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.

24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Postponement

Seeing that the sun was dipping down toward the horizon through her bedroom window he twisted his neck and kissed the top of Sarah's head gently before sliding out from under her, forcing himself up because he needed to go home. She had fallen asleep about fifteen minutes ago, and he had lingered there in her bed as he fully reassured himself that she was alive and safe. She had relaxed noticeably once she got back here, to her home, but he was worried about leaving her in the apartment alone. If he thought she would have come back to the mansion with him he would have woken her, but she had been so relieved to be home, and always so worried about appearances that he wasn't sure she would budge. He also didn't want to move her if she was going to stay here and rest the way she should, and he knew there was a much better chance of that if she was where she wanted to be. But if someone could get to her in the biggest and most crowded event Domino had hosted in years he was sure someone could work out how to get her out of her bedroom. Her security system would do absolutely nothing to stop a magical assault, and he wasn't sure how to prevent that other than reacting in a way he had sworn he never would.

As he moved her she let out a little sigh and turned her face farther into her pillow, her hand slipping under it in a practiced gesture. Reaching over he made sure she was completely covered with the thick raspberry colored comforter she had on her bed before pulling his shoes back on. He was a bit surprised by the color, he would have guessed she'd go for blue, but it fit with the rest of the simple decor in here. He noticed she had finally hung a picture up on the wall and could only assume Sarah had finally decided that this was where she was going to be long term, because he was sure she wouldn't have put anything up otherwise. Even so the walls still felt a bit empty, but every few weeks there would be something new up, so maybe she was just picky about what she wanted hung. He did notice she was putting paintings of landscapes up more than anything, and wondered what about them appealed to her.

Leaving her room briefly he got her cell phone out of the living room and brought it back, plugging it into her wall charger and setting it on her nightstand within easy reach. The phone let out a soft, muffled beep as it connected to the power source and Sarah slept on, utterly undisturbed. He was sure the painkillers he insisted she take again an hour ago had fully kicked in as she was generally a light sleeper. Sarah had protested a bit, clearly not liking how they made her feel, but she had started shifting uncomfortably so much it was causing his anxiety to ratchet up, especially when small hisses of pain would come out of her despite her best efforts to muffle them. She had given in without much of a fight after he tugged her back to him, shifting to holding her rather than kissing her, which she apparently enjoyed just as much. He had never been snuggled with before and found it very enjoyable. Not that he would admit to that of course. But Sarah was too sweet for her own good really and he didn't have it in him to deny her, or himself. Reaching over he stroked the side of her head once before grabbing his trench coat and pulling it back on. Leaving her room he pulled the door shut quietly and moved back out into her living room.

Stopping in the middle of it he rolled his shoulder and gathered himself together. Even if he had never done this in his current life he could recall easily what to do, having been trained extensively in magic before he took over as high priest in Egypt. Reaching into his coat he pulled out the millennium rod and held it firmly in one hand as he pulled three cards out of his deck with the other. Flaring them out in his hand he focused hard, drawing on the magic that was linked so intimately with the shadow realm. If this other person was going to fight dirty, if he was going to pull both Sarah and Mokuba into the shadow realm and threaten their lives and souls, he wasn't about to play nice. This was personal now, and he was not a kind man on the best of days. His millennium item began to glow, no doubt sensing his intent, and he spoke softly but firmly. "Activate the cards around this apartment." He ordered and a blast of gold light emanated around him. When it dissipated he saw the cards were blank, just as his blue eyes had been a few days before, although the image had returned at some point, likely as soon as he returned Sarah to her body. He also noticed that he felt drained, as if he had just run several miles, and took a deep breath as he stored that information away. Clearly, magic had a price, and it appeared to be his energy. Having seen multiple shadow duels he wasn't surprised by that at all and tucked the blank cards and the millennium item away, sure that the two trap cards and the spell card he had activated would be enough to at least slow down anything that came after her here. It would certainly give him time to do something about whatever it was.

Leaving her apartment he stopped long enough to activate her alarm system and lock the door securely before heading back down to his car. He was home less than fifteen minutes later and walked inside, wanting nothing more than to take a shower and get something to eat. Ignoring Ando as he walked inside he simply headed up to the family wing. No sooner had he turned into the hall than he heard something bang and frowned, moving faster. As he went he heard more noise and was surprised when he realized it was coming from his bedroom. The door was ajar, which was unusual as he always had it shut, and he shoved it open.

It took him several seconds to process what he was seeing. His room, which was always pristinely clean and meticulously organized, as it irritated him beyond reckoning when things were not in order, was completely turned over. His mattress had been dragged off the bed frame, his sheets balled up and tossed in a corner, his clothes thrown everywhere with some still on their hangers, his drawers emptied, and his small personal safe had been dragged out of his walk in closet, opened, and tipped over in the middle of the floor. In the center of the chaos Mokuba was standing near the far wall and ripping a painting off of it, looking behind the frame of it. "What are you doing?" He demanded, outraged.

Mokuba tossed the expensive oil painting away and the corner of the frame hit the floor and splintered badly. Fully ignoring him his brother went to his bedside table and proceeded to yank the top drawer out and flip it over, spilling the contents all over the floor around his feet. Mokuba kicked a small tablet to the side without concern for how delicate it was and dropped the drawer carelessly, grabbing the next one out of the frame and dumping it as well. "Mokuba!" He yelled.

His brother's head whipped around and he was taken aback by the fury he saw in his normally kind grey eyes. This was not a person about to back down about anything. "Where is it, Seto?"

"Where is what? What are you doing?" He demanded as his temper flared at not only the destruction, but the blatant invasion of privacy.

Mokuba hurled the drawer down in rage. "Do not play stupid with me!" His brother snarled, turning on him. "Where's the millennium rod? And what the hell are you doing with it?" He watched Mokuba, saying nothing. At his stony silence Mokuba's ire only increased. "You of all people…" He stopped, seemingly to rein himself back in before he lost all control. "How long have you had it?"

He was silent for a long time. "Since Egypt." He said at last.

"You've had that thing for this long?" Mokuba demanded. "You brought it here? You brought that cursed thing with us? What are you thinking?" Mokuba was all out yelling now. "You know how dangerous the millennium items are even to the people using them, especially to the people using them! You saw what it did to Marik! It nearly destroyed him!"

Reaching behind him he slammed the door closed, not needing any of his household staff to overhear this conversation. "Another one of the items was stolen from the temple. Yugi's puzzle is all but useless with the pharaoh dead. What should I have done?" He asked him. "How can I possibly protect you without-"

"The way you protected me three days ago?" Mokuba demanded. "As I recall I protected myself! Those things have rules! You know it as well as I do, so don't pretend otherwise! You don't need an item to stop someone with one! You just need to be able to beat them! You've done it before and never needed that horrible thing!"

"It's not that simple." He stated, because it wasn't and it never had been. "The magic is-"

"Magic?" Mokuba snapped. "You're going to talk to me about magic? As I recall you've made it abundantly clear over and over that magic doesn't exist, despite every evidence to the contrary!" He pressed his lips together in frustration and Mokuba kept on, seeing the opening and taking it as ruthlessly as he ever had. "So what was it?" He demanded. "What shattered your obstinate denial? Because I can name at least two dozen different times that you should have accepted it off the top of my head since Yugi beat you in that first duel, including when we were both trapped in the shadow realm by Pegasus!" He said nothing, silently seething at the well placed attack, but also knowing he deserved it. Mokuba's eyes glinted knowingly. "It was Sarah wasn't it?"

"It's a complicated situation-"

"How long have you known about her?" Mokuba snapped. When he did nothing but stand there his brother raised his voice again, shouting at him in frustrated rage. "How long, Seto?"

"I knew as soon as I saw her." He responded roughly, wondering how he had ended up on the wrong side of this argument. He also knew there would be no lying about this to Mokuba. His brother was going to find out one way or another, and he could always tell when he was being dishonest. He was also sure, given how angry he was, that Mokuba would go to Sarah if he didn't come clean. "I knew the moment she looked at me."

Mokuba stared at him with cold, angry eyes, and it took most of his willpower not to break eye contact. He wasn't used to feeling uncomfortable with anyone, especially his brother. He certainly wasn't used to feeling in the wrong. "She's been possessed by your blue eyes for over a year and you haven't done anything to help her? She's your best friend! What is the matter with you?"

Reaching up he ran his hand through his hair in agitation, seeing at least part of the reason his brother was so angry. He thought he was letting her suffer as so many had before this world was separated from the shadow realm. Clearly, he had been spending far too much time at Motou's game shop if he knew about this. "Mokuba, she-"

"You can't leave her like that because of your obsession with that dragon! She's more important that your blue eyes! Send it back to the shadow realm where it belongs!" Mokuba yelled. "No one deserves to live like-"

"She is the dragon!" He yelled back, overriding him. "There's nothing controlling her, she isn't possessed! It's what she is! Sarah is the living embodiment of the blue eyes white dragon! That's why she looks the way she does!"

"That's impossible! Atem locked them all away-"

He was completely over the unreasonable belief everyone seemed to have the Atem was infallible and all powerful. That had never been the case, he had always had help one way or another. If it wasn't Yugi or one of the mindless idiots it had been him in his last life, or one of the five other wielders of the millennium items that helped keep him alive and in power. Oh, Atem had made sacrifices, but so had he, and so had everyone else. He wasn't the only one that had suffered to save this world. He wasn't the only one to lose everything. "She has always been more powerful than the damn pharaoh! She created herself this way to get around his magic!" He shouted. "The only way to get her back to the shadow realm now is to kill her! It's always been the only way! Is that what you want me to do, Mokuba? Murder her?"

"You're lying." Mokuba snapped.

"No." He denied vehemently. "Not about this, not about her."

Mokuba must have seen the truth in that statement, because he saw rapids thoughts flying over his face. "She lied to me?" He asked, his voice dropping to a normal level.

"No, she never lied." He told him, seeing the look of betrayal on his brother's face, seeing the devastation. He didn't want his brother to think that Sarah had kept anything from him, that she had turned on him, or didn't trust him, because that was far from the truth. Sarah loved Mokuba dearly, surely as much as he did. For lifetimes she had been denied a family that loved her, and when she had been offered that chance with him, the silent almost grudging invitation that it was, she had latched onto it at once, clinging to both of them with near reckless abandon. She had risked her life more than once for both of them now, following them into danger without hesitation. He was sure to his bones that she would never lie to Mokuba on purpose. "Sarah doesn't know what she is. She doesn't have any memory of her last life, or her life before she was human. This life is all she knows."

"Her last life?" Mokuba repeated. "She's been a human before?"

"Once." He agreed. "Although I don't know how she managed it either time, she never should have been able to do it, but she's always been clever and better at magic then all of us combined." He shook his head, his eyes straying to the top of his dresser, which he stepped over to. Knocked over on top were the only two pictures he had of anyone. Thankfully, they hadn't been harmed while Mokuba ransacked his room, only fallen to their sides over the smooth wood. One was over a decade old now, and his most cherished possession. Picking it up he set it to rights as a much younger version of himself and a very tiny Mokuba were sitting on either side of a chessboard dressed in ill fitting hand-me-down clothes. It had been one of the few happy memories he had of his childhood, those few brief hours teaching Mokuba to play chess at the orphanage, although really teaching a five year old that game was never going to work out no matter how much fun they had. It was simply too complicated for him.

Next to it in a smaller frame was an image Sarah had snapped with her phone of the three of them several months ago, the night before she moved into her new apartment. She had caught him utterly off guard with it, taking the picture before he knew she had her phone out. They had all been in the family room watching a movie, some foolish thing full of explosions with no plot at all that Mokuba had insisted they watch. He had been lounging back on the couch, tired from his trip and wondering how anyone made money on these things as Mokuba sat eating a vat of popcorn beside him. Sarah had thrown herself down on the couch sideways so she was fully facing the camera and he and Mokuba were facing forward, jamming her back into his shoulder as she did. He had grunted in surprise and looked over just in time to see the flash of her phone going off. He had rolled his eyes indulgently at her as she giggled in delight at sneaking a picture. She had texted him the image the next day after she moved, with a short thank you for letting her stay below it. Despite his general disinterest in being photographed he had taken an immediate shine to the image. It was utterly ridiculous, with him surprised, her at an awkward angle, and Mokuba's mouth full of popcorn, but it was also charming in it's own way, showing a side of his life he shared with few people. He had printed the image off and set it next to the other, thinking, he supposed, that he had never anticipated adding anyone else to their small family.

"And she doesn't remember any of it?" Mokuba asked, watching him staring at the picture, lost in his own thoughts.

He was quiet for a long time. "No, I don't think she does." He told him. "But she might soon. She remembered for awhile at the hospital, but it's gone again, at least I thought it was." He set the picture upright. "But she's started speaking Egyptian again this morning, which she shouldn't know unless she's accessed the old part of herself. She hasn't realized that either, she thinks she's speaking English when she switches over. I'm not sure what did that, if it was the shadow realm, or her soul escaping, or the drugs. It could well be all three that shook it out."

"Egyptian." Mokuba stated, having sussed enough information out of Yugi and the mutt to know he had been reincarnated, although he had point blank refused to ever discuss it. "You knew her before. How?"

Turning away from the images he sent an irritated glance around the room. "You realize I'm going to have to get all my shirts pressed again. I have to go into the office in the morning."

"Seto." Mokuba insisted impatiently.

He sighed tiredly, knowing that was a poor way to avoid the subject. "We were thrown together for a time." He told Mokuba evasively. "My past self thought she was possessed by a monster and wanted to free her, but worked out fairly quickly that she was something else altogether. A few weeks later she was gone."

"That's it? You just happened to meet up?" He asked sarcastically. "There's no way that's the whole story. Try again."

He felt weariness settle over him as he confessed. "Two days before she was murdered we married. No one knew but the two of us and the gods I suppose, not even Atem, although we were close in that life." He refused to say they were friends, and cousins. Perhaps they had been, but he felt more strongly that he had done his duty toward the man that had been his king rather than his friend. Duty had bound him in his last life as much as this one. And no matter what life he found himself in he supposed he had never been overly fond of people in general, keeping to himself when the option was presented. "I performed the ceremony myself in secret. It was reckless of me because we were both in very real danger. I was almost certain I wouldn't survive what was coming, and I had hoped Atem would grant her my household if I died, for all she was a peasant. It would have kept her secure, and given her status she desperately needed to have a good life in that time." He felt the old grief stabbing at him like a knife as Mokuba stared at him with dumbfounded shock as he forced himself to finish the small, sad tale. "But it all went wrong and I let her die. I was foolish and reckless, and she ended up paying for it. I never remarried, although I lived well into my sixties. I couldn't bring myself to let her go." He looked away, back at the picture, forcing the last of it out. "I loved her too much."

"She died? That's how you got the blue eyes?" Mokuba's rage had gone, blown away by the empathy that defined him. Clearly his brother had not been expecting that sort of information at all.

"Yes." He agreed quietly. "She stayed with me, her soul did until I died, even though it meant she would be trapped in the shadow realm or under my direct control when I could call her back."

"Why haven't you told her?" Mokuba asked, exasperated. "If she meant, if she means, that much to you. You obviously feel the same way now."

"She doesn't owe me anything, Mokuba." He said quietly. "She gave me too much already." He felt helpless then, and defeated, and he wasn't used to feeling those things. "I didn't want to burden her. I wanted her to have a life this time, a good one where she could be free and happy. She was barely seventeen when she was killed last time. She died saving me and spent years at my beck and call after that. I won't repay her with an obligation that died when she did."

"I'm not so sure that's true." Mokuba told him. "During the duel that man said you were calling her to you. I don't think you could have done that if she didn't want you to, not really, even if it hurt her."

"Hurt her?" He asked sharply, turning his attention back to his brother.

Mokuba looked haunted. "She kept passing out when we were dueling." He grimaced. "She must have been going to you in the arena I guess. It hurt her."

"Hurt her how?" He asked, not understanding.

"Seto, you were pulling her soul out of her body to get her to you." He stilled all over, having not considered that it would do anything other than have her consciousness leaving her, which left her body exposed, but he never thought it would hurt her in any sort of physical way. "She was screaming." Mokuba shook his head, saying nothing else, but clearly not saying too much. He drew back into himself as disgust rolled through him at having hurt her, no matter if it was unintentional, no matter that he had no idea that she had been in the shadow realm, which allowed him to do that to begin with. After a long moment Mokuba went on, his face filling with guilt. "I didn't know what was wrong with her. I didn't understand what was happening." He said. "Or I never would have played the card. I was trying to save her, but I must have hurt her too."

He was confused. "Played the card?"

Reaching into his pocket he slowly pulled out a monster card. "He was about to win. He knew my deck and he was ready for me." Mokuba said, flicking it nervously so all he could see was the back. "And then she told me to draw before she passed out again." Mokuba held the card up and he sucked in a sharp breath when he saw a blue eyes on it. "I summoned her. I don't know how I got this, it appeared in my deck the same way Critias appeared in yours, and I played it." He had no idea what to think about that. He had always been the only one that was able to summon the blue eyes, but clearly that wasn't true anymore. He was very sure all three cards were in his deck and this was a new one, he had checked while she was in the hospital and his brother was asleep in the chair, watching the cards as he feared they might well go blank again if she died. An unexpected wave of jealousy hit him out of nowhere, and despite all the love he had for his brother, and his very real devotion, he was almost beside himself over what he was seeing. Sarah was his, only his, she always had been, and seeing another duelist with her card was deeply, cuttingly, painful even if it was Mokuba. Still, if what Mokuba said was true she may well have saved both of them by allowing him to summon her, and he knew she had to have allowed it. In the shadow realm she was far too powerful to be summoned without her consent, even by the most powerful magic users, and Mokuba was not born with an inherent predisposition for magic. Mokuba went on as he beat the resentment back, restraining himself from moving forward and taking the card from him. It had been Sarah's choice to allow Mokuba to call her and he couldn't in good conscious take the card and negate her decision. "But it was a trap. I should have seen it. He was waiting for me to summon her."

"How do you know that?" He asked, focusing on that rather than his tumult emotions. "How could he know you would be able to do that?"

"He wasn't interested in dueling me at all until she told me to run. Then he asked her if she'd attached herself to both of us, or something like that. Then he wanted to duel." Mokuba was clearly angry with himself. "And the whole time he was telling her to watch, or trying to get her attention on me. It was a set up. He was provoking her on purpose."

He turned that over, analyzing. Clearly, he had been waiting to get her with the dragon capture jar, but he wasn't convinced that it had been his original plan. Certainly he hadn't intended on Mokuba being there if he was surprised that Sarah would help him. Something wasn't adding up all the way, especially when he took the coffee into consideration. Truly, she never should have had that. Sarah had been right that it was meant for him, there was no explanation other than chance that she drank it. "It's not your fault." He told Mokuba, meaning that sincerely. "It's mine. I should have been more careful with both of you."

His brother shook his head, clearly disagreeing, but changed the subject as he slipped the card back in his pocket. "What are you going to tell her?"

"Nothing." He told his brother.

"Seto!" Mokuba all but growled. "She needs to know!"

"All she needs is to rest." He told his brother, looking about and trying to decide where to start with this mess, or if he should just have the housekeeping deal with it. "She's happy as she is. Leave it alone, Mokuba, promise me."

"You want me to lie to her too?" His brother asked angrily.

"It's not a lie." He told him. "Sarah is still Sarah. Her life here is real. Her relationships with us are real. None of that is a lie."

"It's not the truth either." Mokuba pointed out, crossing his arms stubbornly. "And you know that."

"It's not a blessing or a gift to have memories of your past life, Mokuba." He told him. "It's a painful experience." He knew that well. "I'm trying to make her life easier, not harder."

"And what if she remembers on her own?" Mokuba demanded.

"Then she'll understand why I didn't tell her." He replied, knowing it was true. "If she's going to remember then she will, there's nothing I can do about that, although I would if I could. I won't pretend that I wouldn't keep it from her if I could. I've been trying since she showed up here."

"This is going to blow up in your face, Seto." Mokuba told him flatly. "You're lying to her, flat out to her face. Do you really think any version of her is going to be okay with that? Because I know her right now and I have to tell you it absolutely will not be taken well by even the most optimistic of standards."

"True." He agreed, seeing no way around that if she did discover the truth about herself. Glancing down he decided to take care of the mess himself and picked up a few of his shirts, irritated he was going to have to get someone in here to iron them again. It meant he would not have his own space for at least a few more minutes and he very much needed a break from everything.

As he began to hang them back up Mokuba flailed his arms a little. "And that's just an acceptable outcome for you?"

"Yes." He agreed as he came back out of the closet.

"What kind of relationship is that?" His brother demanded. "Where you go around lying to your girlfriend about fundamental life events?"

He paused with a shirt in his hand. "How did you know we were dating?"

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Wow."

"We were being discrete." He replied, irritated at being caught out when he has specifically been trying to keep this quiet to protect her reputation. Not that he was in any way ashamed of her, he was in fact extremely pleased with himself, but that didn't take away from the reality of what it would look like to the rest of the world.

Mokuba gazed at him as if were some sort of pathetic idiot. "If by being discreet you mean you kept looking at her with big love me eyes and sneaking off with her when she was here, then yeah, okay, you were being discrete."

He was indignant. "I do not have-" He wrinkled his nose in disgust, "-big love me eyes."

"Please." Mokuba huffed. "You've been pining after her since she came to Japan. You do everything together, she's literally the only person you ever want to be near other than me, she makes you laugh, you actually do what she tells you to, you keep touching her whenever you can like no one else notices, you had a total aneurysm at the hospital and when Pegasus got her, and I definitely walked past the library the other day when you were both in there and you left the door open, so thanks for that mentally scarring image. I'll need therapy for that for sure." He actually felt his composure break at that, utterly derailed, because he remembered very well what they had done in the library and that wasn't something anyone else was meant to see. Not that Mokuba could have seen anything fully inappropriate, but at one point Sarah had certainly had both her legs wrapped around his waist as he used the wall to hold her up so he could press up against her as he kissed her senseless.

If Mokuba had seen that he probably couldn't lie about it at this point. How irksome. "Fine, she's my girlfriend."

"Don't sound so pleased." Mokuba deadpanned. He rolled his eyes and went back to picking his shirts up. "When this all explodes I will one hundred percent tell you I told you so."

"I've been warned." He agreed without worry.

When he came back out of his closet again he saw Mokuba had put the mattress back on the bed and was sitting on it, clearly thinking. "So now what?" He asked, fully unapologetic of the mess he had made. "Whoever that was he's going to come back."

"I think you ruined whatever plan he originally had." He told his brother, going to the drawers of his dresser and pushing them back in, pleased that they were once again on the same side. "He must have thought she would be on her own, or that eventually I would get there." He glanced over at him. "You did well against him. I know how hard shadow duels are. Most people would have died before it was over." Mokuba raised an eyebrow at the praise, as he wasn't one to dole it out often. "But don't do that again." He finished.

Mokuba made no such commitment to reassure him. "Fine, I ruined his plan, but what now?"

He considered that seriously, having been turning over that very question for days now. "I need to draw him out. If I don't he'll plan something else and he'll make fewer mistakes. It was close last time, dangerously so. I can't let him have that advantage again."

Mokuba appeared to agree. "He didn't know you had a millennium item." He told him. "He kept saying that you used to have magic. He was convinced you didn't anymore. He'll know now though." He shook his head. "I don't like you having that, Seto. What if it does to you what it did to Marik? It nearly killed him."

"Marik never should have touched it." He replied. "He wasn't meant to use it, it was made for my past self specifically. I'm not saying it isn't dangerous, but it won't react to me that way."

His brother looked less than convinced, but for the moment let it go. "It isn't just the three of us he's after." Mokuba pointed out. "Otherwise not everyone would have been kidnapped and brought to Egypt, it would have just been us, assuming he was the one that did that."

"I'm sure he was." He said, sensing Mokuba had a solution. "What are you thinking?"

"If you want to draw him out you'll have to make it worth the risk. He's clearly patient as it's been months since that happened." Mokuba said. "Give him a target rich environment. Maybe one or three of us aren't enough, but if all of us he wanted are potentially in the same place at the same time he might risk it." He shook his head, his shaggy hair swaying. "I can't believe I said that. It would put everyone in danger."

"They already are in danger." He pointed out, thinking Mokuba was very right about that. "But it's a good idea. How convenient that we're about to roll out the new duel disk system."

"A tournament." Mokuba said, knowing what he was thinking and nodding in agreement. "It's a good plan. It would get everyone here either participating or cheering the duelist's on. To everyone else it would look like the next step in a logical marketing campaign before a worldwide release. I'm sure we could work it out as an international ranking tournament without any trouble. It would bring in the best of the best. I don't think it would take much to sway the mayor to allow Domino to host again either. The city made a ton of money during duelist kingdom with all the visitors and publicity."

As much as he wanted this taken care of as soon as possible he knew he needed to do it properly. He would need to bide his time and be patient. "It's going to take some time to organize and have enough of the new duel disks ready for a large tournament." He made some quick calculations. "Let's say six weeks from now, maybe eight. We need to make it look natural, not rushed, like this was always the next part of the release. We'll need a good pitch for it prior, and enough time for duelists to enter and make arrangements to get here. I also want to be sure we can broadcast duels live, which is tricky to orchestrate, but it'll make it a better experience for the audience. Getting the up to date information from the duel disks was good before, but seeing the duelists in action is exponentially better. It makes it more visceral for the audience."

"How many duelists do you think?" Mokuba asked. "It'll be hard to cut down with so many newcomers on the scene, and we have no idea how experienced this guy is in normal dueling circles. He really could be anyone. We need to be sure he can enter."

He considered that seriously. "We can personally invite the top fifty in the world." He reasoned. "And allow fifty more open spots for others. I'll figure out the entry criteria for them tomorrow. We'll need a system of some sort."

"I want to be the one running it if you're entering, which I know you are. You'll need to be focused on dueling, not anything else."

He flicked his fingers, thinking that was a given. "Of course."

Mokuba tapped his foot, still thinking. "And we need to warn Yugi at the very least." He opened his mouth and his brother raised his hand to stop him. "He needs to know the man will be there. If you don't want to mention we've already encountered him that's fine, but he needs to know."

"Very well." He agreed grudgingly. "Do what you want. I suppose at least Motou can keep his mouth shut when he needs to."

"Right." Mokuba replied, not bothering to argue him where Yugi was concerned. "I'll get started after school tomorrow." He told him, standing up. "We'll need to decide on rules and what system we're going to use to knock people out of the tournament. It can't be the same as last time or it'll be boring. Can I steal your marketing team in the evening?"

He raised an eyebrow with interest as Mokuba simply stepped into this full force, asking for permission, but expecting to be told yes. He was acting the way he would expect from a vice president, and he approved. "You know who they are. Do what you need to do. I'll approve any overtime you need."

"Good." Mokuba agreed, heading toward the door. "So I take it Sarah is home?"

"She is. She's sleeping." He told him.

"Is she alright?"

He certainly didn't think so. "She's still having some trouble with her memory, and two of her ribs are broken, but she seemed stable when I left."

Mokuba's face went stormy again. "Will hurting her get her to-" He searched for the right word. "-transform?"

"Not necessarily." He told him. "Although I'm sure it has in the past. She used to be able to do it at will. She's not as skilled as she used to be."

His brother turned that over. "She wanted to kill me in the shadow realm."

He flinched at that. "She didn't recognize you, or me for that matter, when she was the dragon. She's never been overly compliant with people." He thought that was a massive understatement.

"Then why did she listen to you?" He asked. "If she didn't remember you why would she?"

"She saw my magic." He told him. "And then I used it to get her under control." He regretted he'd had to resort to that, but there was little else for him to do. He couldn't let her kill them.

"Lights." Mokuba muttered quietly under his breath as comprehension lit through him.

"What?"

His brother shook his head hard. "She said in Egypt she kept seeing lights when we were with the Ishtar's." He frowned, not understanding. "And that she saw lights on you and Yugi, and then the night the alarm went off." His brother met his eyes. "Can she see magic all the time?"

He frowned in irritation at Sarah going to Mokuba about that instead of him. "I don't know. She never mentioned that to me."

"I think it's a bit hypocritical of you to be annoyed about that when you haven't mentioned to her any of the things you should be mentioning." Mokuba pointed out dryly. "And you aren't exactly the most open minded person about weird things. She told me she thought you would think she was crazy, and to be fair she thought she was going crazy too. I've never seen her nervous like that." Mokuba shrugged. "But I'd be nervous too if the shadow realm kept trying to yank me back into it."

"What?" He demanded a second time.

"She told me the shadows were trying to take her somewhere." Mokuba informed him. "That's all she said, so if you want more information you're going to have to ask her about it. I refuse to be a go between in this stupid scheme you have in your head about her." Mokuba was clearly very put off by that. "And I won't tell her outright about any of this, but if she asks me I'm not going to lie to her about it. That's not right. It's not right that I'm not telling her in the first place."

He knew he wouldn't get much more than that from Mokuba, who was too innocent and trustworthy for his own good, but he would take it. And at least he had warned him about it. "Fine." He agreed.

Shaking his head Mokuba opened the door and walked out, heading to his own room and shutting himself in. Closing his own door he stood there, contemplating what he had learned as a different part of his mind started to quickly and efficiently create new dueling rules for the tournament. He would let Mokuba deal with what to call it if he was set on organizing it himself. It was one less thing he needed to take care of, and it would allow him more time to plot his own attack. While he certainly wasn't one to sit back and allow what he loved to be harmed and threatened he did understand the value of a well thought out and strategic counter attack. And unlike his opponent he wasn't about to have his plan spoiled. Once he sprung it there would be no escape and no mercy. He would destroy this man and all the danger he represented. So, steeling himself to be as ruthless as Gozaburo had taught him to be, he began to put his things away, thinking it would be in everyone's best interest if he went back to Sarah's before she woke up to remove the spells he had set up to protect her. If she could see magic he had no doubt they would frighten her if she woke up before he got there and removed them. Clearly, she was just going to have to stay here for a few days until he was sure she was stable enough to protect herself. But, after this was all said and done she would be safe. He would need to make sure of it. This time there would be no mistakes, no reckless idiocy, no failure. He couldn't allow it. He wouldn't let her die again.