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.

29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Creeping Normality

Laying out over the dirty floor of the subway she stared up into navy eyes as she fought to get air back into her lungs. He stared back at her silently, his fingers still wrapped firmly around her wrist and his breathing heavy, as she managed to force her lungs open and draw in a ragged breath. Her adrenaline was so high she was noticeably shaking, and for the moment she was far more concerned about the shadows than whoever it was holding onto her, although really, at this point, it was a coin toss as to which was scaring her more. With one clearly trying to kill her and the other having taken over the body of her lover, she was torn between fear and horror. Twisting to her side she looked behind herself frantically and saw only the back of the train car. It looked as if nothing had ever happened, as if it hadn't simply stopped existing a few moments ago, but the raw scratches on her ankle, and the pain in her chest where she'd been slammed into the ground told her there was no denying that had happened. There was no way that she had hallucinated any of that. As she scrambled to get her feet under her, the thin rubber soles of her flats squeaking loudly against the metal floor, the train slowed to a halt. A comfortingly familiar ding filled the compartment, indicating they had arrived at the next station, and she simply bolted for the exit, ripping out of his grasp, as terror crashed through her.

"Sarah, stop!" Seto's double snapped near to frantically behind her.

Completely ignoring this, even though she had never heard his tone come close to panic-stricken, and wanting nothing more than to put space between them, she shoved her hands between the small crack in the door, where it had been opening at a normal speed, and shoved them open faster. Seeing an exit from this horror in front of her she was literally tumbling out of the doors when she was caught around the waist and yanked backward roughly. She let out a shout of protest, that quickly turned into a choked cry of fear as another tendril of darkness lanced in after her retreat, having clearly been waiting for one or both of them to try to exit. Another blast of golden light went off and the doors slammed closed as Seto twisted himself around so he was holding her as far from the doorway as he could, keeping his body between her and it in an effort to shield her as he held the rod out toward the exit. A wave of muted light went off around the car and her eyes darted around at the odd spectacle as it wrapped around them, slipping under their feet and over their heads like quick moving silk before dulling so much she could barely see it. Further frightened by the odd shimmer, which she was sure came from Seto, she jerked away from him and scrambled toward the front of the train. It was the only place that the shadows hadn't yet come from, although she was sure it was no safer than anywhere else when part of the car had literally just stopped existing for a period of time.

Breathing heavily Seto's double lowered his arm, gripping the rod as it fell to his side. "Just calm dow-"

"Who are you?" She demanded, her voice sharpened by fear as she took in the obviously tired stranger before her.

He frowned, confused, even as he tried to catch his breath. "What?"

She was not calmed or convinced by the baffled response. "And what is that thing?" She pushed, pointing at the rod. "And what are those shadows?"

He watched her for a moment before speaking, clearly gathering his thoughts as he took in her near panic. "What do you mean who am I?" He asked at last. "You know very well who I am."

She watched him warily, still seeing the double, the person standing inside him. "No. I don't." She had no idea how to articulate this. "You're the other one." She managed. "The one I keep seeing standing inside Seto. Where is Seto?"

He pressed his lips together for a moment. "There's only me, Sarah."

"There's not." Her tone was firm and convicted. Even now she could see the difference, she could see the age in this one's eyes that simply didn't exist yet in Seto. He was far too young to have an old man's eyes.

"There's only me." He repeated. Rolling his shoulders slightly he blinked, and all at once he was back, replacing the stranger. She twitched noticeably at the abrupt shift. "It's my magic you're seeing. It's what it takes for me to use it. It makes me look different to you."

The was a pronounced silence as her mind stumbled over the words, understanding, but hardly believing. "Your magic." She repeated. "There is no such thing as magic."

"I sincerely wish that were true." He replied, sounding honestly aggravated. "But I assure you there is."

"That's impossible." She stated, trying to calm herself down, but having a very difficult time with it. She thought, in general, she handled most situations fairly well, but this was a bit much. And even if she had briefly thought there were some sort of ghosts in his house, she wasn't sure she had ever really believed that there was magic involved in it.

He made a motion all around them. "Then what would your alternative explanation to any of that be? I promise I've been after one for years." When she sent him a skittish look he continued. "And you aren't insane before you ask."

Her eyes flicked down to the rod again before coming back up to his face. "What is going on?" She demanded. He opened his mouth and she sensed exactly what was going to happen by the calculated glint in his eyes. "Don't you dare try to lie to me, Seto Kaiba, or so help me I will have a real fit. And we both know I can tell when you lie."

"That's an irritating talent." He remarked. She said nothing, only eyed him up and down, and he let out a low huff of frustration. "The short version is that there is a very dangerous person in this city that seems to be very intent on collecting our souls. I hosted this tournament to try to draw him out so I can stop him before he manages." She stared at him silently for several long moments. She had no response to that at all. She had no idea how to even begin forming a reasonable reply to that statement. After a significant wait time, where it became clear she wasn't going to speak, he went on. "The shadows you keep seeing are, as best as I can guess, a physical manifestation of creatures that come from a different plane of existence. It's possible to access that place if you have a predisposition to magic and something to help you focus that ability." He indicated the item in his hand. "Something like the rod that I'm holding. The man that's after us has an item that's very similar."

Her eyes flicked to the nearest window, wondering if those things were still out there waiting, before coming back to him. Her mind was rolling information over at an alarmingly fast rate. "That thing was in your bedroom."

"Yes." He agreed. "It's mine."

She backed up another step, now having nowhere else to retreat to get any farther away from him and having shivers of betrayal tickling down her spine coldly. "Why would you send those things after me?"

"I didn't." He replied unhappily, and she saw him noting her distrust with real upset. "That wasn't supposed to happen. These items… they have power and react in ways they shouldn't on occasion, especially in unusual situations. I didn't think anything would happen, but I suppose that was foolish of me."

"Unusual situations?" She repeated. "What about that night was unusual?" He said nothing and she pushed, sensing he was trying to avoid something important. "I wasn't doing anything." She told him, now fully aware he knew what had happened that night, although she was still baffled. "I was just walking down the hall." He was stone-faced and silent, and her belly began to roll with anxiety. "Answer me!"

"If anyone else had walked by it wouldn't have been any different than any other day." He told her. "But it was you. It reacted to you being there."

"What?" She didn't understand. "Why would that thing react to me?

He shifted uncomfortably. "You're different than other people."

She took that in. "Are you trying to tell me that I have magic too?" She asked him, flabbergasted. "Because there's no way that I could ever-"

"You don't have magic, you are magic." He interrupted. "You are inherently different than someone born with the ability to access magic that already exists. You create magic, you are…" He searched for a good term. "A manifestation of it."

"I'm a person!" She snapped, fully distressed by his words, which made her sound like some sort of pagan god or something. "I'm not, I'm not magic!"

"Sarah-"

"No!" She overrode him. "That's ridiculous! I'm just a normal person-"

"You aren't!" He yelled, finally raising his voice. "You're not a normal person! You're different! You have power!" She shook her head hard and he went on, lowering his voice once she was quiet. "You had to have guessed there was something different about you." He went on. "No normal person can speak as many languages as you, and they certainly can't learn them at the rate you do. No normal person attracts magic the way you do. No normal person can see the things you can see. You had to have known that you were the one that set off all the lights in the mansion that night and destroyed my security system." She was quiet again, watching him with wide, silent eyes. It was true, she had suspected that, she had more than suspected it. The feeling of sickness had hit her as soon as it happened, just as it had at the ruins in Egypt and several other times when odd things had occurred. Odd things had been occurring on and off for years now, since she came here really, since she met him. "I know better than anyone that this is difficult to accept-"

Before he could finish the car dinged pleasantly again and the doors slid open. They both turned their attention toward it and he narrowed his eyes, gripping the rod in his hand. The shadows didn't attack again, but she wasn't convinced there was nothing out there waiting for them, even if she could see the terminal standing invitingly before them. Still, there was one notable and disturbing detail missing. "Where are all the people?" She asked warily.

"That's not a train station." He told her, staring out at it with hard eyes. "It's just been made to look like one."

"What?" She asked as she edged back toward him, somewhat settled now that he was Seto again, even if all of this was insane and she had no idea what to think or even believe. Still, no matter what he was telling her it was clear he wasn't trying to upset her, or hurt her. Seto had never given her a reason for her to think he would harm her in any way, and that kept her beside him. Looking past him as she hovered behind his shoulder she studied everything intently. It only took her a few moments to see the lights glimmering in the corners. "Is it all made up of lights?" She asked, thinking if this was all real, and it seemed impossible that it wasn't with Seto saying it of all people, she should at least get confirmation on what it was she was experiencing as he seemed to have some insight. She supposed she could deal with actually thinking about this once they were, well, somewhere that actually existed.

His eyes flicked to her for a moment before turning forward. "I can't see the magic." He told her. "I can only feel it."

Her eyes widened in genuine wonder. "The lights are magic?"

"It's how you perceive it." He agreed. Reaching out she took his free hand in hers and he squeezed it even as he kept his eyes trained forward.

"I suppose thinking this train is going to take us somewhere else is a bit optimistic." She commented.

As if in reply the car dinged cheerfully again and Seto narrowed his eyes. "This is a trap."

She fully agreed. "Is there another way out of here?"

"No." He told her.

She squeezed his hand again and looked past him. "Can you stop this person if he's out there?"

"Stay close to me." He said in the way of an answer as he began to move forward with all the bold confidence he normally displayed. She stayed next to him, and he held onto her hand as much as she held onto his. As soon as they stepped onto the platform the train doors slammed shut and it began to pull away at an unnaturally fast pace. As the train vanished she turned her attention forward again, unsure of what their actual destination was at this point. While they could clearly see the exit from where they were she could also see lights dancing over it, looking a bit like a sparkling pane of glass one would place over a photograph in a frame. Seto didn't seem to notice this and was headed that way with what, from her perspective, looked like cool confidence. She wasn't fully convinced he was feeling that way at all despite the show. As they got closer she stopped, tugging him to a halt beside her. He paused, looking over at her, and she shook her head a little as her eyes stayed trained on the doorway. His eyes flicked back to the spot before returning to her. "Which way then?"

She felt her eyes going wide in surprise at the calm question, mostly because it was fully clear that he was sure that she really was able to see what he couldn't. This was such an odd shift from the hyper-logical, a thought process that so defined him, that she was once again unsure if this really was Seto. Still, even with that hanging between them, the frightful uncertainty of whatever he hadn't had a chance or inclination to share with her, they had to escape. Turning her head she began to look about them, and it took her only a few seconds to work out that she couldn't actually see a space to wiggle out of. "It's like a bubble." She said at last. "What is this place? Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"Yes." Someone said behind them, and she whirled around as Seto narrowed his eyes, turning much more deliberately. "He has."

Much like the shadows, and the back of the car, two men had suddenly just materialized behind them in front of the tracks. One, she was disturbed to find, she recognized. It was the same man that she had injured over a year ago now, when she first met Mokuba, one of the men that had them imprisoned in Egypt. The other man might well have been one of the other suited men from that afternoon, but she couldn't be sure. Other than his eye the only real difference between them was the color of their ties. One had green and the other yellow. Seto raised an eyebrow. "I was told you had been taken care of." He remarked, having also recognized at least the one-eyed man. "But then, the Ishtars aren't really known for their reliability." One of the men smirked and she noted that both of them had dueling bands on their arms. Seto watched them with calculating eyes. "If you wanted me to beat you in a duel you could have simply asked."

"You are an arrogant bastard." The man with both eyes remarked.

"So I've been told." He said, his eyes flicking to her. "You shouldn't have involved her." He told them. "And you certainly shouldn't have brought us here."

"You aren't in a position to threaten us, Kaiba." The man replied said as the man she had injured stared at her hard.

Seto smirked. "Funny, I seem to recall you saying that to me before, and you were the one that ended up unconscious in a cell."

The man's gray eyes flashed. "If you want to get out of here it looks like you're going to have to beat us in a duel."

She was thrown into another bout of confusion. "Duel you?" She asked, thinking that there was clearly something she was missing and becoming increasingly agitated once again. "Seriously, it's a gaming tournament. If you wanted to battle all you had to do was ask. We're pretty much obligated to agree per the contractual agreement we all had to sign to enter, although I doubt either of you did." There was no doubt in her mind these men had two of the stolen duel disks. She made a motion around them. "What does that dueling have to do with any of this? It's only a game."

Her questions were ignored and the man went on as if she hadn't spoken. "This will be a two on two-"

"That's not even a thing." She interrupted, irritated by being so blatantly dismissed by these two flunkies. Her irritation was rapidly morphing into anger, which was replacing her flight response with a fight response. It probably helped that she was no longer frightened of Seto and was gaining confidence in him being here and that she had, for the moment, accepted that they were in some sort of magical world. "It says so right in the rules that those are prohibited. I translated that thing from front to back ten times."

"As I was saying-" The man started again.

"No one was asking you to say anything." She informed him, crossing her arms. "So shut up."

Seto appeared to agree, and she noted he was trying to stop his lip from twitching at her response. It was much more like him than anything else she had seen in the last ten minutes or so. "Let us out now. You're in enough trouble at this point. Don't make it worse."

"No one can leave until they win." The one-eyed man replied, adjusting his yellow tie. "Our employer made sure of that. This is a shadow game now."

She looked over at Seto in question. "A shadow game? I thought this was duel monsters. Is that a special set of rules or something?"

Seto said nothing, but she saw him glancing around as if he were waiting to see something, and she wondered what it was. After a moment he turned his attention back to their apparent opponents. "And I suppose your employer has decided to sit this one out?" He asked. "I would too if I were him. After all, Mokuba nearly killed him last time, forgiving person that he is, imagine what I'll do."

She frowned, knowing she was out of the loop. "We both know it was her power that let them escape." The one-eyed man replied. "Do you really think you're safe with her?" He made a motion toward her. "Give her to us and you can go."

"I thought no one was escaping?" Seto threw back before making a calm gesture toward her. "But if you think you can handle her, by all means, try something. I doubt you'll live more than five seconds all told. She won't take orders from you and no one has the power to make her do anything she doesn't want to do."

Wondering what Seto thought it was she could do she said nothing and tried to keep the confusion off her face. "She won't have a choice but to obey soon."

Seto made a dismissive noise even as her stomach bunched at that rather ominous pronouncement. "Is he really foolish enough to think he can?" Seto almost seemed amused. "I'd like to see him try, but one thing at a time." Seto activated his duel disk. The other men stepped away from each other so they would have room and activated their duel disks as well. After a quick look over at Seto, she flipped hers on after taking a few steps to the side, ending up in front of the man with the green tie. "It'll be alright, Sarah." He said calmly. "We can beat them. You need to stay focused."

"I've never played with another person as a partner." She pointed out, figuring these men already knew. "And what's a shadow game? Are there different rules?"

One of the men laughed cruelly. "You could say that." Her eyes darted over to him and he watched her with his one eye. "The stakes are certainly higher than the loss of a duel monster card at the end."

"Ignore him." Seto said grimly as the lights around them began to dim and a strange dark mist rolled out of the tunnel that had brought them here, filling the fake station in an oppressive atmosphere and bringing with it a terrible stench of putrefaction. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she fought down a gag and Seto spoke again, drawing her attention back to what was happening, back to him. She thought that all would have been fine, save for the fact that Seto was once again gone, replaced by the other man, the one he insisted was still him, the one with the ancient eyes. What was more, every few seconds she saw something white wrapping around him, some indistinct wave that appeared to be trying to create itself from nothing. "In a two on two battle, everyone plays before anyone can attack. Think carefully before you move. We have to play off each other." When all she did was stare at him, a strange heaviness settling inside her, he frowned. "Sarah?"

Slowly, she nodded her understanding, her gaze firmly on whatever it was about him, and Seto frowned, looking over his shoulder as he tried to see whatever it was she was staring at. Ignoring them, the man in front of her, green tie, played, and she briefly wondered what the stakes might actually be as he began to draw cards. "I'll lay a card face down, and play Man Eating Bug in attack mode." A man sized bug appeared on the field with a hiss.

"Now you." Seto instructed.

Drawing six cards she looked at them carefully. She hadn't made the best opening draw, but did her best considering she didn't have the right cards to go with her monster. "I'll lay two cards face down, and play the Petite Dragon in attack mode." As soon as the cards were down the heaviness intensified, and she felt shaky all over, which made no sense.

Yellow tie drew and appeared pleased with his hand. "I play Corroding Shark in attack mode and lay this card, face down." A shark that appeared to be rotting away as she watched began to swim about in tight circles through the air between them.

Seto drew and laid down cards quickly. He barely even thought about it. "I play La Jinn in attack mode, and activate the magic card La Jinn's Lamp!" The green genie appeared and hovered over his lamp in a haze of mist. "And I'll play one other card face down."

Looking over the first didn't hesitate either. "I'll sacrifice Man Eating Bug and summon Vampire Lord in attack mode." A caped and powerful looking pale figure appeared on the field. The monster smiled at her wickedly, reveling two pointed fangs. "Attack her dragon!" He ordered.

Having expected that, as she had the lowest level monster on the field and no trap cards to help her, she could only stand by and watch as her Petite Dragon was vanquished and a large chunk of her life points were knocked out in a single hit. However, no sooner did the monster explode then a sharp, intense pain hit her hard and she hissed, her shoulders hunching up in reaction. Shaking her head she regained her balance quickly as Seto watched her with sharp, enraged eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She agreed, sending him a questioning glance as sweat popped up along her back. She had been hurt worse before, much worse, but that had been very strange.

"It's your turn again." He said, trying to soothe her in his own way. She could hear it in his tone, although she doubt many other people would. "You need to guard your life points."

Shaking her head a little she drew another card and felt a bit better about what she got. Throwing the monster down quickly she spoke. "I'll play Mirage Dragon in attack mode!" She laid another card quickly, trying to even the odds as best she could. A ribbon like dragon with yellow plate armor hissed as it faded in and out of sight before her like a heat wave. "And then I'll activate Dragon's Gunfire! This card let's me deal eight hundred points of direct damage to my opponent as long as I have a dragon card on the field!" She threw her hand forward. "Hit the one with the vampire!"

The man's partner made a sharp motion, flipping his card. "You've activated my trap!"

A shield appeared in front of the vampire but the fireball blasted straight through it and slammed into the man with the green tie. He screamed in pain and she was taken aback as he began to beat out a small flame on his sleeve as his suit caught on fire. Seto smirked. "Mirage Dragon's special effect negates the use of trap cards. Well done, Sarah."

Instead of smiling, or feeling any sort of success, her eyes went wide. "I hurt him." She breathed. "How-"

"This is a shadow duel, you soulless thing." One of them snapped. "Of course you hurt him."

Stunned into silence she watched as the green tied man moved. "I'll play Black Pendant to increase my Corroded Shark's attack. And since your lamp prevents me from destroying your monster, I'll destroy Mirage Dragon!"

She flipped a card quickly as the shark lunged at her dragon. "I activate Draining Shield!" She yelled. The shark slammed into her shield and was hurled back as her life points jumped up by sixteen hundred, but then dropped by five hundred. The man cursed as she tried to work out what had just happened.

"That was foolish." Seto commented. "And slightly suicidal knowing she had two cards face down. Did you think you'd take out five hundred of her points with the pendant with no repercussions?" Realizing that his spell card must have had an after effect she glanced over as Seto continued. "I see your employer invests in muscle rather than brains. La Jinn, attack his life points directly." A ball of green light hit the man and he shouted as he took a huge hit. "But don't think you're safe yet. I'll also summon Vorse Raider in attack mode!" A terrifying warrior covered in bones and spikes appeared with a mad roar. "Hit him again!" The beast leapt forward and slashed him mercilessly with his two handed axe. The man screamed and staggered back, clutching at his right arm. He snarled at Seto, who stared at him with cold eyes. "Sadly, that ends my turn."

The next round began without pause. The man before her drew and then smiled cruelly. "I'll lay one card face down then I play Dark Hole!" A dark vortex appeared in the center of the playing field and a howling wind picked up. As she watched her dragon, and every other monster on the field was sucked up into it, removing them all from play. She pressed her lips together, irritated by that, but wasn't overly concerned until he flipped his face down card. "Then I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back my Vampire Lord!" The vampire rose up out of the ground, his fangs flashing, and the man pointed at Seto. "Attack him directly!"

She saw Seto brace himself as the creature flew forward, the rod gripped tightly in his hand, and a white cape suddenly materializing around him, wrapping him in insubstantial white and sapphire robes. Knowing he was about to be hurt, and badly, she panicked, willing with all her might that she could stop this. "No!" She screamed, and a wave of nausea hit her as her body went stiff all over. The sound of her shout was accompanied by twin flashes from their duel disks. Four balls of light flew out of them, one from hers and three from his, and smashed into the vampire. There was a screeching hiss as it hit the light and bounced backward. As the vampire slammed into the ground and broke apart in a strange wave of black bats the four lights erupted into a mass of white scales, wings, and fury. Simultaneously four enraged roars filled the station and she threw her hands over her ears as Seto stumbled back in sheer shock as four Blue Eyes White Dragons suddenly filled the small arena they had created.

She felt her chest contracting and her vision blurred badly as their opponents looked up at the dragon's with obvious fear. "But… there are only three!" One yelled, his voice full of panic.

"You don't have the power to summon-"

Seto cut him off as she fell to the ground, brought down by a wave of weakness as her perception ricocheted sickeningly and unexplainably between where she was and a place high above the two men. She was completely disoriented by the sight, as well as the waves or rage slamming though her. "White lightning attack! Destroy them! Now!" Four blasts of pure energy went off, slamming into everything in front of them and decimating it. Tiles from the ground and walls were blasted apart, the ceiling cracked, dropping blocks of concrete, and the edges of the track that had brought them here began to melt and warp. As the attack faded, with small lances of lightning sparking on exposed pipes and metal beams she saw the dragons fade away, still snarling and hissing as they wound about one another.

Speechless, and feeling as if she had just run a full marathon she panted harshly as her vision returned to normal. She could feel her sweaty clothes clinging to her skin as she tried to come back to herself. She felt disconnected, and overly full, as if she had slipped back inside her skin and it was much too small to possibly contain her. Before them the two men lay unconscious or dead in the rubble, she couldn't tell which as she gasped for breath. To her right, Seto was winded as well, but not nearly as much as she was. After several moments of trying to keep her her head up she gave up on the fight, and let it tip down. Her legs were crooked to either side of her body as she leaned forward to prop herself up with her arms, her hands flat against the ground as she pulled in ragged breaths. "Sarah?" Seto asked with worry as he hurried over to her, the cape gone.

"I'm fine." She managed to gasp out. "What… what happened? And why is it so hard to breathe?"

He crouched down beside her on one knee and rubbed her back reassuringly. "It takes energy to use magic and you just used more than I've ever seen."

She sucked air through her nose, really trying to make the lightheaded feeling go away, or prevent herself from vomiting, which was equally as likely with the way she was feeling. "You aren't as tired." She noted.

He pulled her up against him so he could take her weight, nicely ignoring that she was getting his clothes sweaty as well, really she was practically dripping as he cradled her. "I didn't just summon four of the most powerful monsters in the world." She panted up at him tiredly in question and he stroked her hair back off her damp forehead. "Shadow duels require you to use magic to call on all your cards. Monsters in particular draw on a great deal of energy. You summoned, and were powering, all the Blue Eyes on the field at once." He stared down at her. "I assume you got yours from Mokuba?" He asked without too much surprise in his voice.

"Yes." She agreed, having completely forgotten that had happened this morning with all her worry over the stocks. Mokuba had shocked her badly when he gave it to her, right before all the duelists came in to get their duel disks, but he had insisted she take it. She had tried to refuse, knowing very well what a rare card it was, and wondering how he had gotten it when Seto seemed so sure there were only three. But he had insisted so adamantly that she had reluctantly taken it, thinking it was far too much in the way of gifts, even if she intended to give it back to him after the tournament. Mokuba had seemed truly relieved, and when she asked him about it he only said it should be hers. She hadn't understood it, but he had left to monitor everything before she could ask anymore about it. "He told me I should take it right before the tournament started, but he wouldn't tell me where he got it. He just said it wasn't yours." She shook her head a little. "This is all super weird." She told him as she slumped into him, comforted more than a little by being pressed against him in the new, but increasingly familiar way. "You one hundred percent owe me a better explanation."

He kissed her forehead. "I know."

"And I'm fairly certain I'm angry at you for some part of this, I just haven't worked out which part yet, or if it's the whole thing." He huffed as she made a weak sort of motion toward the men. "What happened to them?"

He glanced over at them before putting his arm around her and pulling her to her feet, taking most of her weight as she slumped against him in exhaustion. "They won't bother us anymore. We need to go."

"Are they dead?" She asked him.

"No." He replied, glancing around. "This place should have vanished after the duel. There's no reason we should still be trapped here."

She sent another look toward them but decided to let it go for the moment, at least until they got out of here and she got some water, and possibly a nap. "At least the mist is gone. That was disgusting. I wish the smell would go away though."

He frowned as he looked down at her. "Smell? What smell?"

"It smells like something rotten." His frown deepened and her eyebrows drew together. "You don't smell that? It's horrible, like rotten potatoes or something."

"I don't smell anything." He answered as he adjusted the rod in his hand, although he looked a bit perplexed by the reference. She supposed he'd never smelled a rotten potato, as rice was the obvious go-to for the Japanese as far as carbs went, but it was certainly one of the worst smells she had ever encountered. "But I'd rather not have to worry about what that might be." He looked about them and was clearly trying to pick a direction when the ground below them began to shift. Seto backed them up quickly as they both looked down, and all at once a rotting hand shoved its way out between two tiles. Seto cursed and began to back them up quickly, with her managing to get her feet to move in the same direction. But no sooner did they start to back up than the strange magical bubble that surrounded them began to contract, meeting them a few feet from where they started and hemming them in.

She yelped as they met resistance and dug her feet into the ground hard in an effort to push back against whatever this was. For his part, Seto turned his attention forward as a decomposing head with a battered metal helmet emerged from the ground, being pulled up by the hand, which she could only assume was attached to a full skeletal body. Without hesitation, he pointed the rod forward and a blast of gold erupted from it, disintegrating the corpse. "I think that may have been what you were smelling." He said as he studied the now empty hole, and she really thought he was taking all of this in much too calmly. "Apparently this person decided to put a fail safe in place in the event his flunkies lost."

"Good job stopping it, however you just did that, but the wall is still pushing in." She told him, now shoving her shoulder against it, with apparently no effect as it was still inching forward. He was turning to take in the problem when another corpse erupted out of the ground ten feet away and he spat out a curse. Before the word fully left his lips dozens more began to break through the floor of the station, sending tiles and clumps of dirt flying in every direction. Seto's gaze swept over the increasingly small area, and she knew in an instant he couldn't stop all of them.

"Sarah, open a door!" He yelled over the sound of the zombie hoard as he tried to put himself between her and it.

"What door?" She cried frantically. "There is no door!"

"You can get us out!" He told her, his voice tightly controlled. "You have the ability to move between our world and the shadow realm!"

"How?" She demanded, having no idea how to even begin to do that.

"I don't know!"

"How is that helpful?" She cried.

"Concentrate!" He yelled, clearly losing his cool as he blasted another corpse that was crawling too close.

"On what, Seto?" She yelled back, her fear and frustration getting the better of her. The invisible wall was still pushing them forward, closer to the monsters, and eventually to the other side of the wall. She wasn't optimistic about the outcome of either of those things and her fear of small spaces, which this was rapidly becoming, was getting the better of her. "I have no idea what you want me to do! And what's the shadow realm?"

"The place we are now! Use your magic!"

"I don't know how!" She all but wailed, wanting nothing more than to help, but this was beyond her. She had no idea how she had made that light come out of her at the mansion, or how she had supposedly powered any of their monsters as he seemed to believe she had. "Tell me what to do and I will!"

Seto disintegrated a third corpse before whirling around. Catching her face abruptly he bent down and kissed her with a rough, feverish sort of passion. Pulling away, he looked straight into her eyes as he brushed her hair back. "I'm so sorry, Sarah." Before she could wonder what he meant he suddenly had the strange golden rod in front of her eyes. The eye embossed on the item began to pulse hypnotically and she felt her entire being going slack as her thoughts and feelings drifted away to nothing. "Open the gateway." He ordered.

White light exploded around them in a brilliant halation, blowing the ragged zombie army away and causing the circular prison they were in to begin to waver and buckle in crackling waves. Seto's eyes had gone wide as she stood motionlessly before him, thinking and feeling nothing, only responding to the irresistible command. As the world around them began to fracture, letting off loud cracks and sickening flashes, Seto tightened his hold on her, wariness filling his face. "Sarah?" Unmoved she continued her destruction, instinctively knowing there was only one way to fulfill his demand. "Sarah!" He yelled as the ceiling began to fall around them, missing them by a hairsbreadth. "This is going to kill us!"

She stared at him blankly, seeing the end of her toil in sight. "Where?" She asked, her voice flat.

"Where?" He repeated, trying not to flinch as a crack ripped open beside them, spilling cold nothingness next to them. He realized what she was asking a moment later. "My office!" He responded frantically.

Next to him, the white light intensified to such a degree that he turned his face away, trying to shield his eyes in an effort to avoid being blinded. Turning her own face toward the spot she noted she had found the weakness in the thin fabric holding the two worlds together. Directing her magic toward it fully had the rest of the bubble settling slightly while the crack widened further. Within a few moments it was large enough to slip through. "It's open." She told him on a gasp as her magic began to waver. She knew that she couldn't keep this up. Already, after only a few seconds, she felt her body beginning to shut down. "I can't hold it for long."

Seto didn't bother to reply. He simply grabbed her and threw them into the ring of light, squinting his eyes. They toppled out of the gateway against a bone chilling, invisible wind and out into nothing as if they were stones shot from a sling. Seto let out a shout as they flew forward and then they slammed down onto something hard, sending a jarring pain through her shoulder. The impact knocked her mind back into her control and she yelped as they slid across a smooth surface, knocking she didn't know what out of the way as they went. Less than a moment later they fell again, smacking into another hard surface in a tangled, painful heap before going still. Around them other things began to fall over them, mostly papers and pens, although Seto's office phone slammed into his thigh as well, missing her only because she had mostly ended up below him in the final tumble. Across the room she heard Mokuba shout out his brother's name as Roland cursed in shock.

Opening her heavy eyes as she struggled to breathe, which seemed far too hard, she found they were on one side of Seto's large office desk, having landed on it before falling to the carpet. The thick white fibers cushioned her cheek as she looked forward. Her eyes traveled along her arm, which was thrown out before her, and she briefly noticed six glowing lights along her duel band before an out of place fabric above a designer men's shoe caught her eye. Trying to focus on the odd crimson color, one that Seto didn't favor, her gaze traveled up until she saw blond hair and a familiar brown eye. Pegasus was sitting at his leisure in Seto's chair with a half empty glass of wine in his hand. He was gazing down at them with intrigued delight, with something gold glittering behind his curtain of hair. "Oh Bravo! What a marvelous entrance, Kaiba boy! I'm ever so impressed!"

"Get out of my chair, you son of a bitch." Seto snarled right before she passed out, her mind filled with visions of white scales whispering over the desert sands.

Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long. I contracted the plague from the little munchkins I work with and was out for the count for most of the week. Hope everyone is having a good week!