FicWad

The Lift
(I don't own YuGiOh or the characters or anything of the sort)


Seto Kaiba entered the lift. He turned to face the panel of lights that indicated all the floors. His slender fingers moved towards the button he wanted when he noticed a commotion in the lobby area. A woman was rushing towards the lift yelling at people to get out of her way, her long legs moving improbably fast in her high heels.

'Hey, hold that lift!' she called.

The woman was dressed in the smallest hot pants Seto had ever seen and her generous breasts were bouncing wildly in a ridiculously tight lace up corset. Recognising her, Seto inconspicuously pressed the button, hoping that the doors would close; quickly.

The woman got to the lift just as the mechanism was whirring into action. She lithely side stepped through the narrowing gap and then propped herself against the wall, breathing heavily.

'I guess you didn't hear me huh?' she said, face still towards the ground.

'No, I heard you just fine; in fact it's difficult to ignore such an entrance to what is usually a refined environment.' Seto sneered in distain.

The woman looked up in surprise, not expecting to be spoken to like this by a stranger. She glanced at the man properly for the first time and her surprise vanished.

'Seto Kaiba, I might have known it was you. No one else is able to give such a warm and welcoming greeting.' the woman snapped sarcastically.

'Nice to see you too, Mai.' Seto replied coldly. He turned away, looking up at the digital display that was quickly counting upwards towards their destination. 'I didn't see your name on the duellists records for this event. I take it you'll be in cheerleading mode today?' he said with scorn clear in his voice.

Mai was about to answer when there was a sound of an explosion. The lift shook wildly throwing them both to the floor. Seto was the first back on his feet, barking questions into the small communications unit he wore attached to the collar of his coat. Mai got shakily to her feet.

'What's going on?' she asked, but Seto ignored her.

'Hello? Hello? Can anyone... damn it!' Seto swore.

'No one want to talk to you huh? Shocker!' Mai smiled sweetly and Seto glared dangerously at her.

Mai's smile abruptly vanished, the lift was making an ominous sound, like metal scraping metal and, if Mai had to guess, some strong joints tearing away from their housing.

'Oh hell' Mai turned to look sharply at Seto who had spoken those two word with a worrying foreboding. He had stopped talking into his communicator and was looking up.

Mai followed his gaze although she was unsure of what she was looking at. Suddenly there was a sharp 'snap' and a noise like a whip as the lift cable broke.

Mai screamed as the lift jolted suddenly and began to fall. As the lights flickered on and off she saw that the floor display above the door was still working although is was only managing to show one number in every ten as the lift gathered speed. She looked desperately at Seto but for once even he looked stunned as he stood motionless, still staring at the ceiling.

A high pitched screeching noise filled the air, there was a smell of burning and the lift began to shudder wildly. Mai could feel the lift slowing, clearly the backup safely mechanism had kicked in. She took in a gasp of air, realising that she had been unconsciously holding her breath. She looked at Seto, and he quickly glanced at her, the smallest of smiles on his face, as if to tell her they would be alright - and then the lift hit the bottom of the shaft.

*

All Mai could remember about the impact was the sensation of being lifted off her feet and then thrown to the floor with incredible force. The lights had given out completely but she had heard the noise of something shattering and had felt a sharp stinging pain in her shoulder.

Now, as she lay motionless in the darkness, her senses seemed heightened. She could hear electrical sparks and the groan of twisting metal. Closer-by she could hear heavy, ragged breathing.
'Kaiba?' her voice came out in a soft, throaty rasp. 'Kaiba?' she managed again, stronger this time.

'Yeah, I'm here.' Came the reply, as gruff and cold sounding as ever.

'Are you okay?'

There was a pause and a rustling movement as if Seto was checking for something. 'Never better.' Came the caustic reply. He made a grunting noise as he got to his feet.

I'm fine, thanks for asking, Mai thought bitterly. She too began to get to her feet although, in the darkness it was difficult to see what she was doing and the pain in her arm flared up again suddenly causing her to wince and bite her lip in pain. She was glad for the darkness, she didn't want Kaiba seeing her weakness and sneering at it.

Mai needn't have worried as Seto had his mind firmly on other things. Ignoring the pain down one side where he had landed heavily, he was now busily feeling along the wall of the lift, his delicate hands moving swiftly over buckled metal until he found what he was looking for. The control panel. Seto's fingers trailed slowly and methodically over the same buttons that he had calmly pushed just minutes ago before all the chaos had begun. How quickly events can change he thought bitterly. He knew it was futile trying to figure out at what had happened. Any number of things could have caused the lift to fall and until he had some evidence any speculation would be pointless guesswork.

His fingers found the edge of the panel. The violent crash landing had caused the metal to lift away from the wall slightly and it was easy enough for Seto to get his fingers beneath and prise it away from the wall. The blackness in the lift was almost suffocating, broken only by the tiny pin pricks of light that came from the occasional spark. Anyone else would have given up on the tangle of invisible wires figuring that such a mass of cables would be impossible to decipher in the dark, but Seto wasn't daunted. He was, after all, a world leading expert at electronics and technology. Okay, so lifts weren't a speciality of his but if you could design and build a jet-engine airplane as Seto had, then how hard could a lift be?

Mai could hear the fevered scrabbling noises that Seto was making. She was on her feet now although her head was throbbing, the pain in her arm had lessened, it felt almost numb now, which she supposed was good. Kaiba was clearly doing something useful although she had absolutely no idea what it was. Whilst obviously grateful that he knew what he was doing Mai felt a slight sting of pride. I'm not going to stand around for that arrogant bastard Kaiba to rescue me, she thought bitterly, I'd never hear the end of it and anyway, Mai Valentine is anything but a damsel in distress!

She began to feel her way along the wall towards the doors, if she could just prize them open, she thought. Surprising really that Kaiba hadn't thought of doing that first rather than scrabbling around with wires and whatnot. Oh well, maybe a woman's logic really was superior...

As she made her way across the floor, hugging the wall as she went, she was aware of crunching beneath her and an irritating wet, sticky substance on her hands. When a brighter than usual spark flared briefly into life above her, she saw that she was leaving a dark trail along the wall wherever she had touched it. Weird, she thought. She was nearing the doors now and could hear Kaiba's shallow, even breathing as he continued to work away. Suddenly he made a made a satisfied grunting noise and stepped away from the panel. A low humming noise started up and grew slowly in strength before a series of electronic pings signalled the arrival of light. The overhead neon light blinked a few times as if unwilling to illuminate the scene. Finally it came on and stayed on.

Seto and Mai, who had both been staring, transfixed at the light above them swapped a brief glance before Seto went back to his wires and Mai looked squarely at the doors. They were buckled so badly that she could actually see between them; onto a black expanse of wall.

Damn, she thought, so much for the doors. She looked around the small space. The dark walnut panels that had been an indication of the luxury of the building they were in were all splintered or completely snapped. The mirror that had hung at the rear of the lift was completely smashed, some of it still hung precariously in its frame but most of it was littering the floor, explaining the crunching under her feet from earlier.
Glancing over at Seto she noticed that his face was covered in small cuts. He was bleeding from a small gash above his left eye and he had to constantly brush the blood away to avoid it becoming a distraction. Looking at him Mai was taken with his determined expression. In this time of crisis he was being cool-headed and logical and Mai admired his resolve.

'So, what do you think happened?' she asked him softly.

'What, do I look like an all-seeing oracle to you?' He snapped, 'You know as much as I do, well, about this at least.' He sneered.

Mai's face went red, 'You are such a jerk Kaiba!' she hissed 'Jeez, of all the people to be stuck in a lift with!' She walked the few paces to the opposite side of the space. It wasn't much but at least it was a little bit further away from him. As she fumed she glanced at her own reflection in the remains of the shattered mirror. She saw a stain on the arm of her jacket, where the dull throbbing persisted, and looked down at it.

'Kaiba?' She almost whispered.

'What is it now? Can't you see I'm busy trying to get us out of here?' he snarled.

'Kaiba' Mai persisted, and something in her voice made Seto turn.

The first thing he noticed was her expression. Her face, usually a picture of self confidence and pride was as white as a sheet and her usually set features showed fear. She looked down again at her arm and Seto followed her gaze and gasped. Blood was welling through a large tear in her jacket. It ran down her arm and was dripping off the finger tips of her limp hand.

'I think I have a problem...' she managed to murmur before consciousness slipped away from her and she was falling to the ground.