentious restaurant, talk about the latest business or Duel Monsters conquest mixed in with a few standard lines, back to his place, then breakfast and a note left for her in the morning after he'd left for work. Roland or one of his other assistants would make sure she got home—and that it was understood she was not to come back.

Sara, on the other hand, was actually interesting and intelligent, and he had no idea how to talk to her. Mokuba filled the gap nicely, his outgoing personality engaging her easily. She talked about her undergraduate work at the University of Cambridge, first in Chinese studies and then in Egyptology. She talked about her current master's work, which focused on the three pharaohs to whom Yugi and himself were ostensibly connected. When she mentioned that her mentor, a Professor Julius, had been on that dig in the Egyptian desert with Yugi and Professor Hawkins last year, Mokuba went on a half-hour tangent about Hawkins' granddaughter, and Sara not only bore it with good humor, she seemed to actually find it charming.

She talked a long time about dragons and her interest in them and the various myths and cultural beliefs about them. Eventually, the discussion came around to Duel Monsters. Though she claimed to be poor at games of any sort, she was interested in Blue-Eyes White Dragon and how she worked in the context of the game. Kaiba had tried explaining the basic rules of the game, with Mokuba interjecting every so often in an attempt to simplify the jargon for her, but it was hard to get across the intricacies of the game's strategy or the majesty of Blue-Eyes in action with mere words.

"Instead of trying to explain it, why don't I just show you?" Kaiba leaned forward, resting his chin on interlocked hands. "Mokuba was just trying out some new software for the Duel Disks—holographic projectors, basically, makes the monsters and spells and traps into life-sized holograms. I could take you down to the testing area and teach you how to duel. We must have a basic dragon structure deck down there you could use. Mokuba can help."

Mokuba gaped at him. "You're going to teach a newbie how to play?"

"Yes, Mokuba," he said wearily, although he couldn't blame him for being surprised. He barely had the patience to play with anyone who wasn't Yugi Mutou, let alone someone who had never played at all. "It would give her a chance to see Blue-Eyes in action."

"Oh, I'd like that." Then her smile turned into a grimace. "But we should probably get in a little more reading before it gets to be too late."

Kaiba groaned. "If I have to read one more hieroglyph, my eyes are going to bleed. I think we should call it a night as far as ancient texts are concerned."

She wavered, uncertain, clearly wanting to see the Blue-Eyes in all its holographic splendor. Finally, she relented. "All right. Let's do it."

Since Mokuba was easily the more patient of the two brothers, they'd decided that he would help her duel against Kaiba, showing her which cards to play and how to plan a basic strategy. She had the test model of the newest Duel Disk version strapped to arm, as did Kaiba, with the settings dialed down well below tournament standards so attacks wouldn't be so forcefully felt. He wanted to show her how impressive Blue-Eyes was without knocking her off her feet to do so.

Still, as much as he tried, Kaiba could not tone down his competitive edge to match her level. Even with Mokuba helping her along, they'd gone through three duels in the space of fifteen minutes, all without him ever getting the opportunity to summon Blue-Eyes.

The fourth duel was going a little better for her. Although she showed no natural aptitude for the game whatsoever, she was bright, and the dragons in the structure deck Mokuba had found for her interested her enough to keep her trying. She still had thirty-four hundred Life Points and Kiryu, a beautiful red dragon with two thousand attack points, on her side of the field when Kaiba finally drew one of his Blue-Eyes. He looked across to her and smiled.

Mokuba knew immediately. "Uh-oh, here it comes. He's got Blue-Eyes, I can tell."

Sara had been studying her hand with her nose wrinkled, but she looked up at Mokuba's mention of Blue-Eyes, her expression becoming one of rapt attention. Her eyes met his, sending a shiver down his spine. Ignoring it, he focused on the monsters on his field. He had Battle Ox and Kaiser Sea Horse, the latter of which allowed him to sacrifice it alone to summon a Light Attribute monster rather than the two tributes that Blue-Eyes usually required. He also had the instant magic card Shrink facedown. Perfect.

"I sacrifice Kaiser Sea Horse to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" He raised the Blue-Eyes card triumphantly into the air before putting it into a monster slot on his Duel Disk. Sea Kaiser dissolved, and Blue-Eyes materialized on the field, towering over him like a protective guardian.

He watched Sara as she caught her breath, her face lighting up in awe. Blue-Eyes was an impressive monster, both lethal and rare, so naturally she was a monster every fan of the game clamored to see, but he had never seen anyone regard her with such utter wonder as Sara did. She looked from Blue-Eyes down to him and back again, her eyes round and captivated. He swallowed, feeling a thrill that had nothing to do with his imminent victory.

"Are you ready to see her in action?"

She met his eyes again and nodded.

"I activate the magic card Shrink, which cuts your Kiryu's attack points in half. Battle Ox, attack Kiryu!" Battle Ox ran at the reduced-strength red dragon, slashing through it with his sword. Kiryu disintegrated, bringing Sara's Life Points down to twenty-five hundred. "And now, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack her Life Points directly with White Lightning attack!"

Blue-Eyes reared back for her attack, and then something strange happened. She stopped, frozen, as if the Duel Disk software had suddenly crashed. Kaiba looked at his brother. "Did you have any trouble with the Duel Disks when you were testing them earlier?"

Mokuba shook his head. "No, they were working perfectly. I've never seen it freeze up like that."

Kaiba frowned. This was a beta version of the newest upgrade and therefore it was likely to still have a few bugs, but never had the Duel Disks just frozen like that before. If this were to happen in a tournament, there'd be hell to pay. He looked up at the hologram of Blue-Eyes and realized it didn't seem frozen anymore—it was just waiting as if he'd never called an attack. "Hm. That's strange. Seems to be unfrozen now, though." He looked back over at Sara, who still was looking at the Blue-Eyes with anticipation. "Let's try this again, shall we? Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack her Life Points directly!"

Blue-Eyes reared back again, then roared as she usually did when she charged up her White Lightning attack, but Kaiba looked up, frowning again. Instead of the usual battle cry, her roar sounded almost plaintive, like the sound she made when being caught in Spellbinding Circle or when Change of Heart or a similar effect was used to take control of her away from him. Instead of attacking, she reared back further, then there was a huge spark and both his and Sara's Duel Disks shorted out, along with the rest of the power in the room. Blue-Eyes and Battle Ox both winked out of existence, leaving the testing room in darkness except for the two emergency lights that kicked in.

"Whoa, that was weird," Mokuba said, his voice echoing strangely in the now silent room.

"Clearly we need to have the techs look into this before we release the upgrade." Kaiba stripped the Duel Disk off his arm a little harder than necessary, frustrated. He walked across the room to Sara. "Nothing like that has ever happened with the Duel Disks before."

"That's… it's quite all right." She still looked a little dazed. "It was wonderful just seeing her, even if I couldn't see her attack."

Mokuba grinned at her. "It almost looked like Blue-Eyes just didn't want to attack you. She must like you."

Kaiba, however, was not so amused, if only because that is exactly what it had looked like to him as well.

Sara still felt like her blood was racing when they got back to the Kaibas' penthouse. Mokuba immediately made himself scarce, dashing off to his room the moment they were in the door, and being alone with Seto after what she had just seen made her feel a bit heady. Despite the unfortunate malfunction before she could see the it attack, the holographic image of the giant White Dragon hovering protectively over Seto as he summoned it to him had completely taken her breath away. Now, alone with him she couldn't get the arresting image out of her mind. Could it be just coincidence…?

Seto, on the other hand, seemed inordinately distracted by the glitch that had caused the hologram system to crash. He barely said two words on their way up to the penthouse, and now that Mokuba was gone, the silence covered them like a shroud.

"Thank you for showing me your White Dragon," she said, trying to get him out of his funk. "I wouldn't worry about the short in the system. It was an impressive display even without the last attack."

He gave her a guarded look she couldn't quite interpret. "It concerns me whenever our equipment doesn't work as it should. Tournament dueling depends heavily on Duel Disk technology and if that ever happened in a tournament, I don't even want to think about the fallout."

It's only a game, she thought, but decided that might be the wrong thing to say. Instead, she took a step toward the door. "Well, then. It is rather late. I should be getting back. We'll work on more texts tomorrow, then?"

He shook his head slightly, still looking distracted. "I have a lot of work tomorrow. I do have my own job to do, you know." She couldn't help but feel disappointed at that, but then he added, "I can't clear my schedule until the late afternoon, so come by around four."

"Right then. Four o'clock." She smiled, blushing slightly and inwardly admonishing herself for being so pleased. "I'll bring more scrolls with me." She took her coat of the coat rack near the door and slung it over her arm. "Tomorrow, then."

"Wait. Let me call for a car to take you home."

She rolled her eyes. "It's two blocks. I think I can manage the walk."

"It's late. You shouldn't walk alone. If you'd really rather walk, I can call for someone to escort you."

"Don't inconvenience yourself on my account," she said dryly.

"It's no trouble." He was either oblivious to her sarcasm or ignoring it.

Her curiosity got the better of her before he could pick up the phone. "Seto, can I ask you something?"

He looked at her with something almost like apprehension, but said, "Of course."

She put her coat down across the back of a chair and stepped closer to him. "Téa tells me that the creator of Duel Monsters was something of an ancient Egypt enthusiast, and that he based many of the monsters off of various Egyptian carvings and myths. Do you happen to know where your White Dragon comes from?"

His eyes hardened and he glared at her in a way that looked almost suspicious. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious." She was little taken aback by his reaction. "I—" She stopped, not sure where to begin. "There's a stone tablet in Giza. It depicts a conflict between the two pharaohs whose tombs were just desecrated. Each of the men is represented by a creature, a divine guardian of sorts. Atem's is a wizard, and Seto's is a dragon. Téa tells me Yugi's favorite card is based on the wizard in that carving and I was wondering if your White Dragon was based on it as well."

"I'm familiar with that tablet." He sounded as if he'd just swallowed ground glass. "The dragon is Blue-Eyes, yes."

She shook her head. "Remarkable. You share that pharaoh's name and you also share his guardian. It's like kismet or something."

His eyes darkened again. "I don't believe in kismet or fate or destiny or anything like that."

"Well, no, I don't really either, but it's a rather extraordinary coincidence considering you must have been playing the game longer than you've known you share that pharaoh's name. And it also explains why I was so drawn to your White Dragon when I saw her sculpture down in the lobby. That tablet is one of my favorites. In fact, it's the reason I chose to do my master's dissertation on that particular dynasty. There's just something about it, the way the dragon and the man are connected, it's just so powerful. And then when you summoned your dragon, even though she was only a hologram, it was so—" She suddenly realized what she was about to say and snapped her jaw closed, cheeks flushing. "Well, never mind, I'm being ridiculous." She looked down at the floor, unable to meet his eyes. "My mentor would call me a foolish romantic for being so taken by a stone carving."

"No, please go on." The reserve in his voice was gone so suddenly, her head snapped up in surprise. The coldness in his eyes was gone as well, and he was looking at her with open interest. "What were you going to say?"

"The bond between your and your dragon. It's only a card in a game, and yet, I could feel the power in the connection between the two of you." She felt breathless and tried to rein in her emotions, but he was standing so close to her now, and the way he was looking at her made it impossible. "You… I mean it… it was magnificent and—"

Whatever she had been about to say flew out of her mind when he suddenly grabbed her and kissed her. It wasn't halting and nervous, like she might expect from a first kiss between two virtual strangers, but was possessive and hungry. She almost pulled away from him in surprise, but she was quickly overcome by her overwhelming attraction to him. She found her arms winding around his neck, pulling him closer to her, and she kissed him back with a longing so deep it seemed almost as if it had been thousands of years in the making.