Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow Dragon ❯ Snakes in a Mansion ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Yu-gi-oh and Shadow Hearts belong to various other big important people.
Cassandra, Reaper and the monsters in this chapter belong to me.

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Seto Kaiba stared at the girl who was holding the naginata for a few seconds, then scowled. “I could ask you the same question.” He snapped. Seto tried to stand, but the blade pricked him under the chin when he tried to rise.

“Answer mine, first.” The girl asked. He glared at her.

“Why should I?” The millionaire shifted his weight slightly.

“Because I am the one holding a weapon here, you’re the most suspicious person in this house, and if you don’t I’m going to hurt you..”

“So your not suspicious at all.” Seto growled sarcastically

“No, actually I’m not. I am suppose to be here and you’re not.”

“Your suppose to be in a decrepit old house?” Sarcasm thick enough to cut could be heard in the statement.

“I’m suppose to find out what happened to the Grandfathers barrier, and I find it strange that the moment I come back here there is already someone inside.”

“And I find it suspicious that someone that apparently hates me sends me to a condemned house and then the next thing I know some little girl I’ve never even meet is pointing a weapon at me.” He glared at the girl on the other end of the weapon. “As far as I’m concerned your even more suspicious than I am.”

“If it was someone that you hate so much, why did you even come here?” The girl asked, eyes on his face.

“Why should I tell you?” Seto narrowed his eyes at the girl, studying her. “Don’t you already know?” She snorted at him.

“I work for no one but myself.” Was all the girl said. “And if I was your enemy,” She pulled the naginata back and then swung him towards him at an incredibly fast speed, stopping the blade inches from his neck. “I would have done something to you already.”

“Really?” Seto grabbed the shaft of the weapon and pushed it away as he stood up. The girl didn’t move but stood their studying him.

“You know, I don’t believe you did drop the barrier. You don’t have the aura of a magic user.” He glared at her.

“So your just letting me go.” He asked sarcastically.

“No, you may not have dropped the barrier but I’m still not convinced your innocent.” As she talked Seto glanced out of the windows and noted with some alarm how low the sun was getting

“Suspect me all you want, but I’m going to search this pile of rubble. You can try to stop me if you want.” Seto started to walk away . There was silence from behind him, and then the sounds of footsteps hurrying to catch up. The millionaire tensed expecting an attack but when none came and the foot steps fell in to a regular pattern behind him he turned to glare at the girl behind him.
“What are you doing?”

“This is the only hallway that leads into the house.” She pointed out. Seto growled but couldn’t really do anything about it. The two continued on for a few minuets, until there was a rustle on both sides and suddenly two of the green girl-things he had killed before and two of the serpents-things attacked them. This time he was ready and took out one of the monster girls and managed to kill one of the naga’s, only to look up and realize that there was no more enemies. He looked over and noticed that the girl was just straightening up from her own fighting stance.

“I can fight you know.” She said in when she caught him looking at her. “But I didn’t know you did. Although I guess anyone who would try to fight malice monsters with out any magic or weapons.”

“Malice monsters?” That was something that he had never heard before.

“Malice is made up of negative humans emotions. It accumulates in places where a massive of amount of negative emotions have been released, usual the a sites of violent deaths and it twists the spirits and animals in those places in to monsters and evil spirits.”

“Look, I don’t care what you say I am not going to believe that I’m fighting ghosts.” The girl looked at him in surprise.

“How do you explain what you’ve seen?”

“I don’t know but I intend to find out.” Was all the reply Seto gave as he swept off down the corridor. For a few seconds Cassandra stood staring, then she went after him shaking her head.

After the two had reached the end of the hallway it split into two more that lead to different parts of the mansion. Seto took one then looked back in surprise to see the girl following him.

“What are you doing now?” He snapped in her direction.

“I don’t trust you.” As all the answer she gave. For a second Seto thought about making her go away but then decided against it. He hadn’t liked the way Reapers note had been phrased and he wanted to find Mokuba as soon as possible.

The hallway led to several doors that lead into decrepit rooms. Almost all of them where dead ends and Seto was getting tired to being attacked by monsters.

“I haven’t introduced myself have I?” Came from behind him. “My name is Cassandra.”

“I really don’t care.” He snapped and turned to glare at her. Cassandra glared back.

“It’s polite to give your name.” She retorted. He glared for a few more seconds then turned around.

“Seto Kaiba.” He said shortly, then walked off. Cassandra followed, wondering why his name sounded so familiar. After a bit more exploring, (pointless wandering around Seto called it) the two managed to find a staircase that lead up to the second floor. Seto went right past it.

“Your not going upstairs?” Cassandra asked.

“No.” Was the rely. She shrugged and followed the young man. Seto went through another door and came out in what had once been a large kitchen. It was ruined now. Cassandra wandered in after him and explored then kitchen itself, as Seto cursed. The search was taking up too much time and he didn’t even know how much time Mokuba had left. Just as he was about to leave Cassandra spoke up.

“Well this is interesting….” Annoyed Seto stalked over to where she was standing intending to yell at her, but stopped when he saw what she was looking at. A wooden door was set into the wall of the kitchen, but for some reason it looked as if someone had painted a large turquoise symbol directly onto the door.
“It looks like someone doesn’t want us going through here.

“What makes you say that?” Seto growled, she motioned to the door with her weapon.

“That.” Was all she said.

“Some paint?” He snorted and reached toward the doorknob, ignoring the symbol on the door.

“Wait!” He head Cassandra call from behind him. “If you touch that then…..”

“Please.” Seto snorted in response. “If you believe that I am going to stop because of some ‘magic’ symbol that someone painted on the door than you are even more gullible than I though…..” His hand closed around the doorknob. Immediately an electric jolt shot though his hand, throwing it off the knob and hitting the millionaire hard enough make him take a step back. Shocked Seto glanced down his hand. Although there wasn’t physical signs of damage on the appendage, it still hurt. He rubbed it and glared at the door. Behind him Cassandra spoke up.

“I did warn you.” Annoyed Seto turned to the girl and glared.

“How did you know that the door was booby-trapped?” He demanded.

“The rune on the door.” Cassandra replied, ignoring the threat in the his voice. “Like I said before, it’s a physical sign that someone has set up a barrier to keep us out. Despite what you want to think it’s not as simple as a booby-trap.”

“You seem to know an awful about this. And you just happened to show up and pointed me in this direction.” Seto’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Cassandra. To her credit the young woman meet his glare with her own.

“Like I said, if I was working for someone who was after you I wouldn’t waste my time with petty tricks and deceptions.” Cassandra smiled grimly. “I would have already done some thing.” The two teenagers stood glaring at each other for a minuet or so before Seto broke the silence.

“Lets pretend for a few minuets that I actually do believe you. How am I suppose to get though here?” Seto stared as Cassandra took a few steps forward so that she stood next to the millionare. The young woman closed her eyes and lifted her right hand, and held the open less than an inch from the glowing rune.

“Barriers like this have to have a key or some other anchor point nearby. It’s strong but because that anchor has to be close so it’s fairly easy to find.”

“If you know so much then tell me where it is so that I can break it, find Mokuba and get out of this hell hole.” Cassandra opened one eye and glare at the millionaire.

“It’s not that easy. Someone’s set protections on it so I can’t find it’s location directly. All I know is that it’s above us.” She glance up. “Upstairs.” Seto snorted and walked off.

“Where are you going?” Cassandra called after him.

“Where do you think?” He looked back over his shoulder and glared at her.

“I thought you didn’t believe in magic?” Seto snorted and face forward once again.

“Look, it don’t know what’s going here, and I’m not saying I trust you or believe all this nonsense that your spouting about magic and barriers. But I can’t get past that door and if going upstairs to break whatever’s stopping me will help save my brother than I don’t care what you call it.” The millionaire started back towards the stairs once again, trench coat swinging behind him. Cassandra stared after him for a few seconds the walked forward to catch up.

“Brother?” She asked when the caught up to Seto. The millionaire ignored her and stared up the stairs.

“So whatever we’re looking for is up there?” He asked.

“It should be, mostly likely in a room directly over that door. Now what did you mean by ‘brother’?” Seto continued to ignore the young woman that had followed him up the stairs. He reoriented himself and started off down the right hall, trying to remember where in the heck the door to the basement was in comparison to the upstairs, and fight off the annoying beasts that kept crawling out of the woodwork to attack them. The duo found the door they was looking for at last, but Seto wasn’t happy about it. Cassandra was following the tall young man and nearly ran into him when he stopped abruptly.

“What the hell is this!?” He snapped back at Cassandra. The young woman stepped around him and stared at the door as well.

“I guess whoever set this up isn’t going to make things that simple.” She said unnecessarily as she examined the glowing rune that was a match for the one below, only this one was glowing purple. “They set up another barrier to keep us away from the anchor point for the first one. This is why I had trouble pinpointing it from downstairs.”

“No kidding.” Seto snorted. “So how do we get rid of this one?” Cassandra stepped up and placed her held her hand over the symbol.

“Same way, it‘s the same type of barrier.” She said in response as she closed her eyes. This time she opened them much faster than she had downstairs. “This one is much closer and it’s not shielded like this one is. It’s that way .” Using her naginata the young woman pointed toward the right, farther down the corridor. With a growl and a last heated glare at the door, Seto started toward the other anchor point. Farther along they reached a door and Cassandra opened it with out hesitation. They walked into what looked like a old sitting room , complete with fireplace. In the middle of the room a circle made of symbols was etched out in red light on the floor.

“Is that what they key or whatever it is where searching for?” Seto asked. Cassandra nodded and narrowed her eyes at it.

“It should be….” She said slowly.

“Should be?”

“It’s the wrong color.” Cassandra explained as she walked forward and started to prowl around the circle. “The rune was purple.”

“Didn’t you just say this was where it was!?”

“I said this should be it. And it is, it has the same aura as the rune…only it’s off somehow.”

“Just tell me it’s the key or not!”

“I think the only way for sure is to break it and see what happens.” Cassandra stopped moving and frowned at the circle.

“How do we break it?” Seto stepped forward.

“Just touch it. That should disrupt the patterns.” Seto glanced at Cassandra then, scuffed at the edged of the circle with his foot. It glowed then suddenly left out a bright flashed that temporarily blinded both the people in the room. As the two of them blinked rabidly to clear their vision a sound of something slithering reached their ears. Seto turned as his vision began to return and was just in time to see three things emerge from the fireplace. They looked almost exactly like the naga from before except that these where bright green and their human heads had snakes growing out of their scalps instead of hair.

“Medusas, just what we need.” Cassandra muttered. “Don’t look into their eyes. I don’t think you’ll turn to stone with this type but it’s better not to take chances. Try and finish them off quickly.” Seto almost made a remark on that then decided it was better to keep quite and heed her advice. He was sure he wouldn’t turn to stone just because he looked into the eyes of theses monsters but he was almost sure they were poisonous. With a hiss the three horrors threw themselves at the humans.

Seto dodged the first attack and mange to hit that monster as it shoot past. He turned and managed to catch it before it could turn around, easily defeating it. The medusa screamed as it collapsed and then seemed to ….dissolve, it’s body fading into the air until there was nothing left to show that anything had been there. As the millionaire stared at the space the creature had occupied another death scream came from somewhere behind him as Cassandra finished off her opponent. A sudden movement out of the corner of his eye caused Seto to dodge and just barely avoided the bite of the last medusa. It whirled around and….it’s eyes met his. Suddenly he couldn’t move, and could feel his limbs stiffening as darkness rushed in and closed off all light….

Suddenly the light returned nearly blinding him as he collapsed forward and only just managed to catch himself.

“Sorry, that was a surprise to me too. Although…..your not good at listing to people are you?” The sound of her voice jerked Seto out of the half daze he had been in.

“What do you mean?” He snapped at Cassandra as he started to get to his feet.

“I told you not to look in their eyes didn’t I?”

“So what if I did?” Seto paused when he realized that parts of his clothes where grey and stiff. He watched as the stone flaked off, pieces falling down the join the ones already scattered around the floor. “What is this?”

“I made a mistake, the medusa could turn people to stone.” Cassandra turned and looked back toward the fireplace. “Whoever set that particular trap meant business.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that I was turned to stone?” Seto asked innocuously.

“Yes. I did happen not matter what you want to think, and I don’t believe your nearly as blind and stupid as you make yourself out to be.” There was an almost audible snapping sound as the last of Seto’s deserted him. He straightened up and lunged toward Cassandra before she could react. The millionaire grabbed a handful of her shirt and yanked her up to his eye level.

“I am getting tired of your attitude and s far as I can tell the only thing you’ve been doing is leading me around in circles since we go here. I’m still not entirely convinced that your not working with Reaper and now your keep insulting me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kick your ass and leave you here while I go search though this godforsaken house on my own!”

“Let me go right now.” Cassandra said quietly and glared at him. “I already said I’m not working for Reaper, whoever that is.” She shifted slightly and slipped one hand in the pocket of her jeans.
“And besides right now I’m your only chance and getting into that basement.”

“Then why in the world are you helping me?”

“Let go of me first.” For a few seconds neither one moved then Seto growled and pushed Cassandra backwards, letting go of her as he did so.

“Now give me a good reason.” He growled.

“Look even though you apparently believe that you are an invincible and don’t need anyone, I don’t really want to fight my way through this mansion by myself. At the very least you’re a capable fighter and the two of use have a better chance at survival.”

“Nice speech, but I don’t buy that your helping just because I happen to be useful.” Seto snorted. The young woman sighed.

“Look, I not sure you’ll believe but I’m doing this because it’s my duty to.”

“Duty?” Seto raised an eyebrow.

“If there is someone trapped in here then it is my duty to get them to safety. If not, then I was sent here to see what happened to Grandfather’s barrier. That means that if you have something to do with it then…” Eyes snapped beneath her glasses. “It’s my duty to find out exactly what your doing.”

“And if you manage to convince yourself that I’m this ‘evil sorcerer’ or whatever that dropped the barrier?”

“Then will have to make sure that you can’t hurt anyone else. Although, like is said before, you don’t have the aura of a magic user so I don’t think you dropped the barrier yourself. But I still think you might have had something to do with it.” Cassandra finished and meet his eyes.

“So basically, you don’t trust me, but you don’t want be wandering around by myself and this way you can keep an eye on me rather than having me wandering around by myself.”

“Right.” At the affirmation Seto smirked.

“Fine. I can live with that” He said shortly then the millionaire turned and walked out of the room. Cassandra started after him for half a second then picked up her weapon and hurried after.

Once outside in the corridor the two made good time to sealed door. As the reached it Seto suddenly stopped, then whirled around to glare at Cassandra.
“What is going on, wasn’t the seal suppose to break?” He demanded. Cassandra peered around him and blinked. It was the same symbol from before, only now it was bright blue instead of purple.

“It should have broken.” She said frowning. “And it did change colors, it was purple before.” Cassandra glared at the symbol. Suddenly something occurred to her. “This is a two part seal. The one we destroyed was red so the other one should be…”

“Blue?” Seto finished for her. “Because red and blue make purple. ” Cassandra nodded in reply. “Isn’t magic suppose to be mysterious, not something so simple a child could figure out what to do?”

“It’s not as simple as you seem to think. I doubt a child would be able to locate the key without looking through the whole mansion on foot. That’s what you would be doing if I wasn’t here.”

“Then go ahead and find it already.” Seto growled.

“I was just going to do that before someone interrupted.” Cassandra snapped then stepped up and closed her eyes felt for the other key. “It’s in the opposite direction, only this one is weaker, that’s why I could find it at first.” But the young woman found she was speaking to empty air. Seto had already started down the corridor.

It didn’t take them very long to find the other door, it was the only room on that side of the house and there were surprisingly few monsters between them and it.

“Monsters are attracted to mystical power.” Cassandra had supplied by way of explanation. “This key is weaker than the other one so it attracts less monsters.”

“Really?” Seto drawled as he opened the door. Cassandra scowled as she pushed past him and into what had been a bed room. The key was in the middle of the room once again. The millionaire glanced around. “Will we have to fight those thing again?” He asked.

“Probably.” Cassandra replied. “But tried not to get turned to stone again, I don’t have anymore Imps Fangs.”

“Imps what?” Seto looked at her in disbelief hoping he‘d his heard, then turned around. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.” This time as he stepped down, the millionaire shut his eyes and wasn’t blinded when the light went off. He opened his eyes just in time to see two Medusa slid out from under the bed.

“One for each of us, hmm?.” Cassandra readied her weapon. “And remember what I said, if you get turned into a statue this time you’ll have to stay that way.” Seto snorted as the both rushed to attack.

The battle was short not it was only one on one and Seto remember how the other Medusas had fought. After both monsters where fading into mist Cassandra turned to look at him.

“Still alive?” She asked.

“Yes, now can we please get on with this?”

The two left the room and made their way back to the door. This time there was no rune on the door and Cassandra nodded.

“The seal for the door downstairs is in here, I can feel it now that there is no interference.” She said as she opened the door. Inside was the library of the house. In the middle of the room a turquoise seal glowed.
“And there it is.”
“Fine.” Seto strode into the room and looked around quickly as he tried to spot find any where a monster could be using to hide. Surprisingly there was very little in the room aside from the bookshelves on the walls, while a few chairs that had seen better days were clustered around a large fire place. He looked back at Cassandra then glanced significantly at the fire place. She nodded and he turned back to the seal, closing his eyes as he scuffed his foot through the circle. As the explosion of light that was caused by the breaking of the spell faded, Seto opened his eyes, just in time to see something large drop down out of it. It crawled forward and Seto narrowed his eyes. It looked almost exactly like the Medusas they had been fighting only this one was much larger, once she was clear of the fireplace rearing up to a high close to Seto’s. The scales on her body, the snakes on her head, and her eyes where all the bright red. Hissing in anger she coiled herself and lunged toward him.

Seto dodged out of the way and then lashed out at the gorgon launching her through the air and into a bookcase. The creatures slammed into the wooden shelves then fell heavily to the floor. Taking the opportunity Cassandra rushed forward and manage to cut the gorgon several times before it managed to get out of the way.

“What in the hell are you doing!?” Seto’s angry shout startled the young woman.

“Fighting, what does it look like?” She snapped back.

“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of one monster!”

“So says the only one of us who got turned stone.”

“Just stay out of this one.” Seto growled and went back to his fight. Cassandra sighed and then stepped back and watched from the side of the room. The fight continued on for the next minuet or so until Seto somehow managed to kick the gorgon toward her. Thinking quickly she brought her naginata up and the monster was impaled on the blade. As it died Seto just stood staring at the young woman.

“What?” She asked eyebrow raised. The millionaire cursed under his breath then stalked past her and out of the room. Cassandra sighed then followed.

When they reached the door that lead to the basement the symbol had already faded away entirely. Remembering his past experiences with the door Seto placed his hand on the door knob carefully. When no shock came from it he grasped it more firmly and opened the door. It swung open with a screech of rusty hinges to revel a decrepit wooden stair case that lead down. Although Seto had half expected it to end in darkness he could actually see a faint glow coming from the base of the stair case. Frowning the millionaire started down, ignoring the young woman who followed him down.

“Who‘s this person that your so desperate up to find anyway? Your girlfriend?” Cassandra asked but received only silence as her answer. As they duo reached the bottom of the stairs Seto stopped to look around and froze the blood draining from his face. The stairs ended in a large basement with a dirt floor and various decrepit pieces of furniture scattered around, but what

“Mokuba!” He cried and sprinted to where his brother was sitting, surrounded by dome of softy glowing sickly green light. As Seto reached the dome Mokuba glanced up and saw his brother. Grinning he stood up and started forward only to stumble back when a length of what looked like lighting struck him and knocked him backwards.
“Mokuba, are you alright?” Seto paused uncertainly before dome, having experienced both the power that was on the door and seeing what this dome could too he was certain what he to do. Then he noticed that Mokuba hadn’t moved from where he had fallen. Alarmed Seto reached forward and touched the barrier, ignoring both his common sense and Cassandra’s warning shout. As his fingers encountered the barrier it…popped. At least that was what it seemed like the dome did, it just vanished with a faint pop like a soap bubble. Not willing to question his good fortune Seto dropped down to his knees and reached toward his brothers prone form.
“Mokuba?” He touched his brothers shoulder gently. He stirred then looked up at blinking slowly.

“Seto?” His younger brother asked uncertainly.

“It’s me.” Seto confirmed. Mokuba twisted and lunged at his brother, hugging him tighly for a few seconds. For a second Seto Kaiba was surprised, then he gave his brother a quick squeeze in return before letting go and pushing him away.
“Are you alright?” He asked concerned when he noticed how paled his little brother was.

“I’m fine, when I woke up I was already inside there. Some monsters kept coming down here and trying to get in but they would get zapped and then stop for awhile.” Mokuba said a forcefully cheerful tone even as his voice shook slightly, then gave a strained smile. “But a little bit ago they all left for some reason, so I was left alone.”

“So that was why you where in such a hurry was in here.” Seto had forgotten about Cassandra until now. He stood up looked back to see that the young woman was still standing . “Why wouldn’t you tell me who you were trying to save?”

“Would you have believed me?” Seto asked.

“Probably not.” Cassandra admitted. “But I would have at least thought twice about you.”

“So?” Seto snorted.

“Seto, who’s she?” Mokuba asked. Seto tried to think of a good way to answer.

“Cassandra.” He said after a few seconds. “And she was helping me, although I still don’t know why.”

“I told you, it’s my duty.” Cassandra started to walk a forward she was half way across the room when a flash of crimson light came from behind her. She dropped into forward roll and landed on her feet, spinning around to meet the threat behind her. Seto caught a glimpse of the figure that had just arrived and shoved Mokuba behind him.

“What in the hell are you doing here bastard!?” Seto snapped. “I beat your sick little game, now leave us alone.” Reaper just smiled at the outburst.

“So you did, well done indeed.” The pale man smiled. “Although you almost didn’t make it you know. If it had been a monster instead of you that had toughed the barrier a moment ago I am afraid that young Mokuba here would be dead.” Behind him Seto felt his brother move closer to him.

“Shut the hell up.” He growled at Reaper. “Just what do you want with us?”

“Not us, Seto, YOU.” Reaper smiled that same malicious grin the elder Kaiba had seen once before. “And you already know why.”

“And I already told YOU that I don’t by into your little fantasy world.” Seto shifted his weight. “I’m not a harmonizer or whatever you said I was before.”

“Harmonixer, Seto and deny it all you want, you can’t change reality. I had thought that the sight of the creatures in this building would convince you, but you are even more stubborn than your father was.” Reaper raised both hands above his head. Crimson light began to gather in them. “Now then….I will have to do this the hard way.”

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Off to the side Cassandra stood half in shadow , eyes focused on the three people who where ignoring her. Up until they had walked down those stairs a part of her mind had remained unconvinced of her companions innocence, despite his seeming lack of any type of power and absolute ignorance of magic. Those things could be faked after all. But this sorcerer, Kaiba had called him Reaper, was far more powerful than even her grandfather and certainly had enough power and knowledge to shatter the barrier. Besides…..she could feel the malice leaking off him. Not just the threat but the concentration of negative emotions he was pulling in from the building and using to fuel his spell. Reaching into her jean pocket Cassandra closed her hand over a hard flat shape, then hesitated.

Up until now the sorcerer hadn’t even noticed her, and if she just remained quite he might leave with out noticing her at all. After all, hadn’t she already disobeyed Grandfather enough as it was? Her assignment had been only to found out who or what had broken he barrier and she had certainly done that! Besides she didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of defeating someone this powerful……. Ger a grip Cassandra, it is not like you to give in to your fears so easily! It’s your duty to try and stop him isn’t it? This is what you have been training for all your life isn’t it? But fear held her still, she couldn’t move even if she had wanted to. I really don’t want to die here…. Kept running through here head. But then suddenly a newer voice spoke up in her mind.

What will Grandfather think if he find out you did nothing?

At that last though the young woman shoved all her fears and insecurities to the back of her mind and pulled the Crest out of her pocket. It was her duty to do something about this, even if all her common sense was telling her to back off. Focusing all her will on the small device in her hand she focused her mind on Reaper and unleashed all of the crest’s magic on him.

“RED RAVE!”

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The shout caught everyone else in surprise and Seto took a step back as a shot column of flame seemed to materialize around Reaper, spinning for a few seconds before fading away, leaving the man’s clothes scorched, although he was otherwise unharmed. Reaper turned and raised an eyebrow at the young woman crouched in the corner.

“So, there was someone else here. And someone who has managed to get their hands on a crest no less. Who are you girl?” The sorcerer asked. Seto had turned to look at Cassandra as well. He had lost track of the young woman after Reapers entrance and had forgotten she was still in the room. He stared at the young woman trying to figure out exactly what she had done. Meanwhile Cassandra spoke up.

“I am not going to answer that.” She said and stood carefully, weapon still pointed at the sorcerer. Reaper raised his other eyebrow in response.

“Really?” He asked then stared at her some more. Slowly a cruel smile spread itself across his face. “Ahh…so you can work magic can you?” Cassandra didn’t respond. “And here I was wonder how Seto managed to get though my wards so quickly. I didn’t think he would be able to make it before the barrier failed.”

“You bastard!” Although the first thing on Seto’s mind was to beat Reaper into a blood pulp he didn’t attack. He remember what had happened back home and the thought of the bruises he had received made him cautious. “What in the hell do you want?”

“I want to know if you really are Kai’s son, Seto. But because you refuse to oblige me on that subject I am forced to take these extreme measures.” Reaper stopped and looked around. Once again that malicious smile returned to his face. “And on that note I believe I shall leave.”

“What?” Seto said, disbelief on his face. “You drag my little brother down here, threaten to kill him, try to kill me and then just leave!?”
“Oh, don’t worry Seto. I shall leave you a little parting gift.” The sorcerer held his hand out and the crimson light that had vanished when Cassandra’s attack hit him reappeared. Almost carelessly Reaper opened his hand and let the small globe fall. The globe reached the ground and was absorbed into it, disappearing with red flash. Almost immediately the ground around where the globe had vanished began to glow bright red. The glow spread out until a glowing circle nearly ten feet in diameter covered the floor. Suddenly the floor began to shake and the glow began to pulse erratically as Reaper smiled, then disappeared in another flash of crimson light.

Seto staggered a little as the quake intensified.

“Lets get out of here!” Cassandra yelled over the rumbling of the earth. Seto gave a curt nod and gabbed reached back to grab Mokuba’s hand, just as the earth exploded. The millionaire dropped to the ground, yanking Mokuba down with him as small rocks rained down around them. An unearthly shriek echoed around the basement as the dust began to clear. He looked up and froze, horrified by the creature in front of him.

It had been a woman at some point, or at least it looked vaguely like a woman from the waist up, but from the creatures waist crew six massive snake heads each hissing and staring at the three people with blood red eyes. The woman’s body sat at the center of the mass of coils and she was the one screaming in rage. Her eyes scanned the basement for several seconds then her eyes, as red as those of her snakes fastened on Seto. One of the snake heads lunged towards him, and he pushed Mokuba back out of the way, just barely managing to dodge before it snapped shut right where he had been standing.

“Mokuba, keep out of the way!” He yelled. Out of the corner of his eye Seto saw Mokuba duck behind a table that was laying on it’s side near the wall. The old piece of furniture would provide nearly no protection if the snake heads decided to attack head on, so he had to keep their attention on him, rather than the more defenseless prey. A shriek rang out one of the other heads screamed and pulled back, black blood oozing from a wound made by Cassandra’s Naginata. The other heads hissed in rage and one lunged at Seto. He managed to score a hit on it, causing the head to retreat but winced as he did so. His knuckles were bleeding and sore after so much fighting and smacking around a creature covered in scales really helping.

Another head lunged at him and he kicked it back, whirling around so he could get closer to the body.

“Get back!” Cassandra’s cry startled him and a head slammed into him, knocking him backwards.

“What!?” He shouted back at her. “You can’t fight this thing by yourself!”

“I need to try something!” The young woman dodged and slashed with her naginata, drawing blood on the monster. “And I don’t want you getting in the way by accident!” For a second Kaiba paused then he back out of the fight. Something told him that he did not want to be in the middle of whatever it was Cassandra was planning.

Cassandra glanced his way then nodded to herself before bringing her naginata up in front of her. Immediately the blade began to glow with a greenish light. The young woman slashed the blade through the air five times and each time a glowing line appeared. A pentagram winked into life as Cassandra chanted softly under her breath then jabbed the blade of her weapon into the earth with a shout..
“ROCK SPEAR!” As the cry faded massive spires of rock sprang up from the ground around the monster, skewering it and drawing blood. The snake woman screamed as the rock spears crumbled leaving no sign of themselves behind. For several heartbeats the combatants remained frozen, waiting to see if the enemy had fallen to the attack, then the snake woman screamed and redoubled her own efforts. Two of the snake heads had died from the damaged the spell had inflicted and after a few more minuets Seto and Cassandra had managed to account for a snake head apiece. Now with half the head defeated Seto was beginning to think that they might have a chance of winning the fight. Unfortunately, although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, he was tired, very tried and wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to fight. His knuckles were bloody from constant impact and he was fatigued from both this fight and the ones that had come before. He really wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold out. Seto glanced back toward the table and saw Mokuba peeking around the edge of the table. The millionaire hardened his resolve. He would not let that thing get to his little brother.

Seto turned to meet the next attack, then realized that there wasn’t one. For some reason the snake woman had pulled all the heads back towards her body. After she didn’t move from her position for half a minuet leaving Seto feeling a confusion of worry, relief and hope. Although this gave him a chance to catch his breath and rest (although he wasn’t showing it) he was sure that the creature was planning something, even if a very small party of his mind was hoping that she would just give up and go away. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Cassandra cautiously edging toward him, her eyes still on the monster.

“What’s it doing?” He snapped in her direction being very careful to keep his voice low.

“I have no idea.” Was the answers. Seto snorted.

“Aren’t you suppose to the mighty knowledgeable sorceress who knows everything about monsters?”

“I never claimed to know everything! I just said I know more than you do.” Seto opened his mouth to reply but stopped when he noticed that the snake woman was gesturing, green light flowing from her hands. Cassandra’s eyes widened behind her glasses. “DOWN!” The young woman shouted as she suited action to words. Without really thinking about it Seto threw himself flat too just as several long spears of rock materialized in front of the snake woman flew over his head to embed themselves in the wall behind him. Seto twisted and started in horror at the rock that had pierced the top of the table his brother had taken shelter behind.

“Mokuba!” He shouted and started toward his brother, forgetting about the enemy behind him for less than a second. But less than a second was all it took for the snake woman to decide to attack again. She lashed out with one of her snake heads, the side of one of the heads catching him and throwing them against the wall. Seto lay their for a second stunned, but he sight of a snake lunging for him mouth opened gave him enough dodge. As he moved Seto noted with some relife that Mokuba had apparently responded to Cassandra’s earlier shout as well and thrown himself on the ground behind his shelter as the snake woman attacked. The spear had missed him totally.

The snake lunged toward Seto again as he tried to right himself and he was only just able to get out of the way. Seto hissed and clapped one hand to his left arm when he relized that he hadn’t gotten out of the way in time. The snake had clipped him as it went passed and wounded him. I’m slowing down. The millionaire thought grimly. I am not going to be able to keep this up much longer. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Cassandra was showing the strain as will. Dammit, if they take her down they’ll all come after me. He eyed the monster. I could take her out if they weren’t coming after me all at once. Damn bitch keeps sending them after us two at a time. I’m barely holding my own as it is, if she manages to take out Cassandra before she kills both of those things than I’m not sure if I’ll be able to hold out. At that movement the snake woman decided to send another rain of rock spears toward him. Seto managed to roll of out of the way but he saw with some alarm that one had come dangerously close to hitting Mokuba. His brother looked up and meet Seto’s eyes for a half a second as the elder Kaiba realized something.

If Cassandra fell, there was no guarantee that Mokuba would remain safe. So the monsters attention was focused on the two people who where causing it pain, but if one died then it would have space to look around, and with only one of them it might discover the weaker human hiding behind the frail wooden barrier….. The monster would even half to be actively searching. All it would take would be a random attack that missed and uncovered the boy or even worse one that hit Mokuba instead of the intended target. Seto growled. He could afford to mess up now. He had to win, he had to.

Suddenly at the back of his mind Seto felt something familiar. A feeling of ice and coolness appeared reminding him of what had happened last time. It almost felt as if the ice was asking him to use, to wield it again. But last time…. For a second he saw a dragon creature that stood on two legs looking back at him in his minds eye. Then he shook his head and snorted. Listen to your self Seto Kaiba. Scared of something that isn’t real, can’t possible be real. Almost attentively he ‘reached’ toward the coldness. I will not be afraid of my imagination! He let the ice fill his veins once more.

As the ice flowed through him immense pain racked his body as a bright light blinded him. Seto didn’t see the attack coming towards him but he felt it. Almost instinctively he jumped…and ended up much farther away that he should have. Disbelieving Seto stared down at his own hands, hands that were now webbed and had claws instead of fingernails, hands that were covered in blue scales. Part of him wanted to scream and panic, try to deny that all this was happening, but when the monster screamed in anger Seto focused. Part of the reason he was such a good duelist was his ability to push panic and fear to the back of his mind during a duel. Now as he watched the snake head bearing down on him he pushed the fear to the back of his mind and focused on the battle instead.

As the snake lunged toward him he dodged then turned and kicked it as hard as he could. Somehow with the transformation in full affect he didn’t seem as exhausted as he had been before and could feel almost all of his strength back. With a hiss of pain the snake slammed into the wall and lay their stunned. He turned as another bore down on him and flipped over his one then turned and attack, driving it back wards as the other one recovered. This time he felt it dive at him and ducked, before turning and lashing out with the claws on his hand, leaving bloody furrow on the snakes scales. As the other one lunged to attack him he dodged then glanced toward the woman. She gestured and the both snakes lunged at him. Seto smiled, or at least tired to since dragons really can’t smile, then flipped over one snake head and landed on it, then turned and ran the short distance up it to the main body. Seeing what he was up to the snake woman gestured and sent another wave of stone spikes at him. He dodged them easily and then smirked when one hit the snake he was running on killing it. He jumped the last few feet and landed right in front of the half woman who seemed stunned. Suddenly, moving more by instinct, he pulled back and then pushed them out-front at the same he reached out and pushed the ice he felt flowing through is mind at her as well. A jet of pure cold flowed from his hands and hit her body forming ice where ever it touched . As she screamed in agony Seto reared back and then landed a launch a punch toward her face. It connected….hitting her face and then going right through her head. As Seto stared at his arm in both shock and disgust then monster convulsed one, then seemed to explode into a bright red light. As it disappeared as completely as the medusa’s had before Seto fell, hitting the ground awkwardly, landing on all fours.

As he crouched their staring down at his hands the fear that Seto had been suppressing came back to the surface. This isn’t me and can’t be this…this…monster…Reaper can’t be right. Frantically Seto tried to remember how he had changed back. I don’t want to be this, this isn’t me, I’m Seto Kaiba! An image of what he saw in the mirror each day popped into his head, and then the pain and the bright light returned as the warmth filled him and the ice retreated. As the light faded Seto trembled, suddenly far warmer and far more exhausted then he had been previously. Trembling slightly from the exhaustion Seto turned and meet the stunned gazes of the other two in the room.

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Done at laaaaaaaast!

First I’ll thank my reviewers:

Unloved-Dragon-Authoress, thanks very muchfor the compliment! There, I countiued it, see?
Ash Kaiba, Thank you! A Harmonixers is from the game Shadow Hearts, and is basically someone who can fuse with various elemental spirits to turn into a monster. All explain more about it in the next chapter.


Now for all of you who have played Shadow Hearts, please do! It’s an RPG for the PS2 and in my opinion is one of the most over looked games ever. Shadow Hearts is one my favorite series ever and I highly recommend it to anyone who plays video games.
Besides it’s the only game I’ve ever played were the hero tells someone he saved them because the voices in his head told him to. XD.

Anyway, please Read and Review,
-Plantress

PS: Okay I have no excuse for the title, but the trailer for Snakes of a Plane came on the TV right when I was trying to think of something to call the chapter. It just seemed natural to call it that.