"So if I'm remembering correctly what you had told be about him before… Noah used to be alive, but he no longer is?" Kisara asked me.

"Yup… Pretty much." Was about the only response I could give at this point.

She leaned down to look closer at the computer while taking a bite of her turkey sandwich. The coding was just completely covering the screen. "And his subconscious is now in this interface?"

"Sorta. Like I said, it's really hard to explain..." I now moved the mouse around, pulling up some files to show her. "And these are the recovered images I have from when he was actually alive. But I already shared the hologram I created of him with you at that stage. The long and the short of it is that he was preserved into a virtual reality by his father, Gozubora. The same Gozubora that later adopted Seto and I. The original Kaiba, if you would."

"Wow..." Kisara studied the photos of him. "It's uncanny how much he looks like a younger Seto."

"Heh." I couldn't help but recall a conversation I had with Noah, where I basically told him the same thing that she had said. "Don't tell him that though. Don't tell either of them actually. They don't like each other. Cause the whole thing that happened during the battle city tournament."

I could tell she was trying hard to follow everything by how she squinted her eyes, as if trying to suppress a headache. "I think I get it. I mean, other than the fact that someone is capable of actually preserving the human subconscious. That doesn't seem… real to me. But then again, if souls are real… Maybe it's the same thing."

I hadn't thought of it that way. "Like, the mind and the soul being the same?"

"I wonder..." She shook her head. "Probably not. But they're alike in the ways of preservation it seems. In the fact that it can be done. It's… much different in extracting a soul..."

"I didn't mean to bring it up..." I felt bad, knowing that the reason for all her stress stems from that. "I've been trying to figure out how Gozubora was capable of retaining his subconscious into code. Maybe I've been looking at it wrong all this time."

Kisara had her eyes closed, the bridge of her nose crinkling as she was biting down. Maybe she hasn't gotten enough to eat or drink, and she actually was getting a head ache. She quickly took a bite of her sandwich, and shoved the rest of it in her mouth, cheeks full like a chipmunk.

I awkwardly smile, unsure if I should laugh at the unflattering face or just ignore it. "Anyway… I'd like for you to meet Noah. And, ya know… Actually meet him. And give him someone he can talk to besides me. Being stuck in a computer chip isn't exactly my idea of a good time. I'm sure he's not to thrilled about it either. But this vould also be a good time to test the new model I created, like I mentioned earlier. "

Her gentle smile returned after she swallowed her food. "I'm sure he still appreciates everything you've done for him so far. I just hope he likes the form you created for him as well."

"Well," I started pulling up some more files, loading programs I couldn't hope to explain to Kisara, knowing she wasn't well read in coding and scripts like Seto and I. "What do you think? I tried to put as realistic a face to him as I possibly can at this time."

"Just like the ones that Seto has for dueling?" Excitement lit in her eyes.

She was more excited about it than I originally thought she would be. "Sorta. But this one is sentient. Luckily, it shouldn't be dangerous, considering it's just Noah, and someone who used to be alive anyway."

"Shouldn't be..." She repeated back to me. "But in the event a sentient AI becomes dangerous…?"

"Eh heh…." I avoided the thought. "So… Do you want to go ahead and be the first person to meet Noah?"

Kisara hesitated, but she did nod. "I think it could be a good experience. And… Who knows, maybe it would be good for me to talk to him too."

I couldn't help but smile. "I hope so. You both have been through a lot of shit."

I pulled the phone from my pocket, pressing a button to release the chip holder. It was small like a nano sim card that could be found in most mobile devices these days, but this was more convoluted. I returned my phone to my pocket and grabbed a regular microchip to where I could insert the nano chip into it. From there, I could insert the full chip into the computer, and bring Noah to life, as much as a hologram would allow.

"So… what do you plan to do for him from this point…?" Kisara watched carefully. "Is it… possible to bring him back to life? Like…"

She didn't finish what she was saying, but I had to reassure her, "I don't think I could. It's not like freeing a soul into a cycle of reincarnation. At least, I don't believe so. The most I could do is attempt at creating the first Android, but I don't think the world would be ready for something like that. Holograms are at least something we've all gotten used to. To which, we can thank my brother for."

As everything finished booting up, a light flickered from the projector that was at the middle of the ceiling. From nothing, Noah phased into existence. As I stood from my desk chair, I couldn't believe my eyes. Just how real he looked. His body structure I based off of Seto's, but not to the muscularity that he has. Noah didn't strike me as someone who would work out regularly, so I kept his figure slender. I did implement glasses for him, giving him a somewhat knowledgeable aesthetic. He was tall, much taller than myself, but I don't think he stood as tall as Seto would.

The clothes I implemented for his form was a simple pair of jeans, a white shirt, and black valet style vest, but left it to where Noah could button it if he so chose. Programming him took more time that I had anticipated it would, but… The wait was well worth it. I noticed a bit of glitching behind one of his ears, so I would have to work on that later. But the patch of skin that would have been there just looked like streaks of green light.

"Oh wow..." Kisara stared at him in awe. Her face was flushed at the sight of him. "You look so real."

The hologram made a face and started moving his fingers. He looked down, clenching and unclenching a fist. He held his hand up in front of his face, continuing the clenching. His teal hair fell in front of his glasses, somewhat startling him, as much as it could startle an artificial human hologram. I think that's when he noticed the glasses. He grabbed them, removing them from his face. As he did, he flashed out of existence for a moment before flashing back in, the hologram trying to render the removal. Taking them off also fixed the glitching behind his ear.

"Making note, the glasses need to be reformatted." I said aloud. "Noah, can you hear me okay?"

Noah looked over in my general direction. "I can hear you, but I can't see where you are."

His voice was a little distorted. Choppy with a bit of static behind it. I guess I wasn't nearly as good at coding as Seto, and those who worked in the animations station for Kaiba Corp. I frown a bit, as I sit back down, trying to mess with the settings and see if I can allow him to see us.

"What do you see, Noah?" I tried to get him to tell me, since we were testing this as a surprise for him.

"I..." He sounded somewhat as though he were sobbing. "I can see my hands. It's been so long..."

"What are you doing here?" I could only stare.

I hadn't known that she had snuck past me into the office. How long had she been sitting at her desk? It wasn't until after I had made two phone calls and filed a few articles into my filing cabinet that I had finally caught a glimpse of her. She straightened a pile of papers that had been left on the desk—for a few days now to be honest—and set them aside. She hadn't been in for a long while, so I had just been piling unimportant documents on it.

I had planned on cleaning everything up before her return, but I guess I was too late for that.

"I came in to work..." Kisara looked over at me, physically looking well, but mentally looking drained.

"Kisara, not even three hours ago, you were at home sleeping… Basically in a coma." I got up from my desk and grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair. "Let's get you over to the doctor and make sure you're okay—"

"I'm alright Seto." She smiled at me… A genuine smile.

It feels like it's been forever since I've seen her smile this way… And I didn't feel like something was wrong. But the part of me that had worried about her so much wouldn't just go away, as much as I hated the feeling. She makes me completely do a one hundred eighty degree turn, and it's something I still just can't get over.

"How can you be so sure?" I still put my jacket on and walked over to her, placing my hand on her shoulder.

She spun her chair around so her body was facing me, and placed her hand over mine, staring down at it. "Your hand didn't scar from before. I don't think I ever noticed." She smiled more and looked back up to me. "Trust me, please Seto."

All I could do was stare down at her. Though I couldn't force my self to believe her, I still nodded. How could I not trust her at this point? "Can you tell me what happened?"

I moved my hand and went back to my desk, but only to grab my chair and pull it over next to her. As I sat down and turned to face her, she looked like she was… blushing?

"You mean… why I ran out from the pub and didn't tell anyone?" She averted her eyes and scratched the tip of her nose. "I was just trying to make sense of everything that Mahad had told me. Which… Was all cryptic."

"So… he does know something though?" I sighed, knowing I should still get her checked out, but all the more wanting to discuss things as well.

"To an extent…" She bit her lip. "Actually, he probably knows more than he's willing to let on. He says that I asked him to take away the memories of what ever happened… And..." She was quiet for a moment, as if she didn't want to tell me what she said next. "And that made me think back to the things Kojiro was saying to me the night he hurt Mokuba and I..."

I was trying to empathize with her to the best of my ability, though every part of me wanted to hear what happened. "We can talk about this later if you want… I don't want the thoughts of him stressing you out."

"If I don't tell you now..." Her eyes stared deep into mine, now refusing to break the gaze. "I'll probably be too hesitant to tell you later…"

Slightly relieved, I nodded. I reached forward, and grabbed one of her hands, holding it within both of mine. She immediately became flushed, something that I thought she was past.

"What if another employee sees?" Her voice squeaked, "Don't you wanna keep things quiet for now?"

"Honestly, I could care less about that." I leaned forward and kissed her hand. "The world will know eventually anyway."

"The w—world?" I could hear her swallowing the nervousness that she had.

It really felt like she was finally getting back to being herself. "Yeah. I don't want to hide us. I'm not embarrassed of you. I just don't want you to get harassed. It can be pretty annoying having people following you and trying to get your picture constantly while asking you a million pathetic questions."

Her expression looked… More or less stunned by the thought, but she knew it came with the territory. "R—right… Anyway…"

There was a moment of silence between the two of us. She placed her free hand over mine that held her other hand in place, my thumbs rubbing the skin gently. I lowered my eyes to watch her hands instead of keeping eye contact. I realized a while ago that she can speak easier when she's not being stared at. Most people are that way, but I could care less. I've had years of practice after all.

"So… After I ditched… I called Kojiro… Trying to convince him to explain my past to me, at least… what ever he knew of it..." The tone in her voice told me she wasn't satisfied from calling him.

"My soul… It was sealed away in the stone tablet…" She took in a deep breath. "You knew that already. I gave you my soul so that way you could surpass the darkness that tried to control you."

I just listened quietly. I didn't want to interrupt her.

"Somehow, you were able to receive my soul without having to carry a burden..." Kisara explained.

But I did carry a burden of my own… Without her, I would never know true happiness again. I cursed myself with that fate. Kisara is here now though… Since she's been back—and I've accepted what we were and still are—I feel like I've learned what it means to be happy again. Not that I could admit it to anyone else though.

"All that he could tell me is that he made a deal with someone who held the power to release my soul from the stone tablet… But he doesn't know who that person was." There were suddenly tears trickling off her cheeks.

As I felt one drop to my hand, I rose my head to look to her rosy face. "Kisara, you don't have to say any more…"

"It's not that." She was holding her stomach. "I just feel really queasy again..."

"Are you alright?" I put my hands on her shoulders and kicked my chair back. I knelt down so I was level with her.

"I—I think I'm..." She put a hand over her mouth. "I need to..."

She didn't have to say another word. I helped her stand and guided her to my private washroom. She held her stomach as we walked and refused to look at me. As she knelt down in front of the toilet, I held her hair back. It never occurred to me just how hard it was to manage having this much hair would be until I tried hard enough to keep it all pulled back to prevent anything getting stuck in it. After a few minutes of her dry heaving, she did eventually chuck up what ever food she had eaten before. I rubbed her back as she did, trying to give her some form of comfort.

It brought back memories of Mokuba's first time drinking. He was seventeen when he finally accepted my invitation for a drink. Even though he hated the taste, he wanted so badly to show how "mature" he had gotten over the years and drink just as much as I drank. His hair was still long back then, so I more or less did the same thing for him… Though I was laughing about it at the time, telling him that he'll have to learn how much he can actually handle.

But I shook away the memory as Kisara stopped hunching over the toilet and reached up to flush. She sat back on the tile and pulled her knees to her chest. I let go of her hair and closed the lid before grabbing some of the paper towels and wetting them. I knelt back down and handed them to her.

"Thanks..." She was tying her hair back into a bun, so it took her a moment to grab the towels from me and wiping her face and mouth off.

Her face was red still, and her cheeks seemed a bit swollen.

"Do you feel better now?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

She slightly shook her head, still not looking at me. "Not really… Ever since things with Kojiro, and having opened this… Door to some of my memories of the past, I've just been feeling so sick. Every little thing that makes me stress has me running to the nearest bathroom or trash can."

She made that weird face most girls make when they're putting on eye makeup as she wiped the paper towel under her eyes to catch any stray tears.

"I'm sorry…" I avert my eyes to the floor. "I hadn't noticed you were stressing more until recently… I was just trying to let things get easier after what happened with Fujiyama… I wanted you to feel comfortable from transitioning to living with me, but I also wanted to give you space to recover without me becoming a nuisance."

"You're never a nuisance to me, Seto!" She quickly snapped at me, looking hurt that I would even suggest the thought. "You should know that by now… You're the only one who could never—"

"Hello?" We both suddenly hear from the office. "Mr. Kaiba?"

I stood and peeked back into the office. I wish I had closed the door when we had walked in the washroom, but I wasn't focused on that at the time. It wasn't someone of importance, but it didn't appear that they'd be leaving until I addressed them. I sighed and looked back to Kisara.

"Take your time. I'll handle this twerp and you come out when you're ready." I put back on the attitude I usually had before walking back to my desk.

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba. Sorry to bother you—"

"What is it?" I sighed and grabbed my chair, wheeling it back behind my desk.

The man stood straight and held out a file. "I'm just running you the documents you requested to prep you for the meeting you'll be having at two."

I stared blankly at him. "Meeting at two?"

"Y—yes." He looked dumbstruck. "With the Kosaka Advertising CEO and their board?"

I grabbed the file from his hand, opening it up and checking the date at the top. "This says the meeting is on the ninth."

"I—it is the ninth..." He was hesitant on correcting me, as he should be. "You were out the last two days, so our committee put the presentation together in your absence… The review should be completely to your standards, but any last minute changes can be done on your request and ready in time for the meeting."

"Ugh..." I checked my watch to see the time. It was already noon and I mumbled to myself. "I don't even remember what this is for..."

"If I may..." The man spoke up. "They wanted to meet with you to propose advertising some of their products and services at Kaiba land, and they're putting together an offer for you..."

"Than why the hell do we need a presentation?" The idiot had no idea what he was talking about. "Just. Get out, errand boy."

"Y—yes, sir." He bowed and turned around, walking quickly out of the office and down the right hallway.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and mumbled again, "Why did I come back to work?"

I really didn't have the motivation to deal with any of this right now. My mind was elsewhere… Distracted by her, like always.

"Do you need some medicine?" Kisara approached me. Again, I hadn't noticed her come into the office.

She was illusive. "No. My head doesn't hurt or anything." I then turned and tossed the file on my desk, "I just don't feel like playing the boss today."

"Playing the boss?" She giggled. "What would you rather be doing?"

I stretched my arms back, forgetting I had put on my jacket earlier and never removed it. It made moving my arms back that much strain a bit. I didn't want to stretch the seems, so I stopped and fixed the coat.

"I'd rather take you to the doctor and buy you lunch." I held the collar of my jacket as I looked at her and winked.

And immediately felt stupid after I did. But… it made her laugh.

"That reminded me of the heart you drew next to your name on my bedroom note." She giggled a bit. "How about we get lunch, attend the meeting, and if you're still worried about me, we'll go to the doctor and I'll get examined, alright?"

"We'll do that." I ran my hand through my hair, trying to pull out any knots. "I want to make sure you're not having anything other than stress…"

She smiled. "Fine. If I have to."

I pointed at her, "You do have to."

And with that, I took a large step forward, leaned down, and kissed her. Without hesitation, she kissed me back. She even put one hand on my chest and ran the other up my neck to my cheek.

We didn't end up at the doctors that day, but inevitably, I did make her go to see the doctor a few days after that day. It was the most seemingly normal day that we've had since this huge mess with the Fujiyama family had even happened. It was still a little odd, waking up and having her lying next to me in the mornings. I hated waking her up, and often times, I'd make us late as I'd just watch her sleeping.

Even though she insisted on having her own room, she always ended up curled in bed with me every morning. Every time she tried to sleep by herself in the next room, she'd still come and sneak in to sleep with me. I told her she didn't have to sneak or feel bad about it. She also didn't need to wake me up and ask me every time if it was really okay for her to join me. As if I'd mind?

Kisara had been waking up with more and more night terrors though. The trauma that she had gone through in both her past and present lives was much more than I had ever been through. I don't think there was a single person in this world who could understand exactly what she's been through. Though… This incident has made it to where I can no longer deny that I truly did exist in Ancient Egypt, hundreds of years ago. It may have had an influence on how I perceived her in the beginning, but those worlds will always be separate in my mind.

I was in the waiting room, dozing off and thinking about the last few nights as I waited on Kisara to finish with her check up. It was taking longer than I had originally thought it would. This was her third time coming to this doctor, and I could only wonder if he was bombarding her with questions outside of what she was here for.

It was a slow day, so not many people were in and out of the back rooms. That being said, the moment I heard the double doors shutting from where she had been back through, I looked up. Kisara had come out finally, holding some papers in her hand. Her face was completely red. She looked like she had been crying.

I stood up quickly and waited for her to approach me… But she looked scared to walk over. Was there something wrong?

"Kisara?" I asked her, still waiting for her to walk over to me.

This morning, she had clung to me, so I was just confused. She just stared at me, biting her bottom lip and holding her breath. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words actually came out. She looked back down at the papers she was holding, and then back to me.

I rose a brow. "Are we good to leave? You didn't want to—"

"I—I—"She was finally fumbling through her vocabulary.

I sighed and walked over to her, offering her my arm to usher her out. She folded the papers into a cylinder like a tube and held them in one hand as she wrapped her arm around mine. She stared at the floor as we walked out, shaking rapidly.

"Are you okay?" I was starting to worry even more now.

She nodded quickly.

The walk to the car was silent. I opened the door for her, since we had taken my car and weren't accompanied by any chauffeurs. She took her seat and started buckling in as I closed the door. I was still confused as I walked to my side of the car and got into the drivers seat.

"Hey Seto..." She asked as I buckled in my own seat belt, "Are we… a couple?"

"I thought it was pretty clear..." Had I done something wrong?

"I—I… I mean like… Going steady?" She couldn't look at me as she asked.

I chuckled a bit. "Ah. I get it. Well, Kisara, would you like to be?"

She jumped in her seat and she looked at me, the most red I've seen her so far. "A—absolutely!"

I smile to her. "I'm sorry I never properly asked you before… I guess I got so caught up in everything that it never occurred that I actually needed to ask you to be my girlfriend."

Saying it out like that was more odd than anything.

"Well… Now that that's out of the way." She was suddenly reaching over to me, in her hand, the papers from the doctor that she had rolled up into a cylinder.

Her eyes immediately looked to the floor at this point. I rose a brow as I took the papers from her hand. "Everything alright?"

Kisara took in a deep breath and turned away from me. She now hid her face by cupping it in her hands and hitting her head onto the dash board. All the more concerned, I unroll the papers and start scan the page, looking for what got her so riled up… And that's when my eyes fixated on the words she couldn't speak: "Pregnancy Verification Form..." And the rest of the words jumbled into a nothingness on the page as I stared blankly at it.

I don't know how long I was frozen like that before I looked back up at Kisara, who also hadn't moved from hitting her head to the dash board. My heart beat was erratic and my mind was just… Blank. I didn't read the rest of the page to see if it had verified as positive or negative, but with the way she was acting… I could only guess.

"You're… pregnant?" I sounded like a teenager hitting puberty with the high-pitched nervousness in my voice.

She kept her hands over her face, but leaned back against the seat and nodded.

And idiot me had to blurt out. "And Fujiyama didn't force himself on you, right?"

She finally dropped her hands, but still didn't look at me. "No. He didn't..."

"So..." I knew exactly what it meant, but it felt like every part of me had slowed down, mind and body. "I'm… going to have a kid?"

"Well, me too." She tried to joke about it and laugh, but just made herself feel more awkward.

"We're… having a kid?" But as fast as the shock had settled in… It had disappeared. "We're having a kid."

"I—I wasn't sure if you noticed the first time we… Had sex..." She held herself as she spoke. "I realized it as we were… Finishing up… We didn't use a condom… Every time after as well… We never used them… And I only ever thought about it after the fact. It also explains why Mahad wouldn't let me drink anything alcoholic at the pub… I don't know how he knew before I figured it out though."

I took a deep breath, faced forward and leaned back in my seat, looking at the form again. The words were legible now. I found were it said positive and looked at the roof of the car. "We're having a kid."

I didn't know what this feeling was that was building throughout my entire body. The more I said it, the more relieved I felt. The more calm I felt. The more everything just felt… Like things were finally how I wanted. Like life was igniting for the first time.

"Do… do you want this?" Kisara held the bottom of her shirt with a tight grip as she asked. "Do… you want to have a family with me? Even though… Even though we—we've only just started dating… And… and we haven't really… Figured out everything to come?"

I dropped the paperwork on the dash and unbuckled my seat belt. I opened the door and stepped out of the car. Kisara called to me as I did so, but I just ran back to the passenger side door. I opened it up, reached in and unbuckled Kisara's seat belt as well. She looked at me with utter confusion as I held my hand down to her. She reached out, and took my hand though. I pulled her to a stand and immediately wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tighter than I ever had.

"There's nothing else I could want more than to spend my life with you!" I didn't care how loudly I spoke. "It may not have been something I ever thought about, but if you want this, than I do as well. I love you Kisara. I..." I swallowed away the nervousness. "I'm done with this fear of feeling. I caught feelings for you so long ago, and I'm going to hold on to them forever. So, if you want this kid, we'll have this kid. If you don't, I understand. If you want to someday in the future, I will give you that."

But honestly, I was scared to death. I never thought of myself as a father. The only father I've ever known is Gozubora, and that's not exactly the best thing in the world. I don't know what to do as a father. I can't remember mine and Mokuba's real parents. We were so young when they died… And Kisara, too, hasn't had her parents in her life. They showed up much too late.

Could we be good parents?

That's when the tears started falling from her eyes. "I'm… I'm scared."

"It's okay…" I was shaking. "I am too… The future's so bright for us. And… It's only change. It'll be okay."

She started nodding, as she shut her eyes tightly. She then buried her head into my chest as she gently sobbed. Sometimes… it's times like these to know that you're in the right place.