Truth told, I kind of consider Kisara's introduction at the top of the mountain to be the story's climax, actually. That probably isn't how things are supposed to go, in fact I'm pretty much positive it isn't. But it's what my gut tells me.
In other words, the rest of the story is kinda the fun part, if that makes sense?
I dunno. Don't listen to me. I have no idea what I'm doing.
.
Yuki had been sure that they would have to convince him. That explaining the rationale of their plan and forcing him to see the wisdom in it would be nearly as difficult, if not harder, than their parley with the queen. All through her time in the Barrier, Yuki had considered and cast aside a thousand different ways the scenario might play out, when and if they were blessed enough to come back to the Kaiba Estate with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in tow. There were so many obstacles she'd considered, so many arguments she'd fought through.
In all those daydreams, all those hypotheticals, she'd never managed to come close to what actually happened.
They arrived on the grounds without fanfare. Kisara didn't need anyone's help to transport them all to the living world. The magic that Yugi, and other holders of Millennium Items—Yuki only found out during Kisara's explanation that there were seven—was able to tap into and make use of, was what Kisara was essentially made of. What took Yugi hours upon hours of studying, alongside sacrifices of blood and sweat, took her as much effort as breathing.
"You really are like an angel," Sotaro said.
Kisara, chuckling, ruffled her champion's hair. "I am no angel. I am only a dragon. But dragons are enough."
She crossed the gardens sweeping across the front of the estate, with its flowers and herbs and vegetables, and stopped when she spied one of the statues: wrought of silver that shone painfully in the sunlight, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon reared back with her wings spread, sharp and bright and just as undeniable as the woman who looked upon her.
Kisara put a hand on one of the dragon's talons. She smiled.
"He's pretty clear about where his loyalties lie," Yugi said.
Sieglinde and Anri, who had joined the party as their queen's retinue, seemed quite thoroughly charmed by the statue and looked prepared to take a knee before it. They had done away with their ornate armor in favor of simple outfits of black cloth. They weren't modern, by any means; anyone who looked closely at the knights would wonder what Renaissance Faire they had come from, but they looked streamlined enough that they weren't entirely out of place. The twins' faces were bare of helmet or mask, and it drove home how young they looked.
Their silver hair was full and vivacious, framing soft faces currently filled with a childlike wonder that belied the long, long years of their training.
They made Yuki think of Seto, quite forcefully.
All eyes turned toward a thunderclap of sound as the double doors at the front of the manor burst open. The only one who didn't make for a weapon was Kisara, who watched dispassionately like she'd just spied a butterfly.
The stranger, dressed in black like the twins—in full modern combat gear, rather than chitons and cloaks—came barreling out into the open and dove forward like he fully intended to swim through the air. He rolled into a somersault and sprang back up as Seto's security team filed out of the house with weapons drawn.
Shots rang out.
The stranger twisted around and pushed one hand, palm out, in the house's direction. Bullets froze in the air as if they'd hit a solid wall, then dropped like pebbles to the ground.
Kisara strolled forward. She carried herself with an ease that bordered on boredom. As the stranger whirled around and made to rush off again, using the guards' stunned confusion to add distance between them and make good his escape, he found himself blocked off by the queen.
Dressed as she was in her tunic, pants, and boots, Kisara looked like an eccentric tourist. No breed of threat at all. The stranger's face pulled itself into a grimace of disgusted indignance; he lowered one shoulder and made to shove past Kisara with pure momentum.
She held up her right arm.
The stranger cried out as he made contact with the queen's hand, and didn't seem to understand how, or why, he'd been blown back through the air like he just touched a live wire. In one moment, he was in full control; in the next, he was fifty feet backward, flat on his back, staring blearily at the open sky.
"If you're going to play the part of a spellcaster," Kisara said, "you should make an effort to read your opponent." She tsk-ed at him. "You have a lot of training ahead of you, if you ever want to make a real attempt at this line of work."
The stranger groaned, low and droning, as he lifted one arm piteously and scrambled for a weapon. He clearly carried several, but couldn't make purchase on any of them. His muscles wouldn't react properly to any commands; so he lay there, languishing in stupefied pain, breath coming out between his teeth in haggard whimpers.
Kisara crossed her arms over her chest. Seto's security came up around the stranger, holstering their weapons and pulling the stranger to his feet. One approached the queen, saw the Yagamis and Yugi and the twins standing nearby, and offered a little salute. A little nametag above the woman's heart read FRANKLIN.
"I don't know who you are," Franklin said, "but you have our thanks." She turned to the others. "Master Kaiba will be relieved to know you've returned."
"He's awake?!" Yuki gasped as she reached for her husband's hand. "He's okay?!"
Franklin smiled. "I don't know if I'd go so far as to call him okay, ma'am. He's quite determined to push every boundary his doctors have given him. But he's certainly awake." She turned. "You two! Escort Master Kaiba's guests into the house. The rest of you, I want a ring around that man. Move!"
Kisara waited for two more guards—their nametags read ELLIOT and KNOLLS—to make themselves known. She followed them, falling into step beside the others, into the Kaibas' home. As she passed the stranger—held up by three guards and surrounded by ten more—her eyes went as cold as a winter storm.
"People who cross me twice," she said, "don't get the chance to try it a third time."