Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Within a few seconds, his life points dropped to zero. Just half a head turn further on, another duelist did the same. As soon as one duel ended, a new one began a few meters away. One by one, the participants eliminated each other from the tournament and slowly but surely it became clear which duelists had a chance of reaching the final.

Amara stared intently at the screens in front of her and watched the numerous duels taking place on them.

"Is there any news yet?" - "No, neither an Egyptian god card nor any other card relevant to us has been played." Sighing, she propped her head up on her forearm. "For the life of me, I can't imagine any of these duelists having one either, but you never know." Without moving her head, she glanced sideways at the boy next to her, who looked more than lost in the large office chair. "Aren't you getting tired? After all, you've been walking around the city all day watching the games." Her own eyes were already falling shut. The tournament days were exhausting, everyone was on high alert and working overtime to ensure the tournament ran smoothly. If she was already exhausted, how tired did the boy next to her have to be? - "Oh, you know, my big brother works around the clock too, so I have to keep up. I don't mind that." Although the small server room was now only lit by a few small lamps and the flickering light from the screens, you could see the delicate shadows under his eye, confirming that he was lying. Smiling, the blue-haired assistant leaned back and fixed her gaze on the flickering monitors again. "Well, I think I can take a leaf out of your book, Mokuba."

The evening dragged on like an eternity and the later the hours got, the fewer duels they were able to watch on their monitors. Even duelists seemed to need sleep. Only a deafening alarm tore them away from the duels and drew their attention to another monitor, which abruptly changed the program and switched to the surveillance camera of the Kaiba Cooperation camp. "What are you doing now?" - As if the tournament days weren't already stressful enough, it looked on the monitors as if a group was trying to gain unauthorized access to the company's warehouses. The intruders were difficult to recognize on the monitor. They made their way through the hall, tearing open all the boxes and ransacking the shelves.

After a brief exchange of glances with Mokuba and a message to Roland, the two of them took to their heels and followed the corridor that led to the stairwell and down into the warehouse. "Do you have any idea what they want in the warehouse?" - Mokuba snorted as they descended the stairs floor by floor. "No idea, but I'm sure we'll find out in a minute." Before they turned the next corner that led into the warehouse, they could already hear the noise and clutter coming from it. Quickly, they stumbled into the warehouse. Some of the intruders were halfway up their torsos in the various crates, rummaging through the contents. Some of them seemed to have found what they were looking for and put the Duel Disk, which shimmered in the dim light, over their arms. Pointing her finger at the intruders, Amara made her presence known: "So you broke in here to steal our duel disks. I guess you didn't make it into the tournament any other way." Like frightened rodents that had been disturbed while burying their prey for hibernation, the group looked over at the two of them one by one. The warehouse cast faint moonlight through a few of the high windows. The biggest source of light was the beams of the flashlights that the intruders had with them and kept shining into the crates and storage utensils. One of them, who had already thrown one of the disks over his arm, murmured back: "We're just taking what's ours. Kaiba underestimates us. Just because we didn't make it to the final in the Duelists' Kingdom, we're too bad to take part in this tournament? I was rated with one star in your stupid system. Kaiba has no idea what kind of top duelist he disinvited." - "Just because your ego is bruised doesn't mean you can just break into our warehouse and help yourself to the duel disks." Amara drew in a sharp breath.

A greedy grin spread across his lips. "And who's going to stop us? You and that gnome there?" he pointed at Mokuba with the hand over which he had drawn the stolen Duel Disk. A dark laugh rippled through the room. Amara looked around nervously and noticed that two more of the burglars had already appropriated one of the duel disks stored in the crates. She glanced into the corridor behind her - the security team had a lot to do in the city because of the tournament, which meant that the company and therefore the warehouse were less busy. Neither a duel nor a physical altercation seemed to be the solution here, there were too many of them. With a sideways glance at Mokuba, who had already mumbled something into his microphone on the collar of his jacket, it was probably best to stall a little. Although he was the younger of the Kaiba brothers, he also knew how to handle such situations and help was certainly on the way.

Amara took a deep breath, hoping that it would ease her tension - but this attempt seemed to be in vain. "Exactly. How did you actually imagine that? U steal our Duel Disks, get lost and then you can calmly take part in the tournament? Each Duel Disk has its own ID and can therefore be tracked by us. Even if you run off with it, we'll find you." At the latest when one of them would start a duel with the disk, they would have its exact coordinates and could follow the duel live. And offline - the disks aren't much use. Even if they were to sell them, they would be able to tell which ones were stolen based on the ID not registered in the tournament. And Amara didn't trust these guys to reprogram the duel disks.

Once again, laughter echoed through the warehouse. "So what? If we win enough duels, Kaiba will have to acknowledge that we're strong duelists and won't be able to rule us out. At the latest when we have defeated him - he has to recognize our talent and declare us the winners..." -

"Did I hear that right...? You think you could beat me in a duel?" Jerkily, all heads turned in the direction of Seto Kaiba's voice.

Chapter Text

Amara let out a sigh of relief. Seto Kaiba had actually said goodbye that morning and announced that he wanted to mingle with the participants and test his Egyptian god card—but either he was on his way back to the company or he happened to have a duel in the area. She didn't care which of the two possibilities was true—she was just glad to be able to let go of the situation. 

While Mokuba eyed his brother enthusiastically, the burglars managed to hide their initial surprise at Kaiba's appearance and reverted to their previous manner. The blond-haired man Kaiba had interrupted earlier raised his fist toward the former champion. “Yes, exactly. So... just because we didn't make it that far in the Kingdom of Duelists doesn't mean we can't compete here or beat you on the spot.” His voice echoed through the warehouse, much louder than before. 

Kaiba let out a contemptuous hiss and aimed his Duel Disk. “You're not even worth me crushing you here and now. Lucky for you, I want to try a few more moves.” A cool, barely noticeable smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. While the presumed leader of the burglars visibly accepted the challenge and prepared for a duel, his accomplices exchanged glances, some victorious, some perplexed. Each of them had now slipped a Disk over their arm, and with a final dismissive glance at Mokuba and Amara, they positioned themselves on the other side of the hall and the Duel Field. 

“If, against all odds, you manage to defeat me, my assistant Amara will make sure that you and your friends here all receive a registered Duel Disk and access to the tournament.” There was a hint of mockery in his expression. Amara, who stood even straighter than before when Seto brought her into play, nodded. A quick sideways glance at Mokuba confirmed that he, too, had no doubt that this would never happen. She leaned against the doorframe connecting the warehouse to the stairwell hallway and watched the duel, which had now begun but was more than one-sided. 

The game lasted a whole three rounds before Kaiba won with an attack from his blue-eyed white dragon. “And this guy calls himself a duelist? He didn't even last long enough for me to summon my Obelisk.” The insult was written all over the guys' faces. One of them made a move to protest, but their leader shook his head and immediately stifled any further attempts. Somewhat hesitantly, they threw down their Duel Disks and left the warehouse as quickly and silently as they had come. “And don't ever show your faces here again.” - Mokuba raised his fist in the air - before turning to his brother. “Too bad, I would have loved to see the Egyptian god card in action.” - “It looks like you'll have to be patient a little longer, Mokuba.” Kaiba walked past the two of them into the hallway leading to the stairwell. After a few steps, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Mokuba, please talk to Roland about increasing our staff. I don't want to see idiots like that in the company again. And Amara, accompany me upstairs to my office.” “Of course.” She took one last look at Mokuba, who was already talking into the microphone on his collar again, smiled briefly, and then hurried after Kaiba. 

No matter how many times she had stood in this office over the past few weeks, she was always impressed by the huge window front. During her job interview a few months ago, she found it difficult not to let her gaze constantly drift past Kaiba and out of the window. His office was located at the top of the huge building and offered a fantastic view over the entire city. For reasons unknown to Amara, her boss had decided to set up his desk so that he sat with his back to the window. Apart from the huge desk Kaiba sat at, the room was sparsely furnished. Interior designers would probably describe it as simple elegance, but she herself had no sense of that. 

“Is everything ready for the final?” Amara, whose gaze had briefly slipped back out of the window, nodded. “Yes, all the preparations have been made. There are still no participants who have enough localization cards, but it won't be long now.” She got nothing more than a brief nod in response. After Kaiba Cooperation had been threatened for several months by a takeover from within by a few scheming executives, Kaiba had decided to invest in new staff. Amara was one of those investments. It had never been her direct intention to work there, but Kaiba was looking for young and motivated employees, and Amara was looking for a new home and a new life. It was a job that kept her so busy and fulfilled that there was no need for other things in her life. During those weeks, she had learned that Kaiba was not a man for small talk. 

“Have we been able to find out more about the rarity hunters?” Kaiba rested his elbows on his desk and folded his hands in front of his face. "Nothing we didn't already suspect. Mokuba was out in town today keeping order, and we monitored the rest of the games in the server room. So far, we haven't been able to catch any of the guys. However, we did get a tip from some passers-by that they saw some strangely cloaked figures near a warehouse—I wanted to take a look at it in the morning." A glance at the window was enough to see that it would soon be morning. 

Kaiba followed her gaze and nodded. 

Amara turned on her heel and strode toward the door, pausing halfway through it to turn around once more. “This may not be any of my business, but do you ever sleep?” Kaiba looked up at her from his desk. At first his expression was grim, but then his features softened. "And u?”

Chapter Text

The few hours of sleep were still noticeable after her second coffee. The cool wall against which Amara pressed herself didn't help her to wake up, but it left a pleasantly cooling feeling on her skin.

Shortly after the sun had risen, Amara tortured herself out of bed to fulfill the task she had agreed with Kaiba: To find out more information about the machinations and plans of the rarity hunters.

Even though the hunters - just like Kaiba - were pursuing the goal of collecting rare cards during the tournament, they were anything but allies. They disregarded the established rules of the tournament and posed a constant threat. They played by their own messed-up rules. And if there's one thing Amara has learned about Seto Kaiba, it's that he hates it when things don't go his way.

" Master Marik...... sorry for....we tried - .....cards.... Yug- ...prison-... “ the snippets of conversation Amara picked up made her just as wise as before, the only thing new was the name ”Marik." The hooded figure clutched his head as if he was in pain and stammered out more scraps of words.

“Amara are you there?” she jumped briefly as a rough voice sounded from the small microphone on her collar.

“Yes Kaiba, what's going on, I'm on the trail of one of the rarity hunters.” The little microphone was silent for a moment and she was about to finger the thing when Kaiba continued:

"The bastards have kidnapped Mokuba, we're on their trail. If you get anything out of them, report to me immediately."

She swallowed

“ Of course.”

There was a brief hiss, then Kaiba fell silent.A sinking feeling spread through her stomach. Mokuba had fallen victim to the hunters' plans. She knew it wasn't the first time he had been in such danger, but that didn't dispel her concern for him. The boy was one of the first people Amara had befriended in the company and enjoyed working with. He was smart for his age and brought a bit of warmth to the company. She liked him and didn't want a hair on his head. Just like Kaiba. The CEO was not known for being a ray of sunshine, but when it came to his brother, his weak spot was hit. This trait somehow made him more human, a little more gentle.

“Who are you talking to?” 

A strangely contorted face slid past her out of the corner of her eye. Amara jumped a little, bumped the back of her head roughly on the wall behind her and then held her hands protectively over the spot. 

“You scared m- ” 

she faltered in mid-sentence as she looked up at the contorted grimace. The hunter she had been following seemed to have listened in on her conversation, just as she had done with his earlier. But what startled her the most was the fact that she knew the man's face. 

“Kael?” Her voice sounded shriller than she intended. The pointed face she was looking into was contorted and haggard and a strangely absent expression kept flitting across his face, but she recognized that dull red hair, the silver earring and the straight pointed nose immediately. The young man in front of her tilted his head and bounced his eyes back and forth, as if he was trying to locate the person in front of him. She cautiously took a step back. 

“You're one of them?”

“Who...?” Kael tilted his head, then pressed his eyelids tightly together a few times as if he was trying to blink something away. He shook his head and looked up at her again. "But of course. Amara." - she briefly recognized his old features. “It feels like an eternity since...” he scrutinized her disparagingly from head to toe “...since you abandoned us.” 

A dull ache ran through her chest at his words. Abandoned - that sounded so disloyal, selfish and ... unfortunately also true. She had abandoned her friends, her family, the thing she called home. 
Perplexed, she stared at her old friend and colleague and tried to build a bridge in her mind between what had happened when she left and what was happening now. “You belong to the Rarity Hunters?” she asked again, although the answer was more than obvious. 

Kael smirked, the way he scrunched up his face making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "Oh, you've heard of us? Ha-ha, that's perfect Amara... that's perfect. Why don't you join us, I'm sure I can put in a good word for you with Master Marik." He spread his arms and widened his eyes. She didn't know whether he was delighted or mad.

She shook her head in disgust. " Absolutely not. Do you know what a mess these guys leave behind? What the hell are you doing with them?"
Kael's eyes glazed over for a moment, then he regained his composure. "Chaos? What's the difference to what we used to do? Master Marik promised me power and a better life. Don't pretend you don't want a different life, a better one. That's why you left, abandoned us and we had to deal with this shit on our own." 

The stinging in her chest increased. "There's a huge difference.... We never intentionally -“ she faltered briefly and swallowed her rising anger - ”Mokuba!“ ”Where did you take Mokuba?" Kael blinked several times before answering. “Mokuba?” he was silent for a moment "Oh, you mean the brat? Well, let's see... where did we take the little one?" he laughed shrilly, quite unlike Amara knew his laugh to be. 

“That's not funny, Kael.” - this time she couldn't swallow her anger. “Now tell me where you took him?” her voice grew louder and she took a step towards him.

“No.” he paused and the playful expression on his face vanished while something unpredictable flitted across his countenance: “And now get out of my way Amara, or I'll get uncomfortable.” Kael's voice sounded distorted, as if he wasn't the one speaking. Her cheeks began to glow, she took another step towards him and before she could think twice about it, she grabbed him by the collar of his purple cloak and pulled him towards her. "I have no idea what's been going on with you over the last few years, whether Seth kicked you out or whether you've been warping yourself. I don't know if you're desperate or confused for getting involved with guys like that, but it doesn't matter now, I want to know where you've taken Mokuba now.  "

The moment Amara dropped Seth's name, Kael flinched. His nostrils quivered and the state of his eyes changed again. They cleared. It took Amara a moment to register his reaction, but then she saw a chance to speak to the Kael she knew... and had once trusted.  The Kael she, Seth and the others had grown up with, the one she called a friend.

"Does Seth know what you're doing here? Are you still in touch with him?" Kael blinked several times before his pupils dilated. “Leave Seth out of this.” His voice began to tremble. Apparently Amara wasn't the only one who didn't like being reminded of Seth. “He has nothing to do with this.”

But even if Amara would have preferred to erase this chapter from her life, it seemed to help her. “He must still have the old number, right?” Amara pulled a flip phone out of her jacket pocket. “I bet he'd still answer if I called him.” The color drained from Kael's already pale face. “You don't know what it was like when you left, he-” Amara cut him off, “Then tell me where Mokuba is now.” She fixed him with her gaze and flipped out her cell phone. Kael's gaze flitted back and forth between her and the cell phone before he almost whispered. “If they are, they'll have taken the brat to the big warehouse.”  Amara turned and pointed to the large building not far from here “One of these here” - “No we occupy several, it'll be one on the pier.”

Amara nodded and put her cell phone back in her jacket pocket. She hoped that Kael didn't notice that her hand was shaking slightly.

She stared in the direction Kael had indicated for a few more seconds before she let go of him and he staggered back. She turned away from him and fiddled with the microphone on the collar of her dress. 
"Kaiba? Can you hear me? I was able to track down one of the guys, they took Mokuba to a warehouse on the pier." 
"I see, good work. I'll meet you there." 
Amara nodded in agreement, immediately realizing that Kaiba couldn't even see the nod.

“No, Master Marik.... I only have....” Amara turned to Kael with a jerk. He was hunched over, holding his head and talking to someone she couldn't seem to see. Again. “Please master....don't punish me....” - 
“Amara, what's going on there?” She looked down at her collar in surprise. She was still fiddling with the microphone with her fingers. “Oh, one of those guys - ” All at once, Kael let out a cry like an animal being backed into a corner.

“Amara?” Kaiba's voice at the end of the mic became more impatient. “I - wait a second Kaiba...”  A strange noise sounded behind here, hurried footsteps and then Amara turned to Kael. "The problem just vanished into thin air. I'll see you at the pier." She stared at the spot where Kael had been crouching a moment ago - he disappeared.

Chapter Text

Amara hurried through the narrow alleyways that led through the industrial district to the Domino City pier. She had stood for a while at the spot where her old friend Kael had suddenly disappeared and had first wondered whether she should go and see where he disappeared to. But he and his new comrades were responsible for Mokuba being kidnapped. It had a bitter taste to see what he'd become.

The first time she met Kael, she was about eight years old and caught him stealing cookies from his neighbor's sill where they were left to cool. When he saw Amara, he shared his loot for fear that she would tell on him. And wherever Amara went, Seth wasn't far away, so the three of them ate the entire tray. Since then, Kael had somehow become part of their group.

Although Amara had the feeling that she had walked past these warehouses for the tenth time, the salty smell that came over her confirmed that she had soon reached the pier and thus the meeting point with Kaiba. The industrial district was divided into blocks in which the same layout of warehouse was built over and over again.

As the gray concrete blocks slowly disappeared from her view and the blue horizon stretched out before her, she almost tripped over her own feet when she saw that his little brother Mokuba was standing next to Kaiba. And he was probably up. Relief spread through her chest and when she reached the two brothers at the jetty, she stopped and gasped eagerly a few times.

“I suppose you're on Mokuba?” she looked over questioningly at the boy, whose face was at eye level with hers as Amara leaned on her knees after her sprint. “What happened?”

“Tea helped me escape from the base, I got in touch with Roland and went straight to Seto.”

Amara, who was slowly regaining control of her lungs, looked up at Kaiba. “Shortly after you called me, Mokuba came to us with the helicopter.”

“And telling me he got away and was alright wasn't an option?”

A sharp sideways glance from Kaiba met hers. “It wouldn't have made any difference, we had already agreed that you would join us here again.”

Amara looked incredulously first at Mokuba, then at Kaiba and then back at Mokuba, who was already smiling apologetically. “Sorry for the inconvenience.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “But we have bigger problems now.”

Mokuba stretched his finger towards the pier and Amara followed his movement with her gaze, only now realizing that a duel was taking place.

Two participants were dueling on the pier, one of whom she recognized as Yugi Muto and the other as Joey Wheeler. In preparation for the tournament days, Amara had been briefed on the most important candidates, and Mokuba had also told her about the small group that had helped him out of a jam or two in the duelists' kingdom.

However, the duel looked more than unusual. On the one hand, there was a huge anchor hanging in the middle of the dueling field, to which the two duelists were connected by a chain attached to their foot – on the other hand, a young woman, about Amara's age, was sitting tied up on a chair on the opposite side, with a metal box hovering above her.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Amara's gaze remained fixed on the bound woman, who was clearly being held hostage. She was about to rush forward to get to her when Kaiba held her back by the shoulder and nodded his head towards the crane to which the metal box was attached. One of the Rarity Hunters was sitting in it.

Mokuba intervened and explained: “Of course, we've already tried to stop the duel, but as soon as we intervene, that guy will drop the crate on Tea's head.”

The color drained from Amara's face.

Disrupting the tournament and taking rare cards from targeted players was one thing, but first the kidnapping of Mokuba and now this hostage-taking put this group in a whole new light. And Kael had become one of them.

She looked at the man holding the remote control and threatening to hurt the girl, and Amara was a little relieved that this man was a stranger to her.

The duel was like a fever dream. Joey seemed to have been brainwashed by Marik and Yugi was desperately trying to remind Joey that they were friends. It was cruel to watch. Joey seemed almost possessed as he dueled. He reminded her of Seth.

Squealing car tires filled the air as a purple Caprio appeared behind them, carrying more spectators. Mokuba seemed to know most of them as well, but Kaiba paid little attention to the newcomers and continued to assess the duel.

One of the new spectators, a young girl with light brown hair, wore a bandage over her eyes and was accompanied by two young men on either side. “Don't take the blindfold off yet, Serenity,” one of them said to her.

The name rang a bell for Amara. During the preparations for the tournament, she and Mokuba had stayed longer in the office and he had told her about the events from the duelists' kingdom, including the fact that Joey – who was still a complete beginner at the time – was dueling to use the prize money for his sister's operation, whose name was Serenity.

The assistant put one and one together and assumed that the rest of the troupe must also belong to Yugi's circle of friends. An interesting group.

Amara would have liked to continue trying to analyze the individual connections between the people, but the duel had approached a dangerous turning point. Joey was now making stuttering noises similar to those made by Kael a few hours ago and seemed to be communicating with someone the others couldn't see.

Amara would stake her life on the fact that it was Marik with whom Joey was having this conflict in his head.

“It's hard to watch,” Amara muttered more to herself.

Joey ruffled his hair and screamed uncontrollably before it fell silent. Everyone present fixed their gaze on the blond and waited for him to give a sign of life. Then suddenly he shook his head and looked at Yugi. His eyes, which had previously seemed almost glassy like Kael's, were now clear again.

When he began to speak in his own clear voice, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then everything happened very quickly: Yugi directed his final attack against himself, the timer for the duel ran out, Joey rushed to Yugi, trying to reach for the key at his feet – but both were pulled into the depths by the anchor.

Some of Yugi's friends jumped into the water. He himself was quickly fished out and freed from the shackle, but Joey was pulled further down. The girl with the blindfold tore it off and jumped into the water without hesitation, pulling her brother back to the surface.

Almost at the same time, the Rarity Hunter tried to intervene and have Tea killed by the metal box. Kaiba pulled out one of his cards and threw it so sharply through the air that he knocked the remote control out of the man's hand.

Both Amara and Mokuba then sprinted to Tea. Amara swiftly kicked the remote control into the sea as she ran past and, together with Mokuba, untied Tea's shackles.

It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down, hug each other and find out what had actually happened. Amara stood next to the Kaiba brothers and watched everyone, trying to match the individual group members to Mokuba's stories.

The girl with the brown hair – Tea – came up to Amara. “And thank you too, of course.” She smiled and Amara responded. “You're welcome. This must be a really tough day for you.”

Tea laughed lightly and brushed a few strands of her brown hair behind her ear. “You can say that again. I wish I could say that things like that don't happen more often here.”

Amara looked at Tea. “Yes, Mokuba has already told me a few things about you. You seem to practically attract danger.”

She laughed. “It definitely won't be boring with us. But tell me...”

Tea now looked back and forth between Amara, Mokuba and Kaiba: “Sorry to ask, but who exactly are you?”

Amara tilted her head slightly. “Oh that's right, we haven't even been introduced yet. I'm Amara, I work as Seto Kaiba's assistant in the Kaiba Corporation and, alongside Mokuba, I'm responsible for helping to organize and supervise the tournament.”

Amara looked once more at the site of the duel. “Which is more eventful than I thought.”

“What, you're working for Kaiba voluntarily?” Joey Wheeler joined the conversation, obviously surprised.

Amara nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kaiba turn on his heel and start to leave. “Come on Mokuba, let's go. Amara?”

She looked over her shoulder at the two brothers and said goodbye to the group. “I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough.” She smiled cautiously at Tea one last time and then turned back.

“They seem nice,” Amara said as she caught up with the two brothers.

“I wouldn't advise you to make friends with those kids, Amara.”

Amara had already heard that Kaiba wasn't very interested in dealing with the group in depth unless it involved a duel with Yugi.

“I have all the localization cards together now, so the grand finale can begin.”

A brief smile flitted across the corners of Kaiba's mouth. “Despite the delays, the airship should be ready.”

“Good.”

The three of them made their way to the place where all the finalists were led to ring in the grand finale. Suddenly, a hooded figure stepped out of one of the shadows of the winding alleyways onto the street.

“Not another one of them!” Mokuba protested as Amara's chest began to tighten again when she saw Kael in front of her.

Chapter Text

His eyes were dead. His formerly rosy cheeks were completely pale. If Amara didn't know that only a few hours had passed since their last encounter, she would have bet that he had been starved for days. With his haggard face, the dark shadows that had appeared under his eyes and his glassy gaze passing through them, Kael stood there like a marionette.

A breeze howled through the narrow alleyways, catching his coat and making him look like a deadly demon in the dim light of a lantern.

“Not those guys again!” Mokuba shouted and vented his anger. The little boy had definitely had enough of these creatures and Amara couldn't blame him. And she herself would have liked a few hours, or at least a few minutes, just for herself to sort out everything that had happened. Did she feel sorry for Kael? Was she annoyed by him? Did she feel threatened?

For a while, Amara just stood there and stared at him. Every second she realized that Kael no longer seemed to be in this body. She couldn't explain it, but it was as if he was a lifeless shell. Something strange was going on in this tournament. This Marik seemed to have somehow managed to gain control over certain people. But how? With a certain kind of card or ritual? She fixed her eyes on Kael, even though she knew that wouldn't get her any closer to answers.

Kael - or whatever dwelled within him and controlled him - raised his arm. 

Amara's gaze followed the movement and out of the corner of her eye she saw Kaiba bring his Duel Disk into position. She quickly turned her head to face him. “I don't think he wants to duel.” She pointed to the upstretched hand that had no Duel Disk or similar tool on it.

“Then what does he want?” Amara shrugged her shoulders.
"You guys are taking it too far. If you want to mess with me, come here. Otherwise, step aside and crawl back into the hole you came out of." 

Amara flinched almost imperceptibly at Seto's words - from the hole you came from - she knew his words weren't directed at her, but that didn't make them any less painful.

“I'm not here for a fight.” Although Kael's eyes were empty and lacked any sparkle or will to live, his voice sounded like him. This time it was she who confronted him. “Then what do you want?” His gaze fell in her direction, but he was looking through her more than actually looking at her. She shuddered.

“I'm here to give you a warning.”

“A warning?” - Mokuba looked at him angrily, but then glanced up at his brother with raised brows. “Do you think he wants to warn us about this Marik, Seto?”

Kaiba's features hardened. "If you have something to say, then spit it out. This Marik doesn't scare me. If I didn't know that your weird bird of a cult leader had such a rare card - I would have had you thrown out of town long ago."

Kaiba was stubborn, profit-oriented and often difficult to deal with, and she understood why many people had their problems with him. But she couldn't help but feel somehow safe with him as an employee and therefore part of his company.

Kael's arm shot forward and pointed in the direction of Amara and the two brothers. “He's coming.” He almost pressed the words over his lips, as if he was struggling to speak clearly.

Silence reigned for a moment. Then Kaiba snickered back. "I don't have time for such games. Tell that Marik I'll wait for him and his god card in the final. If you have nothing else to contribute, then I'd advise you to step aside."

Kaiba put one foot in front of the other, pulling Mokuba along at his side. Kael made way in an instant, turning to Amara one last time before disappearing into the shadows. Amara couldn't help but look after him again. She felt queasy and couldn't let go of one thought.

He wasn't talking about Marik.