January 21st 2011: Still at it! Whew, this fiction has been a battle over long periods of time but I'm glad I've stuck with it, it's glad to see it finally brought to it's end.

End of Chapter 29:

"I'm tired of..." Her first few words were barely a whisper, but it was quiet enough that the shocked Marik heard them from his close proximity. He couldn't move out of the way before she snapped his control, her powers flaring as the rod shattered into several pieces in his hand. "...being a target."

He didn't get a chance to respond, the tazer hit his chest and she pushed the button, his body falling into wracked seizures from the electricity curling through his body.

Chapter 30: Back to Normal

The pain vanished, washed away by a wave of adrenaline that had allowed her to push past the control of the magic of the millennium rod. Years of it's powers being abused had hollowed out it's efficency and left it as ready to break as a pane of glass met with a baseball. She reached past it's influence as her powers flared and purified the item from the world the tazer hitting it's mark.

She hit the young man with it again when his body started to cease it's thrashing, she ignored the fact that he was screaming, tears running down her own face. Her brain ached from the inner battle, even if she'd won, Kagome didn't come out completely unscathed...but she had enough sense to keep tazing the evil boy that had assaulted her again. She lost sense of time, just smacking him and pushing the button when he got too still, his screams died out as his body fell unconscious after a dozen or so of the attacks. She went to do it again out of a quickly developed habit and glanced up in fear when her hand was grabbed, she'd forgotten Nicole was only a room away.

Though it wasn't Nicole and she was able to let the tazer go, jumping up into Kaiba's arms when he went down to a knee to gather her. "Kagome. Are you okay?"

"I'll be okay." She sobbed into his shoulder. "Now that you're here."

Kaiba had to smile a bit at that, at least the girl had managed to take care of herself. Members of his personal police force ran up around them and he motioned to the two bodies. "Take them into custody and call the police, give them the tapes and any security involving Marek's attack."

"Yes Mr. Kaiba." Folks moved to his command, doing their best to ignore the still blubbering teenager clinging to his chest. He meanwhile wasn't paying them mind either.

Kaiba swept Kagome up into his arms and walked to his bedroom with her, letting her cry into his chest.

"It's okay." He murmured, sitting down and pulling her closer against him, wrapping arms around her protectively. "You're safe now, I'll make sure they can never hurt you again Kagome."

"It's not." She half sobbed, then accepted the handkerchief he offered, sitting up a bit away from him to blow her nose. "It's not okay...I mean...I'll be okay, but I was scared. I was afraid he'd use me against you again and I can't accept just always being a liability."

"Well, I think you used up most of the batteries in that tazer Kagome. Somehow I figure he felt your point if it couldn't be explained to him directly." Kaiba teased her gently, stroking her arm and watching her. "I was afraid too, I realized after I got out of the house that it was a trick. I was a moron for falling for something so stupid again, by the same person no less."

"No, it's good I got him...if you hadn't had him drug away I think I'd kick him a few times for good measure." She stated with her voice breaking occasionally with emotion. "I...I just couldn't bear the thought of hurting you...of not being able to tell you that I love you."

She buried her head back into his shoulder, relieved that he returned an embrace but almost as frightened by what else he would say to her as she had been when she was attacked. It was definitely as if all the pain of minutes before wouldn't compare to the agony she'd feel if he rejected her.

"You know." He said, smiling as he held her. "When we first met, I was so annoyed by you. You were just a loudmouthed girl with no sense of balance that seemed intent to slam into me at every given opportunity."

She frowned some, starting to protest but he continued.

"You had an bad attitude in general, liked to pour food on me, and be generally inappreciative for the things that I did for you."

She leaned back and opened her mouth but he put a finger over it.

"But, you also put up with me better than any other woman I've ever known. Your lack of balance gives me a chance to catch you and appreciate how beautiful you are. You trust me for some reason no one else, even I, can really understand. You've given me things I would have never learned to understand otherwise and I'm not about to let you get away from me now. I love you too Kagome."

She unruffled as he complimented her and then still didn't even get the chance to protest as when he moved his finger from her mouth his lips replaced it a moment later. It let her relax though, for the first time since she'd been attacked that night. All the awful moments wiped away for the shortest instance by his tender embrace.

ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo

Kagome blushed some as she avoided some of the whispers she was sure were being whispered about her, ducking away from the group that seemed to want to approach her and slipping instead over toward the table where Kaiba was sitting.

The tall young man wore his usual unimpressed expression and those dynamic sapphire eyes were lost in the book he had in front of him. The boy of course took his studies seriously as he had to graduate with top marks to retain control of his company.

She offered a wave to the table where Yugi and his other friends were all sitting, and they returned the gesture...they were some of the few at the school that seemed okay with forgiving her for her 'temporary death'. A lot of the other students seemed pretty annoyed with her for all manner of reasons, though none of them seemed to do with actually having cared that she'd 'died' as opposed to worried she wouldn't have to do as much work as them or that it was unfair she'd been able to just catch up after having been gone from the school for several weeks.

Not that she'd been a social bug even before, and well, she was fairly sure most people hadn't messed with her about it as it was still the gossip that she was dating Seto Kaiba. She'd walked in a few times on people before and heard just bits of conversations that lead her to believe she and he were a hot topic item. Apparently folks hadn't really been totally certain before she 'died' if she was just a temporary thing or not, mostly thanks to rumors Nicole had started. She was glad it got people to leave her alone though. She was busy enough just trying to get back into the swing of things and all her work turned in.

Thanks to Kaiba's insistence on her time with her tutor she was already caught back up with all assignments and all the teachers were very proud of how much she worked during her 'frightening ordeal'.

She snuck up behind Kaiba and put her hands around his head in front of his eyes. He didn't so much as budge however. His voice bored when he spoke up a moment later. "Could you move, your skin is rough and you must not be moisturizing."

She hmphed and sat down next to him, rolling her eyes when she looked at the book to see it was calculus 2. "You need to be less serious."

"You need to be more serious." He didn't miss a beat, writing something in his notebook and then turning the page. All still without looking up at her.

"Jerk." She muttered, turning to her meal to return the feigned ignorance of him being there. Then he leaned over and kissed her cheek and she couldn't help but send him a smile. "Dammit Kaiba, thats so not fair."

The young C.E.O. flickered the smallest of smiles in reply and continued his homework.

It was a gentle banter between the two and for Kagome it felt amazing just to be back to normal, or at least as normal as things were ever bound to get for the teenager.

End Chapter

I'm excited to finally be completing this story. And while I'm sure the pair has more they -could- do it's all something I'd prefer to save if I ever wanna write a sequel sometime in the future. I felt this was a good place to leave this arch though.

-Aura

To my reviewers: Thank you so much for all the support over all the time I've worked on this. Without you it wouldn't have ever finally reached it's complete status!