Chapter 15: Entrenched Player's Dilemma
Opening her apartment tiredly she wasn't sure if she was glad or terribly upset that Seto had insisted he walk her up. She had never asked him over before despite being the Kaiba mansions most frequent guest because she had always been just a little ashamed of it. Her entire living space was about a quarter of the size of his lower kitchen, and even with the substantial raise he had given her she still hadn't bought anything to decorate with. She was so paranoid she would need the money for necessities like food that she hadn't even shopped for the most inexpensive painting to put up. The few pieces of furniture she had purchased were both small and cheap, as somewhere in her head he felt as if all this good fortune, her stable job, and her friendship with him was all some sort of temporary reprieve from the harsh reality her life had always been. She had been hoarding her paychecks for months, convinced that the good times were bound to end sooner rather than later and she would need every penny to survive. The only thing she had splurged on, the one thing she dared to spend money on had been her wardrobe, and only because she had felt she needed that to keep the very job that was supporting her.
But Seto was being oddly protective, had been since they had been captured in Egypt, and she had seen no way to prevent him from finally getting a good look at where she lived. Too tired and disturbed by events to fight him off she had simply shrugged when he told her he would come up with her. When she turned on the light her heart sank and any hope she had of him simply leaving her to her own devices vanished in an instant. Standing quietly inside the doorway she surveyed the damage as he stood behind her, taking it in over her shoulder. Her home, the small lonely place that it was, had been completely trashed from top to bottom. Everything was knocked over, smashed, broken, or slashed to ribbons. All the things she'd worked so hard for were destroyed. She told herself firmly that it was only stuff, and that she was fine, and so was everyone else. It didn't make her feel all that much better as the remains of her new computer, the one Seto had given her only a few days ago, sat in small bits at her feet.
Moving slowly she went inside, stepping gingerly over the computer components only to end up crunching a small makeup kit that had somehow ended up in the main room rather than the small basket she kept it in on the shelf in her bathroom. Seto followed her inside silently, taking in every detail. Going to her closet she opened it fully, as the door was ajar, and found everything in it had suffered the same fate. Her clothes were ruined, all of them. At a loss she stared at the damage, her spare key dangling from her hand. She didn't even have anything left to change into to get out of her dirty clothes. "You can't stay here." Seto stated flatly as she stood there blankly.
Her eyes swept over her room again. "I don't have anywhere else to go." She shifted her weight as her exhausted mind made plans. There was nothing she could do now except check into a hotel. Everything else would have to be dealt with in the morning. "I can… I can take care of this tomorrow. Everything can be replaced."
"You can't be." He pointed out. "They know where you live and we still don't know who they are. It isn't safe for you here. I shouldn't have let you come back here at all." He turned out of her mangled apartment. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" She asked vaguely.
"To my house. You'll be safe there." He shook his head, anger in his eyes as he no doubt remembered both he and his brother had been taken from that very place. "Safer than anywhere else."
That was really too much to ask of him. "I can get a hotel room if you drop me off on the way. I can't impose on you that way." She told him, wishing she had simply gotten a cab home like everyone else when they landed at the airport rather than letting him usher her into his limo before she could think to protest.
He reached behind her and put his hand on the small of her back, ignoring that as he urged her to the door, and she didn't fight him. She simply didn't have the energy to try at this point. She shut her door and locked it rather unnecessarily before Kaiba whisked her away. She found herself back in the limo in less than thirty seconds and Mokuba's eyes fluttered open. "What's going on?" He slurred, having finally fallen into an actual deep sleep.
"Sarah is staying with us for a few days." He told his brother. "Go back to sleep."
"Okay. Need an explanation about this later." With that he closed his eyes and flopped back down to the seat. The limo started forward, once Roland saw they were all settled again, and Seto stared out the tinted window absently. The head of Kaiba's security detail hadn't asked a single question when his boss came back down with her and she was grateful for that, a little worried she might start to cry if she thought about it too much. Not that Roland ever asked many questions, which was likely why he still had a job, and why Seto approved of him so much. For her part she found the large man pleasant and courteous. She'd had a few nice conversations with him since she moved here, usually while they were waiting for Seto, or when he was dropping Mokuba off for his lessons with her, although none of them had been more than superficial pleasantries. She rather suspected he had a family of some sort, but he never brought it up and she figured if he didn't want to it wasn't her business to inquire about it. But despite his quiet reserve she knew he noticed nearly everything. When he met them at the airport with a car and Seto had ushered both her and Mokuba toward it, dismissing everyone else to get the rest of the way home themselves, his gaze had swiftly flicked from the now fading bruise on Seto's cheek and the seemingly ever darkening one along her neck. Roland, for the first time, appeared angry to her, but maybe she was just imagining it. There was really no reason for him to care if she was hurt or not, other than a professional courtesy.
She couldn't tell what Seto was thinking from the expression on his face as he sat across from her, staring at the passing buildings. Of course, she couldn't really tell what she was thinking herself as she leaned back and tried to focus on staying awake instead of being dirty, disgusting, hungry, and exhausted. The last few hours had been a rather frantic rush back to Japan with Seto on the phone most of the way as he tried to reschedule the merger for late afternoon the following day. As promised a Kaiba Corp plane had arrived less than six hours after Seto managed to get a call out. She wished it had somehow managed to teleport directly to them because the end of their horrid adventure out of the country had ended in a spectacularly disturbing way.
After Seto came back with news that they would be out soon she had relaxed marginally, but she knew something was going on here that no one was saying. The Ishtar's home was inherently creepy, simply because it was so incredibly odd a place to live, but there was something else strange about it. She had felt almost sick since they walked down into the ruins, and not only because she'd had to go down into a cramped and terrifying staircase. She swore up and down the shadows were moving on their own and she felt as if she was being watched by a hundred different eyes. She had tried to convince herself she has sun poisoning or something, or maybe she was just paranoid due to the circumstances, but then she had started catching glimpses of light dancing about where light shouldn't be. It wasn't much, just little glimmers she kept seeing out of the corner of her eye, but no one else appeared to noticed them.
Half convinced she was going crazy she wanted nothing more than to get out of the place as soon as possible. When that woman, Ishizu, had told Seto there was no phone she could sense the lie. Some deep part of her very sure that it wasn't true, that she was trying to bait or trap him here. So when she had been led off to clean up she had checked the other woman's pockets when she wasn't paying attention. She hadn't been remotely surprised to find the phone, only deeply enraged. When she came back Seto was gone, which sent so many alarms off in her that she nearly went searching for him, more than half ready to tear this place down around their heads. Her anxiety had started howling up as a headache settled firmly in her head and the feeling of sickness had increased exponentially. But he had come back, which calmed her until he left with the phone to make the call and she saw that same strange light tingling along his back.
Deeply troubled she had forced herself to calm as she waited. Seto and Mokuba both returned and rejoined her with the elder Kaiba looking smug. Knowing that meant help was coming she held her tongue and settled in to wait. After a time she had fallen into a fitful sleep next to the Kaiba brothers. Not long after she sat up with a start, covered in a cold sweat from the worst nightmare she'd ever had. She had been surrounded by monsters with someone yelling at her in a language she didn't understand, sure disaster was about to strike, and was somehow jolted away at the last moment.
She looked around herself as terror coursed through her, disoriented by the darkness and strange surroundings. For a single moment she was terrified that she hadn't woken up when she saw a carving of a monster right behind her shoulder. Then she heard a soft snore and turned her head, seeing Mokuba sprawled out on the ground nearby. Remembering what had happened in a rush she let out a quiet breath and pushed her tangled hair back out of her face, wishing for a brush. Her hair was a mangled mess, and she knew it would take her hours to get it in order once she had access to grooming equipment. It didn't make her feel better that Mai and Serenity were in the same boat. Beside Mokuba, Seto was sleeping, propped up against the wall. Unable to sit still with the nightmare nipping at her she got up quietly. She thought if she could just walk for a few minutes she would be settled and could lay back down. Being sure not to go far she walked around the large cavern again, hating being trapped inside the earth like this more than she could say. She hated even more she would be forced to go back up that staircase to get out and tried not to think about that. When she was at the edge of the room, or temple, or ruin, or whatever it was, she stopped, looking at the images on the wall.
They made her uneasy, just like everything else about this place. She desperately wanted to go home so she could curl up in her own bed and pretend none of this had ever happened. As she studied an image of what looked like a genie she recalled hearing that duel monsters had been based off a game in ancient Egypt. While that had been a mildly interesting story on the news she had never given it any thought, not until now at least. It was one thing to play a game, it was another to feel surrounded by it.
"My home makes you uneasy." A soft voice said behind her. She jumped, whirling around. Behind her and to the left Ishizu was watching her with calculating eyes. Unnerved by her, and fully distrustful she said nothing, wondering if she had worked out that she had snatched her phone away and was here to confront her about it. "You're a creature of open spaces and bright skies."
"I just… don't like feeling trapped." She replied after a moment as her attention settled on a necklace the other woman was wearing. It hadn't been on her before, and once again she saw the strange lights shimmering, this time around the jewelry.
The woman moved beside her and studied the same images she was as she turned her attention away quickly, not wanting Ishizu to ask her what she was staring at. "Had I not been born here I think I might feel the same. As it is I find comfort here, in the shadows of our past."
She nodded and followed the other woman's gaze. Maybe she didn't know the phone was gone and she should just go along with the conversation. It seemed the safest option for all of them to remain in her good graces while they were here. "What do they say? The markings?"
"Many things." Ishizu told her. "This one we're looking at now tells of a great monster, the jinn, that an ancient and powerful priest trapped and saved a village from."
"How do you trap a jinn?" She asked.
"Magic." She responded simply. "As all the great monsters, save perhaps one, were captured in the ancient world."
She gazed up and up as the writing kept going on into the darkness. "Why was one different?"
"One great dragon was too powerful to capture with magic." Ishizu told her. "And eluded even the greatest of the pharaohs."
It sounded like the start of every ancient hero story she had ever heard. "And then he did something clever and captured it I suppose."
"No." The other woman replied, still studying the wall as if she hadn't lived with it her whole life. "Despite his great power, and his mastery of the Egyptian gods themselves, the pharaoh could never control the dragon." She looked over at her, silently asking her to continue. "When the world was young it was in alignment with another realm, the shadow realm. This caused chaos as monsters and magic destroyed the land, killing hundreds and thousands of people. In Egypt the pharaoh's learned how to capture these creatures with specialized magic that was harnessed in seven mystical objects. These items were controlled by the most powerful people in Egypt, those that were destined and trained to protect their people and their king. Many of the most powerful and crafty monsters resided in humans, possessing them and hiding from this new magic that could contain them should they be found. The great white dragon, which had destroyed countless lives, was different than the rest of them. She was more brutal, and much more clever. Where most of the monsters hid inside humans this great beast somehow learned how to be born as one, protecting herself from the magic. She appeared among the villagers of ancient Egypt, seemingly the same as any of them, save for only one detail. As years passed she grew into a woman, and was persecuted wherever she went because of the way she looked."
"The way she looked?" She asked, confused.
"The great dragon was so powerful that it was said to have painted her human self as white as the clouds it flew through." Ishizu told her. "Sensing her power and suspecting her possession she was ostracized. And yet despite this she managed to control herself, hiding her ferocious nature behind her human mask. One day she was cornered by villagers and unable to escape. They began to stone her, and despite being able to release her soul to protect her mortal form she did not, preferring death to their slaughter. I think it likely she had become far more human than she had ever planned for, because despite her attackers meaning to kill her she showed them great benevolence."
She watched Ishizu, transfixed by the story. "As she was being attacked the greatest of the priests of Egypt happened by. Appalled by her treatment he stopped her from being killed, believing he could help her with the power he wielded, with the power he could control with his millennium item." Ishizu was silent for a moment. "I believe that he fell in love with her in that moment as she lay bleeding and defiant on the side of the road. I believe in her he saw what he wished to be, strong and controlled in the face of death, selfless, and honorable." Ishizu nodded to herself. "He took her back to the city, confident he could pull the dragon from her, claim it as his own, and save her from her burden. He didn't realize that she wasn't possessed as so many others he saved had been, but was in truth the essence of the mythic dragon."
Despite herself she was entranced with the story. "What happened?"
"Disaster." Ishizu said, sounding sad. "Despite his efforts the beast could not be fully separated from the maiden he loved. Even when he managed to tempt her soul from her body, it would return, defying his magic in favor of her human existence, returning to the body it's soul had created. And yet despite his frustration he did not give up, and soon enough she loved him too. For a brief time they were happy, and in all the tales it was said they were soulmates, the first to ever be called that in all of recorded human history. But their happiness did not last. Soon after they became lovers the priest was betrayed by his mentor, a dangerous and power hungry man that desired to have the dragon's great power locked up so it could be used to make the priest the pharaoh. You see his mentor was in fact his father, and had abandoned him in his boyhood in an effort to protect him from the sins he had committed to save Egypt."
"Having discovered their affair he placed the priest in mortal danger, knowing the maiden would do whatever she could to protect him. His betrayal worked and the maiden jumped in front of this danger, saving the priest at the cost of her mortal form. With no body to house her soul the great dragon came forward, enraged beyond reason at the loss of its chosen life. The priest, in his grief, did not stop the monster from destroying his mentor, and all the lesser priests that followed him. When they were dead and the beast turned its feral rage on him the priest offered the maiden up to it, ready, and more than willing, to follow her to the next life. Seeing his devastation over her death, it stopped its attack, finally allowing the priest to capture it as a way to stay with him, although it meant her imprisonment and return to the shadow realm from which she had sought refuge. From that point on only the priest has ever managed to control the white dragon. Only he was ever able to help her cross between the threshold of our world and that of the great shadow beasts." Ishizu was quiet for a moment. "I don't believe that the priest ever truly felt whole again after her death."
"What a horrible story." She said, wishing she had never heard it. "Are there no happy ancient Egyptian stories you could have told me?"
"Perhaps." She agreed. "But there is always hope. I don't believe love like that is ever extinguished."
She was unable to see a bright side to that story herself. "The maiden died and he was left alone for the rest of his life except when he could briefly see her soul. It sounds final to me."
"Like many others that possed millennium items the priest was reincarnated." Ishizu told her.
That was a weird statement. "Reincarnated?" She was familiar with the idea, but had never given it any thought before. Then, she remembered what Kaiba had told her so many months ago when they were passing notes in class. "Like Yugi over there?" She asked, disbelief lacing her voice as she realized this woman held the same delusion as her former classmates.
Ishizu nodded, unfazed and convicted. "Yugi is indeed the host of the great pharaoh. You don't believe in reincarnation."
"No." She told her.
"Egyptians aren't the only one's to hold such beliefs. Throughout history and across cultures this idea has surfaced over and over again."
"I suppose." She agreed hesitantly.
"And even that doesn't sway you? That so many throughout history have believed?"
"No, but I can see you believe it." She told her, looking back at the wall. She had no interest in getting into a religious debate with someone, that didn't mean she didn't want to hear the rest of the story. Despite herself she was curious. "So, did this reincarnated priest ever find his maiden in his next life?" She asked conversationally.
"It appears that he has." Ishizu said. "Although I didn't believe you capable of following him into this life until I saw you with him today."
Frowning, she looked over. "What?" Ishizu turned her head and she followed her gaze, which landed squarely on Kaiba. "Seto?" She said with real disbelief. "Are you kidding me? You think he's reincarnated?" She felt a sudden uncomfortable urge to laugh. "And that I'm his soulmate?"
"I know that he has been reincarnated." Ishizu told her with such conviction that it startled her. "And so does he."
The last person she would ever think would believe in reincarnation was Seto Kaiba. "I think you have him confused for someone else."
"I do not." Ishizu assured her. "Kaiba has seen his past firsthand, although I think he might well die before admitting it. But those that know him, the few that do, have seen the change in him. He was a cruel young man, a fact even he won't dispute for all his pride, because he does have his honor. He has softened since I first met him, since he and the pharaoh reached an understanding the way powerful personalities do when they come to an impass. Even so he could not heal the injury your passing did to him, even five thousand years later. I believe Mokuba was the only reason he didn't fully lose himself in his rage and hatred with such a crippling injury."
This was all way too bizarre for her. "Look, I'm not-"
"What did he do when he first met you?" She interrupted.
Her eyebrows drew together. "When we met?"
"Yes." The woman agreed. "What did he do? Think carefully." Ishizu watched her closely as she thought. She recalled very clearly what he had done. It was branded in her brain. He had stared down at her, as if he were truly shocked to see her there, as if he knew her, as if he had been hopefully waiting for that moment for years. She had dismissed it, thinking perhaps he had known someone that looked liked her, although she knew her coloration was unique, if not unheard of in Japan. She had thought, foolishly perhaps, that he may have found her pretty, but had dismissed that after knowing him for only a few days. And, unforgettably, she had felt as if she knew him as well as she had ever known another person, for all she had never met him. But after that first moment he had treated her the way he treated everyone, at least until they got to know one another.
"He just looked at me." She told her.
"Are you lying to me or yourself?" The woman asked her calmly. "You are his blue eyed maiden, his soulmate, the soul of great white dragon. He knows this. It's why he's keeping you so close. Kaiba does not make friends easily, if at all, and yet the two of you have bonded closely and quickly. Your souls recognize one another despite all the time that has passed. The great blue eyes white dragon, your real self, also recognizes this. I suspect even now the dragon would be able to emerge from you despite Atem's efforts to lock the great monsters of the past away if he was in danger. Seto's dragon obeys him, because you allow it, because it is you, because you are his other half, whether you're consciously aware of it or not." She said nothing, feeling truly unsettled and wondering why, when she didn't believe any of this. The woman watched her for several uncomfortable moments. "I'm not sure we'll see one another again, Kisara." She told her, and the name shimmer inside her head like a crystal catching the light. "But I am honored to have met you. Your story was always my favorite."
With that the woman turned and walked into the shadows, disappearing into the ruins and abandoning her with a hollow pit in her stomach. She had sat in the near darkness for hours as the others slept on peacefully around her, with her emotions in turmoil as she tried to convince herself that Ishizu was after something and trying to scare her with some sort of Egyptian version of a campfire story. When Seto woke up and told her not to believe anything it confirmed that surely she had been right, that the woman was lying to unsettle her, the same way they had lied about the phone. The knots in her stomach had loosened as soon as they got on the plane and she had let the story go completely, until she was shifting in her seat and saw Yugi toward the front of the cabin. The strange pendant he wore around his neck had been glowing with purple light.
Her troubled thoughts were interrupted when Seto spoke, his voice filling the back of the car and dragging her back to the present. "Tomorrow make a list of everything that they broke. I'll have you moved to a safer apartment complex and your things replaced."
There was no way she was going to let him do that. "I have more than enough money to replace everything myself."
"I don't pay you enough to get kidnapped, threatened, and assaulted. Just get me the list." He told her irritably.
"No."
"Sarah-"
She would not take a handout. She was pretty sure they had already come to an understanding about that. "You're not getting a list. If you insist on finding me a different apartment, than fine, I'll let you help me. I won't let you replace everything when I don't need you to."
"You're being stubborn." He told her.
"I'm not going to get into a fight about this again." She informed him stubbornly.
His eye flicked over her and he shrugged. He dismissed her again as he vanished into his own world. Her irritation with Seto being Seto drove all her apprehension about crazy stories and hallucinations away. The farther away from that place they got the more ridiculous and unreal the whole thing seemed. Clearly the stress had gotten to her and driven her temporarily insane. She chose to forgive herself for that and blame it all on dehydration. Ten minutes later and the gates to the Kaiba estate opened and the limo pulled up in front of the mansion. Roland got out and opened the door as Seto reached out and shook his brother awake while she slid out first. She heard Mokuba mutter a word that Seto snapped at him for using and gazed up at the house.
She was glad she'd been here before because in her fatigued state she probably would have said something stupid about it, like that it was rather large overall. As it was she wondered exactly how far from where she was standing to where she could take a shower might be. Hopefully, less than a mile or she was just going to curl up on the floor and sleep. One of his housekeeper could just wake her up in the morning, their opinion about her be damned. When Mokuba stumbled up the main steps she followed with Seto close behind both of them. Kaiba was moving slower than he usually did and she could only assume that he was as exhausted as she was. To be fair she thought he probably slept even less than she had over the last five days. That in itself impressed her since he was still on his feet.
Someone opened the door for them and she nearly jumped out of her skin for no other reason than it surprised her. Of course she should have expected it. Roland had obviously made sure everything and everyone was ready for Mokuba and Seto to get home. Seto had the good grace not to comment on her jumpiness and Mokuba was too tired to notice. Actually, she thought he might be sleep walking. The young teen didn't stop moving as they hit the main floor and stumbled up the stairs toward what she could only assume was his room. She had never gone beyond the first floor and had no idea what the family wing was like. Seto pushed her gently after him and she followed the boy, understanding the silent direction. She did note that the butler, another of Kaiba's staff she liked, was watching them all with worry, as if he was afraid one or all of them were about to keel over.
Seto either didn't notice or didn't care and kept herding her gently forward. Trudging up the steps she paused in confusion when the hallway split three ways. Seto put his hand on her back again and urged her to the left. She staggered that way and his thumb ran in a small, reassuring circles over her filthy shirt, right at the small of her back. Pleasant tingles raced up her spine and her whole body relaxed, her mind quickly following it. She heard a door shut somewhere ahead of them in the darkness as Mokuba went into his room and then Seto was guiding her to another door. He opened it for her and she slid inside. He flipped on the light switch and she blinked as spots danced in her eyes.
When they faded she found herself in a pretty room with a pale yellow theme. Seto's hand fell away from her. "I'll have clothes brought up so you can change after you clean up. The bathroom is attached. We can talk tomorrow after we've both slept." He sighed heavily. "I may have to wake you up early. If the merger doesn't start tomorrow it might fall through."
She understood. "That's fine. I'll have to go get real clothes before we meet. What time did you settle on?"
"Noon."
She nodded tiredly, thinking that realistically she wouldn't be able to sleep more than three or four hours if she had to go get things. Glancing over she saw an alarm clock next to the bed and waved at it vaguely. "I'll just set the alarm for myself. You don't need to worry about me. I'll be sure I'm ready."
"I've never worried about you missing a meeting." He told her as he turned to no doubt go to his own room. "Goodnight, Sarah."
"Goodnight, Seto." She replied. "Thank you for letting me stay here."
He left, making a dismissive sound in the back of his throat, and shut the door behind him. As soon as she heard it close she went to the bathroom. She locked herself in and turned the shower on without further ado and began to strip her soiled clothes off in a rush. She couldn't stand to be in them for another second. She was under the spray before it had a chance to warm up and didn't care. Grabbing soap off the lip of the shower she scrubbed at her dirty skin, wondering if all of the bathrooms in this place were stocked and ready to receive guests at any given moment, or if this was rapidly prepared for her when Roland no doubted texted ahead to let staff know she would also be there.
Twenty minutes later and her skin was pink from the hot water and her hair was its normal color, rather than the nasty brown it had streaked through it from all the dust and sand. She smelled like soap and aloe instead of dirt and sweat. She was much happier all around, feeling like her normal self again. Turning the water off she grabbed one of the towels hanging on a rack and wrapped it around herself, thinking that she should really invest in the amount of fluffiness when she replaced all her things. Clearly, having money had it's benefits. She grabbed a second towel and went at her hair, patting it vigorously to dry it. Feeling herself starting to shut fully down she finished drying off and opened the bathroom cautiously as she clutched the towel to herself, worried someone might be in here. The door was shut but there was a pile of fabric on top the comforter. Going to it she found a soft cotton t-shirt and long plaid pajama bottoms. She assumed these belonged to Seto, as they were much too long for Mokuba, and gave a mental shrug as she tugged the shirt over her head. It fell to her thighs and she simply left the bottoms on the edge of the bed, rather sure they would slip right off her hips no matter if Seto was slim.
Going toward the door she flipped the light off before returning to the bed after setting the alarm. Pulling the blankets back she crawled under them, tugged them over her shoulder, and practically cooed at the softness of the mattress and clean scent of the sheets. Feeling very pampered she drifted off to sleep, and thankfully the only thing that greeted her in her dreams was a welcome and merciful darkness.