The soft glow of the computer screen lit the room in shades of blue.
Seto stared, bleary eyed at his work, continuing to type long into the night.
He tended to avoid sleep these days.
Sleep only brought nightmares filled with the lonely cries of dragons.
Even awake he did his best to keep his mind occupied.
Work, school, anything to ignore what lingered at the back of his head.
His own loneliness, sadness and despair, that he could handle.
But to have those emotions echoed by his dragon, his Kisara, and be powerless to provide comfort . . .
To be unable to do anything to make them stop . . .
He had tried to find her once, tried to reach her.
Just after returning to Domino, just after he began hearing her cries, those heartbreaking human sobs entwined with dragon keening, he had discovered that he could enter the shadow realm through dreams.
He had floated in darkness that swirled with shadows.
It was an odd place of eternal night where the blackness stretched out in all directions.
The keening of a dragon carried on the wind and he knew Kisara was here.
He could feel the unique signature of her soul close by.
She felt like the clean air after a warm summer rain combined with a sense of overwhelming safety and security and something inexplicably sweet.
He followed the intoxicating presence, tracking it like a scent through the dark.
He followed until he came to a wall, one whose only purpose was to block him from his goal.
The ends extended as far as could be seen in both directions and Seto knew that even if he were to follow one side for eternity, it would have no end.
It blocked him from somewhere he wasn't intended to go.
And he could feel Kisara just one the other side.
Her presence was strong and warm, but tainted with something else.
Despair.
She was so lost in it that she didn't even realize he was there.
"Kisara!" He yelled out to her, preying the shadows wouldn't swallow the sound.
The sobs quieted.
Confusion.
He could have sworn he heard his name, whispered quietly, questioningly into the dark.
The confusion turned to joy when she finally recognized his presence.
Then to terrible, unbridled anger when she realized he being kept beyond her reach.
He felt her claw at the wall, desperate to reach him, to destroy the barrier that kept them apart.
The loud, low pitched cries of her dragon self rumbled along the ground and trembled through the shadows.
Seto began his own assault on the wall from the other side.
He placed both hands on it and gathered all his strength and power.
He then began to push, trying to will his hands through the barrier.
There came a sudden focus on the Kisara's side as she felt his actions and sought to copy them.
The wall began to give, then resisted.
The shadows thickened and pulsed all around them.
Seto and Kisara pushed harder and their hands crept closer.
They strained and pushed, finding and using every reserve available . . .
Until their fingertips just brushed . . .
Then shadows rushed in to smother Seto.
They thickened until he gasped for air.
Then they entered his lungs and invaded his body.
And forcibly expelling him from the shadow plane.
Jarred back to his own reality he had promptly emptied the contents of his stomach and passed out.
He was violently ill afterwards, fever and chills wreaking havoc on his already weak, sleep deprived body.
The doctors could find no virus, bacteria or other cause of the illness and were helpless but to treat the symptoms.
The shadows finally dissipated from his system after two days leaving promised whispers that they would do much, much worse if he ever defied them again.
So Seto sat at his desk, working, tired, alone, and totally unprepared for what was to happen next.