AN: Um... Hi, guys. I'm back. Sorry for the hiatus. Had almost no inspiration to write this. I'll try and give you quick updates to make up for it, but no promises.

After a few moments of quiet, Lisa looked at Kaiba.

"To address your claim that my pendant didn't work, that's your fault, not mine," she said levelly. "You were the one that chose not to wear the amulet. I told you not to take it off for the week. Your fracture and near-insanity is your fault. Not mine. If you keep wearing it, it should keep you from slipping into the psychic planes without willing it, and if you do for some reason slip there, you won't go past the second plane. Essentially, you'll be able to function as long as you keep it on."

For a moment, Kaiba looked as if he was about to respond, but he remained quiet, knowing that it was the truth. She had told him to keep the amulet on and he, believing that she was either a fraud or delusional, chose to ignore her.

After a few moments where Lisa appeared to be thinking, she let out a resigned sigh.

"I'm afraid that I'll have to go against the grace period on this. We don't have the time to wait two days. So long as it's mild psychic things, my amulet should be able to keep you from being damaged. Well, damaged further."

Wanting to make sure that, yes, it was safe to do at least a couple things, she slipped quietly into the sixth plane—Kaiba looking surprised to see her eyes change from their normal near-black to silver—and fused with Psychic Kappa, looking steadily and carefully at the young CEO. When she left the sixth plane, she let out a small nod.

"You'll be fine so long as we stick to the first plane, though I doubt we'll get even that far, considering how stubborn you are. Mokuba, you're welcome to stay, but you need to be quiet. Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Kaiba. This could take a while."

"I'll stand, thanks," Kaiba said, refusing to be bossed around by her for the second time in one day.

"Trust me, you want to sit down."

"Come on, Seto, she's trying to help you. Please just do what she asks?" Mokuba quietly pleaded with his older brother.

"All right, Mokuba, but only because you asked," Kaiba said, sitting down while Lisa mouthed a 'Thank you' to Mokuba.

"Thank you," Lisa said, looking at Kaiba. She then lapsed into silence, trying to figure out how to explain this. She was good at helping awakening psychics recover from a fracture. She had never tried teaching anything before.

"Have you ever meditated before?" Many of the first lessons were brought about through meditation, so that seemed like a good place to start. The look Kaiba gave her was a resounding 'no' however, so that made things tricky.

"All right, we'll start with that, then. Meditation is the fastest and easiest way to enter the psychic planes. It's also what will completely awaken your psychic abilities. As it stands now, you are able to tap into the planes but you are not truly able to enter them. You're... on the cusp, so to speak. You can do mild things, like see and speak to soul cards such as your Blue Eyes, but none of your other cards can be heard, nor can they hear you. Once you've truly awakened, you will be able to enter the planes at will, in time, and hear and speak to any one of your cards.

"To start, you need to relax, so close your eyes and breath." Lisa, who had been meditating for years, was able to easily begin meditating, but she saw that Kaiba was not. To the outside observer he may have appeared to be meditating, but the energy around a person shifts when a meditative trance begins, and that energy every psychic is able to sense, and it was that same energy that told Lisa that, no, he was not relaxing.

When, after hours of trying, with periodic breaks to keep them both at least somewhat calm, Lisa let out a sigh that was part resignation, and part annoyance.

"All right. We'll do this the old-fashioned way. I'd hoped that you'd be able to do this without aid, but it is what it is. Many people need the aid when they first learn to meditate." After Kaiba had sat down and, humoring her to keep his brother happy, closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, hearing again the words 'don't force it' from Lisa, he then heard movement that told him that she was standing up and walking somewhere. He then heard gentle clicks that he couldn't identify. He was about to open his eyes and see what she was doing when the soft, unmistakable sound of music, told him that she had inserted a CD.

He may not have believed anything she was saying, but he couldn't deny she had chosen the music well. It was soft and designed to put the listener at ease. He doubted it would work on him. He was immune to such pathetic attempts to sway him in any way. After a few minutes of the soft flutes, stringed instruments, and the odd soft drumbeat, however, he found himself slowly, but steadily, relaxing despite himself.

When he realized that her pathetic attempts to make him do what she wanted were working, he tried to tune out the music, and then found to his dismay that he couldn't. He was too relaxed to focus. He, as disgusting as the phrase was, sensed more than felt the carpet underneath him, and then, as insane as it was, was certain he sensed a satisfied smile from his 'teacher' as he relaxed. He was about to open his eyes and demand that she shut the infernal sound off when he slipped fully into a meditative trance and relaxed completely, mind open to whatever it was she was planning, and unable to stop himself from doing so.

"Relax, Kaiba, I'm not going to do anything," Lisa said calmly, sensing what she would never see on his stoic face, the worry that, in his helpless state, she would harm him, or worse, his brother. It was those words that let Kaiba fully relax and stop fighting the meditation. The instant he relaxed, so did she, having been worried that it wouldn't work, at least not immediately. Glancing at the CD player, she saw that it had been timed well. The soothing music would play for a few more minutes, allowing Kaiba to enjoy the peace he was, despite himself, feeling.

The shift in music was subtle. The drumbeats becoming slightly more frequent, the beat and rhythm becoming slightly faster, Kaiba was barely aware of these changes. By the time he realized that the music had changed from soothing to... something else entirely that he couldn't identify, it was already affecting him. This wasn't at all the soothing music she had put on to relax him. This was something that, as impossible as it was, felt older. It seemed to speak to parts of him that he didn't know existed. The parts that weren't the cold, logical CEO, but instead spoke to something older, primal, almost pure.

The instant he realized this, everything exploded around him. His eyes were still closed, but he saw everything. Colors were brighter, more vibrant, sounds more explosive. It was as if someone had taken his senses and put them into overdrive. He could sense his surroundings, and he could even sense beyond this room. The pendant on his neck felt like it was glowing with a white-hot heat, even as his breathing quickened as he tried to comprehend what was happening around him.

Nearby, he felt his brother start to move towards him, noticing the change in him and probably hearing his quickened breathing. He just as clearly felt Lisa hold him back, saying things that ordinarily he wouldn't be able to make out, but with everything being so much more than it should have been, he clearly hear her say 'Don't. If you interrupt this now, he'll be in worse shape than he was when I saw him yesterday.' He also sensed that she, despite her calm tone, was worried.

Lisa watched on quietly from where she stood next to Mokuba, a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from trying to go to Kaiba. She had known this would happen, she had planned on this happening, but everyone handled this differently. Some people embraced this explosion, and others ran from it in terror. From the look of things, Kaiba was not handling this, but she was as helpless as Mokuba to stop what was happening. She tightened her grip on Mokuba's shoulder reflexively when the amulet started to glow. While it was not as bright as what Kaiba felt, it was still noticeable to the trained eye. The amulet glowing could only mean that Kaiba was trying to fight this as he fought everything that had happened, and the amulet was working harder to prevent his mind from shattering.

Lisa remembered something that she had learned once, long ago. But she had never tried it herself. Sometimes a psychic could enter another's mind while both were in a trance. It had been done for her, and she had seen her teachers do it for others. It was risky, however. If it didn't work, they could both become trapped where Kaiba was, unable to escape the mid-point between the psychic plane and the physical one, where Kaiba was currently struggling to control himself. Her eyes locked onto the amulet, hoping beyond hope that the glow would settle. When it did the opposite and became brighter, she knew she had no choice.

"Mokuba, I need you to stay perfectly still," she said urgently, barely waiting for the small, hesitant nod before sitting down and entering a meditative trance, years of practice allowing her to enter it at will. She focused her entire being on the pendant Kaiba wore, the small part of herself that remained in it her only link to him. Ironically, his stubborn refusal to wear the amulet was the reason she was still linked to it. If he had worn it all that week as she had asked, the amulet would have attuned itself to Kaiba's psychic energy instead of still being tuned, at least in part, to her own.

With one final exhale to steady herself, she willed her mind to go towards Kaiba, using the amulet as a homing beacon of sorts. When she found him, he was in much the same state as she saw him the day before, huddled in a ball trying to control himself.

"Kaiba, relax," she said softly.

"What did you do to me?" Kaiba yelled at her, though something seemed odd about it to Lisa, who dismissed the thought as she didn't have time to focus on anything else.

"I did nothing. This was supposed to happen. I had hoped that you would be able handle it," Lisa replied calmly. "And if you don't relax, we'll both be trapped here, perhaps forever. This is the mid-way. The point where the psychic plane and the physical one meet. That's why you're able to see everything, even though your eyes are closed. You're sensing your surroundings and your mind, used to translating everything into sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, is again translating what your psychic abilities are sensing into things that you can understand. Everything is so much more than what you're used to because, in this place, you're sensing not just what your physical body is able to tell, but your surroundings as they truly are. This is the true awakening. This is what it is to be a psychic. And this despite your doubts and protests, is who you are, who you were meant to be."

As she talked Kaiba, who had something that he at least knew was real since, in this place, Lisa looked and sounded as she usually did, started relaxing, focusing on this girl instead of the overload of senses around him. As he relaxed, things started spinning around him. He reflexively shut his eyes to it, though that did little good as he could still feel his surroundings spinning out of control. When it stopped, he opened his eyes cautiously and let out an involuntary surprised gasp.

The world as he knew it looked normal again in the sense that nothing was more than it should have been, but there were also shadows that shouldn't have been there. Ghosts of images.

"What in the world happened?" Kaiba asked, not realizing that he had spoken.

"This, is the first plane," Lisa said. "The ghosts your seeing are the shadows of the duel monsters cards you and I are connected to. It also means that you've truly awakened. You'll never have to go experience the mid-way again unless you choose to, which many people do. They enjoy sensing things as they truly are. It makes them feel whole."

"And how exactly am I supposed to leave this 'first plane'?" Kaiba asked, to Lisa's surprise not scornfully. If she didn't know better, she would almost think that was respect in his voice.

"People all have different ways of entering and leaving the psychic planes," Lisa said with a shrug. "Some picture themselves floating to and from their bodies, others picture a physical door that they open and step through, I have a friend who said that the trick was to click your heels three times and say 'there's no place like home' though I'm pretty sure she was joking. At the core, every method is the same. You have to desire to enter and leave the psychic plane. If even a part of you does not wish to leave, or enter for that matter, then you're stuck." After she had explained this, Lisa left Kaiba to experience the first plane as he desired, comfortable with the knowledge that he was all right now.

When she opened her eyes she sensed Kaiba also returning to the physical world. When he opened his eyes, for the briefest of moments she saw the wonder, and even a hint of awe, at what he had just experienced.

"Don't stand up just yet, Kaiba," she said, seeing that he was about to do just that. "You've been in a sitting position for hours, we both have. It will take us both a minute before we can stand without falling." Once they had both adjusted, they slowly stood up, stretching slightly to relieve cramped muscles. Lisa walked over to her CD player and turned it off, putting the disk back inside its case.

"You two are welcome to stay for dinner," she offered quietly, though she suspected that Kaiba would decline the offer. She was proven right when, after a moment, Kaiba shook his head and said in his usual cold voice 'No thanks.' She wasn't surprised. Not only was the CEO antisocial, he would also need time to absorb what he had experienced.

Once she had seen her guests to the door, she walked to the kitchen and prepared herself a meal, taking her own time to absorb what had happened. Over and over again she turned over what had seemed odd when Kaiba spoke to her in the mid-way. With a start, she looked up once it had clicked.

"Of course!" She exclaimed, thinking herself a fool for not having realized it before. She knew what his secondary power was.

AN: Not sure when I'll be inspired again, but I gave y'all a long-ish chapter to make up for it.