A Monopoly Of Blue Eyes

by FeistyFox

He had refused to believe in his past, refused to be sucked into the fairytale that had been hurled at him again and again. But it appeared that his past had found him whether he wanted it or not. She was here… sitting right here in his class, this ghost from the ancient past, looking exactly as he remembered, exactly how she did in his dreams and the visions he had been shown.

18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Due Diligence

A month after moving into her new apartment she found herself relaxing back at the Kaiba mansion after work, although at this point it was no more uncommon than her being at her own place. She was here nearly everyday anymore, either tutoring Mokuba or hanging out with one of the Kaiba's. And if she wasn't here generally one or both of them were at her apartment with her for at least an hour or so in the evening. She liked having a space she felt comfortable inviting them to, and was really loving it just for herself as well. It was certainly the nicest place she had ever lived in, and unlike her last apartment it felt much more like a home than a place to sleep. True, she still hadn't decorated anything, but at this point it was because she had been spending extra money on furniture, kitchen wares, and other not exact necessities like fluffy towels. She wasn't sure she would ever really get over the feeling of panic when her bank account dipped too low, but she was really trying to accept the fact that she was a permanent part of this place now. After Seto went to all the trouble to get her the apartment she simply couldn't see how she could be anything but permanent on a logical level, but the irrational part of her was still fighting it a little. She was doing her best to beat that part down, but it was slow going some days.

Laying on the floor on her stomach in the entertainment room she propped her top half up on her elbows as she watched Mokuba trying to beat the boss in his videogame, her legs kicked up at the knee behind her. She was pretty good at videogames, but Mokuba was on a whole different level, moving through them with disturbing ease. He was growling under his breath at the game as he smashed buttons on the controller and she was amused, finding the whole thing entertaining to watch. Seto had an unexpected late meeting, and had asked her to go stay with Mokuba so his brother didn't have to either stay at the office or be by himself for yet another evening. She had happily complied, although really with all his friends Mokuba rarely spent an evening by himself unless he wanted to. She loved the kid, and frankly didn't want to spend another evening alone either. While she had initially enjoyed the solitude her own place afforded her, since it was safe and quiet save for the ambient noise of the city, she had recently found the isolation chaffing. Perhaps it was because she had grown used to being with Mokuba in the late afternoon, or that for the first few months she had been working such long hours between work and school. Now that she was only at Kaiba Corp for eight to ten hours in a normal stretch she felt as if she had far too much free time. Frequently now she found herself in search of companionship to do more than pass the time.

She wasn't nearly as popular as Mokuba, but she had gone on a few outings with Mai since she had promised her dinner and found her to be an entertaining and spunky companion. She had also accidentally ended up spending an evening with Duke, who she had run into when she had been bumming around downtown by herself one weekend. That had ended awkwardly, and she was unamused by being tricked into dinner by him, thinking it had been intended as nothing more than a casual meal between acquaintances. That assumption had been blown out of the water when he had leaned in and snaked a kiss when she was trying to escape the whole situation, having sussed out what he was after about three quarters of the way through the meal. He had gotten a cheek full of her palm and she had stormed out of the restaurant they were in, leaving him to pay the bill and nurse his pride. She had fumed about that for days, irritated beyond reckoning at the gall. It had only enraged her further that Mai had mentioned he was casually dating Serenity. Not that she was interested, but it was the point of the thing. She would be no one's fall back. What a playboy. "Get him!" She encourage. "Attack his life points directly!"

"This isn't duel monsters!" Mokuba told her as he dodged an attack. "Get it together, woman!" She grinned as he scored a hit only to be blasted into oblivion. "No!" He yelled at the screen.

"Aww!" She cried in sympathy as his game began to reload. "That's lame! You were super close that time!"

"Mokuba, I thought better of your gaming skills." Seto remarked casually behind them.

They both turned their heads and Mokuba puffed in annoyance, although she saw he was pleased his brother was home. Seto had gotten some sort of message right before she left that had him staying late, and looking distracted. She wondered if one of his off site production lines had blown up or something, but he had left in a hurry before she could ask. He had called an emergency meeting with his marketing, innovation, technology, and engineering departments, which she was thankfully not part of, and vanished after being sure she was going to be at the mansion with Mokuba while he was gone. "This boss is totally overpowered." Mokuba informed Seto offhandedly. "What was going on at Kaiba Corp?" He asked. "You weren't supposed to stay late tonight."

Seto set his briefcase down on a chair in the corner looking irritated. "There's going to be an international conference next week in California. I need to go."

"For what?" Mokuba asked as she shifted so she was sitting cross legged on the ground.

"We do have furniture you know." He informed them as he wandered toward them. "Why are both of you always on the floor?"

Mokuba didn't bother to answer and she didn't have a reason other than that was where they ended up. "What kind of conference?" He insisted.

"Apparently a showcase of new gaming tech will be on display. There's going to be booths for new vendors and inventors. I need to see what's there and push out the new generation duel disk system, at least the demo version. We have to stay ahead to keep our stock options up." He shook his head and she could only assume it was because he hadn't intended to have the new generation of duel disk out for another six months. That was a big push, especially when she knew he had been programming like crazy for the last few weeks as it was to make that timetable. She knew the marketing team had only just started working on the new branding for it, mostly because she had been asked to check that their initial ideas translated in appropriate ways across languages. According to one of them several snafus had happened in the past with new products that released internationally due to translating poorly, although never at Kaiba Corp. She wasn't entirely clear on what Seto was trying to make the new version do, but he had seemed extremely confident that whatever it was would easily make the last generation obsolete.

She was confused, but admitted to being fairly new to this business thing. "Don't those usually take months to set up? Especially one's that are for so many different countries?"

"Usually." He agreed grimmly.

She and Mokuba shared a look. "What's the catch?" Mokuba asked.

"I'm not sure there is one, other than Pegasus' being completely insane." He replied irritably.

Mokuba pressed his lips together and her confusion increased. "Pegasus?" She queried, her eyebrows drawing together. Even she recognized that name. "As in Maximillion Pegasus, the creator of duel monsters? I thought he was some sort of quirky recluse. Why would he hold a giant conference-"

Mokuba got up abruptly and walked out of the room, furious. Seto said nothing, only followed the retreat with his eyes until his brother was gone, slamming the door to the family room closed behind him. Shocked by the display of temper, as she had never seen Mokuba completely lose his cool, she stood up hurriedly, ready to go after him. "Mokuba?" She called after him with worry.

"Let him go." Seto ordered quietly, although he wasn't happy about the reaction either as he stepped over to the window and gazed out at his garden. "He needs a few minutes to work it out himself."

She turned her attention to him. "Work what out? What's going on?"

Of course, he didn't tell her. "I'll need you to come with me. The conference is going to be in San Francisco at Pegasus' corporation headquarters. There are going to be vendors from all over the world there. I'll need you to translate for me."

She was searching his face. "Seto?"

"It's a long story." He told her at last, his eyes steely. "Let's just say the three of us have a troubled history." He rubbed at his temples, looking as if he had a headache. "I'll have to bring Mokuba if we're both going. It's not safe to leave him alone and I don't trust anyone but you to watch him if I'm not here." Unsure of what to say she was quiet as she shifted up onto the couch, sitting on her knees on the cushion and watching him over the back of the piece of furniture. When he looked over he simply appeared exhausted, something he rarely let anyone see. He also appeared older than his nineteen years and she wondered yet again how he managed all the stress of running Kaiba Corp. "We'll leave in three days. The event is ending with a black tie dinner after three days of an open booth floor and multiple dueling tourneys meant to show off all the new products. Take the company credit card I gave you and get yourself a dress. Get a designer, I mean that. It'll come out of the corporate account so don't worry about how much it costs, you spend thrift. And before you even start you aren't the only one with a budget for that, most of my higher ups have one for things like this. It's in your contract."

She was too worried to roll her eyes about that. There was certainly some sort of emotional upheaval about all this and she hated seeing either of them upset. "Seto…"

He stared back out the glass, troubled. "When it's over you're welcome to stay a few extra days. I'm sure you'd like to see your friends while we're in the country. You haven't been home in over a year."

"I wouldn't call it home, Seto." She told him quietly, knowing that going to see anyone she had known before she ran was dangerous at best. She wondered how badly this was getting to him if he didn't think about that. He thought about everything. "I'd rather come back with you."

"Fine." He said distractedly. Unsure if he wanted her there anymore she shifted her weight on the cushion, trying to assess him when all she could see was a hazy reflection in the glass. It made it harder when she couldn't see into his eyes. After an awkward minute where he seemed to be somewhere far away he returned his attention to her and appeared almost surprised she was still sitting there watching him, as if she were some sort of novelty he hadn't been expecting. "Thank you for watching him tonight."

"You know I like spending time with Mokuba. You don't have to thank me for it." He tilted his head a little, but she knew he had worked that out fairly quickly, probably within three days of her tutoring him. "I don't want to go home yet." She said, not knowing why she said it, but feeling like she didn't want to leave. Still, it wasn't like her to try to take up his time or space when he wasn't interest, or if he was busy with something. "Can I help you with the duel disk?"

"I don't know how." He told her, although not at all meanly.

"Oh." She said softly, really wanting to help him with it. She couldn't even fault him for saying it though, she wasn't the best with computers. And it was him, so he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings although she would have felt that way with anyone else. "I could, erm, hold things while you build it? Helpfully?" He raised an eyebrow, some of the darkness in his eyes retreating at her rather pathetic suggestion. "Or… hand you things?" She said, as if upping some sort of amazing anti. His lip twitched once and she saw she was improving his mood as he found that funny. "Give you motivational speeches in any of eleven languages of your choosing?"

His eyes glittered with satisfaction. "Eleven now?"

She beamed over at him winningly as she leaned over the couch and the twitches quirked up higher, threatening to turn into a full out smile. Really, he hadn't pressured her at all to learn any more, but she liked to impress him and she wasn't sure how else to do it. It was so very satisfying when he looked at her like that, like she was amazing. She realized all at once she was flirting with him, but couldn't help herself. "I'll be a super good duel disk creating assistant, you'll see. Try me out."

"Do you even know what computer code looks like?" He asked, humor in his voice. "Or a fiber optic wire?"

"Well… no." She replied honestly. "But I really do know how to hold things. I'm a total pro, I should have put that on my resume when I applied, then you never would have threatened to fire me even once."

"We all miss opportunities." He deadpanned.

"Seto!" She laughed in mock outraged.

He chuckled and walked over to her, catching her totally by surprise when he leaned down and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her over the back of the couch and setting her middle over his shoulder. The sail through the air had her giggling in delight as her stomach dipped the way it did when she was in an airplane taking off. Taking a few steps to the left he grabbed his briefcase off the chair he set it on and continued out of the room, still carrying her as if she weighed nothing. "I suppose I could find something for you to hold." He agreed as he headed out of the room with her still giggling as she hung off him. "Although I think you're going to have to teach me to curse in one of those language rather than whisper sweet nothings to me." Laughing more, she wriggled as they got out into the hall, figuring this would be an interesting way to spend the evening, and confident that this was Seto's way of flirting back at her.

"Put me down you crazy person." She chortled as giddy delight raced up her spine at the attention. "I can't help you at all up here. Where are we even going?"

Leaning forward he flipped her back over his shoulder and set her carefully on her feet. She swayed a little as she smiled and he put his hand on her hip and turned her around so they were facing the same direction. She danced after him as he went toward the east side of the mansion, his hand falling away. "My lab."

"I find I'm not surprised you have a personal lab in your home." She replied, focusing on the issue at hand rather than her crush, which was really spiraling completely out of control. "Can you actually get a demo version done in three days?"

"I don't know." He replied. "Possibly if I can get the programming finished. The duel disk itself isn't really the issue, although I'll need to finish wiring a pair of them so a duel can actually take place. I already have the updated parts here."

"What exactly are you trying to program into it?" She asked. "Why is it so different from the last one?"

"The last version just showed a hologram of the monsters. I'm making an artificial intelligence program for this one so they seem alive. It should make it an infinitely more appealing experience for the duelist. The real difficult part is being sure all of the monsters in the database react in their own unique way, and in their own unique way to one another."

"That seems scary to me." She told him, having seen a few duels at his theme park on the large holographic fields. It was an impressive sight. "I wouldn't want a real monster coming at me, but I see why other people would think that was awesome. I'm pretty amazed you can do that."

He opened a door to the left and revealed a staircase leading down. Unlike the one in the ruins this one was normal sized and well lit when he flipped the lightswitch on. It didn't inspire fear the way the other one had. "The few test groups I've had are impressed." He told her, not bragging, simply sharing information as she followed him down, curious to know what he had stashed down here. "The problem is the amount of data the program requires. I need a very specific sort of memory chip to hold it that's small enough to fit in the disc. I have a few I made myself, but I'll need to mass produce them if I can get this to work at all." He sighed. "I suppose that's an issue to deal with later."

"I'm sure you can make it work." She said with easy conviction. "You're so clever with machines." He smirked, pleased, and she rolled her eyes as she stroked his ego on accident. "You know who would actually be helpful with this? Your brother."

"Mokuba is good at putting computers together." He agreed as they came out into a large room filled with all sorts of interesting things. Unlike the rest of the mansion this room wasn't decorated. It was just a tile floor and pale blue walls. Along those walls were any number of generic metal shelves and assorted cabinets, all of which were somehow organized and completely chaotic at once. There were boxes full of electronics, computer boards, wires, and components she couldn't identify. Computer monitors sat both uncovered and wrapped in plastic in one corner and another held at least half a dozen consuls in various states of construction. Peaking out between the boxes were old versions of duel disks, and parts of them. Along the far wall was a single long table covered in schematics, and in the center of the room was another table with a few stools around it, which had all sorts of metal and electronic pieces laid out ready to be put together into a new duel disk, even disassembled she could see the outline clearly. Obviously, Seto had been working on this in his free time.

"I mean, yeah, but he could program with you." She pointed out.

Seto set his briefcase down on the center table and shrugged. "This is a bit beyond what he's doing in his robotics class in school."

"Well, yeah, I figured." She agreed as she poked at a piece of metal. "I would love to figure out how to make a car follow me around. That was just neat."

"While I'm sure both you and Mokuba had a great deal of fun siccing that thing after me-" She snickered in agreement at his irritated glare, having found that particular homework project of Mokuba's hilarious even if he had taken a few artistic liberties on it- "it still isn't even close to an AI program."

She glanced up at him, admitting to some confusion. Mokuba had found that whole event even funnier than her, as it wasn't every day one got Seto Kaiba to jump around cursing at an inanimate objects, but even she had seen how easy it was for him. She had also been a guinea pig for at least five video games Mokuba had created himself. While she didn't know much about programming she did know that was the more advanced kind, especially what he had produced, which were on par with things out on the market. Seto was opening up his laptop, having dismissed that topic now that he thought it was done, and it occurred to her all at once that he had no idea Mokuba could do that. Frowning, she slid out of her seat. "I'll be right back."

"I'll be here." He sighed as he turned and began digging through a box, his mind focusing on this task with a disturbing intensity.

Leaving the basement lab she went in search of Mokuba. Five minutes later she found him in his room aggressively throwing a tennis ball at the wall and catching it as it bounced back. Poking her head in she titled her head. "So...whatcha doing?"

He threw the ball again and growled under his breath. "Nothing."

She nodded. "I'm glad to hear that because I have a question."

"I don't want to talk about Pegasus!" He snapped.

"Um, okay, I wasn't going to ask about that." She agreed amicably, although internally really needing to know what was going on. Maybe if she bided her time she could get Seto to tell her.

He caught the ball again and glanced over. "What then?" He snapped. Hurt filled her as she wasn't used to being treated that way by him. She had never once gotten a harsh word from Mokuba and her concern deepened. Regret filled his face when he saw he had hurt her feelings. "Sorry, Sarah."

"It's okay." She told him, forgiving him at once. "I'm sorry you're upset, but honestly, I didn't come to ask about that and I won't talk about it unless you want to."

"Fine." He sighed, throwing the ball again, but this time not hard enough to slam a hole in the wall. "What was the question?"

"Why haven't you told Seto you're programming?" She asked him.

He shrugged, clearly not thinking that was interesting. "I don't know. I'm not that great at it."

"You've designed a bunch of games." She pointed out. "Really good ones."

"Yeah, but anyone can do that." He replied as if that were true, leaning back against his headboard and giving her his full attention. "It's not like I'm as good as Seto at it." He shook his head a little. "Not that anyone is as good as Seto."

She heard more in that statement than one about programming. "Mokuba, you're really good at it." She assured him, honestly meaning it. "You think you aren't because you're comparing yourself to what he does."

"Yeah, well." She saw the pent up frustration then. "Isn't that how it always is? Seto's the best at everything."

"That's not true" She stated, seeing exactly why Mokuba and Seto were having problems all at once. She wasn't surprised by his occasional rebellions, or that Seto hadn't picked up on the actual underlying reason. She also wasn't surprised she had gotten no resistance from him where Seto kept running into it head on. Mokuba wasn't trying to prove anything to her. He wasn't trying to find a way to be his own person with her, because with her he already was. With Seto he felt as if he was trapped in his shadow, doomed to forever be in the background.

"Yeah, it really is." He denied. "He's a super genius. He's a billionaire teenager. He's one of the best duelist in the world. He's always going to be better than me. It's just the way it is."

"Seto is not better than you, Mokuba Kaiba." She told him firmly. "Your brother has a gift. It's flashier than yours. People notice it because he's not afraid to show it off. His ego would probably self destruct if he tried too, so there's that."

"What do you mean it's different than mine?" He asked, sounding sullen and tired. "I'm not as smart as Seto."

She considered her words carefully. "Yes, you are. You're just different."

He eyed her, sure this was some sort of platitude. "That doesn't make sense. I'm smart, but not like him." He threw the ball again. "And not like you."

She wondered how long this had been bothering him. "Mokuba, you're good with people, amazingly so. You read them. I've never seen anything like it to be honest. I think you can sense the minutia of their expressions and body language or something. You don't need to speak their language to know what they're saying. For all your brother's big brains and business savvy he can't do that. He's not good with people." He looked back at her and she met his eyes, being totally straight with him. "Honestly, he's pretty awful socially."

"He doesn't know how else to be." Mokuba told her defensively, sticking up for Seto even as frustrated as he was.

"I'm not judging him, I'm making a statement." She told him, staying calm as she walked in and sat on the edge of his bed so they could be a little closer while they talked. "Seto is successful because it's all he was allowed to be. He can run Kaiba Corp because he's creative, direct, and ruthless when he needs to be. It makes people confident that he can do whatever needs to get done. That works for him, and very well, but it doesn't make him well liked. You're completely different. You could convince an army to follow you to hell if you wanted, you have that level of charisma, you just aren't seeing it because you're hyper focused on being like him." Mokuba said nothing, only looked down at the ball in his hands. Reaching over she grabbed a pillow near her and threw it at him gently.

"What was that for?" He grumbled, looking back at her.

"Stop trying to be Seto." She told him gently. "Seto is already Seto. We don't need another one, goodness, could you imagine?" That had him cracking a small smile. "You need to be you. Embrace who and what you are."

"I'm not anyone special."

"Bullshit." She told him, which had him blinking in surprise as she never cursed. "I don't believe that and I'm a hundred percent sure your brother doesn't either. You are a brave, trustworthy, loyal, imaginative human being. You're without a doubt the most personable person I've ever met. I really mean that." She told him. "Existing in the same space as you is a wonderful experience."

"Thanks, Sarah." He said sincerely, embarrassed. "It's just hard being his younger brother sometimes."

"I can imagine." She replied. "You mean more to him than anything."

"Yeah, I know." He agreed, fully believing that.

"And he'll never admit this, but he needs help with his new system. I don't think he can get it done in three days by himself." She jerked her head a little. "He's in the basement now trying to get it done. Will you please come and help him?"

"He'll never let me do anything." Mokuba pointed out. "If you think he has control issue with other stuff it's ten times worse with his new inventions."

"Yes, he will." She said with confidence. "All you need to do is bully your way past him."

"How am I supposed to do that?" He asked.

"Just sit down and start working on it with him. Don't ask permission and ignore him when he starts to get all suspicious and irritable." She replied confidently. "It'll work. I'll distract him while you get the program up and then he'll have no way out."

Mokuba studied her for a moment. "You're devious when you put your mind to it."

She grinned. "I know right?"

Mokuba snorted in amusement as he got up, tossing the ball on his bed. "Fine, but when he turns into a bear about it you can deal with him."

"Fair." She agreed as they headed out of his room. "It's pretty funny when he gets flustered."

"You're a little insane to provoke him." Mokuba told her. "I think that's why he likes you."

She was bemused. "Someone has to keep him on his toes."

Mokuba sent her a sidelong glance as they headed down the main staircase. "And you've volunteered yourself for that task?"

"What can I say?" She asked. "It's something to do."

"Right." He agreed, clearly thinking she was tempting fate. "You do that and let me know how it works out for you."

Humor danced around her. Even knowing no one else on the planet would purposely irritate Seto, with the possible exception of Joey Wheeler, she was convinced that for her there would be no negative consequences. "You say that like you don't drive him crazy on purpose. He's still harping on about the car you know."

Mokuba sniggered, pleased with himself. "That was great. Why didn't we think to record that?"

"That's a great question. We really messed up there."

"I wonder if it recorded on the security system." Mokuba mussed. "I'll check later."

"Send me a copy if it did." She agreed, then the idea of that tugged at something in her head. She hadn't thought about there being cameras here, although she should have. If there were it was possible she could see what had happened that night she was here. Then maybe she could prove to herself that whatever that light was it wasn't her. That idea, no matter how crazy she found it, was driving her to distraction. "Did, did any of them record anything the night the security system went crazy?"

"No, I checked. The whole system was burned straight through. I still have no idea how that happened, and you'd think Seto would be all over that with the way he worries about how safe I am, but it was like it wasn't a big deal." She frowned over at him as they walked down the main staircase. "Or like he already knew what did it and didn't care he had to get a whole new system for the house."

"He replaced the whole thing?" She asked, dumbfounded.

Mokuba shrugged. "The day after you moved into your apartment he did. There was no salvaging it. Whatever it was broke the motherboard and charred every piece of circuitry."

That must have cost a small fortune. "And… he wasn't upset?"

"Not that I could tell." Mokuba agreed. "And it's not like he hides it when he's angry."

"No, he doesn't." She agreed, puzzled. Her mind turned back to that night for the first time since it happened and she was as confused as she had been before. Despite everything the logical part of her was saying she knew something unexplainable had happened. She wanted to ask about it, and struggled with sounding deranged for a moment before testing the waters. She figured if anyone was a safe bet to confide in it would be him. "Um, Mokuba?"

"Yeah?" He asked as they got to the main floor.

"When…" She stopped, rethinking the decision, and he turned his attention to her.

"What is it?" He asked, seeing something was bothering her.

She stopped walking, trying to work out how to ask this and seeing no good way to do it. "Nevermind, it's a crazy question."

"You have to ask me now." He told her.

"I just…" She pushed past her discomfort. "When we were in Egypt did you see anything weird?"

"Weird like what?" He asked curiously. "The whole thing would fall under the weird category for me."

"Like, like lights?" She asked hesitantly.

"Lights?"

Her frustration increased. "It's crazy to ask, but I swear I kept seeing lights all over when we were underground, and they were on Seto and Yugi too, and the shadows were, I don't know, following me." Mokuba's forehead crinkled. "And then-" She was losing all the momentum she had, her voice faltering. "They were here too, in the mansion, the lights and the shadows, the night the alarm went off."

He stared at her for a moment. "The shadows were following you?"

She sighed heavily. "I can see I'm losing my mind. Forget I said anything."

Turning, she was stopped when Mokuba grabbed her wrist, his grip surprisingly hard. "The lights were on Seto and Yugi?" He asked, his face deadly serious.

The expression had her pausing, and feeling much less insane all at once. "You saw them?" She asked hopefully, thinking she wasn't crazy.

"No." He said slowly. "I didn't see the lights."

"Oh." She replied, crestfallen.

"Sarah, what did the shadows look like?" He insisted.

She frowned, wondering why that felt like an important question. "They… they looked like claws, and long fingers, and vines all at once." She paused for a moment. "But it was more than that. It was like… it was like the shadows were, I'm not sure..."

"Alive?" He asked her, watching her closely.

"Yes." She agreed at once, relieved he had put a name to it. "I know that all sounds crazy, and I wouldn't believe me if I said it, but-"

"I believe you." Mokuba told her sincerely, his eyes troubled.

She hadn't been expecting that at all. "Really?" She asked, relieved.

"Yes, really." He told her. "I've seen the shadows before."

"Seriously?" She asked. "Because I've never heard of anything like that. Did they grab at you too?"

His violet eyes were suddenly very calculating. It reminded her very much of Seto and it was so very easy to see that they were related in that moment. "They touched you?" She nodded hesitantly.

"Did they try to take you anywhere?"

"No." She answered, finding that an odd question when it had seemed to her as if that was the intent. "I thought they wanted to though, which doesn't make any sense either. How did you know that?"

Mokuba let her go and started toward the basement again. "I don't think they can hurt you, but I would stay away from them."

She scampered after him, wanting answers that he appeared to have. "But what were they?"

"Nothing good."

"That's not an answer." She complained.

"I don't have an answer." He told her. "Leave them alone and it won't matter." He got to the door of the staircase and pushed it open.

"It wasn't like I went searching for them." She hissed, not wanting Seto to overhear them. He would no doubt find this conversation idiotic. The last thing Seto would believe in were living shadows and magical lights. She didn't even believe it and she had seen them. "They found me."

Mokuba stopped on the staircase and stared up at her, keeping his voice low. "If you see them again run the other direction. There's nothing you can do to stop them except run." Unease settled in her stomach as she stood there and Mokuba shook his head. "Have you seen them since then?"

"No." She said slowly.

"Good." Mokuba was really relieved. "It's this weird thing that happens sometimes, alright? I can't explain it and I know it must have scared you, but it must be gone now if you haven't seen them again." He looked like he was about to say something and then changed his mind.

"Shouldn't we tell Seto?" She asked him, thinking he should know if some sort of shadow things were haunting his house. Not that she believed in ghosts either.

"You really think he would believe that?" Mokuba asked and she sighed, knowing that he wouldn't.

"I guess not, but still-"

"What are the two of you conspiring?" Seto called from his workspace. "I can hear you whispering to one another."

"Nothing!" She called innocently. "Just admiring this well built staircase!" She stalled, cursing herself for being heard before she got the answers she wanted.

"You hate staircases." Seto replied dryly over the sound of his fingers hitting his keyboard.

Pressing her lips together she stared at Mokuba meaningfully and he shrugged, turning and going into the lab. Huffing in annoyance and knowing there was no way to continue this conversation with company she followed him, trying to hide that she was sulking. Seto had already looked up by the time she made it through the doorway and she forced her thoughts away, putting on a bright an innocent smile. No matter how much she wanted answers she knew that in actuality this was much more important. And, she supposed, Mokuba was right about the whole thing. If she hadn't seen whatever those shadows were then they must have gone elsewhere. "I came with backup." She informed him proudly.

Seto raised an eyebrow and turned his attention back to his brother as Mokuba began to rummage around the extra consuls, clearly looking for something specific. "What are-"

She interrupted his train of thought by grabbing an old duel disk off the shelf, diverting him as promised. "So how do these work exactly?" She asked, turning it over as Mokuba selected one of the machines and began to set it up rapidly. "Does it have a clip or a latch to keep it on?"

He raised an eyebrow. "There's a button."

"Oh!" She agreed, seeing it. "Neat." She brought the machine over and sat down next to him. "So the deck goes here?" She pointed to the only spot it could possibly go.

Seto began to eye her up and down. "What are you doing right now?"

"Asking about your most profitable product." She told told him with a smile, seeing that Mokuba had already hooked a monitor up and the computer was loading. "So to better help understand what it is I'm helping with."

"No."

"No?" She asked, feigning ignorance. "So the deck goes somewhere else?"

"You're distracting me." He turned his head in time to see Mokuba pull out a stool and sit, plugging a keyboard in. "Why is she distracting me?"

"No reason, nii-san." Mokuba told him with utter calm as he began to type, embracing her plan of simply jumping into this without permission. "She's reconsidered letting you teach her to duel."

"I have?" She asked, caught off guard. Seto sent her a look and she scrambled to agree "I mean, yes, yes I have. I want to be the best."

Seto stared at her unblinkingly and she smiled, pointing to a card holder. "So my first card would go here? What about spell cards, or counter trap cards as I clearly need those to beat your brother."

"I'm in." Mokuba told her, which had Seto's head whipping around. His violet grey eyes were scanning the screen quickly. He let out a hum and began to type rapidly. "This is interesting, Seto."

Kaiba frowned and leaned over to see what he was doing. "You're in my program. How did you hack into my server?"

Mokuba kept watching the screen as he typed, although she couldn't see what he was doing, and likely wouldn't understand it anyway. "He's going to help." She assured Seto again. "He's really good at programming, and not only toy cars."

Seto appeared angry for a moment, no doubt by the interference, and then Mokuba did something and it was replaced with interest. Seto leaned in, watching silently for several minutes as something went on. She contented herself with looking at the duel disk, having never actually touched one before. As she hummed a tune under her breath, waiting to be told what to do, Seto sat up straight again. "When did you learn to do this?"

"I taught myself." Mokuba replied, his fingers flying over the keyboard. "It's not hard."

Seto hummed in clear approval, his eyes hooded for a moment before he set his computer aside and picked up a small tool kit. Sliding his stool beside hers he handed her a small screwdriver as he began to pull parts toward them. "I was told you were good at holding things by a very reliable source."

Her eyes danced as she held the tool firmly, her stress fading away as he began to carefully flirt with her again. "Even better than at handing you things." She agreed. "I feel good about this. We, and by that I mean the two of you, are definitely going to get his done with time to spare."

"I think she's right." Mokuba said, most of his focus on the screen. "This is a good program. We just need to teach it to do what you want so it can fix itself."

Seto opened his mouth to say something and then a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Yes." He agreed, turning something over in his head. "That's a perfect solution." Mokuba glanced up, surprised, and then a proud smile filled his face. Seto began to pick up pieces as he continued. "If you'll help me put these together first we can do that after. It'll be faster with both of us."

"Sure, nii-san." Mokuba agreed, shifting so he was helping. The two of them began to work together in surprising synch and she scrambled to keep up. They kept her so busy for the next few hours that she forgot about her odd conversation with Mokuba, and didn't have a chance to think about it again until late that night when she got home. By that time it was too late to pursue it, so she went to bed, figuring it would have to wait until after this conference. Not that there was a hurry, she simply wondered what was going on.

Author's Note: Sorry about the wait on this one. I was writing this chapter and the next one at the same time. I should have it up in the next day or so :)