A/N: You see, there was this bet wth my best friend yadda-yadda...anyway, the point is, I'm going to the 30th October MCM Expo as a Fem!Kaiba...in Battle City attire...so...y'know, if any of you lot are there, just yell, "AVA" at the Kaibas, you'll find me eventually XD

~Ava

~XxX~

"Noah!" The hate in Kaiba's stance seemed to condense into something hard, cold and sleek in his voice as he balled his hands into fists by his sides. I, on the other hand, was next to Kaiba; trying to strike a balance between my cowardice screaming at me to run for the, (virtual), hills, or to leap at Noah like somekind of enraged harpy. I settled for glaring at Noah and scanning the blackness around us for signs of Mokuba.

"Aha, Seto!" The green-haired brat clapped his hands together in a sort of evil glee, "How nice of you to join me here! And your little friend." His eyes snapped to me as I waited fo the insta-denial from Kaiba...it didn't come. Noah's eyes snapped back to Kaiba as a muscle started to tic in my friend's cheek.

"Where's my brother Noah?" At the mention of the word 'brother' Noah's eyes narrowed momentarily before he smirked again.

"Oh you'll see that I've been keeping him very safe." His voice was laced with the same fake sincerity I had heard, what seemed like years ago, from GLaDOS in one of my games. At the end of his sentence there was movement from behind him. Mokubas face looked over Noah's shoulder and I felt Kaiba relax slightly next to me as he held out his hand to his brother.

"Come on Mokuba, we're leaving this dump behind us." He said, voice betraying a tad of relief at the sight of Mokuba unharmed. But that wouldn't rid us both of our suspicions...

"No! I won't let you get me!" The words that Mouba half-yelled made the two of us freeze, Kaiba recovering first and striding forwards, grabbing his brother's hand and dragging him away from Noah.

"Please Mokuba, I don't, we don't, have time for this." I heard no businessman in Kaiba's tone, just the words of a tired older brother. I would have continued in my inner psychological breakdown of him had Mokuba not yanked his hand back and run to Noah, hiding behind him again. Kaiba turned back to face Noah, opening his mouth to say something before I beat him to the punch.

"What did you do to him, you snot-haired little brat?" I hissed, knowing from my limited interaction with the younger Kaiba that his older brother was the single most important thing in the world to him. Noah glanced at me, as though angry that I was distracting his attentions from Kaiba.

"Oh, I just made him realise the truth, girl." He snickered and turned to face Kaiba again, "I just made him realise that his dearest brother was only using him, like a pawn in a game..." Another snicker as he faced Mokuba, hiding behind him, and grasped his shoulders, "I made him realise that you were nothing to him and that I'm the only person he can trust now." A sofa appeared from nowhere and he sat on it, Mokuba sitting next to him and smiling as Noah placed an arm around him. I almost heard Kaiba's patience snap but he stayed where he was, Noah holding the ace; Mokuba.

"What's that meant to mean Noah?" Kaiba's voice once again making me shiver with apprehension, Noah turned away from Kaiba and I, instead chosing to look at a muted TV screen that had appeared from nowhere once more.

"I'm taking everything that you don't deserve back Seto. Your company...MY company, your friends, your brother and look where it's left you now...all alone, with nothing to help you get it all back." I frowned at Noah's last words, stepping so that I was once more, level with Kaiba.

"And what the hell does that make me? Kermit the freaking frog?" I asked, mildly annoyed that I wasn't acknowlegded as still being there. Noah didn't even look round at me as he answered.

"I don't know who you are girl, though judging from your interaction with both Seto and Yugi you most likely you don't matter in the long run and can't duel." His curt, yet logical, answer made me angry all over again. I was getting really tired at hearing those words. I took a step forwards and stood infront of Kaiba, who glared at me for a second as I ignored him.

"My name is Sophie. Sophie Grace McCallaghan, if I'm going to be trapped in your goddamned freakshow, I want you lot to be able to remember my damn NAME." I yelled the last word, prompting Noah to look away from the screen for a moment, and regard me as though I were some kind of fish in a bowl, "And, I matter. They matter. Because right now, in this moment? These two are all I've got, so if you so much as look at them cross-eyed I will make you see why I matter." I took a breath, my courage abruptly fading, "...and the cardgame's a load of kid's crap anyway." I almost felt Kaiba rolling his eyes at my words, as I'm sure he would have had our situation not been so dire. He did, however, place a hand on my shoulder and move me to the side, I shivered again, and not from anything other that my accursed hormones. I hid my blush once again with a sneer at Noah. I would have continued sneering ineffectually at the boy had I not noticed a door, like the ones we had encountered before, appearing out of thin air next to me. I skittered away from it until I saw who ran through it.

"Yugi?"

"TEÁ!"

The clash of reasonable confusion and utter relief with mine and Kaiba's voices was almost comical, however, rather than laughing I instead hugged my best-friend for what seemed like the fortieth time that day and frowned at Yugi, or more accurately, what he was handing to Kaiba.

"A picture?" I whispered to Teá, my eyes still fixed on Noah in case he tried anything vaugely hostile. She nodded, looking at the picture from upside-down, I shifted my position to see it the right way up. The person I had come to know as the brother's "Step-Father" and Noah. I frowned at the photo and then glanced over to said greenie.

"...Why are you with him?" I paused at Noah's slightly insane smirk.

"I'm the true heir to the Kaiba Corporation, the biological son of Gozaburo Kaiba." He glared at Kaiba, "You're just an orphan who happened to hit the big-time." There was a thinly veiled bitterness to his words before he smirked again and faded like the Cheshire cat, grin leaving last. The four of us were stood back in blackness again before Kaiba spoke as I looked to him for an explaination.

"This is quite obviously another one of his tricks to throw me off rescuing Mokuba." I cut across his skeptism without thinking.

"Us. And you aren't going to even entertain for a second that he's telling the truth?" He shook his head as I ignored Teá's smirk for the second time and kept my eyes locked on Kaiba.

"Me. And of course not," he sniffed at his next sentence, "I'm not an indulger in flights-of-fancy." I scoffed and looked to Yugi and Teá for support, instead I was greeted by the two of them opening yet another door and beckoning us over. I ran towards them, closing the gap and shaking my head.

"US. And you lot are making me fit." I sighed faux angrily, "You won't like me when I'm fit..." I heard the annoyed sigh from behind me and knew that I was going to be keeping up this bickering all the way to finding Mokuba.

~XxX~

A/N: Oh you people, with your...reading...I don't know where I'm going with this.

~Ava