A/N Sorry for the late update. A bit of a writer's block I'm afraid. So one night while in bed with a 39,2 degrees Celsius temperature, the inspiration came to me. It didn't turn out as good as I expected, but anyway, I hope you like it. Enjoy.

Ch. 15 Damage

"Mr. Kaiba, I'm very happy you turned to us for help. The incident with the shipment was most unfortunate, but I assure you Whitefield Enterprises will see to your demand."

The meeting had been a success so far, but Seto hadn't paid too much attention to it. Sure the matter was serious. The future of the new and improved Duel-Monsters software was in stake, but there was someone else in the room that had captured his entire attention.

He never thought this day would come. Not even in his wildest dreams did he imagine this. Five thousand years and still, here he was, the man that had robbed him of his most precious gift, the man that had literally destroyed his life: Akunadin. It all seemed so unreal that every time he would raise his sight and meet his, it seemed to him like an illusion. And yet here he was, Akunadin … in flesh. The real deal. What was the meaning of this? What was he suppose to do?

"Mr. Kaiba? Are you alright?"

The voice of Helena's father brought him back to reality. The man was looking at him like he was crazy and looking back at what he's been through lately, he wouldn't blame the guy.

"I'm sorry. I was just …analyzing the situation."

He then took the pen Andrew handed and signed his name on the contract. At least something good would come up from the meeting. And since his personal life was in such a mess, his career as the CEO of the greatest game company in the world had to be kept intact, or else he was convinced he would lose his mind.

"Mr. Kaiba, I might have to go out of town tomorrow, so I won't be here to see that all the arrangements are made according to plan. But rest assure that everything is in good hands. Mr. Forster here will see to it."

At the hearing of his words both Seto and Akunadin stood up. Seto knew that if he were to be in the same room with his past self's father, he might end up doing something regrettable. Ever since he started remembering things from his past he had planned his revenge. But somehow standing face to face with him now, he doubted the truthfulness of all he had had witnessed. Maybe this Dorian was just a normal guy with a familiar face. Maybe he wasn't Akunadin at all and the poor bastard had been played by faith to look like his arch-enemy. He might be right, for what he could know.

But what if he wasn't? What if he really was Akunadin and he had come back to destroy them once again. What other reason would there be for him to be so close to her? His mind was twirling. He couldn't make heads or tails of the entire situation and there was nothing he could do except be on his guard.

Akunadin was also distressed. Things were developing much faster than he had first anticipated and he wasn't ready to face Seto alone. He wasn't ready to reveal his plan just yet. And the encounter with that strange Akio had only made things worse. He had to revise his entire strategy. The feeling that something bad was about to happen wouldn't leave him alone. Kisara was in trouble.

They starred each other in the eye waiting for the next move, until Seto finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry Mr. Whitefield, but I would rather we settled this matter in person. If you will not be able to cancel your departure then I shall wait for your return."

Akunadin was surprised and relieved. He had dodged the bullet. "But the release date of your new software is at the end of the month. And I'm not sure that …. " Andrew pulled out his business agenda from his brief-case, went through it until he got to the page with the arranged meeting and scrabbled something with his fountain pen in.

"I think I will be able to see the arrangements through. Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding."

Helena was sitting on a large leather couch in the waiting room. She desperately wanted to talk to Dorian. Something must have happened, she just knew it. She had seen the bandage on his left arm. This couldn't have just been an accident, Dorian was always vey careful. She had wanted to stay and ask him then what had happened; why was he hurt. But she couldn't have done that, it was after all an important meeting, she just couldn't have dragged him out of her father's office and talk to him. Business was business and she respected that, even if it was eating her up inside.

"Miss Whitefield, would you like something to drink? Coffee or maybe some tea?"

Lucia Cornell was her father's secretary. Actually she had been his secretary for the last three and a half years now and still going. She was very pretty, a bit too slender, Helena thought, but nevertheless pretty. She had shoulder-length curly blond hair, that could get so loose and wild, especially on windy days, that Lucia always had to keep it tight into a bun when she was at work. She had to look professional after all.

"Lemon tea, if you have some, please".

"Sure, right away".

Helena was very fond of her. She was very nice and honest and Helena appreciated those qualities the most in people. With twenty-one she had married a history professor at a local high-school that was fifteen years her age. Back then everybody had been against it: her parents, her friends. No one thought their marriage would last, not only because of the age difference but because they had different personalities. She was a young, fresh out of college, pop music fanatic, environmental committed person, on the verge on barging on a trip through Europe and a weakness for tacos. He was a very respectable high-school history professor, still caught up in the "peace-and-love" fashion of the seventies, a passion for collecting bumper-stickers and guitars, and suffering from a sever case of ailurophobia, due to a very embarrassing and somehow disturbing, for him, incident with a cat while he was five.

Anyway they've met in a bar once. She was wearing a deep red strapless dress with a piece of toilet-paper stuck to her shoes; he was kind enough to tell her. They started talking, then one thing led to another and they were married eight months later, after a very private marriage on a cruise- ship. And they have been living happily ever after for going on five years now.

Sure it must have been hard for them dealing with her moving to Japan for a year, but Jerry, that was her husband's name, had been very understanding and supportive of her and her career, and finally caved in and agreed that this was a great opportunity for her. One year wasn't that long and besides, summer break was knocking at the door, and then he will fly to Japan and be with her for the three summer months.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Helena took the cup of tea, put in some honey and took a sip out of it. It tasted really good and was really refreshing and it did have the right temperature for a tea. She enjoyed it although she mostly drank the tea hot.

"Could you possibly tell me whether my father has another appointment after this one or not?"

It was getting pretty late. It was half past five now and normally the program would be until six. Of course her father often stood in late to finish the paper work. He would never do that at home. He liked to keep his career separated from his private life. Business was business and family was family and he knew from experience that one shouldn't mix the two together. There have even been numerous occasions when he would have meetings at the late hours of the night, since he had to deal with foreign clients and all.

Hardly did Lucia managed to answer Helena's question, when the door of her father's office opened and out stood Seto Kaiba with a somehow bewildered and disturbed look on his face. Helena stood up. Judging by the look on Seto's face she thought the meeting didn't go all that well, but then her father came out as well, shook Seto's hand once more and assured him that everything would go according to plan.

So they did sign the contract, Helena thought, but why is he so upset then?

Seto took to leave. He wished he could do that without looking her in the eye, but there was something about them that was attracting him to the point he couldn't look away. The same was with Helena. There was something about this man that was alluring her and despite the protests inside her mind not to stare at him like a cow, she couldn't take her eyes of him. The moment was interrupted by her father inviting Kaiba to a small get-together on Sunday, as her family would host a "welcome to town" party, nothing too demanding or formal since there were only family members, closest friends, staff and some clients that were attending it.

"I hear you have a little brother. I would very much enjoy if you could bring him too. IT will be a fun party".

Helena smiled. Her father had always been a family man, who knew how to value the commitment, trust and hard work that a family requires, in a man. If Kaiba would play his cards right he could find in Andrew Whitefield a trustworthy and loyal business associate and friend.

"Thank you very much for the invitation".

As much as he would have liked to decline it, he couldn't. He needed those chips and it would be a big mistake for him getting on his bad side. He would have to see things through though. Akunadin would probably be at the party as well, and Kisara for sure. He had to prepare himself. He could use this opportunity to find out more about this so-called Dorian Foster and his connection to the Whitefield family and most of all to Kisara. There was something fishy about this entire situation and he didn't know exactly what to do, how to react or who to turn for help.

"I'll be taking my leave now. Have a pleasant evening".

"Thank you, likewise."

Seto then turned and left. The day had been pretty hectic so far and to think it wasn't over yet.

Dorian was standing alone in Andrew's office. He had faced Seto for the first time and he had come out of it in one piece. He had seen Seto's rage in his eyes. No doubt he had wanted to confront him then and there, probably even to punch him in the face, and who could blame him. He would probably react in a same matter if he were in Seto's situation.

He knew that the day in which he'll meet him would come soon, but he didn't expect it to happen so fast. He hadn't been at all prepared. This encounter took him by surprise and he had been all to more unprepared because of the incident with that strange individual, Akio Naoko, and those disturbing words, that wouldn't let his mind rest for even a bit "I am … you". So far he couldn't find an explanation for the guy's statement, nor could he figure out who he was, but he knew one thing for sure: he was after Helena, and he was determined never to let anything happen to her even if that meant he would have to do something regrettable.

"Dorian! What happened?"

Helena took Dorian's hand into her own. She was trying to comfort him and examine the wound, but Dorian pulled his hand quickly. He didn't want Helena to worry, but most of all he didn't want her finding out what had happened.

"Oh this? It's nothing really. I was a little clumsy; I tripped and cut my hand one a broken piece of glass. It's nothing serious so you needn't worry."

He then caressed Helena's face and placed a kiss on her forehead to reassure her. But Helena wasn't at all convinced by his excuse. 'Clumsy'. Dorian was exactly the opposite of clumsy. That word, the definition of that concept didn't even exist in his universe. He was always so serious and did everything so perfect one would thing he was a machine and not a human being.

"I…". She wanted to say she didn't believe him but was interrupted by her father, who had overheard their discussion and came in to see if Dorian was really alright.

"Did you went by the hospital and got the wound checked out?"

A small trade of worry and in the same time anger was sensed in Andrew's voice. Dorian had been hurt and didn't tell anyone about it. Didn't he trust them? They were supposed to be friends. Dorian should know that he could always count on him for help and support.

"Of course. I went straight to the hospital. And … I'm sorry, sir."

"For what?"

"For making you worry."

Andrew started laughing. Dorian could say the strangest of things sometimes. He wondered if that was due to the fact that he was a bit older, or because he was brought up that way.

"Dorian, you needn't apologize. I'm just happy that you're ok. And next time let us know, will you?"

Now that she looked at his face, Dorian did seem a little better. Maybe what he said really happened and she was just being paranoid. But somehow she couldn't shake this feeling that something else was going on.

"Where are you going, big brother?"

Meeting Akunadin the previous day had let Seto with an excruciating headache and tons of unanswered questions. He knew that he couldn't find out more from Yugi and the internet hadn't been of too much help for him. He had spent his entire night searching for something that could shed some light in the twisted situation he was in now, but with no luck. It was at five o'clock in the morning, when he went to sleep, when he had thought about going and asking Ishizu for help.

"I'm going to Egypt. I need to talk to Ishizu about something."

Mokuba knew that something important must have happened. His brother wouldn't just take his Blue-Eyes-Jet and fly all the way to Egypt just to say hello to Ishizu.

"Why? What happened?"

He was hopelessly asking Seto for the reason and as expected he didn't received an explanation. Seto could sure be stubborn sometimes. When he would set his mind on something, especially something important, that he couldn't handle by himself, he wouldn't talk to anyone about it, not even to his little brother.

"Don't you school to attend to?"

It was clearly as daylight that it had something to do with that new girl Yugi told him about; that new girl that was supposed to be the reincarnation of his big brother's past self lover and the one who bore the spirit of the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon. Mokuba took a moment to analyze the situation. Now that he thought about it, this was all so twisted that he somehow doubted his own sanity. Was this for real? All the magic, the Shadow Realm, the Memory World, the Pharaoh, it all seemed so unreal.

"Seto … be careful!"

He decided to let the matter to rest. If Seto wouldn't tell him anything than that meant that he himself didn't know what exactly was going on. He wouldn't fight with him anymore; he would be patient and wait for Seto to come to him. At least he would take a burden down from his back. It was support that his brother needed right now, and not an interrogation.

"I will. I'll be back by tonight. Take care."

Egypt looked exactly like the last time he had seen it: sand so far his eyes could see and burning heat that made his brain melt inside his head. He despised Egypt not because it was hot or sandy or anything, but because it was the place that turned his life into a living hell. The country was all in all great and in the past, before anything of this happened, he would have wished to visit it with Mokuba. But now he stood as far away from it as possible. He wouldn't even fly to Egypt unless he had no other choice, or unless he couldn't find the solution anywhere else.

Ishizu was investigating an old papyrus in her office when the door flee opened and in stepped the CEO of Kaiba Corp, Seto Kaiba, with two museum guards behind him, who excused themselves for not being able to prevent him for storming in.

"It's ok you two. I'll handle this. You can go now."

Ishizu was surprised. Seto Kaiba was the last person he had expected storming in when she woke up that Wednesday morning. And she thought it would be an uneventful day. Something big must have happened for him to come here unannounced like he did.

"Can I help you with something, Kaiba?"

She put the papyrus aside for fear it could get damaged and then made some tea and took some crackers out from the drawer of her desk and put them in the table. Seto went and took a seat on one of the armchairs. He wanted to be as close to the AC as possible. It was nearly noon and the temperature was raising fast. Now that he was sitting down, he noticed how tidy and professional Ishizu's office looked. He always thought that archeologists were messy people, always having their rooms filled with tools, ancient artifacts, dusty documents. He was pretty impressed.

"I'm sorry to storm in like this. I have something to talk to you about."

Ishizu poured the coffee in the cups and put them on the table. Now that she thought about it, she should have served cold coffee seeing how hot it was getting outside.

"What happened?"

She took a seat on the armchair next to Seto. He was thinking, looking like he was trying to find the right words to explain her. She took a sip from the coffee. It was pretty hot, that she burnt he tongue a little, and needed a tide bit more sugar.

"A new girl arrived at the Domino High-school about a month ago. Nothing out of the ordinary, I know. But you know this girl looks exactly like that girl, Kisara, I saw when I was in the Memory World with Yugi and the Kindergarten, the one my so called past self fell in love with, the one who sheltered the spirit of the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon."

Ishizu was amazed. Sure, reincarnation was a living part of not only her life, but her religion also. And she herself stood as an evidence for that, she was nevertheless the reincarnation of Isis. That Kisara was reincarnated shouldn't therefore be out of the ordinary. But her soul had been tied with the one of the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon, that is that upon her death, the two souls have converged into one single soul. For both Kisara and the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon to exist in the same world, at the same time was a problem. That wasn't possible.

"How could this be?"

"That was my reaction, too."

"No, Kaiba. You reacted that way because you don't believe in reincarnation."

Seto's face twitched. Sure he had his doubts about the issue, but there was no need for her to tell it in such a tone.

"Life is a circle. Out of death comes life, and out of life comes death. That's just how the universe works. But Kisara shouldn't be here now if the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon also exists in the same time and realm as her."

"What does that mean?"

Ishizu hesitated. She didn't know whether she should tell him the truth or not. Kisara might have been reincarnated for him. This just might be their long awaited second chance to be together. But if what Kaiba was saying was true, then the girl could be in serious danger.

"They can't both survive." Seto was thunder stricken. What was she talking about?

"One of them must be destroyed. They can't both live in the same time and place, Kaiba. They will consume each other until one of them will parish. You'll see it. They would both grow tired and weak. Unless you don't want to lose Kisara, you will have to destroy the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon."

Seto burst into laughter and jumped from his seat. It was ridiculous. This was a real life human being and a card she was talking about. It was absurd. He had definitely lost it trying to find an answer by talking to Ishizu. She was as crazy as the other members from the geek-squad.

"Is this a joke? Are you serious?"

Ishizu calmly lifted the cup of coffee and took a sip out of it. It had gotten colder. It was just right. She then put it on the table, went to the safe, opened it and took something that looked like a brown leather agenda from it, closed the safe again and returned to her seat. Seto didn't know what to expect.

"What's this?" Ishizu handed him the agenda.

"Take a look!"

He took the agenda from her hand somehow scared of what he would find inside it. When he opened it he stumbled across tones of articles, photos, reports dating three thousand years back.

"What's this?"

"It contains all the records my family has collected along the years. They're all similar cases. As you can see there are only few cases in which the humans have survived. In most of them the monster part had prevailed."

"Yeah, right. And you really expect me to believe this nonsense? I'm not as gullible as you think." He closed the agenda and put it on the table without throwing it any other look.

"This is serious Kaiba. That girl could die, if you don't do something."

Ishizu was right and Seto knew it. But somehow he found it hard to believe that what she had just said only a moment ago could be true. It sure did seem crazy enough.

"There's something else."

Seto's face became serious which made Ishizu believe that perhaps Seto decided to take the matter seriously.

"That guy, Akunadin, is also here."

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Helena had made plans to go with Tea and the others to the Solarium. It was a good opportunity to go out, explore the town and get to know each other better. Unfortunately something came up and neither of them could come anymore. Yugi's mom had just come back to town for a surprise visit, so Yugi was busy helping her preparing a small dinner party for the family members.

Tea also had guests. Her grandparents on her mother's said came to visit. Apparently Tea had forgotten about that and remembered only when the two stood on the front porch. Joey had to help his little sister, Serenity, with a school project. Naturally he wasn't going to tell her no, was he? Tristan had unfortunately come down with a quite terrible cold. Helena took pity on the poor guy, all alone in his apartment and prepared a nice warm quite tasty chicken soup for him.

When she had arrived at Tristan's apartment she had been astonished as how messy and dirty the place was. She had heard that boys were a bit messier than the girls, but by God, food was rotting under his couch. Tristan however had been a true gentleman. He offered her a seat, brought her some tea, which tasted really bad, and even had an attempt at cleaning up the place but had been in no condition of doing so.

So Helena had stayed and cleaned up the place; it was after all a favorable environment for the development of bacteria. At that rate, Tristan's illness was bound to get worse, instead of getting better. So after two hours of cleaning, whipping and washing dishes, she had left his apartment contempt with the result and relived that Tristan was now living in a healthy environment. She would call him later to check on him, for sure.

It was now eleven o'clock and the solarium was nowhere in sight. She thought about asking someone for instructions, but she lacked courage to do so, since everyone seemed in a hurry and she really didn't want to disturb them. So she had been circling the area for the past half an hour, looking at the show case of some clothing store, not at all impressed with the items of clothing pictured there.

She had almost given up going to the solarium. It was almost noon and she had to be home by four to help her mother with the preparations. The party was tomorrow and there were still a lot of things that needed to be done. Her relatives were arriving tonight, something Helena was eagerly looking forward to. Just when she was about to call for a cab, she heard the voice of someone she recognized all to well.

"All alone on such a beautiful day?"

Helena turned to face the owner of the words. And in front of her he stood, wearing a black suite and a purple shirt, that was opened at the neck and which was stressing out his body structure in quite an attractive way, she had to admit.

"Akio."