Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or anything dealing with Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chapter 10

Guardian of the Gods

The Difference Between Fate and Destiny

Kaibacraft, Battle City Finals, 5:00pm

The computer confirmed that the eighth and final duelist was Ishizu Ishtar.

So the third battle of the tournament was to be between that Egyptologist and himself. How ironic. He was going to have fun using the creature she gave him. The creature that started all of this. Then he would claim himself as the duelist champion and finally show the world it was a title only he deserved. Seto Kaiba was a game master and the one responsible for breathing fresh air into Duel Monsters for the eastern hemisphere. There was no way he was going to continue daily life as KaibaCorp CEO and not get back his great title. It was bad for business.

But this curator, this woman who appeared to him not even six months ago, brought an offer he would have been insane to refuse. Hold a tournament and own one of the most powerful duel monster cards or stick his head in the sand and wait for the aftermath of the greatest duels in history? It was nothing for him to organize something this big. He had something similar in mind though Ishizu beat him to the punch.

She was going to be his first opponent in the finals of his tournament. Kaiba would have thought his victory an easy one if he had not already watched all the matches she played up until this point. Though, he wasn't sure how it slipped his mind that she could have possibly been a finalist.

Unlike the other duelists who boarded his aircraft, Ishizu had seemingly just won her six locator cards in a frenzied, haphazard way. She also lost a couple of matches. No one else had lost, not even that pathetic Joseph Wheeler.

So when Kaiba sat down and watched her duels to understand Ishizu's play style, it surprised him that those couple of times she had lost, it looked like she did it on purpose. To the untrained eye one would have assumed that she simply ran out of luck, but Kaiba was the most experienced duelist on the ship. He had played since he was little, falling in love with the game so much that he dreamed of making it available worldwide and having it recognized as a legitimate sport and enthusiast's hobby.

When he and Ishizu dueled in his home, she was one-dimensional, though still worth wasting the time to see what kind of duelist she was. Now Kaiba was not sure what to think. Some of the combos he watched her play were ingenious, she never did anything like that while they played together. She always kept something up her sleeve and never put all her cards on the table.

Now here he was about to duel Ishizu again, not clearly knowing if she may have had skill comparable to his own. Either way, she had ulterior motivations for advancing to the finals. Ishizu did not strike him as someone who was looking for a title. She did not seem to be someone who wanted power or recognition for what she was doing. It was unclear why, if she had originally planned to be in the Battle City Finals, she would give him the Egyptian God Obelisk the Tormentor, knowing that eventually she would have to duel a tough opponent. At a glance, it looked like she did not know what she was doing.

But Kaiba knew better.

Ishizu was an intelligent woman and despite her claiming to be clairvoyant or whatever magic bullshit she told him at the museum, she was a manipulator herself – moving pawns and influencing decisions. Maybe even his own.

She mentioned upfront that she intended for Kaiba to run this tournament so that the remaining Egyptian God cards would surface. Ishizu said that she had been guarding them and was burgled. She wanted them back.

Something about the entire situation felt off, but Kaiba was not going to complain. Ishizu said that she would get her cards back. He was not responsible for what happened during this tournament. He was sorry to say but Ishizu would never get the Egyptian God cards back. She placed a terrible bet anteing Obelisk just to have the chance to regain the other two.

As he made his way to the elevator Kaiba had to admit to himself that he was excited. Now he could finally assess her dueling skills. Anticipation welled up within him sickeningly, he shouldn't be this stimulated. He was no longer a kid just discovering the thrall of card games.

The measly thirty minutes they spent sparring in his home dueling arena was going to be nothing compared to this. While Ishizu may have held back before when Kaiba lazily opposed her, he was going to leave her with no choice but to play rough. Kaiba was bringing his best, and this time Obelisk was going to make an entrance.

"Who is it that requests my presence?" a soft voice sounded on the other side of the automatic door.

Kaiba was lost for words. He was in front of a guest door, Number Eight. Not on the top deck of his dueling blimp. Not up in the cool crisp air catching his breath and preparing mentally for his duel tonight. How did he get here?

The door slid open and a dark-haired beauty emerged.

"Yes Kaiba?" She was wearing a one-piece shift, no doubt the garment she wore to bed. Why wasn't she dressed yet? Her hair flowed down over her shoulders in soft waves, free of the ornaments usually adorning her uniform.

He did not know how he found himself in front of her door, nor what he interrupted her from. But he could not cower away now.

Not when she looked so…open to conversation.

"Imagine my surprise when you were announced as my opponent," he stated flatly.

"Your reaction was not something that I had to imagine Kaiba. I knew you were not expecting me to complete your set of finalists in this tournament," she brought her eyes up slowly to meet his own.

"You mean after you hustled me when we played Duel Monsters in my own home?" He smirked.

Ishizu stood to the side as way of invitation, the door slid shut behind him after he entered.

"I did not hustle you Kaiba, that would be dishonorable. I played fairly," she sighed.

"You played like a novice. One with good luck. I am surprised that you had a deck that could make it to my finals."

"The deck I used to humor you Kaiba was a work in progress. Just like you, I have a deck that I rely on and one that I like to tweak."

"And will I have to guess which one you will use to duel me tonight?"

"It will not be a guess for you Kaiba. But I fathomed that you might have some anticipation when it came to dueling me tonight. You always underestimate what your opponents are capable of. I am not an exception."

She turned on her bare heels and sauntered over to the table near the window.

This was not lost on Kaiba, for her one-piece shift slid across her form and drew a perfect outline of her body. He did not need to see her clothing laid out neatly on her bed to know that beneath her pajamas was a delicious lack of undergarments.

"So what's your plan? Defeat me? Win the Battle City Tournament to reclaim the God Cards and return to your hole in the sand?" Kaiba seated himself in the KC standard rectangular sofas and crossed his legs. He leaned backward and placed his arms on the back of the sofa. He kept his gaze on Ishizu.

"You wouldn't believe my intentions if I told you. I have once attempted to make you see reason. To give you the truth. But like most you chose not to believe. And like most you are predictable. You'd rather be fed what you think you know rather than accept a truth that is a bit more complex."

She took the seat opposite of him at the small table near the window.

"From what I see, it is not all that complex. I think you want it to be because it's easier for you to justify what you are doing."

"What is it that I am doing Mr. Seto Kaiba? What exactly do I need to justify?" She shifted slightly in her chair. She became aware that her pulse beat faster and her face felt flushed. Kaiba was staring at her, only blinking when his eyes threatened to dry out. He looked tense and hungry for something.

He inhaled sharply but quietly. At the delectably accented enunciation of his full name or at the movement of flesh under her one-piece, he wasn't sure.

"You're an agitator. Something hidden inside the pot, stirring it from the bottom slowly morphing the contents into a new form," he explained.

"That is beautiful, almost poetic if you had not intended for it to be an insult."

Kaiba softened his voice. "It wasn't an insult. It was an invitation." His gaze never faltered.

"An invitation?" Ishizu licked her lips, almost imperceptibly.

Kaiba remained seated, waiting.

Ishizu watched him, attempting to discern his body language. When she stood and stepped closer to him, the only change she witnessed in him was a quick, barely perceptible inhale. She stood over him for some moments and then took another step closer. She lifted her leg to rest her knee on the cushion between his legs.

He did not move and instead continued to look in her eyes.

Ishizu swung her other leg over to straddle his and sit her very bare bottom on his lap. She placed her hands on his chest and found that his heartbeat mirrored her own, despite his calm, arrogant demeanor.

"What is it that you are inviting me to Seto?"

He was hard from the moment she sashayed in front of him to the table. Now, after hearing his name again spoken so personally – it had always been sensual to hear her form the syllables on her lips – he felt the heat from between her thighs press into him and for a moment he thought they weren't going to make it to the upper deck in time.

"Miss Ishtar you are due to the dueling platform in 30 minutes. This is a courtesy call," the intercom broke their trance and in his haste to stand, the sudden movement and sound threw Ishizu off guard. Kaiba overcompensated when pulling her as she fell back towards the floor. And now she was in his arms, closer than she thought possible.

Ishizu was breathing heavily and her chest was raising and falling rapidly. He had opened his mouth to say something, but thought against it. She seemed okay on her own two feet again and so he retreated from her room with haste and without a backward glance.

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Southeastern Temple Archive, Ancient Egypt, Sometime at Night

"None of these texts expound on the ritual to divest oneself of an inhabitant deity. I myself cannot recall such an occurrence in my teachings, but it seems to be a logical possibility. Worship is voluntary and is not conducted well against one's will. Nothing I am reading here will aid us."

"Isis you must hurry," Set turned around bringing the torch in his hand closer to her. They had broken into their fourth temple archive and were growing discouraged. "If we get caught, dispelling the ancient gods will be the least of our worries."

Her brow furrowed. "I must have read sixty incantations by now. There were some I came across that would be helpful in situations other than ours. I cannot help but feel that this ritual, if possible, is highly guarded and encrypted. It would not be readily available, even to simple thieves running through a scroll cache. The high magic scrolls are kept close at hand," Isis hesitantly considered Set's face. There was an obvious answer to their dilemma.

"Mahad has them, doesn't he?"

Isis sighed and slowly hung her head in defeat. "If Guardians can break the bonds of Gods, that incantation is safer hidden away with the Court's Magician. Mahad may even keep it on his person."

"My luck would dictate that he does. Something tells me Mahad does not rest with the moon and rise with the sun. Will we be able to retrieve any high magic scrolls?"

"He does not suffer from insomnia, no. But he does have a propensity to be more active at night. Around this time, it would not be uncommon for him to be performing rights for the unfortunate or destitute outside the palace gates. My time training and learning under him frequently involved serving all of Egypt's people. Especially those less fortunate than I."

"So you mean to say he is not in his quarters?"

"I am saying his morals are better aligned than my own. I am thieving scrolls while he is feeding the hungry," Isis picked up another scroll that she placed neatly inside the rucksack she had clutched under her shoulder. It was the seventh one she lifted from the temple archives. "I cannot say for sure that I could perform these, but they deserve to see the light of day by more acolytes. These are magics not even I was taught growing up. Things I did not know were possible. All this magic hidden away. I think of all we could have done with this. It is a loss and a shame. Though I guess not more so than my descent into mischief," she uttered the last part under her breath.

It was truly concerning to her that she had a recent shift in alignment since encountering Set. Her priorities had shifted as well. Isis would have agreed with the assessment that she was sheltered, but since her induction into the Guardian Court, her eyes had been opened to so much more. The pull that compelled her to take every single action up until now was so strong and driven, it felt like fate. It frightened her and would have frozen her in place if Set were not there to keep her feet moving.

But where was the line? Excising your Guardian deity? Running away with a man you have known for all of two seasons? Abandoning your country of origin to live your days out as exiles and convicts? It was hard to know. Was love enough to justify all of this? It felt pure enough and right enough she thought to herself as they started to return items to their original places, erase evidence of their midnight raid, and sneak to the next temple.

"We can contemplate the logistics of why these are kept away later. Let us go now and head towards Mahad's quarters. We would have better chances moving around undetected while the sun is still down. We search through the scrolls there and visit each of our God's temples. I have prepared enough provisions for us to make it through seven suns and moons through the desert. I want you to prepare clothing for yourself to take, a set for traveling and a set for diplomatic meeting. We need to travel light, but we will have friends to aid us outside the nation's borders."

In the dead quiet of night, Isis and Set journeyed to where the Court Magician resided. His quarters were humble and they easily avoided the minimal staff he kept. Call it luck or destiny, it took no time to find Mahad's library as the man had made practical use of his living space. Immediately Isis clutched her necklace as a sense of dread washed over her. She wanted to do this quickly, and somehow thieving from Mahad felt like the lowest sin of all.

Searching through the manuscripts he kept, Isis understood Mahad to be a deeply intuitive and logical being. His interests spanned from animal species native to Egypt all the way to the political histories of neighboring nations. It seemed he had even taken an interest in astronomy and mathematics. Mahad was an academic indeed and any transgression against felt not only criminal but cruel.

Finally, Isis stumbled upon what she believed to be the incantation they needed.

"Gods have mercy!" she half-shouted, half-gasped.

"What? What is it Isis?" Set inched closer to her from his lookout post at the entrance to the library.

"It is possible. It is all detailed here in this scroll but…" Isis trailed off.

"But what?"

"It states that if a God is ever excised willingly from a vessel, that the God will no longer choose worldly vessels to reside in and instead inflict themselves upon the earth in their true form. It even states…how to kill a God."

"Isis, what do you mean? What scroll is this?"

"I do not know, but I understand now why Mahad was in possession of it. Something like this he will notice is missing. This cannot be allowed outside these walls. I – I should not even have this knowledge. This is dangerous."

"Can you commit this to memory and recall it back at the temple?"

"The ritual is not complex, nor are the requirements. But what I do not understand is why there is such an obvious vulnerability that our Gods refuse to rid themselves of. Why leave something like this as it is? There is no logic to this. Something does not add up. And…we also need a sacrifice."

"Of what?"

"A creature with immense power."

"Immense power? Like a God?"

"No," Isis ran her fingers over the parchment. "Like a dragon. It is in the simplicity of this ritual that I fear performing it. I could just as easily banish a God as I could murder it. This must have been conjured generations ago, the magic is not specific."

As Guardian Court members, Isis and Set both knew that they had a set of responsibilities, as well as clearances when it came to the magics of Egypt. They could perform spells and control magic in ways a lay person could not conjure themselves. The stronger spells were entrusted to the Court. However, the most powerful among them were hidden to control who knew and could do what with that knowledge. It seemed Mahad kept many secrets for the pharaoh.

And from him.

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Kaibacraft, Battle City Finals, 1:38am

"I request an audience with you Kaiba. This is extremely important." Ishizu stood confident, waiting at his suite door. The atmosphere had dramatically changed from just hours earlier.

"If you have come to beg for your card back, get lost. It's mine now, you've proven you are too weak to hold it in your deck," Kaiba called back to her. "At least that is what you want me to believe," the last part trailed off and Ishizu failed to hear it.

"It is about your tournament Kaiba. You won Obelisk fair and square," Ishizu called through the metal door. She could not bring herself to say that it was his skill that made him victorious, rather it was divine intervention. She saw too during their duel that some things were out of her hands. She would save her brother, but not the way she initially thought. She would not be the one to bring him back from the brink but she had to do her part regardless. Ishizu felt as though the journey to the future was a windy road, with high climbs and muddy patches. There were parts of the path missing with seemingly no way to connect the disjointed segments. But if she kept walking forward, her faith would bridge the disconnect so that she could make it to the other side. The side with her family intact and the world still bright and hopeful.

But to take her next steps she had to speak with Kaiba. He made her look like some half-brained mystic, but Ishizu knew he had to hear her words to secure the future. It was either she shielded her pride and risk an unwanted future or risked her feelings over this big-headed CEO who discredited her. He made her feel crazy, he said she was insane, he believed in his heart that she was some lost religious fanatic hoping to convince someone into her cult. But that did not stop Ishizu from entering that room.

"How did you get through the door?" Kaiba was facing the circular window looking out at the ground below. There was a glass in his hand dark liquid in it.

Ishizu flashed the door keycard and returned it to her person. "You are not the only one with sleight of hand Mr. Kaiba." She had lifted it from his person when she was sitting in his lap what seemed like hours ago.

"What do you want from me? You lost our match, I don't want any groveling. Accept your choice of defeat and move on."

"How arrogant for you to assume that I came here to beg you for anything. Given your own complex with losing to Yūgi Motoū in just about every encounter I have been privy to, I did not believe those words would ever fall from your mouth. On the contrary, I am not here to discuss our match. I am here to plead with you for my brother's life." Ishizu knew that Kaiba would not listen, but she had to plant the seed. She could not get to the other side without putting her faith in destiny to make firm the ground beneath her.

"What the hell are you talking about? The only way you can save him is if you have him committed. Only then would he be safe from me strangling him. The only reason I have not had you or him deported is because you saved Mokuba. He told me to show you mercy. You are lucky," he took another sip from the glass and exhaled.

He looked livid and from the tone he took with her he was aiming to make his discontent known.

"Kaiba, he is not well. You must see to it that he does not get possession of all the Egyptian God cards. It is imperative that you understand the depth of the situation. I came also to apologize. I knowingly put you in danger." Kaiba was not going to be the one to stop her brother, but she still had to prepare the ground for the seed to grow.

"Why are you here Ishizu?" Kaiba roughly set the empty glass down and contemplated filling it once more. Danger she said, as if he had ever been physically threatened. The hallucinations he had were seriously disturbing. He refused to be subject to her mind games any longer. This time the hallucinations felt real. And that was more unsettling than anything else, though nothing a glass of bourbon could not erase.

"I have already informed you of my intentions."

"No you haven't. You think I did not know you had ulterior motives for giving me Obelisk the Tormentor? No one gives up a card like that without a plan. In the moment, I just thought you were stupid, but thinking back on the progression of events since that day, you have been heavily involved with me and my brother. Up until tonight I would not have imagined you'd make even a paltry duelist and tonight you stood before me triumphant as though you knew exactly what was going to happen. You spouted a lot of hocus-pocus magic bullshit nonsense, but through all that I had a feeling you were hiding something. I don't know what your aim is," Kaiba turned his chair to fully face her. The bourbon was starting to affect him, he felt warmer than usual.

"Nor why you threw our match. You were decent when we last played and once I saw you were the eighth duelist, I was intrigued to see your skill level in a tournament setting. You came out strong but," he trailed off.

Ishizu stood there unable to reply.

Answering his own question Kaiba continued, "Before our duel I retrieved the playback for every duel captured on your duel disk and studied them. I expected you to give me enough sport not to doze off during our match. In the beginning, you made me think I had you on the run, you just surrendered I thought. Then you turned the tables on me and for one moment, I felt the prospect of defeat. Then you just gave up and-"

Kaiba studied her unmoving form and blank eyes. She was surprised for sure that he had figured out part of her game. But there was nothing on her face to suggest anything else she was thinking. Their duel had upset and disturbed him. The moment Kaiba realized that he was going to lose, he had desperately scrambled to recover. And how perfect was it that he had Obelisk? It fell together as if he had planned it. Ishizu had surprised him and gave him a run for his money, but he knew he was going to win when he sacrificed her creatures for Obelisk. But then everything felt weird, like he had been displaced from his body. He was aware of the presence of his Blue Eyes White Dragon, it called to him. When he understood the sound was coming from inside his own head, the card in his hand tunneled his vision. Touching that card blanketed him in nostalgia. He saw a woman whose name he should have known. She and the dragon shouted and languished. The agony in the cry shook him to the core.

Then silence.

"I am all ears," he offered, falling back into the present.

"I am here to save my broth-," she started.

"I've heard all that bullshit. What is the real reason?"

"You said you don't believe in what I have to say. 'Hocus-pocus' I believe you called it."

"Then tell me something I will believe. I want to hear your logical thought processes, convince me that I should not have you committed too."

"My brother stole the Egyptian cards from me and I want them back."

"Why me?"

"Your reputation."

"What is my reputation Ishizu?" His trademark smirk reared its ugly head. Ishizu felt that this was now a game to him. Anger was not becoming, she never let herself become irate though the smug look on his face threatened to do exactly that. He was entitled to his self-righteous indignation; she had not made these last few months any easier. After all his brother and others had gotten caught up in this mess.

What she wanted to do was goad him a little further and bring mention to the liquor he put away so quickly in front of her. But it seemed the alcohol helped his normally grumpy and introversive demeanor. "You think you're the best," her mouth felt dry.

"What do you think?" He questioned, delving deeper.

"I think you are easily manipulated, blindly following a path of destiny you are too stubborn to see. You walk against the wind just so that you can say you chose this life for yourself, all the while not knowing that putting one foot in front of the other seals your fate no matter what you do. I think you believe I am a small, misguided child that has not come into full understanding of the situation she has put herself in. You believe that I am naïve to what power I had and too weak to use it, too weak to get it back. Would I be correct in my assumptions?"

"Half," he smoothly rose from his chair and walked towards the sliding closet door. Kaiba removed his overcoat and black turtleneck until only a thin white T-shirt remained.

Ishizu immediately made her way to leave his room. Then he spoke once again. She turned to him as he gestured for her to sit and he joined at the chair opposite her.

"Mokuba was only four or five years old when our parents died. I don't think he understood a concept like death until we were at the orphanage for a week and no one came for us. I had to explain to him that they were never coming back. He had me and I had him and that was it. 'Will you die too Seto?' he asked me. Of course I would die, but he was little. So I told him 'no, no I would never die' because I had to take care of him. I didn't want him to think that at any moment he would be alone again. Who knows what that kind of despair would do to a kid that young?

"Around when he was six he started getting bullied by kids at the center. I got in so many fights trying to protect him. He always expected his big brother to come save him. Always.

"Mokuba never once tried to defend himself. He just knew that he could call out my name and I would come to rescue him. He thought I was immortal, I couldn't die and therefore I was his crutch. I knew that I would not be there every hour of the day to protect him. We were getting older and the chances of us being adopted together were getting slim, if we got adopted at all. He had to learn to fight. So, the next time he was in trouble I decided to let the bullies beat him and beat me."

Ishizu narrowed her eyes, "How could deliberately let your brother to get hurt?"

"He saw me getting hit and kicked by these kids and he started to cry. I told him a lie upon which he built his understanding of the way things are. And once it came undone his world shattered. No longer was he invincible because there would come a time when big brother could not protect him. Do you know what happened next?"

Ishizu remained silent. She shuffled in the chair and looked out the window.

"He stood up to them."

"Why are you telling me this? Mokuba seemed quite capable on his own. He is a Kaiba and he has certainly taken up some of your resilience."

"Ishizu your brother still thinks you are going to save him because that's what you've always done. He will never fight for himself or take any responsibility because you always held his hand and cleaned up his messes. You asked me to help you save your brother. So, make him see that you are just as weak and as human as he is. He will learn to get himself out of his own mistakes, take responsibility and stop dragging you into everything."

"That must be so easy for you to say, looking down on us from your throne of omniscience. You shake your head at us, judging, thinking aloud to yourself. Besides, per what you have accused me of tonight, it seems I have already accomplished that."

"Hmm, perhaps." Kaiba picked up his glass and brought it to his lips, he didn't remember filling it again and he didn't remember how many he had before it. Not that any of that mattered, it had been a while but, he finally felt...

He rose from his chair as smoothly as he could, given that the lines between the floor and seats were starting to blur. His body felt like it was a foot off the ground and his legs moved on their own. Kaiba turned on his heel but forgot about the end-table just beside him and knocked it over. Everything was happening so slowly, but he couldn't stop his feet from continuing forward. His legs swung over the felled table but somehow he was falling.

Ishizu knew from the moment he tried to stand up that Kaiba was a little inebriated. She too stood carefully, instinctually, not wanting to see anyone hurt themselves. As soon as Kaiba knocked over the small table she bounded to the other side of him just in time to help him find his balance. He seemed to want to make his way to his bed, so she simply stood off to the side, ready to keep his face from making quick acquaintances with the floor.

Kaiba shifted slowly on top of his bed and kicked off his shoes.

"We're all afraid of something Ishizu. I was afraid of losing Mokuba, afraid I wouldn't be the best brother to him. Your brother is afraid that his entire life has been wasted on this stupid pharaoh shit and now he's vengeful."

Ishizu pulled the bed sheet up his shoulders and turned to leave. The conversation had taken a turn for the unexpected and she was starting to feel uncomfortable. She had not predicted this far and her necklace seemed distant to her since losing her duel to Kaiba.

As she reached the door to the hallway she looked back at him. His blue eyes were soft and dark in the moonlight beaming through the window. She thought she saw a hint of sadness. He only continued to stare at her in the doorway, his chest rose slowly and he drew the covers closer.

"What are you afraid of Ishizu Ishtar?"


I know I have NO right to ask, but pls review ;_;
It has been literal years since I had the nerve to continue posting the chapters for this story.
But I want to finish it as written and intended. I had planned out 20 chapters for this story, and despite the long hiatus, I will try to stay motivated this time. Rereading your reviews got some fire under my butt and I got over nitpicking and being afraid I wasn't telling this story correctly. Hopefully my embarrassment at seeing the last time I updated this was 2015(!) will keep me from deleting and rewriting, and just force me to post it XD.