A/N: It has been done! Chapter 1 of the sequel to Shadow Justice has ben written and posted! Hallelujah I can sleep tonight. No seriously, I was stupid and drank 2 full cups of regular coffee and half a cup of mild coffee right before I went to bed. I could not fall asleep or get out of my fully awake state for over an hour. It was miserable. I'm sticking to hot tea from now on.

Shadow Relations:

Spark

Oliver Queen found him standing on the balcony away from the dense crowds of people and reporters inside. It was so predictable it was amusing. Oliver was willing to bet the other one was stalking the food table.

"Hey," he called jolting the person out of his thoughts. "I come in peace and I bear a gift."

"I don't do bribery," the young man said, standing tall and crossing his arms sternly.

Oliver just shrugged. "Well, I suppose I could just take this cup of fresh, hot black coffee back…"

A dark eyebrow twitched and the young man's shoulders drooped. He held out his hand and waited expectantly for Oliver to chuckle and hand his friend the black gold. Kaiba took a long, grateful drink, wincing when his tongue was scaled.

"I did say it was hot," Oliver said, joining the young CEO by the railing. Kaiba just shot him an annoyed look and kept drinking. "Where's Mokuba?"

"He found the chocolate fountain," Kaiba said, nodding to the food table.

Oliver turned and realized this vantage point had a perfectly clear view of the chocolate fountain and coffee pots. Sure enough, there was Mokuba holding out a strawberry impaled on a stick into the flowing chocolate. He already had three on the plate he was holding with his other hand. Oliver smiled and shook his head, turning back to his friend.

"How have you been?" he asked. "It's been almost a year. I was beginning to think you'd found someone else."

Kaiba froze and leveled Oliver with a dull glower. "Please tell me you're not picking up after Mai," he groaned.

Oliver smiled and shook his head. "Nah. I never got to tell you why I didn't bring Lantern to your farewell party last year," he said.

Kaiba's eyebrow lifted and he shrugged. "I figured he was busy trying to figure out where he belonged in the mess of past lives, memories that weren't there but are now, and a woman he likely saw as a friend before now turning out to be a previous, possibly future lover."

Oliver shook his head with an incredulous smile. "You know how ridiculous that's sounds? I kind of feel bad that I not only understand it but agree with it."

"Well, it's what I had to do," the CEO said calmly, drinking more of his coffee. "I can wait a little longer, I suppose. How have you been?"

"Oh, you know. Just dealing with life is all," he said. He noticed Kaiba shiver violently spilling dribbles of coffee on his hand, too close to the stark white KaibaCorp suit sleeve he wore for comfort. "Woah, hang on. Hang on."

Oliver snagged the cup and helped the young man quickly brush away the scalding hot droplets. Kaiba huffed in annoyance, deliberately pulling his hand away and turning around to face the cityscape and sulk. Oliver watched his Regent carefully. What had just happened was completely out of character for the Seto Kaiba he knew. Everyone shivered certainly, but something told the vigilante of Starling City that Kaiba was not as well as he would have people believe.

"Hey," he said more softly, holding out the coffee as a peace offering. "What's wrong?"

Kaiba stared at the coffee for two full seconds before giving in and taking it by the handle. He sipped it silently for several moments while he gathered his thoughts. "I don't know," he said quietly. "It started about a week or so ago and it's gotten worse. I'm not sick, or at least if I am, it's nothing any of the doctors can figure out. It's not the Shadows, they're calm for the moment. It could be my reaction to my Priestess."

"What wrong with her?" Oliver asked.

Kaiba glanced at him for taking another drink. "She's sick. Nothing serious, just a migraine. It happens every now and then when she strains her foresight to the limit."

"But migraines don't usually last for a week, right?" Oliver asked. "I mean, if they do, then I have the greatest respect and sympathy for anyone who has to endure them."

Kaiba's lips twitched ever so slightly upwards and Oliver counted that as a victory. His relief was short lived when Kaiba spoke again, all humor gone. "I feel…I feel like someone's walking on my grave."

Oliver sighed. "I'm only familiar with the turn of phrase, but I think you mean it differently than that."

"Maybe," Kaiba said shrugging, "maybe not. I'm not sure. It's just… That's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment."

"Ni-sama!" Both men turned to see little Mokuba Kaiba run across the floor holding his plate of four chocolate covered strawberries and a bright smile on his face. "I made two for you," he chirped. "See?"

He held out his plate proudly displaying the four, huge, bright red strawberries covered in cooling chocolate. Kaiba smiled and held out a hand for his brother. In the background several cameras flashed, catching the scene. Kaiba ignored them, turning his head to place his cup on the railing when there was a loud gunshot echoed through the air.

Oliver had just enough time to see the shocked expression on Kaiba's face before the CEO collapsed into the vigilante's arms, a bleeding gunshot wound through his forehead. Screams rang out as people ran inside away from the windows, but Oliver did not move. His eyes could barely tear themselves away from the bullet hole in the center of Kaiba's pale forehead. Blue eyes were wide in shocked fear, pleading with Oliver to help. But Oliver knew he was too late to do anything to save the Regent. He placed a hand over Kaiba's chest then forehead and felt nothing. Seto Kaiba was dead.

"Ni-sama!"

Mokuba. Oliver dropped Kaiba's body and dove for Mokuba, covering the boy with his own body. He scooped up Kaiba's baby brother and ran for the glass doors to the building, but the people inside had closed them and barricaded them leaving Oliver and Mokuba as well as another elderly couple outside unable to find shelter. Furious, Oliver kicked the doors, but the table pushed against the door held it in place preventing the glass from breaking completely.

All of this had only taken a total of six seconds to take place, but it was long enough for Oliver to realize that he would not be able to get inside this way. He held the screaming Mokuba in his arms and ducked behind one of the thick stone banisters holding up the railing lining the balcony. Mokuba kept screaming and crying, trying to escape Oliver's arms and race for the dead body of his big brother. But no matter how badly Oliver wanted to let Mokuba do that, he knew doing so would put the boy in harm's way which was something Kaiba would never forgive him for. Also, he never wanted Mokuba to have to see his brother with the bullet hole through his head. Seeing it happen in front of him was bad enough.

Oliver squeezed Mokuba close and tried his best to calm the boy when another sound rumbled through the stone beneath him. He lifted his head and saw flames roaring through the room inside before bursting out the windows. Oliver had a brief moment to comprehend that what he was seeing was a bomb before another rumble shook the balcony and the ground fell out from beneath him. He grabbed the banister with one hand and Mokuba with his other but the abrupt jolt when the balcony slammed against the building wall jostled his hand free and they fell.

"NO!"

"Ishizu! Ishizu! Please wake up! Ishizu please!"

Slowly, midnight blue eyes cleared and focused on the man in front of them. Pale brown eyes the shade of spice tea stared back at her with love and worry. Gasping for breath, she quickly looked around and saw her bedroom, her bed, her brother sitting next to her, light purple eyes filled with fear, before returning to Shaadi. It was clear Shaadi had been startled awake and raced to her side not bothering to get fully dressed or wrap his turban around his head leaving his short black hair exposed.

Ishizu slumped into Shaadi's arms, her free hand reaching out to Marik who joined the hug. She tried to catch her breath and calm her tears, focusing on the two people here with her who cared about her. She needed the grounding they gave her. She noticed she was being rocked gently by the two men and Marik had begun singing a lullaby. She did not know or care how long they sat there like that, but when she was finally in control of herself, she sat up.

"Was it a vision?" Marik asked gently.

Ishizu nodded stiffly. "Yes." He closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, releasing it slowly through her parted lips. She reopened her eyes and the determination and stubborn loyalty both men had come to associate with the Priestess of the Balance had returned. "Someone seeks to murder the Regent and the Keeper. If we do not act fast, we will lose Arrow as well." She looked directly at Shaadi whose eyes had widened before narrowing, giving Ishizu his full attention. "I won't let that happen."

She leapt up from the bed still in her thing nightgown and grabbed her cell phone. "Marik, get me the maps of all the active archeological sights. Shaadi, get some tea brewing please. I'm going to call Kaiba."

Marik hesitated just long enough for Ishizu to wave him off insistently. He ran into her office and unlocked the safe where she kept the maps of all the archeological sites, both official and unofficial. He grabbed the stack of papers and hurried back to the bedroom. Ishizu was pacing nervously back and forth by the foot of her bed repeatedly pulling her phone away to redial the number and press the speaker back to her ear.

"Is he not answering?" Marik asked, tucking a stray strand of blonde hair behind his ear. Frustrated when it fell back into his face, he grabbed the scrunchy from his wrist and pulled his hair back into a messy but manageable ponytail.

Ishizu pulled the phone away from her ear for the third time since Marik returned and glared at it hatefully. Ishizu stomped her foot and fumed surprising her brother. Marik wisely took a cautious step back from his sister and began laying out the many maps on the bed.

Ishizu dropped the phone on the bed and began spreading out the maps. Both Ishtars looked up in surprise when the overhead light came on. They looked to the switch where Shaadi stood holding three mugs of steaming tea. He extended his hand holding two mugs to the siblings who took them silently.

"I have learned that things are easier to see in the light, hm?" he said calmly. He sat down next to Ishizu and said gently, "Now, why don't you tell us what to look for."

The Priestess took a sip of the licorice tea and sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "I'm not even sure if I'm right."

"There's no harm in looking," Marik said. "Tell what you saw or heard and we can go from there."

Ishizu shook her head so her long ebony hair tumbled over her shoulders. She ran a hand over her lips as her thoughts raced through her head. "He said he felt like someone was walking on his grave," she said softly.

"Who?" Marik asked gently, rubbing his sister's shoulder encouragingly. "Kaiba?"

Ishizu nodded. "He was ill, but said the doctor's didn't know what was wrong."

Shaadi nodded solemnly. "Yes. I have heard of such things. It is a phrase often used to describe an unexplained chill or feeling of discomfort or paranoia."

"He shivered rather violently and Arrow moved to help him," Ishizu said lifting her eyes to Shaadi's. "They spoke and then he was shot." She felt gooseflesh cover her skin at the memory of shocked blue eyes under a dark bullet hole streaming liquid red down the young face.

"Easy," Marik said, setting his tea on the bedside table and pulling his sister into a hug. "It's alright. We're going to change it. I promise. Don't dwell on it, just tell us what you think is important."

The woman nodded but did not pull away from her brother's embrace, needing the comfort and stability he offered. "He was sniped."

Both men blinked. "So it was a professional hit, then," Marik murmured.

"There was also at least one bomb involved," Ishizu added. "The balcony they were on broke causing Arrow and Mokuba to fall."

"Definitely professional then," Shaadi said. He tilted his head. "Although I do wonder why a bomb was added when a single bullet would have done the job efficiently with very little fuss."

"Unless it was the fuss they were after," Marik said lifting an eyebrow. "I was not without my own dramatic flair, remember."

"No," Ishizu said, shaking her head against Marik's shoulder and forcing herself to sit up. "I don't believe the two were related. It felt too...dis... It did not feel like the same culprit. Only one shot was fired and there was ample time to fire at Mokuba, but it never happened."

"Unless someone wanted to hide the bullet wound by blowing everything up," Marik suggested.

But again, Ishizu shook her head. "No. I stand by my belief that it was two different people behind it."

"So we have two enemies to worry about."

"Not necessarily," Shaadi said thoughtfully sipping his tea. "We are assuming the bombs were meant for the Regent. What if they were not?"

"It still managed to kill Mokuba and Arrow," Marik said. "Although I see what you mean. Ishizu tried to contact Kaiba but he didn't pick up."

"He's probably already on the flight." Ishizu took a another sip of her tea, her midnight blue eyes scanning the many maps scattered across the mattress in front of her. Her eyes settled on a particular map half hidden by several others. It was old, with crease marks, and obviously a replica of a much older map she remembered was kept locked away in a climate controlled vault.

On it was an detailed rendition of the Nile river delta, the location of the ancient city Iunu, renamed Heliopolis by the ancient Greeks, and the locations of several personally important grave sites. Atem's had caved in on itself after the Ceremonial Duel had been completed and the Pharaoh rejected going to the afterlife in favor of remaining with his Ba. But the locations of the others nearby had remained undisturbed. Or had they?

"I feel like someone's walking on my grave."

The descendants of Isis, the High Priestess who wore the Millennium Tauk under the rule of Atem and Set, had become tombkeepers and made it their life's duty to protect the graves of the formerly Nameless Pharaoh and his Shadow Court. But over time, lack of money, resources, and people made it difficult. The clan had been forced to narrow their protection to only the tomb of the formerly Nameless Pharaoh.

It had turned out to be a fairly wise decision. While most of the archeologists focused on the more popular area of the Valley of the Kings seeking the lost pharaohs' tombs, it left the area of the original Shadow Court's tombs largely undisturbed. Then Sugoroku Motou had appeared and somehow slipped past their safeguards and taken the Millennium Puzzle from the tomb. Now they knew Yugi's grandpa was actually the reincarnation of Shiamun, Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen and Pharaoh Atem's advisor, and the Ishtar clan had given way to fate and destiny.

But now she wondered. Had it indeed been wise to remove her clan's watch from the other gravesites? The man Carter Hall had discovered the tomb of the false descendants of Ra and consequently helped the reborn Akhenadin wreck havoc on Starling City as well as the sanity and souls of Kaiba and his Ba, Seth. What if another person had begun to unearth Set's final resting place?

She pulled the map towards her, taking a sip of her tea as she did so. Her eyes immediately focused on the dot representing the tomb of Set. It was close enough to Atem to have kept at least a partial eye on and still keep the two friends close even after death, but far enough away to prevent being easily found, or so she hoped.

"Has anyone listed new potential archeological dig locations?" she asked.

Marik shook his head. "Not that I am aware," he said slowly. "But I can ask."

He got up and pulled out his phone to call the museum and a few of his connections in the underworld he maintain contact with. Shaadi slid closer and took Ishizu's free hand in his drawing her attention to him. He met her eyes calmly.

"Are you sure you are well?" he asked gently. "Is there anything I can do?"

Ishizu smiled and shook her head. She placed her now mostly empty mug down on the bedside table next to Marik's. "I am well physically," she answered softly. "But my mind is..." She shook her head. "In turmoil. I have seen death in both this life and the previous, but I forget how violent and sudden it can be."

Shaadi nodded. "Yes. I remember," he whispered. His strange yet gentle eyes settled on the map and he sighed. "You think someone may have found Set's tomb."

"I am not sure," she said tiredly. "I could be reading too much into a stressed young man's words."

"Or it could be your intuition combined with a young man struggling to put words to what he is feeling," Shaadi said. "Kaiba hardly ever says anything without first considering the ramifications his words could have."

"Except when he's flustered," Ishizu said, a small smile pulling at her lips.

Shaadi's stoic expression eased to something softer. "Yes. But he is young still."

"Youth has nothing to do with it," Ishizu said with a sly grin. "As I recall, you were not your usual confident self when you asked permission to court me."

"With your brother hovering over my shoulder waiting for me to misstep," Shaadi said calmly, "you can hardly blame me."

"No," Marik said, glaring down at the Egyptian who was too close to his sister for his approval. "And if you don't back away right now, I'll show you a new definition of 'hover.'"

"Marik," Ishizu chided. "I'm old enough to take care of myself."

"Yes, but I'm still your brother and Shaadi's not getting any until I give my expressed approval."

Shaadi flushed but obediently backed away so Marik could sit between them effectively cutting Shaadi off from Ishizu.

"I just heard," Marik said, brandishing his phone. "Ground just broke for a new archeological site close to Set's tomb."

"When did this happen?" Shaadi demanded.

"That's just it. It only happened about three days ago," he said. "They started early but had to put things on hold when there was some confusion with the paperwork. Also, there was apparently a cave in which again delayed things. Until last night. Sister," he lifted his worried eyes to Ishizu who was listening avidly, "I think they found the entrance to Set's tomb."

For a moment, no one spoke. Then Ishizu stood. "I'll call the museum. Perhaps the papers could get misplaced again."

"But now that they have found something, they will not stop digging," Shaadi said. "Human curiosity will force this to move forward."

"What if Kaiba came here?" Marik suggested.

"Here?"

"Not officially," Marik said quickly. "You and I are among the top Duelists in the world," he said to Ishizu. "Plus, it is known that Kaiba has an interest in Egyptian relics."

"He has visited museums," Shaadi said. "That hardly equals an interest."

"But it would not be out of character for him to visit," Marik said. "Like I said, it would not be official." He stared at Shaadi significantly who sighed heavily.

"I could teleport him here, yes," Shaadi said wearily. "But I would have to rest before I travelled. Plus, he is already on his way to the United States. The more pressing issue now is preventing his assassination."

"I can contact Arrow," Ishizu said. "I can give him some forewarning so he can prepare and hopefully prevent this."

"And if it doesn't work?" Marik asked cautiously.

"It will," Ishizu insisted. "I'll make sure of it."

"You plan on going there," Shaadi breathed standing. "I will go with you."

"The hell you will," Marik growled.

"He will, Marik," Ishizu said. "We all will."

"But that will leave the entire European and African continents unwatched," Marik exclaimed.

"Not if the King is willing to help," she countered. "Which we know he will. Besides, I think the Pharaoh would be interested in learning of the recovery of Set's tomb."

"Rishid will guide him," Shaadi said. "I will contact the airlines and find a flight that will take us close enough to Starling City for us to Travel from there."

"How long would this take?" Ishizu asked.

Marik pulled out his phone and Googled the approximate time. "If we left on the 3:00 a.m. flight, factoring in possible layovers and delays, approximately seventeen hours. And it would cost over $1,400 U.S. dollars per person."

Ishizu nibbled her thumbnail habitually. "We could catch one of the shorter flights and Travel some distances between airports," she said.

"I can teleport us longer distances if necessary," Shaadi offered.

Ishizu shook her head minutely and began pacing again going over possible scenarios and outcomes in her mind. "Marik," she said. "I need you to stay here." She raised her hand stopping his expected refusal and pulled him into a hug. "I'm trusting you to help Rishid keep the Pharaoh and Yugi safe. I know you can handle things while I'm gone. Trust me to do the same."

Marik sighed, caught in a bought of indecision. "I trust you," he said heavily. "I just..." He glanced at Shaadi and groaned.

"Do you want me to call Bakura and Ryou and have them come down here?" Ishizu asked. Marik glanced hopefully up at her and she smiled. "I'll do that then. And I think, we should contact the Justice League as well. This does involve Arrow and he is one of theirs as much as he is one of ours."

Marik and Shaadi nodded reluctantly. "I'll do that," Marik said. He pressed his forehead to his big sister's and whispered. "Are you sure, you're okay?"

Ishizu nodded. "I've been better," she admitted.

"Shaadi drive us to the airport," Marik said. "That would give you the chance to inform the museum of your absence, I can help the papers regarding the archeological dig become misplaced again, and you can buy the plane tickets at the airport. How's that sound?"

"Good," the Priestess replied with a smile. "Now let's get going. We have to hurry."

"Any idea when the assassination was going to take place?" Marik called after his sister as she began throwing a couple changes of clothes into a small bag.

"No," Ishizu called. "But I'm guessing no more than two or three days at most."

Marik huffed. "I hate timelines."