Official King of Dragons Summary:
Kisara remembers bits and pieces. Games. Guardians. Golden items. Her life. The others' lives. And she's the only one. Seto Kaiba doesn't. Yugi Muto doesn't. Then the clock starts the day Yami Muto completes the Millennium Puzzle, drawing three thousand years worth of magic into the present time, and the ultimate shadow game begins. Everyone returns for the final showdown in modern Japan. Five years worth of journeys, disbelief, history, and loves that spanned lifetimes in the making... It all starts now. Duelist Kingdom through Millennium World retold. Blueshipping
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King of Dragons
Arc I: Duelist Kingdom
Chapter IV
Find You
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"Silent love is calling faith to shatter me through your hallways,
Into echoes you can feel, and rehearse the way you heal…
Make them dance, just like you, 'cause you make me move. Yeah, you always make me go…
I'll run away with your footsteps, I'll build a city that dreams for two,
And if you lose yourself, I will find you..."
-Zedd
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Seto Kaiba was a little more than a wreck. Having narrowly escaped imprisonment once again from those lunatic goons, he'd secured himself in the underground caverns beneath his house. They'd been constructed for moments just like that, and luckily, he'd kept some of his older projects down there. Projects that included a helicopter of his own design. He might've only tested it once before his usurpation of KaibaCorp, but it had made due. There'd been no other way out of that hell hole without being captured. And for what it was worth, he was damn good at improving.
As it was, Seto was tense in his seat, eyes straining against his exhaustion, yet alert and prepared for the slightest provocation in the skies. He'd probably been awake two full days, perhaps three. Hours had become nothing more than imagery floating through space, irrelevant to the mission at hand. The basic utilities were also a paradise he couldn't afford now, not when Pegasus had caused the world he'd conquered to fall to ruin.
But even still, it was hard to believe that the tides had turned away from him. Again.
I can't believe all my business associates turned on me after a single defeat. That was a lie. Those backstabbing opportunists had probably been waiting for a moment of weakness for a while… Then again… Losing to Yami has shaken my self-confidence too.
A spiky haired pipsqueak from out of nowhere had come to beat him, the reigning World Champion, The King of Dragons… The title barely had any merit anymore, but it was too beloved to just hand over. The Blue Eyes White Dragons had saved him, become apart of his center, his core. They blazed through the darkest pits the world had to offer. And seeing them on the opposite corner had made him believe for more than a moment that the Heart of the Cards actually existed… But what mattered before no longer survived in his heart. He shook his head.
Apathy consoled him best on most days.
Maybe Yami was right, but I can't start second-guessing myself now. Not when Pegasus has kidnapped my little brother Mokuba. His grip tightened on the controls. His little brother was facing a life or death situation, and it was his own fault. He'd left him alone when he'd been vulnerable, and by being vulnerable, Pegasus had made his intentions clear. By showing vulnerability, there was no helping his brother. What Yami Muto believed didn't matter anymore. All that did was his little brother.
If I'm going to face off against Pegasus, I'll have to rely on my old dueling instincts. That's the only chance I have of freeing Mokuba.
And once Mokuba was out of harm's way, he would unleash his wrath upon the vultures who'd dared to conspire together and take over his company. Seto growled low to himself, his rage caged deep inside, flowing through his blood in hot, burning inferno of unprecedented holocaust. Had the white-haired freak honestly thought he'd just sit idly by while they dismantled his life's work? What naivety.
In that moment, Duelist Kingdom came into view upon the eloping waves of night, slashing against the remains of a cliffside. Cobalt orbs darkened to a defining degree of raw ambition.
And I'll see to it that every one of them will regret ever crossing Seto Kaiba.
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With Yami having won the duel against the Imposter, and Seto no where in reach, Mokuba had been captured for a second time. It was a rather disheartening prospect, but Kisara knew how to deal with repercussions relatively well. She could bounce back from anything, really. Resilience was practically her middle name.
Albeit, instead of the high tower in the eastern section of the castle, Mokuba's cell was located in the deepest depths of the prison ward. No one had gone down there in decades as far as she knew.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
She'd come to find water leakage was a common sight in the dungeons. Perhaps one day she'd restore it to its original grandeur, but until she became CEO, the problem would fester and worsen with time.
In truth, before Kisara had descended to the ancient prison, she'd had to page through official blueprints to help find the younger Kaiba. She'd may have gone down there as a child once or twice, but her father would always put stories into her head about how the shadows wreaked havoc upon those who stayed down there for too long. So really, he'd used the scare tactic to keep her well away from the prisons all her life. Though curiosity had struck down on several occasions, never had she fully allowed herself to travel down to the foul place. And if her father's journals were to be trusted, there were several accounts of mold and rot that hadn't been expunged after the initial move. Though naturally curious by design, Kisara had shied away from the place, but no longer.
In her mind she followed the prison layout. Perhaps due to the sudden usage, there were lit torches along the cavernous walls, so a flashlight was left in her chambers. Besides, a flashlight would alert anyone within any moderate distance of her arrival, and she most certainly did not want that.
Deception was key.
"Kisara?"
Sapphire orbs went wide. She'd almost passed him by! If her calculation were correct, this was cell 214, some hundred feet below sea-level and on the western side. She stored the information in the safe reaches of her conscious, knowing she'd need to remember it.
"Moku!" she called, softly. She pressed her face against the steel bars, rust and soot staining her cheeks. "Gods, I finally found you. They've trapped you in the deepest section of the island. I doubt even the caverns could rival this place."
Braced against the wall nearest her, shackles adorned both wrists, leaving reddening abrasions on his once porcelain skin. Dust adorned his once cleanly figure in a sweeping maul of blackest ebony, and his expression was weary and tired. The poor boy was in dire need of escape. Sadly, she didn't know if she could break him out of here without being detected. Guards were stationed along the outside perimeter and patrolled the surrounding forest perhaps a mile wide. She'd barely got in herself!
"I'm just glad to see you," he said with a slight upturn of his mouth, but the smile was gone before she could really notice. "Kemo left me down here a few hours ago to rot, and no one's been back since. There's no getting out of this one, is there?"
"I'm… Not certain as of yet," Kisara admitted, her shoulders slumping. "I'll have to look over things for at least another day or so before even attempting something drastic. I'm lucky I'm here now." Guilt clawed her senseless. "Oh, Moku, I'm so sorry this happened… But I swear, I will get you out of here. You put your trust in me, and I will follow through. I just need a little more time to sort things out before I bust you out of here."
"I get it, Kisara," Mokuba sighed. "This isn't exactly supposed to be easy. I doubt even my brother could do much better, given the circumstances. Speaking of my brother, do you know where he is?"
She shook her head. "He's been off the radar since he completely obliterated the Industrial Illusions' satellite yesterday afternoon."
"He what?"
Despite it all, Kisara managed a smile. "While attempting to bring down the Imposter's Blue Eyes, he hacked into my father's satellite and sent it hurling from space towards HQ. The wreckage is currently being sorted through, but anyways, he used the satellite to quite literally create the biggest computer crash anyone has ever seen, and presumed to access a number files to ensure Yami's victory."
Mokuba cracked a smile. "That sounds like my Big Bro…"
"Yeah, well, trust me when I say he'll get the biggest bashing ever allowed by law for completely ruining years of my work, but yeah, this type of aggression sounds a lot like Seto Kaiba to me too."
Mokuba snorted in amusement, "And here I thought it would be impossible to make you angry."
"He ruined years worth of coding in a matter of seconds!" Kisara hissed, keeping her voice low. "Who wouldn't be angry?"
Mirth sway in those violet orbs, and he said, "I'll give him a good word bashing too, don't worry. Hell, I might even come and help you with it once this chaos is through. For what you've done, I owe you."
She was grateful for his gratitude. "You owe me nothing, Moku," she assured him, then remembered why else she came here. "Oh, right! You're probably starving by now. Here, its freshly made, and probably reminds you a little of home. I figure you've got to be a little homesick being stuck in dungeons and towers for as long as you have."
His entire figure glowed with the prospect of food. She probably should've given him some when she'd first helped him escape. She sweatdropped at the thought. He'd probably been without food for over three days, maybe more. How careless of her…
She gave him a small bentou box filled with meats and rices, and the boy dug in like his life depended on it… He'd even forgone the nice set of chopsticks she'd brought along, but she could hardly blame him. She probably would've had the same reaction had the roles been reversed. The thought was… Disheartening…
After all that had transpired in Egypt, seeing her precious Moku like this was devastating. Set would've brought along an entire arsenal of duel monsters to save his adoptive sibling. And with her at his side, they would've completely demolished the front doors and ransacked the place, demanding their beloved Moku back. Back then, displays of power would've certainly worked well against any ordinary person like what her father had been, but now… Stealth was the only option until backup arrived.
Determined, Kisara reached through the bars separating them and held out her hand. The boy stilled and reached for her as well, and their fingertips barely scraped by one another, but it solidified her resolve. Her father's games were through. When Seto returned, she would stand beside him like she'd always done in the past. She was sick of the shadows, they'd never been her home abode anyway.
It nearing the time to act.
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Of all the damnable people on the forsaken spit of rock that was Duelist Kingdom, he just had to have landed in the exact spot where Yami Muto and his cohorts made camp. Irony had real sense of humor. There had to be at least some hundred duelists on the island, and he'd just happened to stumble upon the one section that housed these miscreants. Really. That happened.
When he first got there, Yami detached himself from the dweeb crew and approached him, keeping at a distance and remained polite despite their situations. The teen even gave him his deck back before Seto had uttered a single word. Then he'd thanked him for helping him win his duel against his Imposter, no questions or explanations required. He made no mention of what terms they were on exactly, but the feeling of intense and mutual respect glimmered in the atmosphere between them despite all pretenses otherwise.
Seeing his deck for the first time in days, Seto uttered a quiet, "Thanks…" and placed it back in his pocket for safekeeping.
Then whatever semblance of harmony shattered when his friends came into the picture.
The friendship speeches. The nonsense. Then one of Yami's friends—Katsuya Jonouchi, was it?—intervened on impulse, describing what exactly they were fighting for, and grabbed him by the collar. Overanxious and already at his wits' end, Seto did not have the time, let alone the patience to deal with a stupid dog barking in his face, rambling about how Pegasus was the cause of all their troubles.
"Nice grip," Seto growled. "Now let me show you mine." Barely a second past before Jou landed the ground as though he was a spec of dust on his shoulder.
Katsuya then made the mistake of rattling off about his skill as a duelist. That was very, very big mistake. So Seto decided to make this bleach blonde idiot the guinea pig for his newest dueling system, and spared him a glance, only half listening to his ceaseless ramblings of glory and purpose.
It didn't take long for him to overpower the pathetic dog.
"Your Red Eyes Black Dragon is a powerful dragon." The duel disk system had gone well for its first test run. It was good to know he still had it after his lapse in confidence.
Then he drew him. It. His signature card blazed in his hand, and Seto was satisfied. He'd never bore of it, never. Time told of its greatest powers—What? Seto waved those graceless thoughts away, resorting to his corrigible arrogance to compensate. "But its ferocity pales in comparison to mine!" From the sidelines, he heard a hmph from Yami, and gasp from Yugi. The twins must've known of the inevitable.
He placed the card on the disk and swung it out onto the field. "The legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
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It was around say… Three in the morning when Kisara awoke. Jolted from her already fitful slumber, she bolted upright in bed, her clothes wrinkled from having slept in them by accident. Her computer laid in the opposite end of her room, twitch and beeping about something she couldn't identify from her bed. Tearing back the covers, Kisara immediately ran to her desk. Goosebumps swept along her legs after her feet hit the floor and a shiver sliced down her spine not a second later. Chilled, her fingers stumbled and had to rewrite the password several times before she got it right.
Igniting her frame in a hue of bright blue, Kisara's heart nearly stopped, then it accelerated into a frenzy of chaotic beats, wild enough that she vaguely wondered if it was about to explode.
"Seto… You…"
After Yami's duel, she'd made sure that whenever the Blue Eyes White Dragon was summoned from any device around the world, her computer would have an instant alert and location system. And now, it was telling her that Blue Eyes White Dragon had just been summoned on the southernmost tip of Duelist Kingdom! Yami would never even consider using someone else's deck, let alone Seto's, so it had to be Seto Kaiba himself.
Even more, she could sense his presence. It was closer than it had been in over a year.
Grinning from ear to ear, she asked her computer to grant her access into the video feed around that area, and there she witnessed the might of the Blue Eyes White Dragon, newly summoned and gleaming in the moonlight. He was positively glorious. He then made a mighty roar before Seto himself declared, "White Lightning attack, now!"
With that, the duel was seemingly over. And he'd beaten… Jou? The natural blonde then fell to his knees, and Kisara felt for him. The two had never seen eye to eye, even in ancient times, and for all the times Joseph tried, he'd never been able to beat Set. She wondered how this duel started exactly… Then again, if Jou was anything like his incarnate, it had to have been from blatantly telling Seto off. Never a good idea.
"That's right, Katsuya, stay down," Seto mocked. "Stay down like the sniveling, defeated dog I've turned you into."
"Are you alright, Jou?" Yugi exclaimed, rushing to his side. Yami strode slowly over, before placing a silent hand of his friend's shoulder. The action was enough to bring on a bout of tears to Jou's eyes, and Kisara knew that the simple gesture meant far more than just a reassuring tap. It meant everything.
Conversationally, Seto added, "I'd say my duel disk system as proved quite effective. Not only did its stunning realism charge Katsuya into complete and utter submission, but just look at him, he's moping like a frightened dog with his tail between his legs…" He paused, and his expression darkened ever further. "Which is exactly how I intend to leave Pegasus."
"But…" Yugi looked heartbroken. "This is Jonouchi."
"Kaiba," Yami called, those crimson orbs flashing. A standoff between the two princes of Ancient Egypt caused pin-ripples to course down her spine all over again. "That is quite enough. You've had your fun, now it's time to leave."
Yami's tone brooked no room for argument, although Seto seemed all the more willing to oblige. "With pleasure." He'd probably wanted out of there from the moment he stepped out onto the grass. "I'll see you around, Yami."
Kisara froze. It probably would've appeared as a polite farewell had his words not been coated in obvious foreshadow.
Then Yami called after him, startling everyone. The freak tension was almost palpable between the two Egyptian princes, but Seto merely stared off into the underbrush, waiting. It was probably the most respect he'd give anyone, the ability to be heard. Had it been anyone else, he probably would've just walked away. But not on Yami. Their rivalry stood the course of time, transcending through many millennia worth of pause and broke through ordinary bonds that were only meant to last a mere lifetime. But not theirs. And they both felt it, Kisara knew, perhaps even acknowledged it somewhat… But those days were ahead, in a future time. For now, their relationship was stuck in neutral, between friendship and loathing. It always started like this.
"I hope you find your brother," the Pharaoh said, much more gently. "I understand what it means to lose someone close because of Pegasus."
"And I hope you succeed in your ventures." Seto spared him a glance, the foreshadow gone and all that remained was a lethal warning, "Let's just hope our paths don't cross until all this is over." With a final nod, Seto Kaiba was lost to the darkness.
Kisara clicked out of the window, and turned away from her computer. There weren't any cameras within a mile's distance of Yami's current location, and the Pharaoh didn't need her supervision to survive. He'd be fine. It was Seto she worried about. Until he got to the castle, he was still on his own. She was just content that he'd finally made it here, alive and relatively unscathed.
And she'd be there once he returned. Waiting. Always, forevermore.
Waiting.
"You'll find me," Kisara whispered, a touch of wistfulness contorting her voice with the fringes of rue. "You always do."
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By mid-afternoon, Seto had made good progress, and the castle had finally reached his line of sight. I've got to be on my guard, his goons are everywhere… His strides quickened. But they won't stop me. Nothing will. Mokuba's life's at stake. And nothing's more important than my little brother. After our parents died, I promised I'd always take care of him, and I will. He's always looked up to me… And I won't disappoint him. Now now. Not ever.
"So," a voice hummed, and Seto stopped dead in his tracks. "It's Seto Kaiba, searching for your little brother, no doubt. It's been a long time, Mr. Kaiba." Kemo, one of his old bodyguards stepped out of the forest's shadows, holding a gun. At this point, nothing surprised him. Kemo's betrayal was just another aspect of this wretched game Pegasus created, not that he'd ever cared for the meathead anyway.
But Seto stilled regardless. The crackle of tree branches and the rustling of windswept greenery were an orchestra of sonorous proportions in his ears. They were the only thing he heard in his otherwise muted surroundings. Then the barrel the gun scraped against his temple, cold and scratchy. The smell of metal assaulted his senses. Or was it that cretin's wretched hair gel? His nostrils flared, but Seto remained frozen.
"It's too bad we had to meet again under circumstances like this," Kemo continued, not at all sounding remorseful. Seto wanted to snort, but he complied nevertheless, and put his hands up.
The man then said, "I'm going to take you to Mr. Pegasus, now."
Such a statement was amusing. "And you think I'll just go willingly?"
"If you refuse, I'll have to use force." The agitation was clear, he wanted Seto to know the meaning of fear. Not likely, spike-head.
"Well," Seto drawled, a smirk tearing at his lips. "Why don't you just try it."
"Die then." Kemo's fingers twitched to pull the trigger, but Seto was quicker. Always quicker.
Having been the reigning Champion of Duel Monsters, Seto could hardly have made his way without learning a few card tricks. Besides, dying wasn't exactly on this agenda today. With natural deftness at his disposal, he flicked his wrist and sliced out a card from his sleeve. The card darted in Kemo's direction, perfectly where he wanted it. Of course, the card landed right in the cock of the gun, rendering it completely useless. He then did to Kemo what he'd done to Jou earlier this morning, snatching the guard's wrist and throwing him to the ground. The gun fell, and Seto made sure to grab it.
And the irony of which card he'd thrown was not lost on him. The Goddess of Reversal.
"It looks like you made me damage one of my rarer cards," Seto muttered darkly. "You will definitely be in a world of hurt once I'm through with Pegasus."
He shoved Kemo aside, and whatever semblance the moron had must've completely left him, because he actually had the audacity to run at him again. In a fitful rage, he charged. What stupidity.
Lowering himself just in time, Seto elbowed the larger man in the stomach. Kemo practically went limb, and fell. Again. What a waste of precious time.
"You're coming with me."
He then twisted Kemo's arm, and knew him was no longer a threat. "Now, you're going to help me find Mokuba." He jerked his chin in the direction of that sickening palace. "And you're going to start by getting me into that castle." His heart darkened. He knew exactly what had to happen next. "Before that, you're going to take me to Kisara Pegasus." If there was one advantage Seto would have over the Creator of Duel Monsters, it would be with his only daughter, the prestigious Queen of Dragons. It was the only possible chance of a equal trade-off. If that girl meant anything to Pegasus, anything at all, he might just be able to save Mokuba.
And that was all that mattered.
So he held Kemo at gunpoint, and Seto followed the reluctant guide to the door hidden at the base of the castle. Kemo typed in a number passcode, and the door opened automatically. There, darkness encroached him and he bit back a flinch.
The dark had never been his home abode… At least, not anymore.
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Kisara was once again awoken from her slumber by means of a clamoring beep, resonating from her computer. With all the chaos going on, she'd maybe gotten four, five hours of sleep at best. Surveillance was a continuous job, she'd learned. But that didn't matter anymore. Crystalline sapphire orbs widened, and she immediately straightened in her seat, having fallen asleep at her desk for the umteenth time this week.
"'Seto Kaiba' detected," her computer continuously repeated. "'Seto Kaiba' detected." Sure enough, his profile appeared in the camera feed, Kemo only a few steps ahead. There was also a gun pointed at the guard's head. Her breath hitched, and she quickly encoded a constant replay of the vacant hall to ensure that the men in the surveillance room couldn't see him. She gulped.
Now that he was finally here, she had to get him and Mokuba out of here. Fast. Thankfully, the tournament was in full swing so the halls were completely vacant and devoid of her father's guards. Really, no one should know that Seto Kaiba was even here, but with her father's intellect and Millennium Eye, it was impossible to be assured of anything.
What exactly did he intend on doing? Surely, he expected some form of resistance? Her father wasn't stupid, Seto knew that, so what was his plan? All that desperation he must've felt… What was he doing to do? If he wanted a trade-off between Kemo and Mokuba, the CEO was going to be sourly disappointed, but Seto was methodical and bred to be what he was. What was his plan..?
It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her head. Suddenly, she knew exactly what his intentions were.
Tracking his current location within the castle, she saw he was only a story below her chambers and getting closer. Kemo was leading him to her.
"Oh, Seto…" she breathed. "If only you knew. If only."
She'd have to obtain his trust now, and quickly. Show him the intimacy between them that spanned so many years of lost time. Would he understand? Would be feel anything? She'd have to try, but would the sheer ambition and raw loathing thrumming through his blood distract him from the truth? She swallowed thickly. She had no idea.
But she'd have to try.
He was closing in, perhaps mere steps from her chambers' door, and Kisara would make her position clear. She would not fear him, she doubted that she even could, and she would present who the Queen of Dragons really was.
The door was thrown open like the flash of a whip, and a sharp thwack erupted from the wall, bounding into her ears. He was here. And she smiled.
"You know," Kisara sang, swiveling her chair around to face him. "It's quite rude to point a gun at someone's head." And there stood Seto himself, standing a mere step behind a furious-looking Kemo. He was all light, shadow, and a vast variety of blue, just like she remembered him.
Then those cold pair of cobalt slapped in her direction, clear and deadly, prepared for a death match as necessary, and so did his gun. Seto Kaiba was not to be trifled with. But Kisara wasn't his enemy, and he'd soon learn as such. For the sake of making light of this wholly murderous situation, Kisara smiled as though nothing was amiss.
Seto's expression changed. It softened only slightly, but rather than honing a warming quality, it became all the more apathetic. Well, she supposed, it was better than before, but it was his eyes that changed. Familiar. But the gun never wavered from his grip, not that she'd expected it to. That would be wishful thinking.
"And it's rather rude to eavesdrop, Ms. Pegasus, but you and I both know that it can come in handy, can't it?" He indicated at the massive computer situated behind her desk, her own personal surveillance station, but Kisara barely heard him. His voice was effortlessly sensual, and so much like his incarnate. A shot of adrenaline rushed through her blood, and a smile sparkled on her lips. It was as if he expected her to have theif-like tendencies. It was rather true, she did have a knack with intel and secrets, though she'd learned that from the best himself, long, long ago, but she only utilized her talents when it aided the Millennium Court. It was not out of selfishness that she retrieved data, rather it was to assist those she cared about, namely Seto Kaiba himself, not that he would know of it, of course, but…
"True enough," she agreed, standing up. "Although, I do have the idea that putting a gun to someone's head is far ruder."
"Ms. Pegasus—"
"I'd rather you not call me that," she interrupted, a bit rueful. "As we are the reigning monarchs of the same title, I do not think formalities are in order. How about it, Seto?"
He pursed his lips. She doubted he allowed anyone other than Mokuba spoke to him so informally. Familiarly.
He unlatched the safety. "Fine the, Kisara." Now, all that stood between her and a projectile bullet were her words and her faith.
And though he spoke her name in mocking, she couldn't help the radiant smile that spread across her lips. "Also, I'm really not much of a threat to you." She winked, waving a hand in dismissal. "I'd worry more about Kemo if I were you. His bindings are nearly broken through."
He cocked his head to the side. "And why should I believe you?"
The smile wavered, and grim determination set in. "Because I want my father out of power as much as you do," Kisara told him, point blank. "And well, what else exactly to you intend on doing? You may have a gun and a pair of hostages, but a single gun does nothing against an army, and my father—despite how terrible it sounds—wouldn't care if I were dead. He's far too gone to care about my life anymore."
She'd learned to accept the fact that her father didn't care about her. It had merely been another challenge that was her life, but she'd overcome the misery of lacking a committed father. The one in her past life brought her enough solace to at least bite back the pain. It was also the plain, simple truth of this entire situation.
Seto's glare could've cut clean through steel, and his eyebrow twitched in irritation. His rescue mission was stalled. He'd gotten far, but the last leg was always the hardest.
"You're his daughter," Seto growled. Perhaps he wanted to believe in some fraction in humanity in her father, but that wasn't true at all. He needed to find a way to reach Mokuba. Nothing more.
Kisara shook her head, somber. "My father doesn't care about me... He hasn't for a long time. I'm merely here because I've owned up to being a great duelist and a decent heiress for his company. If I were gone, he'd find a replacement." In their hearts, they both knew it was true. It bounded between them, the feelings. The strange, enigmatic and automatic understanding.
"We can help each other, you know," she tried, softer this time. She dared a step further. "I'm hardly without talent, but something tells me you're already aware of my reputation."
He wasn't budging, and it hurt a bit. "I also know where your little brother is being held," she added quietly.
That woke him up. His fingers tightened on the gun, and he shot into motion. He didn't stop until the barrel of the gun hit the center of her forehead. Sapphire met cobalt in a myriad of blues, colliding across time and space and Kisara's smile became a marvelous heartbreak on her lips. How long had it been since they'd stood this close? If ever?
"Don't play with me," he spat, and Kisara noticed just how exhausted he was. Dulled violets were smeared under his lashes, and everything was a bit more pronounced in his features. She wanted to help, wanted to wash away the pain, but couldn't. "I'm done with the games."
Oh, how wrong he was. This game had only just begun. She couldn't even begin to imagine where fate would take them, but that was left to the future to decide. Until then, she would strengthen their shattered bond piece by piece.
Slowly, as to not trigger his already rampant rage, she raised her hand and dared a very precarious move. She cupped one of his cheeks, feeling the softness of his skin for the first time and the stubble of his chin. Had it been any other day, she would've laughed at her own forwardness, but all that remained were ancient remains of a life long past.
"I'm not playing any games," she whispered softly, carefully and suppressed all the emotions that flared in her very being by being near him. "I want to help you."
"You—"
Her gaze flicked to the side, the emotions lost in a moment of desperation. "To your left," she whispered.
Perhaps on complete impulse, derived by thousands of years fighting side by side, he trusted her for a split second. Just long enough to save both their hides. In the beginning, that same urgency had drawn them together too. Seto swung the gun to his left, smashing Kemo's jaw. A sickening crack reverberated throughout the chamber, and the guard stumbled a bit, before falling to the floor in a heap, unconscious.
"Do you trust me now?" Kisara asked thereafter, her brows knit. "As you can see, I would prefer to have you get out of here alive, Seto."
She saw his begrudging defiance, and he quickly snarled, "I still have a chance if I bring you to Pegasus."
Kisara glanced away, to the sunlight outside, but the radiance soothed her for only a second. "You don't like gambling when the odds are completely stacked against you. You're good at appearing to, but you've always had the better cards up your sleeve. Mostly you like to hide them until the time is right, but now isn't one of those times. Especially when you know that what I'm saying is true."
Without warning, he grabbed at he chin and forced her to look at him. She didn't flinch at his forcefulness, but confidence and truth swept throughout her expression in an obvious display of defiance to his disbelieving sadism. It was also an act of aggression against a man who demanded compliance to his every command. It was a clash of wills and dizzying blues. Neither looked away for a long time, taking it in and following through with an age old destiny.
Finally, he let her go, but his impatience was obvious enough, and so was the gun still aimed in her direction. "Take me to my brother."
She put her hands on her hips, and smiled knowingly. "You know, one day you'll really regret pointing that thing at me."
"Until I see that you're not a threat, I'll do as I please."
In response, she and grabbed one of her over-the-shoulder messenger bags, and pulled out her laptop. She doubted she'd be back here until all this madness was over, so she'd use it as an excuse to locate Mokuba. She'd probably need the resources once they high-tailed it out of the castle. So she pulled up a map of the ancient prisons, and set to work on the video camera in the halls they'd use.
Seto observed over her shoulder, making sure she wasn't doing anything she shouldn't. Sighing at his obvious distrust in her, she shut down surveillance system and stood from her seat, laptop in hand. On it, were the blueprints of the underground dungeons.
"Shall we go?" she inquired. "I think I have a general idea of where your brother is being held." If he didn't believe her before, there was no way he'd believe she'd tried to help his brother escape. The truth would have to wait.
"Just go," he bit out.
Despite how everything had gone wrong, despite everything in the world drawing them apart and together all at once, Kisara smiled and moved forward.
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King of Dragons
Author's Note:
And there's chapter chapter five. Seto and Kisara have finally met once again, and this time with some relative knowledge of their past lives too… Next chapter will revolve around Yami and Seto's duel. The one after that will have Kaiba's duel versus Pegasus, then the epilogue for ARC I. So yes, three more chapters until Battle City begins! That's also where we'll get more characters hanging around, as well as Yami and Yugi's reflections of Duelist Kingdom. I've specifically waited to introduce their perspectives until Battle City because then one character arrives that changes everything! Wanna guess who it is, dear reader? Until next time! And a special thanks to lalalei for correcting me!
Sequel of the story, "Queen of Dragons."
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Have a lovely day~!
-CassandraRoyal